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Poison Ivy League

Rating:
3.6 / 5

Words & Music: Bill Giant Bernie Baum Florence Kaye

Hail to thee old ivy league
Poison ivy league
The ra-ra boys are sitting round the table tonight
The ra-ra boys have lots of plans in view
They're gonna have panty raids
And make their own lemonade
They'll live it up just like the big boys do

Poison ivy league, boys in that ivy league
Give me an itch, those sons of the rich
That poison ivy league

The ra-ra boys will go to bed so early tonight
Before exams they need a lot of rest
They gotta make good for dad
They gotta make good so bad
They'll even pay someone to take that test

Poison ivy league, boys in that ivy league
How can they flunk, they're so full of bunk
That poison ivy league

The ra-ra boys are being groomed for business some day
For better things to college they were sent
And you can bet they'll be the head of the company
As long as dear old daddy's president

Poison ivy league, boys in that ivy league
So loaded with cash, they give me a rash
That poison ivy league

So let it be told
I won't touch them with a ten foot pole
That poison Ivy league

Recordingdate: 1964/03/02, first released on: Roustabout (album)

Musicians

Musicians who contributed to the first recording of Poison Ivy League:

(guitar)
(guitar)
(guitar)
(guitar)
(bass)
(drums)
(drums)
(drums)
(piano)
(vocals)
(vocals)
(vocals)
(vocals)
(sax)

Availability

Find available albums with Poison Ivy League.

MJB63 wrote on September 06, 2009
A crappy song...at least it's amusing.
Deano1 wrote on March 05, 2010
There is nothing "crappy" about this humorous and well delivered tune from "Roustabout". The scene in the movie with this song is very entertaining as Elvis delivers it with arrogance and cockiness. On record, it holds up well too.
burninglove92 wrote on May 06, 2010
Great Movie tune, i love watching elvis sing this, he really makes those college boys angry and shows em whos boss outside the club. go elvis!
Bestoftherest8301 wrote on April 28, 2011
I love the line and the smirk as he delivers it waiting for people to catch on 'those sonsoftherich'. I actually thought Roustabout was one of the better soundtracks, other than the obvious ones.
Pedro Nuno wrote on April 28, 2011
I like it very much. Like it on the movie, like it on record. Great!
bajo wrote on April 28, 2011
This is a catchy tune which I have always liked. The Roustabout soundtrack was and still is a breeze to me. It would have been even better if the left-over, alternate Roustabout song had been included in proper sound. Anyhow, Poison Ivy League is a nice movie song to me!
dgirl wrote on April 28, 2011
Amusing movie song, nothing more, nothing less.
Deke Rivers 6 wrote on April 28, 2011
I think at least the Beatles made decent silly songs like "Yello Submarine" that you can sing too.Not a good soundtrack anyway.
ElvisSacramento wrote on October 26, 2012
This is a fun and amusing song, but it's the worst song from "Roustabout", in my opinion. I rate "Poison Ivy League" 3 Stars.
alanfalk wrote on March 12, 2013
This is on my playlist, it is both funny and chatcy, and if I am not mistaken the album made it to the top of the charts .
Gorse wrote on March 12, 2013
Just looked at my playlists for 105 film songs in the 60's and this isn't there so I guess that says it all. Played it again and it isn't that bad, moving along with much gusto but is a song more at home in its film environment.
Cruiser621 wrote on March 12, 2013
Catchy tune but nothing to rave about. Personally, in my opinion, this was the last decent overall soundtrack album from Elvis. It all went down hill from there.
Steve V wrote on March 12, 2013
Its ok and the album is just OK, certainly not great. It didn't deserve a No. 1 spot when albums like Elvis IS Back didn't make it to #1. You have to be wondering about the fan base at times.
GEORGE (GK) wrote on March 12, 2013
Fun song in the movie. Not as enjoyable on Vinyl (CD). However, there are, some very good songs, on the soundtrack. Only complaint, the songs are too short in length. The soundtracks could have, featured longer versions, of the short movie songs.
sugartummy wrote on April 21, 2013
I can clearly hear a banjo in the song, but who plays it. Ernst Jorgensen doesn't mention it in his Sessions book. The song rolls along quite nicely even with the silly lyrics.
TBG wrote on May 28, 2013
It's a great song, one of my favorites from the movie.
NONE000000 wrote on June 27, 2013
The standard excuse for a song like this one is: "it fit the scene in the movie", and in this case I think that is truer than usual. It establishes Elvis' character as a trouble-maker. He knows the song isn't gonna sit well with the audience in the coffeehouse and he gets in a fight afterwards because of it. In my opinion, as a movie song, this works better than most. To compare the movie Roustabout with Jailhouse Rock isn't the best idea, because Roustabout certainly suffers in comparison, BUT this movie was as close as we got from Elvis in the 60s to the kind of bad boy, rock n roll troublemaker he was in that earlier (better) movie. We'd have to wait a few more years for Elvis to put on black leather again.
trudygillenwater wrote on March 19, 2015
Great novelty tune! Love the movie as well.
rai wrote on March 20, 2015
A song that is only so so but looking at the video, Elvis looks slim, dark and handsome not to mention his height.
TheMemphisFan wrote on May 30, 2015
Love the song... the lyrics and Elvis' delivery!
RobIreland wrote on June 18, 2015
I really love the album and this song, something special about Elvis" voice here. Just such a pity about the lack of depth in the recording tho.
Miknik7077 wrote on September 01, 2020
Works way better in the movie than on the soundtrack. As a stand alone just a normal Elvis movie filler song.
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