Words & Music:
Dolores Fuller
Lee Morris
I want a barefoot ballad yes a barefoot ballad
Won't you play for me a down home country song
'Cause when I kick my shoes off and I kick my blues off
With a barefoot ballad you just can't go wrong
Give me a honk-tonk fiddle with a guitar in the middle and a melody
Humming like a fountain swinging out on Smokey mountain
I want a barefoot ballad yes a barefoot ballad
Won't you play for me a down home country song
'Cause when I kick my shoes off and I kick my blues off
With a barefoot ballad you just can't go wrong
Now the big toe's connected to the two toe
And the two toe's connected to the three toe
And the three toe's connected to the four toe
And the four toe's connected to the five toe
And the five toe and away we go
I want a barefoot ballad yes a barefoot ballad
Won't you play for me a down home country song
'Cause when I kick my shoes off and I kick my blues off
With a barefoot ballad you just can't go wrong
Now the big toe's connected to the two toe
And the two toe's connected to the three toe
And the three toe's connected to the four toe
And the four toe's connected to the five toe
And the five toe and away we go
I wanna barefoot ballad yes a barefoot ballad
Won't you play for me a barefoot ballad song.
Recordingdate: 1963/09/30, first released on: Kissin' Cousins (album)
Musicians
Musicians who contributed to the first recording of Barefoot Ballad:
(guitar)
(guitar)
(guitar)
(guitar)
(bass)
(drums)
(drums)
(piano)
(banjo)
(vocals)
(vocals)
(vocals)
(vocals)
(vocals)
(vocals)
(jug)
(sax)
(sax)
(fiddle)
Availability
Find available albums with Barefoot Ballad.
I bet that the songwriters of this mind numbing tripe could hardly believe their ears when they got the phone call that this song had been accepted for Elvis' forthcoming Kissing Cousins movie.
One can hardly believe this the same person who a few years back gave us "Mystery Train", "Good Rockin' Tonight", "Hound Dog" and "Jailhouse Rock"! But on the other hand, that was the greatness of Elvis. He could take the telephone directory and turn it into a credible performance! Besides, taken in context with the film, it is a quite a fun song to listen to.
Why? Why? Why? I Like a fun song just as much as the next guy but geesh!
There was a change in Elvis's voice on this track, different to any others around this time. Elvis had peaked record wise during 1962 and was in freefall by the end of 1963 ~ 64. But he still made the odd 'good' recording and BB was one. I still listen to this track and wonder, same voice, different lyrics.
Oh my, this is one of the reasons ELvis soundtracks take such a hit. Pure garbage from the first note.
Situational movie fluff. Lighten up, y'all. Harmless fun. Fits into movie scene well.
I dont think of this as harmless fun. I think of it more as harmful to Elvis and his career. It is not fun to listen to because it represents a fall in quality of even his film material and since it came out in 1964 amid the British Invasion, Elvis seemed out of touch in pop music at least where I was going to school. Embarrasing to say the least.
Garbage. Another worthless movie song which watered down the catalogue. A real brainless piece of trite. Still a bit better than He's Your Uncle Not Your Dad.
"Barefoot Ballad" thankfully wasn't considered for a single ! (LOL) I have to agree, that some of the movie songs and movies tarnished Elvis Image. Thankfully he and his fans, survived it all. And Elvis came rocking back in "1968 TV special" and he continued to move forward in the right direction with the Memphis sessions in January 1969. Some of his best work ever !
As a young lad I enjoyed his movies. The movie songs sort of fit into the story line. This one has Elvis in a (fake) double role - don't forget the low budget idea and it is 1963. Anyway he tries to sing with two voices and that is kinda cute. Yes, movie songs are mostly simple. Where I lived youngsters (read: my peers) were not supposed to listen to any artist that was not part of the mainstream, amongst them Elvis (just as a name). Anyway I did and I have always been proud to be a fan. And maybe it was all necessary to culminate into that great revival in 1968.
I often wonder about the horrible songs such as this one. As much as I absolutely love Elvis, I have a very hard time imagining what Elvis could have been doing musically in the 1960s. I mean, the music scene was Bob Dylan, the Beatles, The Monkees, The Rolling Stones.... I just can't see Elvis really competing head to head, so to speak. Elvis was just so different. I think, as sad as the movie years may have been for some, it worked out for the best. Elvis basically laid low, let the 1960s flame out, all the while cultivating a group of much younger fans with the movies and then emerged triumphantly at the end of the decade.
Songs like this horrible one appealed to young kids, including myself. These kinds of tracks are a great introduction to Elvis if you are 10 or under, and then you can experience the joy of discovering his real serious music as you get older. There is really no other defense of the song itself, but taken alongside of the likes of Teletubbies or Barney the purple dinosaur, I think that is the way it works best. A very good recruitment tool for very young future Elvis fans
one of the worst songs elvis ever recorded
I love Elvis. I like his movies and ones like "G.I. Blues", "Girl Happy" and "It Happened At The World's Fair" are my among my favorite movies period, not just Elvis movies. They are fun, entertaining and even the situational songs are good in the movie, if not great on the record. That said, "Barefoot Ballad" is the biggest piece of garbage that Elvis ever recorded. He sings it in a hokey country accent (his hillbilly character, Jodie, sang it in the movie) and the words are worse than insipid. The scene in the movie is bad and this song is unlistenable on record. This movie was made to be in a theater for about two months, be seen on TV a couple of times years later and forgotten. Thanks to VHS and now DVD, it is still being seen. Why the song was on the album and the flipside to "Kissin Cousins", "It Hurts Me' wasn't is anybody's guess. "Sound Advice" (10X times the song this one is) wasn't on the "Follow That Dream" EP, "Cane And A High Starched Collar" (5x times the song) was in a movie and not released for 16 years. Less than one star!
