Crawfish (song) explained

Crawfish
Type:single
Artist:Kitty White and Elvis Presley
Album:King Creole
Recorded:January 15, 1958
Radio Recorders, West Hollywood, California
Genre:Jazz, blues
Producer:Walter Scharf

"Crawfish" is a song written by Fred Wise (lyrics) and Ben Weisman (music) and recorded as a duet by the jazz singer Kitty White and Elvis Presley.

It was the opening song for Presley's 1958 film King Creole.[1] [2] [3]

British musician and Clash frontman Joe Strummer described "Crawfish" on his radio-show as one of his favourite Elvis Presley songs. The song and his recommendation were included on the soundtrack to the 2007 documentary .

Recording

Bilbrew and Presley recorded the song on January 15, 1958, during the soundtrack recording session for the Paramount movie, King Creole at Radio Recorders, West Hollywood, California. The producer was Walter Scharf, the sound engineer Thone Nogar. At least eight takes have been recorded; the master is take seven.

In 1978, Jean Bilbrew released an alternate master mix (with overdubs recorded in 1978) including the full length intro sung by herself. This version runs 4 minutes and 10 seconds.

Cover versions

The song has been covered a number of times,[4] arguably the most well-known is by Johnny Thunders and Patti Palladin released in 1985, reaching the top five on the UK Indie Chart across a 12-week stint[5] and was later included on their Copy Cats covers album in 1988.

Notes and References

  1. Book: Pitre, Glen . The Crawfish Book: the story of man and mudbugs starting in 25,000 B.C. and ending with the batch just put on to boil . Glen Pitre . 91 . 1993 . . 978-0-87805-599-9 .
  2. Book: Caine, Andrew James . Interpreting Rock Movies: The Pop Film and its Critics in Britain . 67 . 2004 . . 978-0-7190-6538-5 .
  3. Book: Matthew-Walker, Robert . Heartbreak Hotel: The Life and Music of Elvis Presley . Robert Matthew-Walker . 86 . 1995 . . 978-1-86074-055-8 .
  4. Web site: Cover versions of Crawfish by Elvis Presley. Secondhandsongs.com. 26 April 2021.
  5. Book: Lazell, Barry . Indie Hits 1980-1989 . Cherry Red Books . 1997 . September 5, 2014 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110608045508/http://www.cherryred.co.uk/books/indiehits/t.htm . June 8, 2011 .