I Got Lucky

At the end of last month a lot of Elvis sites reported that Elvis once again has been rewarded more RIAA Gold and Platinum awards - some of them somewhat unexpected. I was pleased to notice that two of the first Elvis albums I ever listened to were among them.

You see, when I first started to take notice of Elvis I borrowed a couple of his albums from a friend at school. They were Elvis In Concert, A Canadian Tribute, C'mon Everybody, I Got Lucky (now awarded Platinum) and Mahalo From Elvis (now awarded Gold).

I guess every fan gets to know Elvis in a different way. For those who had the privilege to follow his career during his lifetime that way was more chronological than for fans such as myself who discovered him after his death.

To this day I can remember the excitement listening to all those movie songs featured on I Got Lucky and C'mon Everybody. Today I know that the majority of the songs originated from four of Elvis soundtracks (all of them originally released on EP records), but back then I didn't have a clue. But that wasn't important.

What mattered was how happy I felt listening to songs such as "What A Wonderful Life," "Riding The Rainbow," "Fools Fall In Love," and "If You Think I Don't Need You" to name a few.

And although I didn't know a lot about Elvis' career at the time, I quickly realized that he was a versatile singer. A record like Mahalo From Elvis was proof enough. One one side of the LP were songs done in a slow tempo with a Hawaiian feeling (I later learned they were recorded immediately after the Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite show), as opposed to the different sounding movie songs on the other side.

My point is, although far from being Elvis' greatest, albums such as I Got Lucky and Mahalo From Elvis played an important role in me becoming an Elvis fan. That's why I'm glad they were among the new RIAA album awards. I sure got lucky borrowing them from my classmate all those years ago.