Elvis gets Doja Cat

The music news this morning is that the record label RCA will be releasing the original soundtrack album of the upcoming Baz Luhrmann film, Elvis. Of course, Elvis Presley was a legendary music star who left behind an impressive catalogue of recordings. An Elvis movie can never be without a soundtrack. Besides, Elvis, for most of his career, was an RCA artist.

But the really big news that almost jolted me out of my seat is that the first single to be released out of the album is Vegas by — would you believe? — Doja Cat! Now, the Vegas is accepted. Elvis, after all, was a Las Vegas headliner. But what on Earth is a rapper, albeit, a very good one, like Doja Cat doing in an Elvis album?

Now, this is where the Australian writer, producer and director Baz comes in. He has an extraordinary way with film. His approach to material is mind-boggling and dynamic but utterly charming. Then maybe because he started his career in theater, he uses music in clever, surprising ways. In fact, the music in his films comes across as characters who figure prominently in crucial scenes.

Just think, it has now been over 25 years since Baz transported William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet to Verona Beach in Florida but moviegoers still remember how Leonardo Di Caprio romanced Claire Danes to the tune of Des’ree’s Kissing You. Then what about all those reimagined songs in Moulin Rouge, like Lady Marmalade, Nature Boy, Your Song, Roxanne as a tango and others.

Given those, did you think that you would be hearing The Way You Look Tonight and Someone to Watch Over Me in Baz’s The Great Gatsby? The F. Scott Fitzgerald novel is set during the Jazz Age in America, the ‘20s to the ‘30s era. But Baz did not use one tune from the period. Instead, he had pop, rock, rap and other modern forms enhance the story. Back to Black by Beyoncé and Andre 3000, Bang Bang by will.i.am. Love is Blindness by Jack White. He even composed the theme, Young and Beautiful with Lana del Rey.

So, it is not at all likely that Baz would have Austin Butler as Elvis lip-synching Heartbreak Hotel in the Elvis movie. He is so beyond that.

A glimpse of what Baz intends to do comes with having Doja Cat in the soundtrack. He just made the Elvis movie hip. Doja Cat is young and talented and one of the hottest rappers today. And that means male and female. She has made hits with juicy, streets, Say So. Her latest album Planet Her is a critically-acclaimed collection that is also selling big. Her Kiss Me More featuring SZA shows how much she has grown as an artist and hitmaker.

Doja Cat came up with something very special for Elvis. It features the great gospel singer Shonka and incorporates the famous Elvis opening line, “you ain’t nothing but a hound dog…” powerfully. The song is nothing Elvis but it has a Vegas flavor. It is about being taken for a ride, which happens a lot in Vegas and which is said to have happened to Elvis under the wing of his manager Col. Tom Parker.

The Elvis movie zeroes in on Presley’s complicated relationship with the enigmatic Parker who is said to have built up Elvis to unprecedented success but who also kept him from realizing his full potential as an artist. Parker is played by Tom Hanks. Olivia Dejonge plays Priscilla Presley.

Elvis comes to theaters in June. I am sure it will be a spectacular Baz Luhrmann experience. But what I am most curious about right now is the soundtrack. There is not a peep about this anywhere. I checked and checked everywhere online and nothing. I want to know who else will be singing in it. What Elvis songs will be included? How those will be presented?, etc. and which ones Butler will lip-synch? Or if he can move like Elvis, maybe he can sing like him, too.