Surely one of Elvis’ most beautiful and touching movie ballads is “Home Is Where The Heart Is” from “Kid Galahad” where the lead character Walter Gulick serenades his new girlfriend Rose Grogan, and the look both on her face and in her eyes, not to mention the way she follows his movements catches the mood superbly. The chemistry between Elvis and Joan Blackman, both in “Kid Galahad” and their previous collaboration in “Blue Hawaii”, is often overlooked but is caught perfectly during this particular number. In addition, a perfectly judged completely committed vocal by Elvis really nails this often too overlooked song, which stands alone really well outside the context of the movie.
Elvis recorded the song on 26 January 1962 at Radio Recorders’ Studio B in Hollywood, the third of four songs recorded on the first day of two consecutive soundtrack recording dates for the movie. The first twelve of the twenty one takes that Elvis and band attempted of the song were at slow tempo before this was increased for the remaining nine which included the final take and master. Before release on the soundtrack album, the master was edited by forty seconds reducing it’s running time to under two minutes.
