Elvis Presley - The Albums and Singles Thread pt3 The Seventies

Yes indeed, I just read that quote as well before making my post. The funny thing is that Elvis was also not very found of Blue Christmas either and had to be cajoled into doing his hit version in three quick takes of that country standard, if I am remembering it correctly, yet that version went on to become an iconic classic. Sinatra loathed Strangers In The Night, his very last solo number one song on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and grew to hate performing My Way. He also avoided singing it live for long stretches of time. If I could count the times a great artist did not like one of their own songs, and I could get paid for it every time it happened, I would be a rich man by now. I am not crazy about Elvis's version of Winter Wonderland, but he does give it a little different spin with his country/rock/swing take on it.

 

I think the difference is that no one could tell from listening to them that Elvis or Sinatra weren't fond of "Blue Christmas" or "My Way," whereas the vocals in "Winter Wonderland" are DOA and reek of contemptuous boredom. The arrangement is a change from the standard one but not different enough to rescue this production. As Phil Spector and company demonstrated, the really familiar Christmas songs often have to be turned inside-out to get something fresh out of them.

 

I get cannot say that I disagree with you greater point here about what ultimately makes for a great remake of a Christmas standard. I also think that Winter Wonderland is one of my least favorite cuts on the whole album, but I still find it worth an occasional listen. I think it is the sheer variety of music styles that @czeskleba spoke of in this fine post that make TWWOC even better than the sum of its individual parts. It really does cover a lot of diverse ground on it, from country, pop, and MOR standards, to blues and even a little soul thrown into the mix.

 

I never get tired of hearing those patented Elvis-style breakdowns at the ends of songs, so I enjoy Winter Wonderland for that alone.

 

Yeah, I'm a sucker for those bluesy outros whenever he does them. In this case it's clearly tongue-in-cheek and pretty amusing added to this particular song and arrangement.

I agree he sounds unenthusiastic vocally, but I really like James' guitar work and I like the song itself enough to cut it some slack. It's kind of fun (to me anyway) to hear Elvis doing a semi-campy version of a Christmas favorite. Out of curiosity I went and listened to the FTD, and on there what he says is "I'm getting tired of this damn song." I wonder if he really also said he hated it, or if Ernst's comment is a paraphrase?

 

One other thing I wonder about... if Elvis hated Winter Wonderland, why did he record it? It's not a situation like the movie soundtracks where he was given songs he had to record, regardless of low quality. Winter Wonderland was a cover, not a song written for him that he owned publishing on. If he didn't like it, why not choose some other Christmas standard to cover that he did like? It's not like choices are limited in that department.

 

A lack of explicit contractual obligations didn't prevent Elvis from recording a fair amount of mediocre-to-bad music in the 70s--and the Christmas album was a sort of obligation: Jorgensen writes that "the Colonel and RCA talked a reluctant Elvis into a new Christmas session" earlier that year, because they thought a second Christmas album could outsell the first. And we've all seen how often Elvis resisted the Colonel!
The session shows that Elvis was more interested in recording folk than Christmas material--right after "Winter Wonderland" Elvis went into a long, impromptu version of "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright," and "after listening to a playback of Dylan's song Elvis had no interest in returning to work on the Christmas material," so the band recorded backing tracks instead. And even before Elvis said he hated "Winter Wonderland" he "had lost interest, breaking into old favorites."
Since Elvis had already recorded the other Christmas standards, it wouldn't have been so easy to find an equally famous substitute. So he gritted his teeth and sang the song to get it over with...just as he did in the 60s with those crummy soundtracks.

 

I don't understand this statement. There's dozens of Christmas standards that are equally as famous as Winter Wonderland.

 

Most of the really famous standards had either been covered by Elvis on his first Christmas album or were scheduled to be covered during the sessions for his second. I have a hard time thinking of "dozens" of other Christmas songs that weren't on those albums that are just as famous as "Winter Wonderland."
I've already noted that this album was something Elvis reluctantly agreed to and that his attention and heart weren't really in it. So he did some hack work to provide the sort of thing the Colonel and RCA wanted. It's obvious from Elvis's performance that he didn't care very much for "Winter Wonderland."

 

Here is a list compiled by Songdex of the most recorded Christmas songs in the world. Note that only two of the songs on this list that was compiled in 2017 were written after Elvis was no longer alive. Of course there are many more dozens of standards to choose from in additional to this list, but this gives you a good cross section of some of the possibilities that Elvis or Felton could have considered for his holiday album in 1971. Elvis had already covered six of them on his first Christmas album and would end up covering two more from it on The Wonderful World Of Christmas, but that still left about 20 of the worlds most popular Christmas carols to choose from on the list.

full list (as of November 30, 2017):

1. “Silent Night” (137,315)
2. “White Christmas” (128,276)
3. “Jingle Bells” (89,681)
4. “The Christmas Song” (80,064)
5. “Winter Wonderland” (70,471)
6. “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” (68,669)
7. “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” (65,377)
8. “Joy To The World” (59,767)
9. “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” (56,552)
10. “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” (54,446)
11. “Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer” (49,384)
12. “O Holy Night” (48,665)
13. “Silver Bells” (48,440)
14. “Blue Christmas” (42,375)
15. “The Little Drummer Boy” (37,150)
16. “Frosty The Snowman” (36,867)
17. “Here Comes Santa Claus” (34,907)
18. “Jingle Bell Rock” (32,247)
19. “Sleigh Ride” (29,148)
20. “I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm” (28,758)
21. “Baby It’s Cold Outside” (26,767)
22. “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” (25,112)
23. “It’s Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas” (23,900)
24. “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” (23,636)
25. “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” (22,102)
26. “O Little Town of Bethlehem” (20,307)
27. “Last Christmas” (17,806)
28. “My Favorite Things” (17,111)
29. “Do You Hear What I Hear” (14,410)
30. “All I Want For Christmas Is You” (13,419)

