Elvis Presley - The Albums and Singles Thread pt2 The Sixties

Its funny because Down In The Alley is slightly overrated to me as well for all the various reasons you list. I just played the much heralded Nevada Nights live version of Down In The Alley and the arrangement is ten times better in my opinion. I truly wish there had been a professional multitrack recording of the concert. I absolutely dig Glen Hardin's fantastic bluesy/honky tonk piano intro, and its pretty cool to hear the single saxophone accompaniment on a live Elvis song during the first half, followed later in the song by the full brass section. I think this version blows the Nashville cut out of the water.

 

Well that can only be a good thing.
I bought the guitar man, so high and memphis Tennessee FTD's ti put these sorts of songs in a more suitable setting for me .... but i need to give those purchases a rest for a while. It has burdened the finances doing this thred lol

 

I pulled the original 45 of Spinout out of the record collection this morning, and the original mono single mix makes me appreciate the song even more. There has been some discussion in this thread about how, circa Harum Scarum, RCA, perhaps at the direction of Col. Parker, pushed Elvis’s voice too high in the mix and pushed the band too low. On the Spinout 45, though, you get some real low end on the bass and drums, and the reverbed guitar is also prominent in the mix. It’s an exciting track in mono, comparable to contemporary Motown 45s where the low end jumps out of the grooves. With all of the great Elvis reissues we’ve gotten from RCA and FTD, it’s surprising they haven’t jumped on the “mono box” trend we’ve seen from the Beatles, Stones, Kinks, and Dylan , and given us an Elvis mono box, or even more focus on the original mono mixes on the appropriate FTD releases. Obviously, with the exception of the “Stereo ‘57” experimental binaural recordings, Elvis’s 50s catalog is predominantly in mono, but I think a box of Elvis’s 60s mono mixes and original 45 mixes would do quite well with the Elvis collector market.

 

Good call

 

First true Blues recording from our man since I Feel So Bad, something like ages earlier, and it makes you feel good.
Elvis sounds so committed compared to the rest of the soundtrack tunes that it seems like you're listening to a different vocalist.
Wonderful recording that brought back some faith.

 

Sorry to return to Elvis Is Back!... RCA was considering to release EIB! as a double album with a full promotional blitz to begin the new decade, with Elvis' first album in Living Stereo, but Col. Parker Elvis' manager, didn't want a double album. I think not releasing a double album was missed opportunities in several ways, in lost sales and for Elvis to pursue "I Feel So Bad" type of songs. Also, with a much higher success of EIB!, it probably would have affected the G.I. Blues album sales, which would've been a good thing in the long run.

 

I went back and listened, and I agree that 1974 live arrangement is far superior, especially (as you say) the piano. Wish we had a studio recording of 1966 Elvis singing that arrangement.

 

Yeah, it's weird that FTD has not pursued this idea yet. Seems like a no-brainer. There's enough dedicated mono mixes that have never had digital release to make this a very appealing idea for collectors.

 

They included the contemporary mono single mixes on the Legacy Edition of From Elvis In Memphis. That’s the only release I can think of right now where Sony has included mono mixes on an Elvis release from the stereo era.

 

In retrospect it seems very foolish to burn off the songs as bonus tracks on soundtracks. I guess I can kind of understand why they did it at the time, though. Elvis recorded nine secular songs during the May/June 1966 HGTA sessions. One of them was a Christmas single, so that leaves eight songs. Not enough for an album, particularly after two of them were used for a single release. The eight songs were all excellent performances, but they also were all covers (ie, there were not any original, unreleased songs in there). And again, despite their excellence there was nothing among them that was really hit single material or likely to set the world on fire. At the time, RCA had no idea if/when Elvis would record additional non-soundtrack material (and indeed, it proved to be sixteen months before he did). If they'd known the Guitar Man sessions would be coming in 16 months, it might have made sense to sit on these eight tracks and combine the two sessions into one great album. But they didn't know that was going to happen. Obviously, if someone had been steering the ship and had worked on getting Elvis a few quality original songs to record, as well as pushed him to record enough songs to complete an album in 1966, and it would have been another story. But that didn't happen.

 

The CD of 50 Worldwide Gold Award Hits has a few 60s tracks in mono, but I'm not sure how many are dedicated as opposed to fold downs. Anyway, it's a horrible mishmash with mixes seemingly arbitrarily chosen and source quality varying widely.

One thing I've not been able to find online is a complete list of Elvis' dedicated mono mixes, and where they've appeared. Does anyone know if such a thing exists?

 

What's your source for this claim? I've never heard that before, and I'm skeptical it's true. Elvis did not record enough material to fill a double album at the EIB sessions. And at that point, I can't think of any rock or pop artist who'd released a double album of new material.

 

I don’t know of such a resource. I do know that late mono albums such as Clambake and Elvis’s Golden Records, Vol. 4 command big bucks on the collectors’ market. Whether that’s because of completism or because those mono mixes sound different or better, I don’t know. I do think the Spinout 45 sounds good, but don’t know if it’s dedicated or a fold-down.

