Lost Elvis Presley Song Discovered!

MEDIA RELEASE: LOST ELVIS PRESLEY SONG DISCOVERED!

Found Track, "I'm A Roustabout," To Be Added To BMG/RCA Records Release

"ELVIS 2ND TO NONE" Due Out On October 6th

New York, NY (August 16, 2003) - Nearly 26 years after the death of Elvis Presley, his longtime musical home, BMG/RCA, has unearthed a never-before-heard, entirely new song - "I'm A Roustabout." This unprecedented discovery will be added to BMG/RCA's upcoming release "ELVIS 2ND TO NONE" due out on October 6th.

"I'm A Roustabout" was originally commissioned and written for the film "Roustabout" (1964) by longtime Presley collaborators Winfield Scott and Otis Blackwell, but was never used. Rather, a completely different song written by the team Giant/Baum/Kaye was recorded for the film and eventually became the title song for both the movie and the # 1 album.

An off hand remark from songwriter Winfield Scott to a journalist in New Jersey in 2003 started the ball rolling on discovering this lost track. When the same journalist interviewed BMG/RCA's producer/researcher Ernst Mikael Jørgensen he mentioned that he'd talked to a songwriter who had an unreleased Elvis song. As soon as the journalist mentioned Winfield's name, Jørgensen instantly recognized he was referring to the long lost "Roustabout," originally rejected by movie producer Hal Wallis. Winfield Scott had found the original acetate in the basement of his New Jersey home, and was quite happy to play it over the phone to Jørgensen and subsequently grant BMG/RCA access to the recording.

Now, BMG/RCA will add "I'm A Roustabout" to "ELVIS 2ND TO NONE," the highly anticipated new Presley release. "ELVIS 2ND TO NONE" is a compilation of #1 singles, fan favorites and career milestones representing a broader range of Elvis' talents and featuring multiple musical genres including R & B, rock 'n roll, pop, country, dance and rockabilly. The album features a remix of "Rubberneckin'" produced by DJ Paul Oakenfold - one of the most acclaimed remixers in music history, and has been mixed and mastered from the original master tapes for optimum sound quality.

"I'm A Roustabout" is an up-tempo, tongue-in-cheek, R&B style pop song and has all the sparkle of a 1964 hit single and it remains a great track to this day. With its inclusion on "ELVIS 2ND TO NONE," "I'm A Roustabout" will finally have a chance to become the hit it could have been back in 1964.

"'I'm A Roustabout'" is truly one of the most incredible discoveries of modern music," said Joe DiMuro, Executive Vice President, BMG Strategic Marketing Group. "Rarely do we find any unreleased material for an artist of Elvis's calibre, and to have a complete track is even more unique. We are thrilled to be able to share this gift with music lovers throughout the world through 'ELVIS 2ND TO NONE.'" "It's very gratifying for me to finally have this song be released," said Winfield Scott. "I hope that it brings Elvis fans as much joy as it did for me and Otis when we originally wrote it. Enjoy!"

"ELVIS 2ND TO NONE" is the follow up to the highly successful 2002 release, "ELV1S 30 #1 HITS" which reached No. 1 in 26 territories worldwide, including the U.S. where it was a chart topper for three weeks. Over nine million albums were sold worldwide with 3.5 million in the U.S.

Among the hits was the No. 1 remix of "A Little Less Conversation" produced by DJ JXL which went to No. 1 in 26 countries including the US and Great Britain. That feat pushed Elvis past the Beatles for most No. 1 hits in the UK. Following the album's release, a television special, "Elvis Lives" aired on NBC Thanksgiving night and the special claimed the all important 18-34 demographic for the hour. Furthermore, the "ELV1S 30 #1 HITS" DVD audio debuted at No. 1 in the sales charts upon its release.

