Elvis Presley - The Albums and Singles Thread pt3 The Seventies

I feel pretty much the same way that Mark does about this lesser effort by English songwriters Less Reed and Barry Mason. Les Reed had written some pretty good songs for Englebert Humperdinck over the years and it might have been interesting to hear Elvis give a shot at his much better ballad, The Last Waltz, which This Is Our Dance seems like a cheap ripoff of to my ears. Songwriters do repeat their own success often as Barry Mann and Cythia Well honestly felt they did when they wrote (You're My) Soul And Inspiration, whose melody and song structure strongly remembers their previous blockbuster hit for the Righteous Brothers, You've Lost That Loving Feeling.

 

This is Our Dance -yes pleasant, not really outstanding. But, what I like about it is that it is an adult song seemingly about a loving marriage. A happy contrast to a song like I've Lost You or Separate Ways.

 

I would have added these to my list too but was stick with 1968 as the end date:

Rubberneckin'
Change of Habit
Let Us Pray

 

This Is Our Dance is bland enough that I shouldn't feel one way or another about it, but for whatever reason, I actively dislike it. For all the tenderness in the lyrics, the recording is somehow utterly joyless.

(For the record, I feel the same way about The Last Waltz.)

 

How about Tom Jones's Delila? The same songwriting team of Reed and Mason wrote that one as well. At least we could have heard Elvis go for those big notes, and it had some of the melodrama in it that Elvis could sometimes be drawn to from time to time. Elvis might not of liked the fact that he would be placed as the murderer in the song though.

 

As far as I know, Elvis never sang any murder ballads. But I would have paid good money for Elvis album full of them.

 

I do love that song, and I bet Elvis would have done a great job with it. I'd also have liked to hear him take on Letter To Lucille (why do so many of Tom Jones' best songs feature him as a murderer/criminal?). Now those songs would definitely add a wrinkle to the "Love Letters From Elvis" concept!

 

There's always Green, Green Grass Of Home, and Frankie & Johnny sort of qualifies.

Speaking of murder ballads, it's a shame that Elvis never covered ONJ's arrangement of Banks Of The Ohio. It had the deep bass vocals that he loved, and again, I can imagine his version being quite wonderful.

 

Did he ever do Tom Dooley?

 

I've never heard or seen a version

 

Oh man, that would have been a great pick and definitely in my top five Olivia Newton-John songs ever. Yeah, that bass backing vocal would have driven Elvis nuts in a good way. He might have never taken it our of his 70's concert setlist, once he put it in there, probably to the chagrin of many of his fans on this thread, hypothetically speaking of course.

 

We don't know the crime for which the protagonist of Green Green Grass is being executed, so it doesn't really qualify. I think the classic definition of a murder ballad requires that the song be from the POV of the murderer, and that he describe committing the murder in the song.

I dont think I would have enjoyed hearing Elvis do a murder ballad. Like Sinatra, Elvis tended to chose songs that reflected a certain persona and a certain consistent sensibility. Elvis was at his best in the role of guy who was deeply in love, or the guy whose heart had been broken. I don't really enjoy the rare songs where he sings from the perspective of a jerk who's breaking someone's heart, and in like manner I dont think the role of killer would fit him. Which is not to say I don't love the genre of murder ballads in the hands of other singers, like Johnny Paycheck or Johnny Cash. I just don't think it's right for Elvis.

 

This Is Our Dance should have been left in the vaults. A real stinker.

 

"This Is Our Dance" is a nice waltz a la Engelbert, to me.

 

Randomly a guy in my office who is under 25 and has fast become a good mate told me the other day that Heart Of Rome is his favourite Elvis track. It actually floored me, although that might have been the beer.

 

This Is Our Dance sounds like a song you’d have heard on The Lawrence Welk Show, but despite that I like it.

 

This Is Our Dance is my least favorite song on the album. Doesn't do a thing for me but nice to read others like it.

 

I was thinking of recording date vs release date.

 

This Is Our Dance is even worse than The Heart Of Rome and not quite as bad as Life.

 

Well, either way those songs all date from 1969 (recording)/70 (release).

 

Johnny doesn't die in Elvis' version of the song... At best, it's an attempted murder ballad.

 

The Lawrence Well Show could be quite entertaining. You just know that there was a 23 year old television musical director laughing his you know what off with actually getting this gem on air!

 

He hints at the possibility in "Baby Let's Play House".

 

Cindy Cindy
Written By :
Buddy Kaye, Ben Weisman & Dolores Fuller

Recorded :
RCA's Studio B, Nashville, June 4-9, 1970: June 4, 1970. take 3

The is a very good rock and roll song. We have a good arrangement and Elvis vocal is excellent ... I have one slight problem with the song that has nothing to do with the song or Elvis ... Cindy is my ex-wife, and coming on home is not what comes to mind, and it makes the song a distraction.