April 8: Elvis Presley – “Elvis is Back!” (1960)

elvis is back

 Recorded when Presley was 25, fresh off a two-year military stint and musically fit to burst, Elvis Is Back! might be the King’s greatest noncompilation LP: wildly varied material, revelatory singing, impeccable stereo sound.
~Will Hermes (rollingstone.com)

Elvis is back

Elvis Is Back represents a peak in Elvis’ career, when his maturity and confidence led to a control and focus in his music. Like the pre-army Elvis recordings, this album offered an eclectic collection of musical genres, from a sentimental duet with Charlie Hodge called ‘I Will Be Home Again’ to the gritty ‘Reconsider Baby’ with a bluesy sax solo by Boots Randolph. Once again, Elvis’ talent for unifying disparate styles of music resulted in an innovative and successful album..
~ elvispresleymusic.com

Released April 8, 1960
Recorded March and April 1960
Genre Rock and roll, rhythm and blues
Length 31:54
Label RCA Victor
Producer Steve Sholes and Chet Atkins

Elvis Is Back! is the fifth studio album by Elvis Presley, released on RCA Victor Records in mono and stereo, LPM/LSP 2231, in April 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 number two on the Top Pop Albums chart and is listed, along with his debut and From Elvis in Memphis, in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. It was certified Gold on July 15, 1999, by the RIAA.

Elvis Presely 1960

Reconsider baby ( extended sax version):

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. 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. … 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.

Personnel:

  • Elvis Presley – vocals, guitar
  • Scotty Moore – electric 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 – guitar, vocals on “I Will Be Home Again”

Track listing – original album

Side one

  1. Make Me Know It (Otis Blackwell)
  2. Fever (John Davenport and Eddie Cooley)
  3. The Girl of My Best Friend (everly Ross and Sam Bobrick)
  4. I Will Be Home Again (Bennie Benjamin, Raymond Leveen, Lou Singer)
  5. Dirty, Dirty Feeling (Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller)
  6. Thrill of Your Love (Stan Kesler)

Side two

  1. Soldier Boy (David Jones and Theodore Williams Jr.)
  2. Such A Night (Lincoln Chase)
  3. It Feels So Right (Fred Wise and Ben Weisman)
  4. Girl Next Door Went A-Walking (Bill Rice and Thomas Wayne)
  5. Like a Baby (Jesse Stone)
  6. Reconsider Baby (Lowell Fulson)

Album playlist from youtube:

Wikipedia

Playlist of the day:

Other APR-08:

  • Thomas Clark Cogbill, (b. April 8, 1932 – December 7, 1982) and known as Tommy Cogbill was an American bassist, guitarist and record producer.
    Tommy Cogbill was born in Johnson Grove, Tennessee. He was a highly sought-after session and studio musician who appeared on many now-classic recordings of the 1960s and 1970s, especially those recorded in Nashville, Memphis and Muscle Shoals. He has been credited as an influence by bass guitarists, including Jaco Pastorius. In the later 1960s and early 1970s, Cogbill worked extensively at Memphis’s American Sound Studio as a producer and as part of the studio’s house rhythm section, known as The Memphis Boys.
  • The Clash is the eponymously-titled debut studio album by the English punk rock band The Clash. It was originally released only in the United Kingdom on 8 April 1977 through CBS Records. The album was re-released in the United States in 1979, dropping four tracks and adding five other tracks. Both versions of the album are still in print.
    Studio album by The Clash
    Released 8 April 1977
    Recorded 10 February–27 February 1977 at CBS Studios in London and National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield
    Genre Punk rock
    Length 35:18
    Label CBS
    Producer Mickey Foote

  • Laura Nyro (October 18, 1947 – April 8, 1997) was an American songwriter, singer, and pianist. She achieved considerable critical acclaim with her own recordings, particularly the albums Eli and the Thirteenth Confession and New York Tendaberry, and had commercial success with artists such as Barbra Streisand and The 5th Dimension recording her songs. Her style was a hybrid of Brill Building-style New York pop, jazz, gospel, rhythm and blues, show tunes, rock and soul.

-Egil