Hard Headed Woman

Reissue number 8 in the second series of Elvis hits that originally did not make it to the #1 spot, but now reenter the charts in the U.K. and other European countries.

Design

The numbered CD comes as a ‘mini-vinyl’ replica card sleeves with an outer and inner bag. The outer bag features a promotional shot of the young Elvis. Elvis singing Hound Dog on the Steve Allen Show. The inner bag replicates a generic U.K. RCA single from the time of the original U.K. release.

As for the vinyl, that looks like the real stuff too. Only these don’t have the UK cover art outer sleeve.

Content

Hard Headed Woman" is an American 12-bar blues written by African American songwriter Claude Demetrius. Elvis recorded this song for the soundtrack of his 1958 "King Creole" motion picture. The song was also released as a 45rpm single and in 1958 went to No. 1 on the Billboard charts. It became the first rock and roll single to earn the RIAA designation of Gold Record.

This is what Wikipedia says about the author of the song and the movie soundtrack:

Claude Demetrius (born August 3, 1916 - May 1, 1988) was an African American songwriter. Born in Bath, Maine, by his early twenties he was in New York City writing music for and/or with the likes of Louis Armstrong, Jimmy Witherspoon and B.B. King. Demetrius wrote the 1945 musical comedy short film Open the Door Richard. During the 1940s, he was very closely associated with Louis Jordan. He wrote songs with Jordan that included material for the 1946 Black musical film Beware in which Jordan had the starring role. Some of Demetrius' best known compositions from that era were co-written with Jordan's wife, Fleecie Moore.

For two decades, Claude Demetrius made a reasonably good living but in 1956 his income would change dramatically after he began writing for Gladys Music, Inc.. Newly formed by Jean and Julian Aberbach, the company owned the exclusive publishing rights to the music of Elvis Presley. Working for Gladys Music, Demetrius co-wrote a minor song called "I Was The One" that Presley recorded but in 1957 he composed "Mean Woman Blues" for Presley's 1957 motion picture soundtrack, Loving You that was released on the record album of the same name as well as on Side 2 of a four-song EP record. Demetrius topped off a very successful year when he co-wrote with Aaron Schroeder the song "Santa, Bring My Baby Back (To Me)" which appeared on the 1957 Elvis' Christmas Album.

In 1958, Demetrius scored his biggest success of all with his composition of "Hard Headed Woman." The song became the first rock and roll single to earn the RIAA designation, "Gold Record." Demetrius wrote it alone and "Dixieland Rock" with Fred Wise for Presley's 1958 film King Creole. Both songs were part of the record album but "Hard Headed Woman" was also released as a 45rpm single that went to No. 1 on the Billboard music charts.

King Creole is the sixth album by Elvis Presley, issued on RCA Records, LPM 1884, in September 1958, recorded in three days at Radio Recorders in Hollywood. It contains songs written and recorded expressly for the film, and peaked at #2 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart. It followed the film release by over ten weeks.

The bulk of the songs originated from the stable of writers contracted to Hill and Range, the publishing company jointly owned by Presley and Colonel Tom Parker: Fred Wise, Ben Weisman, Claude Demetrius, Aaron Schroeder, Sid Tepper, and Roy C. Bennett. Conspicuous in their relatively limited contribution were Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who had come to an impasse with the Colonel during the making of the previous movie, Jailhouse Rock, in which they had practically dominated the musical proceedings. Furious over mere songwriters having such easy access to Presley without going through Parker's "proper channels," the Colonel closed off their avenue to his prize client, especially since the duo had also tried to influence Presley's film direction, pitching him an idea to do a gritty adaption of Nelson Algren's recent novel, A Walk on the Wild Side, with Elia Kazan directing, and Leiber & Stoller providing the music. The Colonel put the kibosh on such notions, although echoes of the concept remained in the film, and the pair still managed to place three songs on the soundtrack, including the title track and "Trouble," arguably the film's best songs. Presley's performance of "Trouble" in the film alludes to Muddy Waters and Bo Diddley; he would return to the song for his tremendously successful television comeback special.
The songs "Hard Headed Woman" and "Don't Ask Me Why" appeared as two sides of a single on July 10, 1958, to coincide with the release of the film. "Hard Headed Woman," the A-side, and "Don't Ask Me Why" both made the pop singles chart, peaking at #1 and #25 respectively.

The album was reisued for compact disc in an expanded edition on April 15, 1997, and again in an audiophile version from Japan on August 25, 2005. For the both reissues, an additional seven tracks were added, including the song "Danny" taken from the same sessions, with six alternates, four previously unreleased.