ELVIS PRESLEY - “Surrender”
(3rd June 1961)
For once an Elvis record isn’t scuppered by the choice of song - this nervy Latin pop is a welcome step up from the catastrophic “Wooden Heart”. Rather it’s Presley’s own performance that feels misjudged. He sings “Surrender” as if it was “It’s Now Or Never” part two - more shag-or-bust ultimatum-throwing - but the song feels more subtle than that blockbuster did, and the vibrato Elvis piles on sabotages that. He could have sung it predatory or sung it desperate: instead he tries for cod-operatic romance and the result is a hotchpotch. It’s not Elvis’ worst Number One but it’s the first where he doesn’t really sound like he’s trying. 4
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