Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Soundtrack for the TV Movie, Elvis and the Beauty Queen

 Elvis and the Beauty Queen is a 1981 made-for-TV film starring Don Johnson and Stephanie Zimbalist.

Don Johnson stars as Elvis Presley in this made-for-TV true story about The King's love affair with Linda Thompson (Stephanie Zimbalist), a young beauty pageant contestant who was his live-in girlfriend and traveling companion for the last four years of his life. The story begins with their first meeting and traces their years together when Thompson tried to keep Presley off drugs in the last years of his career.  It aired on NBC-TV on March 1, 1981 at 9pm.

Seven songs were recorded for the soundtrack in Nashville, Tennessee, with country singer Ronnie McDowell providing the vocals.  The band that backed Ronnie McDowell was The Glass Hammer, a Nashville based band. The Glass Hammer consisted of Joe Meador: Guitar, Don Lee: Lead Guitar, Bill Conn: Keyboards and Horns, Larry Leath: Bass, and Rick Judkins: Drums.  The soundtrack was originally going to be recorded in Los Angeles, CA with a local L.A. band but L.A. was having a writers strike at the time.  So the call went to Nashville, TN.


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