Elvis Presley - The Albums and Singles Thread pt3 The Seventies

I never liked I'm Leavin' all that much until I heard the Silver Box mix, which is absolutely lovely. The 70s box mix sounds off to me, and the song seems to drag; in contrast, the Silver Box version sparkles.

Beyond that, it's a fine song, and it's nice to hear Elvis do this sort of quiet, downtempo track, but it's often lauded as a masterpiece, and I don't think it quite reaches those heights. I agree with @PepiJean that there's something off about the performance; there's something missing, something that keeps it from moving me the way that, say, I Need Somebody To Lean On does.

 

I'm not sure if it's the same one that Mark posted, but I think the cassette version of the Silver Box had an artificially extended version of I'm Leavin' (and It's Only Love as well, IIRC). Perhaps that's the one in the video?

 

Yes, I think you are right. That rings a bell. Yes the mix on the Silver box CD is my go to version.

 

There are two, possibly three different stereo mixes of I'm Leavin' in existence.

The first was released on The Silver box and had added string overdubs compared to the mono 45 version.
I don't know if the same mix was used on the 70s box but they sound very much alike even though the one on the 70s box is clearer sounding. The same string overdubs are present and the version was also used on The Complete Masters box set.

When FTD released Elvis Now in 2010, it contained a new mix of the song which matches the mono mix. The strings during the first two verses were removed compared to the previous stereo mixes. The same mix was used on The Album Collection.

The mono mix is available as a bonus track on the Japanese reissue of Love Letters From Elvis from 2008, but the sound is very bright. Elvis Presley - Love Letters From Elvis

 

Yeah, I was really excited to get that 2008 Japan Love Letters due to the four single mixes it contains, but the sound quality leaves quite a bit to be desired due to the EQ emphasis of the high-end frequencies.

There's a few other titles in that series with the 45 mixes, including Something for Everybody (There's Always Me and Judy), and some with undubbed versions:

エルヴィス・プレスリー紙ジャケット・コレクション

 

I'm Leavin' is not one I listen to often, has not been a favorite. Will have to check out that Silver box version.
I do appreciate that Elvis wanted to record this somewhat different song and that he apparently worked hard on it. This song gives a gentle feeling and atmosphere over narrative. We don't learn much about the relationship or what went wrong to cause the leaving. I can enjoy it-happy we have it.

 

I have no idea. It said there was one, and I just figured that was interesting.

 

Too many La La Las to my taste. Otherwise, it is a nice song and well sung, in my opinion.

 

I agree 100% with I'VE GOT A THING ABOUT YOU BABY: this probably was his best single (despite a terrible B-Side) since BURNING LOVE: catchy, oozing confidence, combining Country and Soul for the first time in ages. Still, it stalled at #39 in the Pop charts (#4 in the C&W charts). What a disappointment it must have been for Elvis.

 

I am in total agreement with you on the greatness of those two songs and performances. They really are rather hidden gems as well, despite the fact that I'm Leavin' actually hit #2 on the Billboard Easy Listening chart, which was no small matter at the time. Since its foundation, that format, which later become known as the Adult Contemporary format, has always been one of the top two or three radio formats in the United States, but its success is often dismissed by rock enthusiasts. I'm Leavin' also hit a pretty respectable #23 on the British singles chart, so it was slightly more successful than some people give it credit for being at the time. Once again, a good song gets buried and not placed on a proper studio album at the time of its initial release. I believe it was considered one of the "lost" singles when RCA put it on the Silver box set in 1980, if I am remembering it correctly.

Elvis's voice does indeed show a haunting fragility as @mark winstanley so well points out in his fine post. I just love the dramatic change in tempo as that is a technique that I always find intriguing. Glen Spreen once again is back to do a stellar string arrangement, and I also dig Jerry Carrigan's "I ain't backing down for nobody" drumming that Peter Guralnick spoke about in his autobiography on Elvis. Just a terrific record and vocal all around to my ears.

