Anyway, he’s dropping off some beer at a political rally, and it’s not long before his friend tells the promoter what a good singer he is. Deke doesn’t want to do it. He just sings for a goof, see?. Well, after a lot of arm twisting and cajoling, he hops up and guess what? Boy, that kid can sing!

​

 This is all part of the formula of most of the Elvis movies ever made.  Young Man working as a (INSERT JOB TITLE HERE) who likes to sing wanders into a situation (INSERT BAND MEET CUTE HERE) and reluctantly steps on stage with (INSERT BAND TYPE HERE) where he is seen by (PICK AS MANY AS NECESSARY: PROMOTER/ RIVAL/ HOT SAFE WOMAN/ HOT DANGEROUS WOMAN/ HOT EX-LOVER)  and has to (PICK AS MANY AS NECESSARY: CHOSE WOMAN/ CHOSE CAREER/ DO THE RIGHT THING/ BE TRUE TO HIMSELF/ DO EVERYTHING/ SING SOME MORE.) 

​

So, yeah, the promoter of the band, Glenda, who happens to be a Hot Dangerous Woman, grabs Deke, signs him, and gets him to join the band on their tour of every backwater juke joint in Texas. On the road, he goes from one featured song each night, to co-billing with the bandleader (and Glenda’s ex-husband) Tex, to solo performer with a TV special in Dallas. Well, not Dallas, but the suburb of Freetown, or Freeburg, or Free-something, because, well, the locals aren’t happy about the things they’ve heard about that Rock and Roll music that Deke is singing, and when the Free-whatever city council shuts down the show, Glenda’s plea includes shaming them for not practicing Freedom in Freetown in a scene straight from Footloose.

​

Along the way Deke hits it off with Susan, a Hot Nice Woman and the other featured singer with the band. There of course comes a point when he has to pick between Glenda and Susan. Loving You is unusual for one thing. Usually, Elvis’s character never, I mean never, wants to be tied down. This time his character is an orphan, so he’s looking for a family. We’ll see if that ever happens again.

​

My favorite scene happens in a rib joint in Amarillo. Deke’s in town for his first co-headlining show, and he gets recognized by a teen girl while he’s eating. Her jealous boyfriend comes over all menacing-like and challenges Deke to sing a song. Again, some arm twisting, and then Deke says sure. Luckily, the jukebox seems to be filled with only karaoke tracks. Deke does a kick-ass version of Mean Woman Blues, then starts a fight with the menacing boyfriend. While Deke’s kicking the guy’s ass, he knocks him into the jukebox, which plays the soundtrack to their fight. Classic!​​​​

________________________________________________

​

Acting: 8 Elvises

Musical Performances: 8 Elvises

Best song: Mean Woman Blues

Stunts: Bar (restaurant, really) fight, car chase with implied crash

Cringe factor: Nothing 

Kissin’: Minimal. 

________________________________________________

​

 *I’m in a band called Little Elvis with Steve Marshall and Greg Baxter that does only Elvis movie songs, and each of us has a stage name from an Elvis movie. Mine is Deke, Steve is Lucky, and Greg is Pacer. I have to admit, I’d never seen Loving You until now, and we don’t do any songs from it. I picked the name because I thought it was funny.