Having Fun with Elvis on Stage
| Having Fun with Elvis on Stage | ||||
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| Live album by Elvis Presley | ||||
| Released | 1974 | |||
| Genre | Spoken word | |||
| Length | 37:06 | |||
| Label | Boxcar Records, RCA Records | |||
| Producer | Elvis Presley | |||
| Elvis Presley chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| MusicHound | |
Having Fun with Elvis on Stage is a 1974 spoken word concert album by American singer and musician Elvis Presley. The album consists entirely of byplay and banter by Presley from between songs during a live concert—primarily jokes, with the songs themselves removed from the recording. The album was conceived by Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker as a ploy to self-release an Elvis Presley album through his own label, Boxcar Records that would not consist of content that contractually belonged to RCA Records and thus retaining all of the profits. It was soon determined, however, that RCA actually did own the rights to the recording. Having Fun with Elvis on Stage was first sold only at Elvis Presley concerts, but RCA would eventually distribute the album commercially.
Having Fun with Elvis on Stage has been considered to be Presley's worst album; critics felt that the compilation of banter was incoherent, and lacked context due to the removal of the songs that his remarks related to. In their 1991 book, Jimmy Guterman and Owen O'Donnell named Having Fun with Elvis on Stage the worst rock and roll album of all time, duly noting its lack of actual "rock and roll".
Presley himself disapproved of the album, and it was later withdrawn at his request. Despite this, Having Fun with Elvis on Stage reached number 130 on the Billboard 200, peaked at number 9 on the Billboard Hot Country LPs, and spawned bootleg copies along with a fan-made sequel.
The album is unique among Elvis Presley's recordings as it does not contain any actual songs; it consists entirely of byplay recorded between numbers. Presley is frequently heard humming or singing "Well ...", which during the actual performances led into songs that have been edited out of the recording. Much of the album consists of him making jokes, although the recording is devoid of any context. Despite the randomness of the audio, from 8:01–11:55 on side A, Presley is captured speaking autobiographically about his early life and his career aspirations before becoming a singer, and his early appearance on The Steve Allen Show.
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