The 1988 Tom Cruise vehicle "Cocktail", about a wannabe bartender who teams up with his buddy to become a booze-slinging song-and-dance sensation before jettisoning to Jamaica, is considered by many to be one of the worst films of the '80s (and it's got the Razzie to prove it). Unfortunately, the whole project was successful enough to convince the Colonel to keep Elvis in Hollywood more and in the recording studio less, leading to an artistic (and later) commercial downfall for the budding all-star. That single became one of Elvis' all-time best-sellers, with the soundtrack even netting a Grammy nomination in the process.
With traditional Hawaiian instrumentation and a lot of slack guitars to help set the mood, "Blue Hawaii" mainly stood apart due to some surprisingly bopping tracks like "Rock-A-Hula Baby", the goofy number about alcoholism "Beach Boy Blues", and a song that not only transcended the film but came to define decades of pop music after the fact: "Can't Help Falling in Love".
While Angela Lansbury's presence did little to elevate his 1961 cinematic excursion "Blue Hawaii", its soundtrack became an all-timer all its own. After his service, the product that was "Elvis" became increasingly homogenized and cinematically bland, with The King starring in a litany of clunkers that critics derided but still made decent box office bank. Before his stint in the Army, Elvis Presley had some genuinely good films under his shakin' hips, best highlighted by the 1957 classic "Jailhouse Rock".
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