 

And "Winter Wonderland" is number 5 on that list--as I wrote earlier, I have a hard time thinking of "dozens" of other Christmas songs unrecorded by Elvis that are just as famous as "Winter Wonderland." I grant that there were other iconic Christmas songs Elvis could have turned to, but this presupposes that Elvis cared enough or was interested enough to go to the trouble of finding and recording a substitute to "Winter Wonderland" instead of just getting it over with and moving on to something he enjoyed more. As we know, after getting through with "Winter Wonderland" he blew off Christmas music and launched into another folk song.
It's likely that "Winter Wonderland" was something Felton and/or RCA put on the list of Christmas standards to be recorded, and Elvis, who had only reluctantly agreed record another Christmas album, went through with it to satisfy his producer and record company. What's the alternative--that Elvis actually liked the song (he could have fooled me with his bored performance) and that Jorgensen (who has heard the entire session, unlike anyone here) is guilty of nearly dishonest paraphrasing?

 

I personally would have liked to hear Elvis take a crack at O Holy Night on the reverential side of things and perhaps Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree or Jingle Bell Rock on the lighter rock 'n' roll side. The possibilities were almost endless, but I am sure glad he did that spontaneous version of Merry Christmas Baby as it is the true highlight of the album for me.

 

Jorgenson hasn't heard the entire session, since the reel that contained takes 1-6 of Winter Wonderland was erased. His source for the comments about Winter Wonderland is apparently Chris Arnold, who attended the session.

I don't think anyone here is suggesting that Elvis liked the song and that Jorgenson was mis-characterizing things. I was simply saying I wonder why Elvis recorded it if he didn't like it. It was sort of a rhetorical question, since the answer to "why did Elvis do this thing that doesn't make sense" is pretty much always "because someone told him to, and he didn't want to rock the boat." I guess rather than posing a question, I should have just said "It's too bad Elvis didn't find a song he liked better." I think Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas would have suited him at that stage of his career. Or Jimmy Butler's Trim Your Tree.

 

Yes, I was also thinking Elvis could have nailed Have Yourself A Merry Christmas a la Judy Garland's melancholy take on it. He might have even been able to give it a sort of bluesy treatment in the same way that he took the country standard I Really Don't Want To Know and completely transformed it into something totally original. I like the second pick as well as it definitely would have appealed to Elvis's naughty side with its great double entendre lyrics.

 

There's a lot of great R&B Christmas songs from the 40s-60s... it's too bad Elvis didn't do another one besides Merry Christmas Baby. Jackie Wilson's Christmas in Heaven is another one that would have worked out nice for him.

 

A very fine point you make there, Jason. I wish Elvis had done a whole album of these type of Christmas songs. How about Run, Run Rudolph as another possibility? Wow, you have found a gorgeous one totally off my radar, and I thought I was the king of Christmas! I just got Merry Christmas With Jackie Wilson this year and quite honestly, it was a slight disappointment, though plenty listenable, but that early one while he was part of Billy Ward and his Dominos, Christmas In Heaven, would have been just perfect for Elvis's first Christmas album, instead of those non-Christmas hymns they used to fill out the album. Great picks all around and thanks for introducing me to another great Christmas song.

 

Off topic: talking about great R&B Christmas tunes, here's my favorite.



About the first 4 songs of the 1971 Christmas LP:
O COME ALL YE FAITHFUL is a reverent, tasteful cover but still not very exciting to my ears. A tad too ceremonious to me, maybe. THE FIRST NOEL is a very christmasy track but Elvis' voice is awful here: he sounds like a very old man. There are some heavy issues with pitch control and vibrato and that totally distracts me. IMO, that one is the weakest recording of this album. On the other hand, I really dig ON A SNOWY CHRISTMAS NIGHT: despite of the fact that Elvis' voice is still not 100%, the whole thing flows very well, including the nice overdubs. A highlight and probably one of the best carols from that first side. WINTER WONDERLAND is just fun: nice sing-along cover with some great guitar work from Burton. Can't criticize those Elvis-Bluesy-Endings: I just love them all.

 

The Wonderful World Of Christmas
Written By :
Charles Tobias & Al Frisch

Recorded :
RCA's Studio B, Nashville, May 15-21, 1971: May 16, 1971

This isn't bad. It is very sentimental, and arranged in a MOR sort of way. Not a favourite, but it isn't terrible.

 

It Won't Seem Like Christmas (Without You)
Written By :
J. A. Balthrop

Recorded :
RCA's Studio B, Nashville, May 15-21, 1971: May 15, 1971. take 7

This track I really like. It has that nostalgic feel, but that is more for a time in music more than anything else.
This sounds like a country Christmas and I think it comes across well.
I think the bells at the start also work to give it a nice feel from the beginning.
I'm on board with this one.

 

Absolutely love this track. Not sure why, but it really resonates with me. I'd often sing this in my head traveling from home in California to the midwest to celebrate Christmas with family, with winter storms on the horizon and it being very questionable if I'd get there due to flight cancellations. Silly I know, but such is life.

And Elvis singing 'oh it won't seem like Christmas, oh, without you' (with that 2nd 'oh') is priceless. It's those little add-on phrasings he does every know and then that I just love.

 

Even better is the Jackie Wilson original version, from the b-side of Christmas in Heaven:

 

Yow. I've read that his drug abuse increased significantly in 1971, and if this picture is any indication that's really true. He looks terrible... puffy-faced and totally out of it. It's shocking and depressing how much he deteriorated in such a short time.