Elvis Presley, The #2 Artist of the Rock Era, Part Nine

 

(Continued from Part Eight)

"Memories" is a song that Elvis performed on his television special, not the one from the Broadway classic Cats, but one written by Mac Davis and Billy Strange.  "They had asked for a song about looking back over the years, and oddly enough, I had to write it in one night," Davis later recalled to Billboard Magazine.  "I stayed up all night at Billy Strange's house in Los Angeles.  He had a little office set up in his garage.  I wrote it right there."

"Memories" was the B-side to "Charro", the title song from yet another bad Presley movie that also went nowhere.  "Memories", on the other hand, reached #7 on the Adult chart and has stood the test of time.

Feeling as if he had momentum, Elvis recorded his first secular studio album in eight years, the 1969 Gold release From Elvis in Memphis.  It was one of the first times that Presley got to choose the songs on the album, and not the overbearing Colonel Tom Parker.  Was Elvis's '68 Comeback Special just a blip on the radar or was he really back to stay? 

As it turned out, Presley brought his A-game for this album.  Mac Davis had written for Elvis before, including "A Little Less Conversation".  Presley wanted to hear what else Mac had; Mac gave him this next song and "Don't Cry Daddy", both of which Elvis recorded.

Davis explained the song when he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2006:

                It's a simple matter of growing up with 

                a little boy who's father worked with my

                father.  He lived in a part of town that

                was a dirt-street ghetto.  I grew up in

                Lubbock, Texas, and it was a ghetto

                in every sense of the word, but we

                didn't use that word back then.  I was

                trying to come up with a song called 

                "The Vicious Circle", how a child is

                born, he has no father, and the same

                thing happens.  The word "Ghetto"

                became popular in the late '60's to

                describe the poor parts of town.  A

                friend of mine, Freddy Weller, who

                used to play guitar for Paul Revere

                and the Raiders, showed me a lick on

                the guitar one day.  I went home and

                fiddled around with it, I wrote the 

                song and called him up at 4 in the

                morning and sang it to him.  He knew

                I'd written a hit with his lick, but that's

                the way it goes.

         

But it wasn't a slam dunk--both RCA and Colonel Parker didn't want Elvis to do "message songs".  Presley, to his credit, overruled both and booked a recording session at American Sound Studio in Memphis, the first time he had recorded there since 1955.  American was a tiny studio in a rundown neighborhood operated by producer Chips Moman.  

The Memphis sessions were a direct consequence of the '68 Comeback Special, as Moman became interested in helping Elvis record songs in his new style.  Presley's recordings had become stale in Nashville, and the switch to Memphis yielded some of Elvis's best songs in years.  Those landmark sessions produced enough material for two albums.

Heard separately, the two albums were solid, but it wasn't until 1987 when A&R man, Gregg Geller combined the two albums into The Memphis Record that one could appreciate the quality that resulted from the Memphis sessions.

With not only good material that had eluded him but with a newfound energy and excitement, Elvis' performance was fresh.  He poured his heart and soul into every track, a welcome change from the days of soundtrack purgatory.

 

The lead single from From Elvis In Memphis was "In The Ghetto", his first Top 10 hit in five years (#2 in the U.K. and Canada and #3 in the United States).   

 

We want to also feature several of the best examples of this renewed energy and passion from the album, a landmark achievement from a 34-year-old Elvis.  Featuring Blues-influenced horns from the famous Memphis Horns led by Wayne Jackson on trumpet and Andrew Love on saxophone, which included Dick Steff and R.F. Taylor on trumpet, trombonists Ed Logan, Jack Hale and Gerald Richardson, Tony Cason and Joe D'Gerolamo on French horn, and saxophonists Andrew Love, Jackie Thomas, Glen Spreen (who arranged the horns as well as the strings) and J.P. Luper, here is "Power Of My Love".

(Jackson, left, Love on right)

Jackson and Love played on nearly every song that included a horn section at Stax Records, working with Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes and Sam and Dave, among others, but their reputation also led to work at American Sound as well as Muscle Shoals in Alabama.  They played horns on the Doobie Brothers' What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits and U2's Rattle and Hum and the Memphis Horns turned out amazing music for 30 years.  

