Previous Page He had of course already dabbled in the genre a time or two in the sixties, and numerous home recordings show how much Elvis enjoyed it, but had never fully committed himself to it in the studio before. The recent music of Peter, Paul and Mary and the continued work of Bob Dylan had motivated him to devote more attention to folk music in the studio. In the aborted March session, he only recorded four songs, but three of them were clearly inspired by the folk music craze. “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” was a 1957 duet by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, but it was the Roberta Flack version that inspired Elvis, and which his cut is clearly based on, albeit with a more moderate tempo. Flack ended up winning a Grammy for the song and Rolling Stone declared it the song of the year in 1972, leading to multiple covers. Elvis gave it as much as he could under the circumstances, but he just wasn’t able to rise to the occasion the way others could. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content “That’s What You Get for Loving Me” was one of two Gordon Lightfoot numbers he tried in March. The Canadian singer/song-writer was quickly being recognized as one of the best folk artists around at the time. His version of the song featured a much simpler, more “folksy” arrangement. Elvis’s version however was much more robust. Despite the singer’s desire to dabble in folk, his producer couldn’t help but add too much to the song (harmonica, female backers, male backers, a steady drumbeat). It overdoes it, which will be a running theme with most of Elvis’s 1970’s studio recordings. It hurts the song more than Elvis’s diminished vocals do. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content The other Gordon Lightfoot song was “Early Morning Rain” which Elvis ran through with the same genuine interest he gave “For Loving Me” earlier in the day but sadly with the same diminished voice as well. While the song would not become a staple of his live act, it’s clear Elvis had an affinity for it as he would sometimes spontaneously break out into a rendition in the middle of a bored Vegas set, and it would reappear on big shows like the 1973 Aloha concert and the 1977 CBS concert tour. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content The only Gospel song he attempted before calling off the March session was “Amazing Grace.” Since it was public domain, Elvis is credited with an “arrangement by” note, but there’s very little unconventional in the recording; if anything the song needed more: More tempo, more energy, more something. The only thing it had was more “production” compared to the folk songs; Elvis’s backup singers are mixed very loudly, to the point where they sometimes drown out Elvis’s voice, which is a shame since it’s the best vocal performance of the session. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content The flaws that will be even more apparent when studio work resumed in May are still obvious here. The biggest red flag for Felton Jarvis was Elvis’s voice. A year ago it was strong and enthusiastic, even on songs that weren’t up to the quality of the 1969 selections. Here, however, it is wobbly, strained and tired. He’s also noticeably slurring in a few places, especially in “Early Morning Rain.” Granted, Elvis always mumbled a bit when he spoke and that occasionally bled through in his early singing, but producers were usually able to do enough takes to get a crisper delivery out of him. Felton Jarvis was clearly unable to do so. When Elvis returned to Nashville in May he did so with over thirty songs before him (and still another ten would come in June). Everyone from RCA to Col. Parker to Felton Jarvis thought it was just a brilliant little idea to knock all of his studio commitments out in one go, but no one asked Elvis. Likely if they had, the congenial singer would have agreed anyway, but it was clear very quickly into the proceeding that his voice had not fully recovered from the canceled March session, and his energy and enthusiasm for the material would wane fast. Seven masters were finished on the first day, five of which were for the upcoming Christmas album. A Gospel-themed song was done first; “Miracle of the Rosary” was completed in just a few takes and was easily the most enthusiastic Elvis would be on the opening night of the session. He had brought the song into the studio with him, having fallen in love with it (despite not being a Catholic) and having it offered to him by its writer Lee Denson (himself, not a Catholic either). His voice is still wobbly but it’s obvious that he really wanted to do the song right and he belts some spectacular high notes here (notes he would not quite be able to nail later in the evening). In the end, the song was left off the Gospel album and instead was tossed into the catch-all pop album that would collect the non-Gospel and non-Christmas recordings of the session. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content A pair of Christmas songs followed, both of which were pop-songs and not traditional holiday standards. In fact only half the album would be comprised of traditional standards as it was decided early on that the new album would need to stand out from the 1957 album and 1970 reissue. Both “It Won’t Seem Like Christmas” and “If I Get Home on Christmas Day” immediately set the countrified tone that would dominate the record. The irksome wobble in his voice (listen to any sustained note in the song) that turned great songs good and good songs average is at its worst in these two songs (and his slurring is noticeably bad throughout “If I Get Home on Christmas Day”). The quality of the music is fine and will be on all of the Christmas songs, but overall it’s uninspired. It sounds more like a warm-up than a master, but as with the over-produced nature of the Gospel tracks, it seems like Felton was doing it on purpose. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content “Merry Christmas Baby” is a frustrating slow-blues jam that drags the album down significantly. Clocking in at almost six-minutes it’s one of the longest songs Elvis ever recorded, and you will feel every second of it. It’s fine enough after two minutes, but then it just keeps going and going with no change in key, no bridge, no middle eight. It’s just the same thing over and over, and it’s obviously just an informal jam that Felton Jarvis hit “record” on and slapped it onto the album; Elvis plays around with the lyrics, calling out bandmates and what not. It’s informal and was probably a blast in the studio, but as a track on an album, it never should have been presented in this way. If anything it should have been cut down to three minutes or so, and failing that, at least have the common courtesy to put it as the final track of the record. Instead, it’s the second-to-last track, which means you have to sit through all six minutes of it to hear a pleasant-enough rendition of “Silver Bells.” Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content Speaking of “Silver Bells,” the song was one of the last recorded of the day and Elvis was growing tired. After a couple takes, he asked Charlie Hodge to sing it as a duet and after ten minutes of getting the microphone and everything set up for Charlie to join him, Elvis held up his hands and said he didn’t mean for Charlie to be on the record; he just wanted to be able to hear him sing while he sang. An awkward silence followed that was broken by a frustrated Elvis saying “forget it, let’s go to something else.” Felton tried to coax him into recording one more take, but Elvis sat silently and defiantly for a long moment before saying that he wasn’t feeling it and what they’d already recorded would have to do. And so it did. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content Before calling it a day, Elvis finally recorded a song he’d been wanting to do since he left for the Army. “Padre” was originally a French song released in 1956. An English version came to North America in 1957 and Toni Arden made a hit of it in 1958 and Elvis said soon after that her version was his favorite song at the moment. Had he recorded it then it would have been unlike anything he’d ever released before. But just a couple years later he would take “It’s Now or Never” and “Surrender” to number-one, so maybe he was onto something. Elvis’s 1971 version lacks the almost operatic styling Arden had in her take, and it obviously lacks the silky smooth vocals he might have brought to the song in 1960 or 1961. He gave it his best shot but it might have been better to try it after a good rest. He sings it here as his final take before calling it a day and he just didn’t have it in him to hit the final high note. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content
