"Trouble" | ||||
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Song by Elvis Presley | ||||
from the album King Creole | ||||
Released | July 29, 1958 | |||
Recorded | January 15, 1958 | |||
Genre | Rock and roll, blues, jazz | |||
Length | 2:16 | |||
Label | RCA Victor | |||
Songwriter(s) | Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller | |||
King Creole track listing | ||||
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"La Bagarre" | ||||
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1976 single cover, West Germany
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Single by Amanda Lear | ||||
from the album I Am a Photograph | ||||
B-side | "Lethal Leading Lady" | |||
Released | 1975 | |||
Format | 7" | |||
Genre | Pop rock | |||
Length | 3:40 | |||
Label | Polydor, Creole, Ariola | |||
Songwriter(s) | Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Vline Buggy | |||
Amanda Lear singles chronology | ||||
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"Trouble" is a blues song written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, originally performed by Elvis Presley in 1958 and covered by a number of artists in later years, most notably by Amanda Lear.
Elvis Presley performed the song in the 1958 motion picture King Creole, and his recording was included on the soundtrack of the same name. "Trouble", featuring Scotty Moore on guitar, was one of only three songs written by Leiber and Stoller for the feature. Presley's performance in the film alludes to Muddy Waters and Bo Diddley. "If you're looking for trouble", he intones, "then look right in my face. Because I'm evil. My middle name is Misery". Music critic Maury Dean suggests that "Trouble", with Presley's "growling snarl", is one of the earliest proto-punk rock songs.
Ten years later, Presley opened his 1968 comeback special with this number. With dark, moody lighting highlighting his sneer, the sequence alluded to Presley's checkered past and "dangerous" image and served to prove that the singer was still "sexy, surly and downright provocative". The piece then segued into "Guitar Man" against a "Jailhouse Rock" backdrop featuring male dancers in cells. Presley performed the song several times on tour in the early 1970s and unofficial recordings of these performances have circulated. In 1975, Presley recorded "T-R-O-U-B-L-E" for a single, but this is a completely different song.
The song was included in the musical revue Smokey Joe's Cafe.
Singer and model Amanda Lear recorded a French-language version of "Trouble", retitled as "La Bagarre", with new lyrics written by Vline Buggy. The cover was released as her debut single in France and Belgium in 1975 by Polydor Records, with "Lethal Leading Lady" on the side B, a song co-written by Lear. The single turned out a commercial failure and in 1976, an English-language version with original lyrics was released in the UK by Creole Records and other parts of Europe, again to no chart success.