Even the title is a disgrace!
This is a real stinker, incredibly from 1963 and therefore still two years from the truly awful soundtracks of 65 and 66. Man Elvis must have been mortified recording this garbage when he was still theoretically on top (ie before Beatlemania when he was still having number 1s) Unfortunately this was a number two from start to finish. He had a cold the day the backing track was recorded but I bet he had a fit the day he did the vocals.
I do like the faster version of Kissin' Cousins,but that's all you can say about this film & soundtrack,as for Barefoot Ballad
it's just for fun.One Star.
It's not even a frigging ballad!
Th greatest country song of all-time. Not!
I just watched "Kissin Cousins" with my fiance and it is unbelieveable how this song and "Pappy, Won't You Please Come Home" sung by Glenda Farrell take a movie that is moving along decently well and bring it to a screaching halt. There is no other time that I feel as badly for Elvis as I do when he sings BB. My fiance even commented that the movie was not nearly as bad as she thought it would be shortly before Ms Farrell sings her song and then a few minutes later Elvis performs BB. From there the movie just falls apart. The 2nd worst Elvis music movie moment is a tie between the "The Love Machine" and "Yoga Is As Yoga Does" from "Easy Come, Easy Go" and "Hey, Hey, Hey" from "Clambake".
Well I like a nice country hoedown and this hints at that with a rousing banjo, and other instruments swinging along.
It is alas movie fluff at the end of the day, and like a small percentage of 60's film songs should not be transferred to vinyl.
It sets my feet tapping and that is about the only connection I can make with it.
I don't like this song at all, but maybe it is a good introduction to Elvis for the very young as someone said. Otherwise I really love many of the ballads in Elvis' 60' movies such as Tender Feelings, Doin' the best I can, etc. I think that here many years after Elvis' death we can look more objective at his career (because I think that it can cloud ones opinion to have lived through it all when one has to evaluate it), and when I sit and look at the three box sets; 50', 60', 70', and the gospel collection and then add all the best movie songs (about 60), and on top of that consider how many great live albums he released (and that has been released after his dead), then I think it is fair to say that there is a long way down to number two on the "greatest performer list", and to think it was all done in less than 23 years !! So please forgive me for not complaining over what could have been, as I think that we all got more than we deserved, could wish for or will ever see again . And to be fair, if Elvis had continued through the years 63-67 like he had done until then (and did again from 68), then there would not have been a British invasion, and that would be a pity to all the Beatles and Rolling Stones fans LOL.
For some reason I have always liked this song. It is what it is, a fun song, nothing more, nothing less. A funny hillbilly tune for the movie, much like «No Room to Rhumba in A Sports Car» from Fun In Acapulco - just as enjoyable.
Just a short note regarding Dolores Fuller, Elvis recorded several of her songs; Barefoot Ballad" "Beyond the Bend" "Big Love, Big Heartache" "Cindy, Cindy" "Do the Clam" "Have A Happy" "I Got Lucky" "I'll Take Love" "Rock-a-Hula, Baby"
"Spinout" "Steppin' Out of Line" "You Can't Say No In Acapulco"
The worst, along with Confidence, Old McDonald, A Dog's Life, Dominic, He's Your Uncle-Not Your Dad, Queenie Wahine's Papaya.
As with most soundtracks, 30%-50% of the songs on each one are so-so or not bad. But the very worst 20% of the songs on each one really makes the whole album suffer.
This is easily one of the very worst songs that Elvis ever recorded. Elvis should have never recorded it.
One word for this song: "Horrible".
I can't even enjoy Elvis' vocals on this, because he has to sing off key to stay in character. At least we can add some more instruments used on a Elvis track:banjo (played by Harold Bradley) & jug (played by Boots Randolph).
A very odd song with the added oddity of Elvis having to alter his voice to stay in character with the dual role he played in "Kissin Cousins" . Not completely unattractive, has a certain energy be it limited. Overall, Elvis should not have had this kind of material to deal with it. The best I could do is 2 stars.
I love the theme song and the alternate version. But, the Kissin' Cousins movie and soundtrack rank low on my Elvis lists. Barefoot Ballad is a fun to hear every once in while. If Elvis had continued to record 50s style rockers, he would have faded away. There would have been no '68 Comeback, no TTWII, Elvis pn Tour, Aloha from Hawaii ...
Wow!!!! A number one hit!!!! Not. Pure drivel...? Yes.
The movie is a great party / trash gem and a real camp-classic. The soundtrack is underrated in my opinion and better than most people would expect. While not a masterpiece by any stretch, it's properly produced and mixed (i can't say this about all soundtracks from the mid-60s) and most of the songs are enjoyable at least. This one here is the weakest of the bunch, annoying as hell. 1 star.
One of his worst songs. Horrible!
Always loved this happy toe thumper. Silly and daft but that was all it was meant to be. A musical song in a fun musical, nothing more.
As a whole I enjoy the soundtrack. But this song leaves a lot to be desired. Although, it serves its purpose in the movie quite well. 2 stars.
Just revisited this song and sure enough not too impressive on vinyl. Went to the film sequence on YouTube, and what a difference. This has pretty girls and 'country' guys dancing and really having a good time in a country hoedown, and is totally animated and somewhat enjoyable, which is lost on the vinyl recording.
I give this "tune" one trillion stars. Rubbish'