January 24th in Elvis History

It's January twenty-fourth, and on this day in 1965... a rushed and unusual recording session took place in Nashville for the soundtrack to Elvis’s next film, *Harum Scarum*. With his usual band unavailable due to the tight schedule, producer Sam Katzman pulled together a group of Nashville session pros, including Charlie McCoy from the Grand Ole Opry on guitar, Henry Strzelecki on bass, and Kenny Buttrey on drums. To capture the film’s Middle Eastern theme, a flutist and an oboist were added to the mix. Elvis, returning to the studio after an eight-month hiatus, seemed distracted and disinterested. The session wrapped after just four hours, with an exhausted King of Rock 'n' Roll completing 38 drawn-out takes of “Shake That Tambourine.”