‘Last’: Uneven but Enjoyable Covers of Elvis’ Film Tunes

“The Last Temptation of Elvis” is a wonderfully entertaining if wildly uneven charity album from England that features two dozen contemporary artists doing their versions of songs from Elvis Presley movies.

The lineup ranges from current Rock and Roll Hall of Fame members (Paul McCartney and Dion DiMucci) to future ones (Bruce Springsteen and Robert Plant) through a variety of critical, commercial or cult favorites, including the Jesus and Mary Chain, Ian (Lemmy) Kilminster and the Cramps.

Designed to raise funds for the Nordhoff-Robbins Music Therapy Centre’s work with handicapped children, the two-disc CD set is available only by mail order through the New Musical Express, a leading British pop weekly.

Why limit the artists on “Last Temptation” to songs from Elvis’ movies--a decision that meant the exclusion of the heart of the Presley catalogue?

“Anyone can cover (Elvis’) great songs,” noted a New Musical Express article announcing the album. “But the films are full of oddities, weirdness and, let’s face it, downright dross. Making great music out of some of that stuff, we reckoned, gives our artists something to get their teeth into. It might also be a pretty good laugh.”

It’s fun to imagine what a young Presley would have made of the album. More than anything, he’d have probably been amazed that artists with such different styles would be able to find a common thread in his music.

The guess is Presley would have enjoyed the personality and spunk in Springsteen’s treatment of “Viva Las Vegas,” though he may have found Springsteen’s voice a bit too ragged for him to ever make it as a singer.

He also would likely have felt several of the artists were too self-conscious, especially the Blow Monkeys on “Follow That Dream,” Hall & Oates on “Can’t Help Falling in Love” and, surprisingly, the Cramps on “Jailhouse Rock.”

Even more troublesome: Holly Johnson’s somnambulistic rendition of “Love Me Tender” and a vocal by the Primitives’ Tracy Tracy on “(You’re So Square) Baby I Don’t Care” that is so colorless that it sounds like a amateur audition tape.

On the other hand, Presley would have probably identified strongly with the party-minded spirit of Plant’s “Let’s Have a Party” and the Pogues’ “Got a Lot o’ Livin’ to Do.” He also would have no doubt enjoyed Dion’s blend of New York street-corner cool and Memphis rockabilly on “Mean Woman Blues” and the bluesy spark of the Jeff Healey Band’s “Down in the Alley.”

Presley may have been most fascinated by the version of “Rock-a-Hula Baby” by British pop strategists Pop Will Eat Itself. It’s a wry attempt to combine ‘60s Elvis with contemporary hip-hop, sampling and rap.

Roy Carr, a writer and pop historian who is also the NME’s special projects editor, said the album (which is also available in cassette) may eventually be sold in stores in the United States, but the CD is now available only by sending a $25 money order to: IPC Magazines Ltd., NME, Elvis offer, ABLAX, Halesfield 14, Telford, England TF7.