Elvis Presley - The Albums and Singles Thread pt3 The Seventies

As a quadruple LP, was 50 Worldwide Gold Hits the first example of a rock catalog box set? Right around this time, the industry seemed to grasp that “the kids” would pay for a slightly more deluxe product: you had the box set of the Supremes’ farewell concert, as well as All Things Must Pass, the first rock triple album package. But both of those featured new material. What did 50 Worldwide Gold Hits list for on release? Was it twice as expensive as a normal LP? Whatever it sold for, it must have been pure profit for RCA, as the recording costs were long since paid for.

 

Thanks Skatter for posting that article as it helps to explain what I long suspected from having a family that owned a top 40 radio station in the late 50's. Here is one of the quotes from the article that really tells you a lot:

"Since the two publications used different criteria for compiling their pop singles charts, they present slightly different versions of the chart history of Elvis Presley’s single releases. The Cash Box chart, based solely on record sales, provides a more objective record than Billboard’s, which depended on the subjective reports provided by disc jockeys around the country."

 

It was more in the neighborhood of FOUR times the price of a normal LP. It was also a "side deal" that the Colonel had with RCA affording him a 50/50 split with Elvis (like the Camden deal did).

 

I could have sworn I got my copy soon after release, and it was in two separate jewel cases with both discs having the gold hue. I still have my copy. Do you know when they would have switched from the double case to the two single cases?

 

Aha, my plan worked. I wasn't sure if it was released on an album and I was too lazy to research it this morning. So I just went ahead and said that it wasn't, knowing that if I was wrong someone here would immediately correct me. Thanks!

 

I really like both sides of this single too. I'm not always a fan of Elvis' forays into adult contemporary/EZ listening, but both these tracks (and the upcoming album) are consistently solid.

I suspect the poor chart placement was in part due to the whole "too many singles" thing. This single came out just three months after The Wonder Of You.

 

I've Lost You
Written By :
Alan Blaikley & Ken Howard

Recorded :
RCA's Studio B, Nashville, June 4-9, 1970: June 4, 1970. take 7

As I messed up and this is a different version, here is the studio version.
I really like the song, but I think I prefer the live version.

 

As we’ve discussed, Elvis’s release schedule and work schedule during 1969 and 1970 was insane. Someone above suggested that Elvis was lazy, but he worked hard during this period, and, as you note, perhaps recorded and put out more material than the market could bear.

 

I can't agree more. A Ftd edition would be a dream come true and the best place to present the Mono Masters.

 

Ha ha. Great ploy!!

 

There is a difference between lazy and complacent. I don't think Elvis was ever lazy but bored, complacent even ambivalent many times.

 

My "go to" version of I've Lost You is on the Heart And Soul without any edits on the fade out. The single mono version and the official stereo version each have their unique edits on the fade out.

 

I really dig both the studio and live versions of I've Lost You, but I guess I give the edge to the former on this one. I really love the live version on Elvis That's The Way It Is that they foolishly edited out of the Special Edition version, which is my favorite concert video on Elvis. I also hate that they took out Elvis's spectacular versions of I Just Can't Help Believin' and Bridge Over Troubled Water, but it least we have those songs in the original cut of the film, albeit without the great remaster or re-edited footage. Why we cannot get all that bonus footage of these spectacular shows in a remastered and deluxe version is still a mystery to me.

Now for my rant on legendary Nashville conductor/arranger Bergen White, who is one of the most prolific and gifted arrangers to ever work with Elvis. Besides his highly regarded work with Elvis during the 1970's and with so many other iconic recording acts in country music for the last 50 years, Mr. White's most heard or revered arrangements are probably his gorgeous string arrangement on Lee Greenwood's patriotic anthem, God Bless The USA or the stellar 90 piece orchestral arrangement he did on Garth Brooks Super Bowl rendition of The Star Spangled Banner in 1993. His music credits are way too long to list here, but trust the fact that when Elvis first heard Tony Joe White's hit version of Polk Salad Annie, with those funky sounding horns on it, he himself told producer Felton Jarvis to "Get the guy who arranged Tony Joe's version."

