Written by General Jabbo
While it may be difficult to believe now, Elvis Presley’s career in the late 1960s prior to his triumphant ’68 Comeback Special was on the skids. Presley had been starring in increasingly bland “Elvis Movies” with increasingly bland soundtrack albums. The hits were drying up and the music world was passing him by. Even the Comeback Special wasn’t a sure thing at first — the Colonel originally wanted it to be a Christmas special, which the show’s producers Bones Howe and Steve Binder fought against and won. They saw the show as an opportunity for Presley to regain his throne as King and he agreed. The rest, as they say, is history as Presley electrified the world as he had done in the 1950s.
The next step was to cash in on this momentum. With Presley’s renewed interest in his recording career, he decided to return to Memphis to record for the first time since he had left Sun Records. He chose Chips Moman’s American Studios and from January to February 1969 recorded some of the most vital music of his career. These sessions are collected on the two-disc From Elvis in Memphis: Legacy Edition.
Like he had done so often in the early days, Presley blended rock, rhythm and blues, and country into a mix uniquely his. Gone were songs such as “Do the Clam,” replaced instead by ace singles including “Suspicious Minds” (Presley’s last U.S. number-one single), “Kentucky Rain,” and “In the Ghetto.” He was relevant and vital again.
Album cuts such as “Any Day Now” and “Long Black Limousine” showed an urgency missing from so much of Presley’s mid-1960s work while “Only the Strong Survive” and “I’m Movin’ On” sounded of the times. One wonders how many more albums like this he could have released had he decided to retake his career sooner.
.jpg?t=20120527181101)
Article comments
1 - Maurice Colgan
Thank you General Jabbo for a neat summing up of the NOW very famous Album recorded by Elvis Presley.
Just a reminder. Elvis actually made a huge "Comeback" after leaving the US Army in 1960.
His songs "It's Now or Never" and "Are You Lonesome tonight" were huge hits followed by a string of others.
Those songs caught the attention of an older generation and Elvis then became fully mainstream!
As a teenager at the time I witnessed our parents generation lining up in their droves to purchase the multi million selling single, "It's Now or Never". Keeping it top of the charts for 8 weeks only to be replaced by another Elvis song! Then another and another. Elvis was on a roll in those early years of the 1960s.
2 - General Jabbo
Glad you liked the review. You are right that the Elvis is Back album and the singles for "It's Now Or Never" and 'Stuck on You" reestablished his career after the Army. RCA wanted him to record while he was in the military, but the Colonel said no.
That said, right before the Comeback Special, Elvis' career was not at its high point, save for his gospel album doing well. from Elvis in Memphis was as important to his career as Elvis is Back was 9 years before.