Words & Music:
Ben Weisman
Fred Wise
Crawfish
Well I went to the bayou just last night
There was no moon but the stars were bright
Put a big long hook on a big long pole
And I pulled Mr. Crawfish out of his hole
Crawfish
See I got him, see the size
Stripped and cleaned before your eyes
Sweet meat look, fresh and ready to cook
Crawfish
Now take Mr. Crawfish in your hand
He's gonna look good in your frying pan
If you fry him crisp or you boil him right
He'll be sweeter than sugar when you take a bite
Crawfish
Recordingdate: 1958/01/15, first released on: King Creole, Vol. 2 (EP)
Musicians
Musicians who contributed to the first recording of Crawfish:
(guitar)
(guitar)
(guitar)
(bass)
(bass)
(bass)
(drums)
(piano)
(vocals)
(vocals)
(vocals)
(vocals)
(vocals)
(bongos)
(cymbals)
(clarinet)
(sax)
(trombone)
(trumpet)
(tuba)
Availability
Find available albums with Crawfish.
Love the song, especially the long version.
I Like this song a lot. The duet in the movie is awesome!
Love it. In the 50's everything he sang had heart & soul to it, even a situational movie song like this. Somehow that soul was lost as the mid-60's approached. If this was recorded in 1966 instead, I think it would have been a disaster.
A great track for the opening scene of "King Creole" and it is sung with a lot of heart and soul, but I would not consider it a great track when listening to it on the record. I always thought that this track along with "Steadfast, Loyal and True" slowed (brought down) down the B-side of the LP. 3 stars from me.
Too bad we never got some binaural versions of all that great sessions: like Love Me Tender, Loving You and Jailhouse Rock. Why is it so? FTD is today blocked by the missing outtakes of the masters, except King Creole. Maybe they were dumped in the "save spance operation" RCA did around 1959 as Ernst sadly discovered while looking for missing tapes. The long version of Crawfish we got in Essential Volume 3, remains to be released upgraded on a final Classic FTD yet to come.
I remember a music critic touting this as one of Elvis' top 10 tunes. I certainly think it is one of his finest and most unique songs and from a movie with so many good songs, tends to be forgotten. Yes it is right up there because it is different and showed how Elvis was ever gowing as a recording artist in the 50's, a growth that stopped soon after the 60's soundtracks took over.
This is such a terrific and unique Elvis song and the best version of it is definitely the version from the movie "King Creole". I like the album version too, but the movie version is vastly superior.
It's funny too hear Elvis do a song about crawfish, when he realy detested seafood. Is Elvis' version the first of this song, because the Jesse Stone instrumental also sounds pretty old. A real gem.
Very unusual recording that has stood the test of time. A duet with Kitty White which is a breath of fresh air every time I listen to it, being different from nearly every recording he did. I much prefer the full version which runs a whole minute longer but I guess the Colonel did not want the talented Kitty Whiite having too much of the limelight.
One of my favorites, from a killer soundtrack, 5 stars for both ! Elvis never stoped developing as a singer, even in the mid sixties he sang songs that were different from what he had done before, especially the soundtrack bonus songs and the gospel songs. I have always admired him for the way he was able to renew himself, both his style and his song choice (to bad that many people wanted him to stay a rock'n roll singer, accusing him of betraying that style as he developed), still today people criticize his "overblown" arrangements and saying they whished he had kept the three piece band and sung more rock songs !
One of those really different sounding tunes from the movie "King Creole" which sticks in your mind.
When i was very young I didn't care for this song. But as I aged I developed a liking for it. Now it's one of my faves from the soundtrack. 4 stars.
Elvis really couldn't do no wrong in the 50's imo! I've always liked this song. And even more so when the FTD brought along the complete song in proper sound quality on the FTD. Great stuff!
What can one say? It has a unique afro, R&B kind of touch to it. On the other hand he could also deliver the most "Caucasian" type of country ballads as well. This to me proves Elvis had a touch for many cultures and backgrounds and knew how to interpret them. 5 stars.
A monster of a track from a brilliant soundtrack. I wish we had the out takes to these sessions. Love the full length version.