From Elvis in Memphis is the thirty-fourth album, not counting budget compilations on the RCA Camden subsidiary, by Elvis Presley, released on RCA Records, LSP 4155, in June 1969. Recorded at American Sound Studios in Memphis, it peaked at #13 on the Billboard 200, and is considered by many critics to be his best album.[citation needed] In 2003, the album was ranked number 190 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Planning
After the success of his television special the previous year, Presley decided to regain active control over the direction of his career.[citation needed] He had grown tired of the grind in making approximately three films a year, all successful, but of the type which have come to be known as "Elvis movies."[citation needed] The informal jam session during the special, with old bandmates Scotty Moore and D.J. Fontana, had proven that Presley could reconnect with the elements of his music that had made him popular in the first place.
Presley hadn't recorded in Memphis in the thirteen years since he had left Sun Records. In the interim, Memphis had become a thriving center for soul music, with Stax Records, Hi Records, and American Sound Studios in the city, and FAME Studios in nearby Muscle Shoals.
Presley chose American Sound Studios, started by songwriter and session guitarist Chips Moman, who had assembled a group of house session musicians well-versed in the same kinds of music familiar to Presley: blues, gospel, country, and soul. This album by Presley would be one of American Studios' most famous products, along with Dusty in Memphis, which was released on January 13, 1969—right at the beginning of the sessions with Presley.
Content
Many of the songs recorded at American by Presley derived from the country and western repertoire, such as the 1962 hit "It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin'" by Johnny Tillotson, Hank Snow's #1 country smash in 1950, "I'm Movin' On," and Eddy Arnold's 1947 chestnut, "I'll Hold You In My Heart." Even the more modern, late sixties country approach in "Gentle On My Mind" found a place. By including these songs, along with contemporary soul such as Jerry Butler's recent "Only the Strong Survive," like Ray Charles earlier in the decade with Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, Presley reinforced the musical links between country and rhythm and blues.
Chuck Jackson had sung the original Top 40 version of "Any Day Now" by Burt Bacharach in 1962, and future country singer and 1970s television star Mac Davis provided "In the Ghetto," Presley's stab at a message or protest song aligned with the times. Released as the lead single on April 14, two months before the album hit the stores, it went to #3 on the singles chart, and provided another break with his public image as cultivated by the escapist fare of his sixties film career.
The CD reissue of May 16, 2000, includes six tracks released as either A or b sides recorded at the same sessions for the album. "Don't Cry Daddy," also by Davis, and "Kentucky Rain" were both sizeable hits in 1970, but "Suspicious Minds" became one of Presley's signature tunes, and gave him the final chart-topper of his career as the decade came to a close.
In May 2009 it was announced that Sony Music would be issuing a 2-CD "Legacy Edition" of the album later that year, to commemorate its 40th anniversary. When released in July, the "Legacy Edition" included four additional tracks from the American sessions as bonus tracks on disc 1, as well as the entirety of "Back In Memphis" and 10 "Original Mono Single Masters" (including songs like "Suspicious Minds" and "Kentucky Rain") on disc 2. The week after, it entered the Billboard Comprehensive chart at #155, and landed inside the top ten in both the Pop and Country Catalog charts.
Personnel
- Elvis Presley - vocals, guitar, piano
- Reggie Young - guitar
- Dan Penn - guitar
- Bobby Wood - piano
- Bobby Emmons - organ
- Tommy Cogbill - bass
- Mike Leech - bass
- Gene Chrisman - drums
- Ed Kollis - harmonica
- Joe Babcock - backing vocals
- Dolores Edgin - backing vocals
- Mary Greene - backing vocals
- Charlie Hodge - backing vocals
- Ginger Holladay - backing vocals
- Mary Holladay - backing vocals
- Millie Kirkham - backing vocals
- June Page - backing vocals
- Susan Pilkington - backing vocals
- Sandy Posey - backing vocals
- Donna Thatcher - backing vocals
- Hurschel Wiginton - backing vocals
- Johnny Davis - trumpet on "Suspicious Minds", "Kentucky Rain", "In the Ghetto"
Track listing
Side One
Side Two
2000 Reissue Bonus Tracks
Chart positions for singles from Billboard Hot 100
References
Link
Rolling Stone 500 From Elvis in Memphis