Ironically, I think some of Elvis’s early 60s singles were released in experimental stereo or “stereo 33” versions that bucked the mono-only policy of singles of the period, and those records also command big bucks.

 

And even if it is true (but I too have never heard this), The Colonel was probably right. It didn’t sell well relatively speaking as-is, and if it were a double it would have sold even less.

 

Perhaps if they had dressed it up with those singles it would have been the start of the album era a few years earlier?

 

Well, even with the singles there's only 18 songs. What would you put on side four?

 

At this stage 5 a side would probably have been acceptable... especially with the big bold living stereo sales pitch.
There were a couple of unreleased tracks .... and if it was really on his agenda, he could have recorded some more tracks...
Not saying it was an actual thing, just that it would have certainly been possible, and i guess it would also have qualified as his two albums for the year ...
At the end of the day i am still scratching my head as to why Elvis Is Back only seems revered by Elvis fans and not the general music community.

 

Back in the day of record conventions, I'd go to a convention in San Mateo CA where I met two guys that worked at RCA's Art Dept. They had artwork files from Elvis' albums and EIB! was one of them. The files had artwork drafts, meeting notes and production cards. RCA didn't want to use anymore army photos since they used them on the "A Date With Elvis" album, but Parker wanted them. They had a production card that had "not to be released" written diagonally across the card and they said, it was for the double album.

The other Elvis files that might be of interest was "Elvis' Gold Records, Volume 2" which had a black background draft that was rejected, and "It Happened At The World's Fair" to be released in the LOC format, which was the same format used for Elvis' Christmas Album LOC-1035 in '57, but was eventually rejected.

 

I agree, it would've been possible if Parker wanted it, even if Elvis had to return to Studio B to record more songs.

Parker's interest was getting started on the G.I. Blues project with Wallis and doubt, he cared to do anymore than was necessary to promote EIB! album. Who's knows what might have happened to the G.I. Blues project, if EIB! was much more successful.

 

I really like this. It has that Roy Orbison "Candy Man" sound and I love that song. Elvis nailed it again with "High Heeled Sneakers" in Memphis!

 

He recorded High Heel Sneakers in Nashville.

 

Two things are almost criminal IMO. One is how a big outfit like RCA records could have been so careless with Elvis' master tapes (mono, stereo, and electronically reprocessed stereo tapes) as to loose and misplace so much without safety copies.
Two is how RCA or FTD hasn't followed EMI's example with The Beatles box set albums/singles and released tracks for the fans in each variant with the masters that remain. I'm not a completist with many artists but Elvis and The Beatles are the exceptions.

 

My mistake. Thanks Skatterbrane.

 

On November 8, 1966 RCA continued with re-releasing singles, that had previously been released, as part of their "Gold Standard Series".

(US) RCA 447-0653 (45rpm) Easy Question / It Feels So Right
(US) RCA 447-0654 (45rpm) I'm Yours / Long Lonely Highway

 

If Every Day Was Like Christmas


Written By :
Red West

Recorded :
RCA's Studio B, Nashville, June 10-12, 1966: June 12, 1966. take 2

"If Every Day Was Like Christmas" is a 1966 Christmas song by Elvis Presley released as a single and featured on his 1970 Camden Elvis' Christmas Album.

The song was released on November 15, 1966 as an RCA Victor 45 single, 47-8950, backed with "How Would You Like To Be" from the movie It Happened at the World's Fair.[1][2] The track was recorded on June 10, 1966 at RCA Studio B in Nashville. Elvis Presley's lead vocals were added on June 12. Background vocals were provided by Millie Kirkham, The Jordanaires, and The Imperials Quartet on backing vocals. The song was written by Red West.

The song was included on the 1970 RCA Camden reissue of Elvis' Christmas Album collection, which was re-released by Pickwick Records in 1975 and by RCA in 1985. The album was certified Diamond by the RIAA in 2011 with sales of over 10 million copies.

• Guitar: Harold Bradley, Scotty Moore, Chip Young.
• Bass: Bob Moore.
• Drums: D.J. Fontana.
• Drums & Timpani: Buddy Harman.
• Piano: David Briggs.
• Organ: Henry Slaughter.
• Steel Guitar: Pete Drake.
• Saxophone: Rufus Long.
• Backing Vocals: Millie Kirkham, June Page, Dolores Edgin, The Jordanaires, The Imperials

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To close out 1966 we have a Christmas single that appeared an an album a few years later. The b-side as the previously released How Would You Like To Be from the Happened At The World's Fair soundtrack.
This is a really nice Christmas song. We have a beautiful melody and a full Elvis vocal. I find it so bizarre how poorly many of the soundtrack albums were recorded and produced .... and then we get the songs that were recorded for something other than a soundtrack sounding so good ... it doesn't really make sense to me. It's like they just threw the soundtracks out the door. I suppose to some degree they realised that they weren't of the same standard, but that would beg the question, why do them anyhow, if they are so worthless ... Anyway, between the record company and Elvis' management, it's a wonder he had a career at all.