Elvis Is Back!

Infobox Album
Name = Elvis Is Back!
Type = Studio
Longtype =
Artist = Elvis


Released = April 8, 1960
Recorded = March and April 1960
Genre = Rock and roll
Rhythm and blues
Length = 31:54
Label = RCA
Producer = Steve Sholes and Chet Atkins
Reviews = All Music Guide Rating|4.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:9jivadskv8w4 link]
Last album = "Elvis' Gold Records Volume 2" (1959)
This album = "Elvis is Back!" (1960)
Next album = "G.I. Blues" (1960)

"Elvis Is Back!" is the tenth album by Elvis Presley, released on RCA Records in mono and stereo, LPM/LSP 2231, in April of 1960. Recording sessions took place on March 20 and April 3, 1960, at RCA Studio B in Nashville, Tennessee. It was Presley's first album to be released in true stereo. It peaked at #2 on the Top Pop Albums chart.

Contents

The first album by Presley after his military discharge from the army, the first day of its sessions were attended by the Colonel, his assistant Tom Diskin, and representatives from RCA in a show of interest regarding whether or not Elvis still "had it" after two years in uniform. [Jorgensen, Ernst. "Elvis Presley, A Life In Music." New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998; ISBN 0-312-18572-3, p. 120] His long-serving guitarist Scotty Moore, pianist Floyd Cramer, and drummer D.J. Fontana had returned, along with his back-up vocal quartet The Jordanaires, but the other musicians had only played on one previous session with Elvis. [Guralnick, Peter, "" insert booklet, p. 8] One new face at the sessions whom Presley had befriended while in the service, Charlie Hodge, would become a Presley regular, member of the Memphis Mafia and a mainstay in his return to live performance at the end of the decade. Pressure aside, the sessions were successful, the album a highlight of the entire decade and a declared favorite by Presley regarding his own work. He moved beyond his standard rock and roll sound of the 1950s, combining doo-wop, gospel, blues, and even jazzy tones from his version of "Fever" following so close to that of Peggy Lee from 1958. The results yielded a new sound for Presley, with a varied song selection, moving him further toward the pop music he would undertake as the decade progressed. [Jorgensen, op. cit., p. 128] Prior to this, only his second album fully derived from a specific set of sessions undertaken expressly to make a particular album.

The May 18, 1999, reissue included six bonus tracks, recorded at the same two sessions for the album and issued as the sides to three singles. Those three singles, "Stuck on You," "Are You Lonesome Tonight?," and "It's Now or Never" all topped the singles chart; the b-sides all also charted independently in the Top 40. "It's Now or Never" had been adapted from the 1898 Neapolitan song "O Sole Mio," and "Are You Lonesome Tonight?," a ballad from 1926, had been the only time the Colonel had requested Elvis record a specific song. [Guralnick, op. cit., p. 12]

The album was first released on compact disc in 1988; additional reissues include a Gold CD prepared from the original tapes in 1997, and an expanded edition by the Follow That Dream collectors label on April 1, 2005.

Personnel

* Elvis Presley – vocal, guitar
* Scotty Moore – guitar
* Hank Garland - guitar, bass
* Floyd Cramer - piano
* Bob Moore - bass
* D.J. Fontana - drums
* Buddy Harman – drums
* The Jordanaires - backing vocals
* Boots Randolph - saxophone
* Charlie Hodge - vocal (on "I Will Be Home Again")

Track listing

ide One

2005 FTD Special Edition

#"Make Me Know It (Blackwell) - 2:01
#"Fever (Cooley, Davenport) - 3:34
#"The Girl of My Best Friend (Bobrick, Ross) - 2:24
#"I Will Be Home Again (Benjamin, Leveen, Singer) - 2:35
#"Dirty, Dirty Feeling (Leiber, Stoller) - 1:35
#"Thrill of You Love (Kesler) - 3:02
#"Soldier Boy (Jones, Williams) - 3:06
#"Such a Night (Chase) - 3:01
#"It Feels So Right (Weisman, Wise) - 2:11
#"The Girl Next Door (Went A'walking) (Rise, Wayne) - 2:15
#"Like a Baby (Stone) - 2:40
#"Reconsider Baby (Fulson) - 3:45
#"Stuck on You (McFarland, Schroeder) - 2:20
#"Fame and Fortune (Weisman, Wise) - 2:32
#"It's Now or Never (Gold, Schroeder) - 3:16
#"A Mess of Blues (Pomus, Shuman) - 2:42
#"Are You Lonesome Tonight? (Handman, Turk) - 3:08
#"I Gotta Know (Including Take 1) ((Evans, Williams) - 2:58
#"Make Me Know It (Take 1) (Blackwell) - 2:37
#"Fever (Take 1) (Cooley, Davenport) - 3:49
#"The Girl of My Best Friend (Take 3) (Bobrick, Ross) - 2:36
#"Soldier Boy (Take 1) (Jones, Williams) - 3:03
#"Such a Night (Take 1) (Chase) - 3:14
#"It Feels So Right (Take 1) (Weisman, Wise) - 2:09
#"Stuck on You (Take 1) (McFarland, Schroeder) - 2:19
#"Fame and Fortune (Take 2) (Weisman, Wise) - 2:33
#"It's Now or Never (Take 1) (Gold, Schroeder) - 3:29
#"Are You Lonesome Tonight? (Takes 1, 2) (Handman, Turk) - 3:39
#"Make Me Know It (Take 3) (Blackwell) - 2:12
#"Make Me Know It (Blackwell) - 2:41
#"Make Me Know It (Takes 17, 18) (Blackwell) - 2:47
#"Soldier Boy (Jones, Williams) - 5:11
#"Soldier Boy (Jones, Williams) - 3:39
#"Stuck on You (Takes 1-FS, 2) (McFarland, Schroeder) - 2:36
#"Fame and Fortune (Weisman, Wise) - 4:04
#"A Mess of Blues (Take 1) (Pomus, Shuman) - 2:56
#"A Mess of Blues (Pomus, Shuman) - 2:51
#"It Feels So Right (Take 2) (Weisman, Wise) - 2:06
#"It Feels So Right (Takes 4, 3) (Weisman, Wise) - 2:41
#"Fever {Takes 2, 3) (Cooley, Davenport) - 4:00
#"Like a Baby (Stone) - 2:13
#"Like a Baby (Take 2) (Stone) - 2:41
#"Like a Baby (Takes 3, 4) (Stone) - 3:34
#"It's Now or Never (Take 2) (Gold, Schroeder) - 3:24
#"It's Now or Never (Gold, Schroeder) - 3:56
#"The Girl of My Best Friend (Takes 2, 4, 5, 6) (Bobrick, Ross) - 5:15
#"The Girl of My Best Friend (Take 9) (Bobrick, Ross) - 2:26
#"Dirty, Dirty Feeling (Take 1) (Leiber, Stoller) - 1:41
#"Dirty, Dirty Feeling (Leiber, Stoller) - 1:44
#"Thrill of Your Love (Kesler) - 4:09
#"Such a Night (Chase) - 3:51

Links

* [http://www.elvisinternational.com/ftd.html Follow That Dream reissue catalogue]
* Elvis Presley discography
* The Nashville A-Team

References