Jackson and Love lent their incredible sound to 83 Gold and Platinum award-winning songs and over 100 hits, including some of the most beloved songs of the 20th century--Otis Redding's "Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay", "Respect" by Aretha Franklin, "When A Man Loves A Woman" by Percy Sledge, Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline", Al Green's "Let's Stay Together", Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer", "Cry Like A Baby" from the Box Tops, "Roll With It" from Steve Winwood, Wilson Pickett's "In The Midnight Hour", Presley's "In The Ghetto" and another Elvis classic we will feature shortly.

 

Jerry Butler, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff wrote this song, a #4 hit by Butler.  Elvis covered "Only The Strong Survive" for his comeback album.

 

The songwriting team of Dallas Frazier and Arthur Owens wrote "True Love Travels On A Gravel Road", a minor hit for Duane Dee but given credibility by the King.

Elvis played piano on "I'll Hold You In My Heart (Till I Can Hold You In My Arms)", a 1947 hit for Eddy Arnold.

However, Parker's ability to capitalize on the momentum was no more effective than at any other time in the '60's.   The success of "In The Ghetto" was followed by yet another soundtrack song from yet another movie (The Trouble with Girls).  "Clean Up Your Own Back Yard", also written by Davis along with Billy Strange, stalled at #35, but is among his best career songs.

Presley also wanted to go back to live performing, an instinct that proved right in his television special.  But Parker, when the London Palladium offered $28,000 for a one-week engagement, said "That's fine for me, now how much can you get for Elvis?"  One wonders how far Elvis would have gone with a manager who cared about him.

In July, Elvis returned to Las Vegas for his first regular live series of performances in 12 years.  On July 31, Presley took to the stage at the International Hotel to an audience of over 2,000 screaming fans.  

According to Priscilla Presley, The King was back on his throne and better than ever.  The style of the show was loose and spontaneous, much different from most Vegas shows which had a rigid format.  Elvis talked with the audience between sets, performed a wide range of musical styles, and wiped his forehead with handkerchiefs thrown onto the stage.

"He was like a tiger on stage that was unchained with this magnetism that drew everyone in," Priscilla said of her husband's performance.

The original four-week, 57-show residency turned into a Presley takeover of Vegas--Elvis continued to perform in that same showroom every February and August for an annual salary of $1 million until his last show on December 12, 1976.  The long-term residency set a new standard for future superstars in Las Vegas.

With Moore, Fontana and the Jordainaires opting out, Elvis had to find new backing musicians.  Guitarist James Burton came aboard for the Vegas shows as did the Gospel groups the Imperials and Sweet Inspirations.  

The Memphis sessions of 1969 also yielded what was to be Presley's final #1 song, written by Mark James, who first recorded and released the song in 1968.  James (who also later wrote "Always On My Mind") soon moved to Memphis to write music, which turned out to be good timing.  

When James' producer Don Crews learned that Elvis had booked time in the studio, he asked Mark if he had any songs that would be right for Elvis.  After seeing the success that came as a result of the "Comeback Special", James felt Elvis needed to go to a more mature way of singing and performing, and needed material that fit that style.  He and Don decided on this song as the perfect vehicle to announce Presley's return on the scene.

But it almost didn't happen.  James happened to also be one of the principal writers for Chips Moman.  Moman loved the song but refused to give up the publishing rights and Colonel Parker's representative, Tom Diskin, said that in that case the song would not be recorded (sound familiar?)

It was only Elvis' interference that led to his recording a song which, with its mature message and vocal mastery, would define the latter stages of his career.  "I played him Mark's [record label] Scepter record, and he was crazy about it," Moman told The Wall Street Journal.  "He wanted to hear the song over and over again, and learned it on the spot."

Presley recorded "Suspicious Minds" in eight takes on January 23, 1969 between 4-7 a.m.  RCA producer Felton Jarvis recorded a horn overdub in Las Vegas, meant to portray Elvis' live performances in which both the singer and band faded out, then came roaring back to a wild audience reaction.  In a Las Vegas studio, Jarvis faded the song, looped it, and brought it back again.

