Words & Music:
Stanley Gelber
Come here my serenade, my desert serenadeA lover's melody, to bring you close to meIt's a tender lullaby, born of golden sand and skyThe song is new, and it's calling youTonight beside the desert palmsCome let me take you in my armsCome here my serenade, my desert serenadeWherever lovers dwell, it weaves it's magic spellSoon a thousand dreams will start,And romance will fill your heartMy lips conceal, love that's warm and realGive me a chance to hold you nearYou'll see a brand new world appearSo come and hear, my desert serenade, my desert serenade,My desert serenade
Recordingdate: 1965/02/25, first released on: Harum Scarum (album)
Musicians
Musicians who contributed to the first recording of My Desert Serenade:
(guitar)
(guitar)
(guitar)
(bass)
(drums)
(drums)
(piano)
(vocals)
(vocals)
(vocals)
(vocals)
(congas)
(tambourine)
(flute)
(oboe)
Availability
Find available albums with My Desert Serenade.
One of the better songs from Harum Scarum.Not great but i can listen to it.
It is slightly better than the rest of the soundtrack, but again, thats faint praise. Basically the movie and soundtrack were way below Elvis' talents. People were beginning to think this was all Elvis was capable of in the mid-60's while the rest of the music world was making great strides.
The 2nd song from the movie and soundtrack LP "Harum Scarum" is about the same as the first ("Harem Holiday"), mediocre and forgettable. Elvis sounds good on this one, but that insipid "Asian" music and drums makes it almost unlistenable.
It was 1984 when I discovered Harem Scarum at the Record store. Made in Japan, and at the time very expensive 30.-$. And it took my long time to convince my mother to buy me the LP. And folks let me tell ya, I love the Harem Scarum LP, yes sir. !!
Harem Holiday was perhaps the worst of all the Elvis movies and that goes for the soundtrack too. Elvis seems to sing flat on this track.
The intro of the song sounds good, and has not dated at all. But then Elvis vocal swings into action and the whole thing goes flat. I don't blame Elvis for this, it's the song, which is hardly inspiring just so run of the mill. I listened to both the recording from the soundtrack and an outtake and I think the outtake is slightly better.
Oh well, its 1965 a year of one the greatest music explosions in pop history and this is what we get from Elvis. Depressing man. The King was no longer leading the way and thats what hurt the most.
I hate to say this but the demo (by a guy named Kenny Karen, but he sounds like PJ Proby to me) is better than Elvis' interpretation. It's still a mediocre song but at least you can listen to it a few times without getting bored, which cannot be said of what the King made of it.
Well i guess i am one of the few who like this LP. Off course it's in no way coming close to his best, but still i like it.
I like the song and album as well. We all know the movies not great, but it can be fun to watch , just like some of those Jon Hall Arabian Night pictures from the 1940's. And it's true that this music pales in comparison to some of the revoulutionary pop from 65-66, but this is what Elvis recorded, so either you like it or you don't. No harm in either opinion.
I like this song and a lot of the songs from this movie. I hate the movie and have a hard time sitting through it, but I liked the soundtrack. Maybe this Elvis soundtrack, with its use of mid-eastern instruments and sounds influenced the Beatles to create their Sgt Pepper album 2 years later? (Yeah, that's a ridiculous claim and I am not serious, BUT I really do think the tremendous variety of types of music Elvis did on the 60s soundtracks is dismissed too easily. If the movies never existed, but Elvis albums of the 60s remained the same they'd be considered "really far out".)
I like the mid eastern flavour as I find it a nice variation and thus welcome change. I agree it is not one of his most brilliant efforts but it is not a turkey, and fairly zips along hinting at his Latino voice. I always add echo to these soundtrack songs and they all sound a whole lot better.- 3 stars
This has always been my second most favorite song from the "Harum Scarum" soundtrack album and I love the middle eastern flavor of the soundtrack album too. I really enjoy every song from this soundtrack album because they're all fun and fine songs. My most favorite song from this soundtrack album is "Golden Coins". It's albums like this that gave Elvis' music catalog more variety and a welcome change.