Bergen White is a rather modest fellow and originally from Oklahoma, but his favorite music was actually more in the pop direction, but he always said he had a "little bit of country in me." The first hit record that he got a lot of attention for as the arranger was his soulful horn arrangement on Joe Simon's hit single The Chokin' Kind. Bergen had already arranged several Elvis records when he got the call to come into an actual recording session with Elvis, but this was to fill in for one of the Jordanaires, who was missing in action so to speak. Here is the great story told by Bergen himself in the liner notes from his own fine MOR classic album, 1970's Bergen White/For Woman Only:

The first session I ever did with Elvis was in RCA Studio B; its a museum now. David Briggs, the keyboard player was standing over at the piano with Elvis. When I came into the room, David hollered to me, 'Come over, I want you to meet Elvis.' So I walked over and he said, 'Elvis, this is Bergen White. He did your arrangements on "Polk Salad Annie" and "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me" and "Bridge Over Troubled Water," and I swear to you, Elvis looked at me and he shook my hand, and he says, 'Well-uh-thank-you-very-much.' He said that very thing that everybody says to imitate Elvis: 'Thank-you-very-much.' And I was, like, 'Well, yeah, it's perfect.' He (Elvis) was standing against the wall of the studio, and he actually looked like he glowed. I know that sounds like a ridiculous remark. But he was so good looking; he was just ridiculous looking...

According to Bergen, he was the first---and only---arranger to receive label credit on an Elvis Presley 45. As Bergen explains: "I'd known Mary Jarvis, who was Felton Jarvis's wife, since I'd first gotten in the business. She worked at RCA. I'd already done 'Polk Salad Annie' and the first single that came out that I had done, 'You Don't Have To Say You Love Me.' I mentioned, 'Boy, it'd be great to get credit,' and she said, 'Well, I'll say something to Felton about it.' Well, the next thing I knew, this RCA record came out, single, 45, and you know how Elvis's name was real big there under the hole, and right under 'Elvis' it said 'Arranged and Conducted by Bergen White.' Well, man, my arranging career just kabam! Just took off. And for that single and the next one and the next one, I was on either the front or back side of 'em.

"Then Mary Jarvis called me to say she was sorry, but she said, ' Colonel Parker saw one of these singles and saw the arrangers name on it, and it made him very angry, and he called RCA to stop it, because no arrangers name has ever been on these Elvis records.' He didn't want anybody's name on there except Elvis. So it stopped. We got credit on the albums, but there wasn't suppose to be anybody's name on the single except Elvis. Not even the producer's name. For my name to have gotten on there, it was just happenstance. I asked for it and they gave it to me before they realized it wasn't suppose to be on there. But my arranging thing just took off. Plus the fact that I had a couple of other things that were hits in '69 or '70, so I was on my way.

 

As a live performer, I would argue that Elvis became lazy as the 1970’s progressed.

 

My favorite version as well and Heart and Soul also has the definitive version of Bridge Over Troubled Water, without that phony and totally unwanted dubbed live applause.

 

My favourite I Lost You is on the Essential Elvis with slightly different words.

 

Same here. Bought mine in Fort Worth, early 90's.

 

Count me three! Always enjoyed "The Next Step is Love"--it would probably never make any of my favorite songs list per se but every time it comes on I'm generally pleased by it. It's a harmless song that isn't out to change the world but it works fine as it is. I think it's also performed well by the band.

 

Yes, that is a different take than the master.

 

It's one of the few times (since GI Blues) Elvis took an almost completely different tack when recording a song. Usually his mind was like a steel trap when it came to arrangements.