 

Once again, Claus shows us his irreplaceable and unique knowledge on these various takes and mixes. I believe we would all be a little lost without his input on these matters.

 

And on a pedantic note: I'm Leavin' is track 11 on the Silver box disc 3, track 11 on the 70s box disc 1 and track 11 on Elvis Now in the Album Collection. Easy to remember, track 11 in all three cases.

Yes the '70s box is clearer than the Silver box. This is the first time I heard it on the Album Collection. I think now this version is my favorite. (I have not played much of the '70s albums from the Album Collection, not being much of a '70s fan. I think I did some spot checking for expected anomalies to see if they have been addressed on this box. But that's about it).

 

No kick back here Mark. I like both sides. I'm Leavin' is an unusual Elvis song in a good way. Both of these songs are in my Elvis playlists on my phone.

 

Like I Just Can’t Help Believing, Bridge Over Troubled Water, and the rest of the cream of the That’s The Way It Is material, I’m Leavin’ is a brilliant early 70s ballad that Elvis nails. You can dismiss it as adult contemporary, but that’s not a dirty word to me: I like the Carpenters and Olivia Newton-John and Gordon Lightfoot and all of the other masters of this genre.

No wonder Elvis got bored singing Hound Dog and Love Me Tender over and over, when material like this was vastly more in tune with the times, and with where Elvis’s own head was at in the early 70s. Elvis was still performing I’m Leavin’ in his live act as late as 1974, so he clearly liked the song.

 

From Jorgensen: Felton was determined to get back to contemporary material, though—material that could give them that much-needed hit. Michael Jarrett and Sonny Charles’s “I’m Leaving” seemed to offer Elvis the challenge he craved. “Phew, man, it’s tough,” he declared after one disorganized run-through. “But the thing is worth working on.” Elvis saw his confidence in the song echoed by the Imperials and pianist David Briggs, who thought it was a hit for sure.

Alas it wasn't but deserved to be. Elvis thought so too, since he brought the song back into his live act in 1973 (it'd been absent since Nov. '71) and kept it there until the middle of December 1975 (there was also a one-off performance in April '76).
I think "I'm Leavin'" is a very fine contemporary ballad that Elvis did not fully do justice to. Starting in 1971 a spark went out of his voice and only sporadically returned. This is the year Elvis started his initially slow decline, and it's subtly evident even in a very good material like "I'm Leavin'." I don't sense him giving his all to this song.

 

I think Elvis DID give his all, it is just that in 1971 his "all" was not as it once was.

 

Perhaps on a technical level, but on an emotional level, I have to disagree. I'd put Holly Leaves & Christmas Trees, Reach Out To Jesus, and the piano session up against anything he ever recorded.

 

I think both the Christmas and gospel albums from 1971 feature some of Elvis's best and most majestic vocal performances to my ears. Even the rough outtake of The Lord's Prayer demonstrates incredible vocal range and technique, and this was from a singer who was really just trying to warm up his voice a bit before taking a serious stab at one of the Christmas songs for his holiday album. I think Elvis vocals on An Evening Prayer and the alternate take of Amazing Grace are as good a vocal as Elvis ever sang. His voice had definitely lowered a tad and we all know the health issues that started to rear its ugly head, but when I concentrate on the mere sound of his voice and his voice alone, it still gives me chills in 1971.

 

I think I noted somewhere above in this very long thread that, for years, I didn’t give the 1971 Christmas album a chance because of its truly horrific Reader’s Digest cover art, but it really is a good album.

 

I think I'm Leaving' is generally overrated. It has a disjointed, somewhat odd arrangement. Elvis' inconsistent vocals from May '71 are on full display with a mostly thin, tired, awkward delivery. The melodic, somewhat melancholy introduction is intriguing but Elvis' vocals do not maintain command of the song, and Jarvis' subsequent schmaltzy, somewhat bombastic arrangement derails all the potential heard during the first minute or so of the track. The song has potential, but doesn't maintain it as the song progresses. No surprise that it did not resonate with a larger audience.

