''Danzig Sings Elvis'' is the twelfth studio album by American heavy metal band Danzig. It was released on April 17, 2020, through

Cleopatra Records Cleopatra Records is a Los Angeles-based independent record label that has the sub-labels Hypnotic Records, Goldenlane, Stardust, Purple Pyramid, Deadline and X-Ray Records. History Founded in January 1992 by Brian Perera, it specializes in go ...

. The album consists of cover versions of tracks originally recorded by

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...

. "

Always on My Mind "Always on My Mind" is a Sentimental ballad, ballad written by Wayne Carson, Johnny Christopher, and Mark James (songwriter), Mark James, first recorded by Brenda Lee and first released by Gwen McCrae (as "You Were Always on My Mind") in Mar ...

" was released as the album's sole

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

on July 29, 2020. The single was released on 7-inch vinyl as well as via digital and streaming formats and features an alternate vocal version of "

Loving Arms "Loving Arms" is a song written by Tom Jans and first recorded as a duet by Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge for their 1973 album ''Full Moon (Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge album), Full Moon''. The song was notably covered by Dobie ...

" as its

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

Critical reception

''Danzig Sings Elvis'' was met with mixed reviews from critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, this release received an average score of 60, based on five reviews. In a review for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

' Mark Deming noted "While lennDanzig doesn't sound exactly bad here, the harder he tries to sound like Presley, the more he misses the target, and the grain of his voice and the occasional moments where he's reaching for notes he doesn't quite have make it clear he shouldn't have waited until he was 64 years old to do this, when his voice isn't nearly as nimble as Presley's in his prime. Also touching on the quality of the vocal delivery,

Amanda Petrusich Amanda Petrusich (born c. 1980) is an American music journalist. She is a staff writer at ''The New Yorker'' and the author of three books: ''Pink Moon'' (2007), '' It Still Moves: Lost Songs, Lost Highways, and the Search for the Next American M ...

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

said " s vocals are pleasantly imperfect—still thick and round, but a little bit frayed at the edges, and not in an especially deliberate way, sometimes Danzig's voice gets a little wobbly, as if it were late at night, and maybe he has been drinking" but went on to praise the structures of the songs: "most of the arrangements are faithful to the originals. Danzig doesn't transform any of these tracks into speed-metal songs or fiddle around with the melodies".

Track listing

Personnel

Glenn Danzig Glenn Allen Anzalone (born June 23, 1955), better known by his stage name Glenn Danzig, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, actor, film director and record producer. He is the founder of the rock bands Misfits, Samhain, and Danzig. He ...

– vocals, guitars, all other instruments *

Tommy Victor Thomas Michael Victor (born 1961/1962) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, and producer. He is best known as the lead singer and guitarist for heavy metal band Prong, which he founded in New York City in 1986, as well as the guitaris ...

– guitar *

Joey Castillo Joseph William Castillo (born March 30, 1966) is an American musician. He is best known for being the drummer of the hard rock band Queens of the Stone Age from 2002 to 2012. He is currently a member of Circle Jerks, The Bronx, DOOM Regulator, ...

– drums (on "Fever")

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2020 albums Danzig (band) albums Cleopatra Records albums Elvis Presley tribute albums