Having Fun with Elvis on Stage: Worst-Selling Album

Colonel Tom Parker is remembered as the ultimate shyster, a man who could spot a quick buck from a mile away and somehow convince Elvis to be the vehicle for it. Need an Elvis album without paying royalties to any musicians? Easy. Just release an album with no music. How? Compile recordings of Elvis joking around between songs. The result was Having Fun with Elvis on Stage, widely considered the worst-selling album in the Presley catalog. It was a masterclass in turning charisma into commercial confusion.

Parker wanted to release a Presley album through Boxcar Records, the company he created to manage Elvis’s commercial rights and profit directly. The problem was that Elvis was under contract to RCA Records and RCA legally owned his recordings. Parker’s solution was audacious. Instead of songs, he compiled recordings of Elvis talking because he believed RCA could not claim rights to casual banter.

The final product, Having Fun with Elvis on Stage, is infamous. Without the songs, the chatter felt incoherent, like eating pizza with only the toppings and no crust. Critics have called it the worst rock-and-roll album of all time, noting its complete lack of actual rock and roll. Presley himself reportedly hated the album and wanted it removed from his catalog, but RCA reissued it shortly after he died in 1977, making sure the world could enjoy or endure the sound of Elvis talking.

Honestly, Jim Morrison’s on-stage ramblings could easily make a better record than Having Fun with Elvis on Stage if anyone ever tried. At least with Morrison, you might catch a few cryptic gems between the moans and guitar feedback. Speaking of legendary banter that actually works, nothing tops Matthew McConaughey in his first movie, Dazed and Confused, delivering the immortal line “Alright, alright, alright.” McConaughey got the line from listening to a live Doors album where Jim Morrison shouts “All right, all right, all right, all right” between songs. I could loop that moment for hours and never get tired of it. Some people curate elaborate playlists, but I stick with McConaughey’s effortless charm, a masterclass in casual perfection. Honestly, this is the kind of banter that makes you wonder if we should all just quit albums and start recording people talking. McConaughey owes much of his career to Jim Morrison’s iconic on-stage banter.