I listened to Kenny Karen's version and it doesn't improve the song any. In fact, it kind of reminds me of Terry Stafford's "Suspicion" in that he gives us a hokey Elvis impersonation with no depth. Elvis' version is far from a classic, but easier to take than Karen's version. It would have been nice though if Elvis had let this stay a Kenny Karen song and never recorded it and if he never showed up for the filming and recording of "Harum Scarum"
This is only an OK song (2,5 stars) I.M.H.O., and the same goes for the soundtrack; there´s one really good song though, "So Close, Yet So Far (From Paradise)"; both that song and the scene it is song in, I rate 5 stars. Sure, ´65 wasn´t Elvis´ greatest year songwise, but to blame Elvis for not leading the way in the music scene everyday throughout his entire career, is just ridiculous! Sometimes it seems like Elvis-fans (of all people) are the hardest on him - blaming him for not being the best of the best every single day his entire career, instead of cutting him some slack, and be happy for him being the best over all singer/entertainer of all time!
Sorry, there is no excuse for this soundtrack and movie. None. He should have demanded better. Where was his concern for product? And not just in 1965. 1966-1967 whe pop music was exploding, Elvis was making silly films and recording mostly garbage, save for some religious songs and a few '66 Nashville tracks like the Dylan song, but of course they were buried on a soundtrack! Again, why didnt he demand better?
Elvis deserved better, yet he got stuck with the contracts Parker made. This movie was not brilliant, well at least they tried another setting. Mid sixties the pop music was not as explosive as in the fifties. It just changed with a small bang and many different strands of pop arose. Obviously Elvis could not compete with the flow of new 'stars', as these guys appealed to the youngsters and they also produced a lot of mediocre or even less. It became more and more clear that Elvis had to change all this, his studio recordings like gospels and dylan songs (luckily tucked away) did not do it for me either. All this said, this and many other movie songs are just nice amidst a wide variety of songs belonging to a unique legacy. And the Harum Scarum/Holiday songs are part of that, a very small part of the legacy.
I enjoy this song and the entire album. It's not his best work but it's enjoyable and I find it a unique album with the Middle Eastern sounds. We forget sometimes it was a soundtrack to a movie and a stand alone LP.
I think it's Kenneth Buttrey on drums and not D.J. . Buttrey just came from a Dylan recording to do Harum Scarum. The drums sound great. The tambourine is played by Hoyt Hawkins and the oboe by Ralph Strobel. I like this song, I hope you don't mind.
Hate to sound like a downer, but to be honest, there's not a thing that warrants any kind of decent review for this crap, to be blunt. This movie and soundtrack were at the bottom rung of music from Elvis Presley. It's hard to fathom any reason looking back as to why he would record crap like this, other than the mandatory commitment via a contract; thank you Colonel Parker.
Well 2 years later and my comment on this garbage hasn't changed. Crap in, crap out. I'm still amazed he lowered himself to this level back in the day. I actually purchased this long playing album and after a few listens it stayed in the basement of my parents house never to see the light of day. It's an absolute travesty why he performed in drivel like this; did anybody actually pay to see this crap in the movies? I know I did not. I believe this was the last album I purchased as to Elvis before I rediscovered his 1970's output years later. He should have quit while he was ahead. Still 1-star.
The production, the mix, is garbage. The song, while far away from being the worst movie tune, isn't memorable or enjoyable at all. It's, like so many other songs from this period, a unforgivable waste of talent. 1 star.
Its not his best work and the movie is terrible. However I liked the different sound of this soundtrack. This song i thought was decent enough with some great drum and tambourine work.
I enjoy the whole soundtrack to Harum Scarum.
Nothing more I can add really except to say it’s not crap. 95% of todays music is crap imo and it’s meant to be chart topping! Give me Desert serenade any time and will enjoy it over hip hop, rap or pop of today. It’s an okay movie song that has the sound it’s meant to. 2.5 stars