The Cramps - A Date with Elvis

Dedicated to Ricky Nelson, a DATE WITH ELVIS (1986) is the third Cramps studio album, recorded five years after their last, 1981’s PSYCHEDELIC JUNGLE (in the interim, the band recorded a number of EPs and a pair of live albums, and extracted themselves from a legal dispute with their old record label). Playing as a three-piece, with the extremely talented Poison Ivy on guitar and bass (as well as singing on a couple of tracks!), the band turned their most solid studio record. From the brilliant usage of a preschool choir singing the chorus of “People Ain’t No Good” to a crunching cover of “Get Off the Road”, the theme song of the 1968 biker exploitation flick, SHE DEVILS ON WHEELS, the record includes a bunch of ought-a-be classics. Standouts include the faux-hippie duet of “Kizmiaz”, one of the band’s several peaks of hyperactive, juvenile sexual obsession; “Hot Pool of Womanneed”, featuring lyrics like “As Jacob said to Isaiah / in them biblin’ days of yore / Man that babe is the tomata / Oh my Lord I’m longin’ for”; and Lux Interior’s nearly perfect impression of the King on “It’s Just That Song”.