"Suspicious Minds" roared to #1 in the U.S., Australia, Canada and New Zealand, #2 in the United Kingdom and Italy, #3 in Denmark, #4 in Sweden and #5 in Spain and was a Top 10 smash in virtually every country in the world.  It ranked as The #138 Song of the Rock Era* in 2016.

"Suspicious Minds" was Presley's first #1 in seven years, and would be his last.  Here is another hit taken from those Memphis sessions, and another written by Davis. Although Elvis did not write the song, he no doubt felt its emotion. His own father, Vernon, had become a widower when Gladys passed away in 1958.

 

Elvis certainly had several upbeat hits in his career, but his amazing talent also allowed him to deliver great heartbreakers.  Presley punctuates the sad lyrics of "Don't Cry Daddy" with heartfelt emotion that comes through his voice.  The song also landed in the Top 10 in most countries, including #2 in New Zealand, #5 in Canada and #6 in the U.S.

Elvis certainly was the King of Rock & Roll whose immense talent allowed him to knock Rockabilly, R&B, and Blues-influenced Rock songs out of the park in his early days while also being able to sing tender ballads as if they were his own.  But his star transcended musical genres in a way no one else in history has achieved.  Presley's deep religious background made him one of the most historically-important Gospel singers and in the last years of his career, he embraced Country music.  And Country music embraced him.

An aspiring Country singer/songwriter wrote this song for Elvis, and another Country performer without a hit to his name played piano on the track.  Both went on to become big stars.  

The singer/songwriter was an unknown named Eddie Rabbitt, who wrote the song with Dick Heard.  Rabbitt worked at Hill and Range Publishers, and he nearly earned a recording contract when a major producer heard the song and told Eddie to record it.  Before that happened, though, Lamar Fike, who also worked at the publishing company and was a good friend of Elvis, heard the demo and brought it to Elvis.  

"He took the song to Elvis and Elvis wanted to record it as the A side of his new single," Rabbitt said in a 1987 interview.  "I said, 'That's great and not so great.'"  Eddie relented, and ultimately realized it was a good move for his career.  "I thought if this is the only hit song I ever write, then it is better that Elvis does it because he's the King."

The piano player would later enjoy big success with songs like "It Was Almost Like A Song", "Smoky Mountain Rain" and "(There's) No Gettin' Over Me", but at the time he entered the studio, didn't have a hit to his name.  Ronnie Milsap explained in an interview with Goldmine Magazine how it was that he came to play piano on this song:

            It came about because there was no one 

            else to play piano.  There was nobody 

            else there at American Studios that night

            to do it.  Chips Moman, who was running

            that studio and producing the Elvis 

            sessions said, "Ronnie Milsap's here in the

            building, bring him in."

            I played on that record and sang on that

            record, too.  I played grand piano on

            "Kentucky Rain"  while Elvis was cutting

            his vocal live.  (Elvis would say "More

            thunder on that piano, Milsap!", Ronnie

            recalled.)  His producer Felton Jarvis 

            was excited about it and he was

            partnering with Chips Moman who ran

            American Studios down in Memphis.  

Although it reached #3 on the Easy Listening chart and #6 in Canada, its #16 peak overall in the U.S. makes "Kentucky Rain" another of The Top Unknown/Underrated Songs of the Rock Era*.

Presley released the double album From Memphis to Vegas/From Vegas to Memphis, which included live shows at the International on the first disc and unreleased songs from the American Sound sessions on the second.  The first disc, titled In Person from the International Hotel, includes an extended version of "Suspicious Minds".

 

 

The second disc is titled Back In Memphis and contains 10 songs recorded in the 1969 American Sound session that were not used for the From Elvis In Memphis album.  Still,  "Stranger In My Own Home Town" contains the same energy and intensity that exudes from the previous album.  It starts with a deep Soul groove and doesn't let up when Elvis sings.  From Memphis to Vegas/From Vegas to Memphis has been certified Gold.

One step away from The #1 Artist of the Rock Era*, but still much more from Elvis!