 

Listened to a chunk of the big That’s The Way It Is box tonight: I would say it’s not quite as good as On Stage, but by the slimmest of margins. I forgot how much I do like some of the very-much-of-its-era material such as Twenty Days and Twenty Nights.

 

Here is the mono version.


The mono mix is avalable in the That's The Way It Is Delexe and Legacy Editions.

There are three different stereo mixes, even though the song was first released in stereo in 1995.
The first mix was released on Heart And Soul and is possibly complete even though the there are a couple of outtakes that are even longer.

The most common mix is the one that was released on the 70's box. Mark posted this mix in post #557. It matches the lenght of the single mix but the version is clearly edited differently. It was used on the That's The Way It Is FTD and the Complete Masters box set.

The version included in the Album Collection matches the mono version. The mix is only available in the box.

 

I am truly awestruck by the expertise of the people in these Elvis threads. I came to enjoy the music originally but I never leave these threads without a little more Elvis knowledge and sources to find the best/various mixes. Sony or FTD would be well served if they had y'all as consultants for future projects.

 

Elvis Christmas Album


(US) RCA Camden CAL 2428
Released: August 1970

The original Elvis' Christmas Album was out of print by the late 1960s. Interest in the album prompted RCA to reissue it in a revised version on its budget label RCA Camden in November, 1970. This version replaced the four gospel tracks from the Peace in the Valley EP with the 1966 holiday single "If Every Day Was Like Christmas," along with the 1970 non-seasonal B-side "Mama Liked the Roses", issued as the flip to Elvis's top ten single "The Wonder of You" and originating from Presley's acclaimed 1969 Memphis sessions; neither track had been available on LP format previously. With ten tracks and a shorter running time, it fit the standard for budget label issues at the time. The religious and secular Christmas songs were also mixed. The initial cover of this revised version echoed that of the 1958 reissue, except a more recent photograph with Elvis wearing a blue racing jacket with two white stripes on the left was used from the set of the 1967 movie Speedway. The album was also released in the UK with an album cover that featured Elvis's face from the 1970 Camden release in a circle in the middle surrounded in white with the title and the song selections in red. The four Peace in the Valley tracks were reissued on RCA Camden the next year on the budget compilation You'll Never Walk Alone.

side one
1. "Blue Christmas" Hayes, Johnson
September 5, 1957 2:07
2. "Silent Night" Mohr, Gruber, Presley[a]
September 6, 1957 2:23
3. "White Christmas" Berlin September 6, 1957 2:23
4. "Santa Claus Is Back in Town" Leiber, Stoller
September 7, 1957 2:22
5. "I'll Be Home for Christmas" Gannon, Kent, Ram
September 7, 1957 1:53
side two
1. "If Every Day Was Like Christmas" Red West June 10, 1966 at RCA Studio B 2:42
2. "Here Comes Santa Claus" Autry, Haldeman
September 6, 1957 1:54
3. "O Little Town of Bethlehem" Brooks, Redner, Presley[a]
September 7, 1957 2:35
4. "Santa, Bring My Baby Back (to Me)" Schroeder, Demetrius
September 7, 1957 1:54
5. "Mama Liked the Roses" John Christopher April 20, 1970 at American Studios 2:47

-------------------------------
This is a strange one. It is essentially a reissue of the Elvis Christmas Album, from the fifties on the Camden label, but with some songs changed. There is nothing wrong with that I guess, and it's nice to see If Every Day Was Like Christmas get on an album, but to me it is weird to close the album With Mama Liked The Roses. I guess it also needed to find an album to be on, but it isn't a very Christmassy song.

 

The Fifties Easy Reference guide
Elvis Presley the Albums and Singles Thread *

1959 - Feb 10 1964 - Reference guide -
Elvis Presley - The Albums and Singles Thread pt2 The Sixties

April 1964 - Sept 1967
Elvis Presley - The Albums and Singles Thread pt2 The Sixties

October 1967 - December 1969
Elvis Presley - The Albums and Singles Thread pt2 The Sixties