Mojo Filter wrote:Colin B wrote:Mojo Filter wrote:...This album made him into a bit of a laughing stock, really, as mentioned here that cover photo is just ridiculous, the smile looks forced to me and the hair...lol.
Even the title "Pot Luck" is really silly.
I remember a reviewer at the time saying:
"The title tells it all.
It's like they are admitting that there's nothing outstanding or special there, but if you don't mind taking 'Pot Luck',
you might find something you like !"
It's easy to think that it was the 60's films that were responsible for 'watering down' his music & steering it toward the bland 'easy-listening' style.
But this album, together with Something For Everybody, proves that even his non-film stuff was already moving in that direction.
One critic in America called the albums songs "potboilers" which is about the right description, I suppose.
That said, I wouldn't put "Something For Everybody" in the same category as "Pot Luck". Even the ballad side of "Something For Everybody" is more outstanding than anything on "Pot Luck". Songs like "Gently", "Give Me the Right" and "It's A Sin" are more memorable with a bit more beef to them and more melodic. Of course, it's still a soft album, but at least there's some quite good up tempo songs on there.
I still don't believe Elvis wanted to particularly go down the middle of the road path for a long period of time. Sure, he wanted to experiment his amazing singing ability by doing things like "It's Now Or Never" but I don't believe, like some fans seem to think, particularly the jumpsuit junkies, that he abandoned Rock'n'Roll because he didn't like it anymore and all that bullshit he "grew as an artist" when he started doing all this MOR stuff in the 60s/70s. I think he loved Rock'n'Roll, blues etc right to the end but for some reason he just lost the passion for doing it. And I blame the movies and Las Vegas sucking all the creativeness out of him, not to mention those greedy buggers at Hill and Range only giving him the songs they had the publishing on.
Agreed re." Something for Everybody" album. "Pot Luck" to me was far from a legitimate album along with an title about as bad as "Takin' Tahoe Tonight" (admitedly an FTD post 1977), just lacked any inspiration.
I'm wondering whoever came up with the title, cover design (ie the" Follow That Dream" shot) and an hastily put together track-listing.