How Another Artist Fixed Elvis’ ‘A Little Less Conversation’
Elvis Presley‘s “A Little Less Conversation” is one of his most famous songs — now. It wasn’t nearly as famous when it came out during the 1960s. Another artist came and helped the song achieve its full potential. Despite that, he walked away from the scene that made “A Little Less Conversation” a huge success.
Elvis Presley’s ‘A Little Less Conversation’ was missing something in the 1960s
It’s no secret that Elvis was one of the best singers of all time. It’s also no secret that he made a lot of terrible movies with bad soundtrack singles. Unless you love kitsch, songs like “Do the Clam” and “Rock-A-Hula Baby” are real slogs.
Elvis’ 1968 film Live a Little, Love a Little isn’t generally considered one of his better star vehicles. It gave the world a better-than-average soundtrack single: “A Little Less Conversation.” The track has some fun, suggestive lyrics but its instrumental is not impressive. “A Little Less Conversation” was given a second life in 2002 when Junkie XL remixed it, changing its genre completely.
The remix sounds more like 1 of Elvis Presley’s later hits
The 1960s version of “A Little Less Conversation” is a light rock ‘n’ roll song. Most of its power comes from Elvis’ vocals. When Junkie XL remade the song, he turned it into a dance song. The instrumental he crafted for it has the power and energy to match Elvis’ singing. It’s shocking that it took so long for someone to realize that Elvis’ powerhouse voice would work well in the context of modern dance music, which often incorporates his style of singing.
The original “A Little Less Conversation” has backing vocals, but they won’t make much of an impact. The Junkie XL remix took a page from later Elvis hits such as “In the Ghetto” and “Suspicious Minds” and really emphasized the backup singers. The result is an incredible dancefloor crowd-pleaser that still sounds great over 20 years later.
Junkie XL refused to give the world a follow-up to ‘A Little Less Conversation’
Rather than return to the realm of classic rock or dance music, Junkie XL decided to become a film composer after releasing his signature hit. During a 2018 interview with MusicRadar, Junkie XL explained his decision. “As far as hit singles go, this was about as big as it could get,” he remembered. “Everybody around me was saying, ‘You gotta follow this up, you need another hit single. This is your time.'”
“I felt that I’d taken club music and electronic music as far as I could take it,” he explained. “So I shut down my Amsterdam studio, stuffed my laptop into a suitcase and moved to LA. All I could think about was being a film composer — that was my dream.”
This career move was not well-received. “My manager almost had a heart attack,” he recalled. “‘What are you doing? Are you crazy? Let’s write another hit single!’ Sometimes, you have to listen that voice inside your heart … even if it means walking away from a big pay check.”
Despite his manager’s feelings, Junkie XL was confident in his decision. “I’d already fallen in love with film, and I knew that was the only direction I could take,” he said. He went on to compose music for Mad Max: Fury Road, Deadpool, and Man of Steel.