For more information on "ELVIS 2ND TO NONE" or Elvis Presley, please visit www.elvissecondtonone.com

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If you would like images of Elvis Presley please contact me - there are a number available for publishing

'I'M A ROUSTABOUT' Q&A with songwriter Winfield Scott

1) Q: How did you start in the business? A: I started in a vocal group called "The Cues" and we worked for Ahmet Ertegun on some sessions with LaVern Baker.

2) Q: What was the first successful song you wrote? A: I wrote "Tweedle Dee" for LaVern. I presented parts of it to Ertegun during a rehearsal, and he played it for LaVern. She liked it and I brought in the whole song the next day. (After finishing writing it that night.) It was a huge success, and much to my surprise it turned out that a very young 19 year old Elvis liked the song and performed it live on his shows. Unfortunately he never made a studio version of it.

3) Q: How did you end up writing for Elvis? A: Songwriter Otis Blackwell was a good friend of mine and convinced me to start writing for pop artists as opposed to just R&B performers. Otis had written several songs for Elvis including classics like "Don't Be Cruel" and "All Shook Up," and he had learned just how much more rewarding it was to write for a star like Elvis.

4) Q: What were the songs you wrote for Elvis? A: In early 1962 we struck gold and had three songs recorded in just a few weeks. "Return To Sender" and "We're Comin' In Loaded" for the film GIRLS!GIRLS!GIRLS" and "Easy Question" for the "POT LUCK" album. We wrote "One Broken Heart For Sale" which became the hit single for the next movie, and "Please Don't Drag That String Around" which ended up on the b-side of "(You're The) Devil In Disguise". A few years later I wrote "Long Legged Girl" with Leslie McFarland and in 1970 Elvis recorded "Stranger In The Crowd" which I had written on my own.

5) Q: What is the biggest success of them all? A: As I understand it "Return To Sender" has sold about 14 million copies in the U.S. alone.

6) Q: What's the story behind Roustabout? A: When Elvis made a movie, many writers were asked to submit songs for his films. Elvis would choose the ones he liked and then record them. Otis and I wrote a song for the 1964 movie Roustabout and Elvis recorded it. Movie producer Hal Wallis listened to the song but he objected to the lyrics because they had Elvis saying he wanted to tell his boss to "stick it in his ear." Mr. Wallis demanded that a new song called Roustabout be commissioned from other writers so our version never made it into the movie.

7) Q: So what happened to the song? A: I had a copy of it on acetate and forgot all about it. This happened almost 40 years ago.

8) Q: When did you realize that you had something unique? A: Well, I didn't really think about it all these years. Then recently during an interview with a New Jersey newspaper reporter, I mentioned having a copy of a song I wrote that Elvis recorded for a movie but was never used. A few days later I got a call from BMG's Elvis Presley producer Ernst Mikael Jørgensen, who had done an interview with the same newspaper. Through his conversation with the reporter, he realized that the song I had made reference to had to be my version of "Roustabout." He came to my home and listened to my record, and subsequently we made a deal. The original story he and I were interviewed for was never printed and the journalist left the paper.

9) Q: How do you feel about the song getting released so many years later on the ELVIS 2ND TO NONE CD? A: I'm surprised, happy and curious to see what kind of impact it will have.

10) Q: How would you describe the song? A: It's an up tempo, fun, rock 'n roll song.

Released on behalf of BMG by Publicis Drum

BMG is the global music division of Bertelsmann AG, one of the world's leading media companies. BMG owns more than 200 record labels in 41 countries including Ariola, Arista Records, J Records, Jive Records, BMG Heritage, RCA Records and RCA Label Group - Nashville. BMG Strategic Marketing Group is a new fully integrated organization for the U.S. that brings together BMG Heritage, BMG Special Products, Strategic Marketing and Direct Response TV as well as key support services including Business Affairs, Finance and Music Licensing. This combined structure of the BMG Strategic Marketing Group offers tremendous benefit to BMG and its businesses by increasing coordination amongst various teams and business units responsible for all levels of exploitation, across product lines and across labels.

ENDS

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