 

perhaps Elvis' audience just wasn't being tuned with what Elvis was trying to accomplish and the song is definitely not that radio-friendly, and I'm sure Elvis was disappointed with the results with it's commercial failure.

 

C'MON EVERYBODY (LP)
(US) RCA Camden CAL 2518
Released: July 1971



C'mon Everybody is a compilation album by American singer and musician Elvis Presley released by RCA Records on July 1, 1971.[2] The album was certified Gold on January 6, 2004 by the Recording Industry Association of America.[3]

All tracks from C'Mon Everybody originated from four of Elvis's films and were only released on soundtrack EP's prior to this issue. The remaining EP tracks from the same four movies were compiled into another budget RCA Camden album, I Got Lucky, released three months later.[4]

Side one
1. "C'mon Everybody" (from Viva Las Vegas) Joy Byers July 9, 1963 2:18
2. "Angel" (from Follow That Dream) Sid Tepper, Roy C. Bennett July 2, 1961 2:38
3. "Easy Come, Easy Go" (from Easy Come, Easy Go) Ben Weisman, Sid Wayne September 28, 1966 2:10
4. "A Whistling Tune" (from Kid Galahad) Sherman Edwards, Hal David October 26, 1961 2:38
5. "Follow That Dream" (from Follow That Dream) Fred Wise, Ben Weisman July 2, 1961 1:3

Side two
1. "King Of The Whole Wide World" (fromKid Galahad) Ruth Batchelor, Bob Roberts October 27, 1961 2:07
2. "I'll Take Love" (from Easy Come, Easy Go) Dolores Fuller, Mark Barkan September 28, 1966 2:13
3. "Today, Tomorrow And Forever" (fromViva Las Vegas) Mack David, Sherman Edwards July 2, 1961 3:25
4. "I'm Not The Marrying Kind" (from Follow That Dream) Ben Weisman, Fred Wise October 27, 1961 1:50
5. "This Is Living" (from Kid Galahad) Bill Giant, Bernie Baum, Florence Kaye July 11, 1963 1:43
--------------------------------------------------------------
This album, and particularly when it was released, is just kind of weird. It is a good collection of songs, and we have already been through them all.
It seems like and album of essentially early sixties songs released in the early seventies just seems somewhat confusing. On one hand you can instantly hear how different Elvis' musical style was between the two eras, and on the other you can hear how different the production and arrangement is different between the two eras. I don't dislike it, but as I say, it just seems a little weird.
I am very interested to hear from those who were around at the time of release about their knowledge of how well known was it, about what was going on with the releases and how surprising was it to get a new album that was all quite old material? Was this release schedule confusing fans, in the ages before mass online media information.

For an album like this, I'm interested in everyone's opinions obviously, but please, if you were around at the time of release, please let us know all the feelings, and circumstances etc of what the general feeling was about this kind of release. I know we have talked about the Camden releases and the agenda of releasing songs hat never made it onto LP's, but the further we get from the recording date, the stranger it seems.

Anyway,
Fill us in on the details guys.

Cheers
Mark

 

Sorry about my typing ... I didn't get back in time to fix it.

 

I'm too young to comment on what this one was perceived as at the time of its release but I did get it a few years later. IMO, what's not to like about this one - C'mon Everybody, A Whistling Tune, Follow That Dream, King of The Whole Wide World are top-tier tracks, and I'll Take Love, I'm Not The Marrying Kind and This Is Living are all very good. Considering these weren't available elsewhere on LP at the time, and that the album was probably priced around $2.50, I think it's a decent LP.

Even I knew at a young age that these tracks weren't current Elvis tunes as I recognized them from the movies. So I don't think there's anything wrong there - Elvis had been around for 17 years as a recording artist at this point, and I don't think anyone expected his label to ignore that history. That said, I find the cover pic bizarre. An in-concert pic of Elvis from 1970? C'mon.... everybody.