Читать книгу The Mojo Collection - Various Mojo Magazine - Страница 30

Record label: RCA

Produced: Steve Scholes and Chet Aktins

Recorded: RCA Studio B, Nashville; March 20–April 3, 1960

Release date: July 1960 (UK) April 8, 1960 (US)

Chart peaks: 1 (UK) 2 (US)

Personnel: Elvis Presley (v, g); Scotty Moore (g); Bob Moore (b); Hank Garland (g, b); DJ Fontana (d); Buddy Harman (d); ‘Boots’ Randolph (s); Floyd Cramer (p); The Jordanaires (v); Bob Moore (e)

Track listing: Make Me Know It; Fever; The Girl Of My Best Friend (S); I Will Be Home Again; Dirty, Dirty Feeling; Thrill Of Your Love; Soldier Boy; Such A Night (S); It Feels So Right; Girl Next Door; Like A Baby; Reconsider Baby

Running time: 31.54

Current CD: RCA 74321906112 adds 14 extra tracks and a second disc of alternate takes

Further listening: From Nashville To Memphis – The Essential ’60s Masters Vol 1 (5 CD set)

Further reading: Careless Love – The Unmaking Of Elvis Presley (Peter Guralnick, 1999); www.elvispresley.com

Download: www.hmvdigital.com

The omens were not good on March 20, 1960, when Presley, demob happy and shorn of sideburns, arrived for his first recording session since leaving the army. The Sun-era team of Elvis, Scotty and Bill was not an option. Scotty Moore had not spoken to Presley for two years but was willing to turn up, but Bill Black was pursuing a solo career. On the other hand, DJ Fontana, The Jordanaires and Floyd Cramer were still on board. The other musicians – most of whom were on the June 1958 date that was Elvis’ most recent – were led to believe this was a Jim Reeves session. There was also a lot of business to be taken care of, not least a single (Stuck On You/Fame And Fortune) that had to be in the shops by the end of the week.

By 7am, that 45 plus four other tracks were in the can – Make Me Know It, the faintly biographical Soldier Boy, and two lascivious R&B songs, A Mess of Blues and It Feels So Right. With two weeks before the next date, Presley was whisked off to Miami for the Frank Sinatra TV Show. For the second recording date, April 3, Colonel Tom instructed that Elvis sing eight songs – all he was contractually obliged to give RCA for an LP – one of which was to be Are You Lonesome Tonight, a 1927 hit for Al Jolson, and his wife’s favourite tune. By now Presley was back into his stride, with ideas that far outstripped his pre-draft capabilities. Fever featured just bass and two percussionists separated in the stereo mix; It’s Now Or Never was mock-operatic, an adaptation of O Sole Mio; Like A Baby, Such A Night and Dirty, Dirty Feeling almost verged on the obscene. Recorded in the dark, Are You Lonesome Tonight was the ninth cut, although Elvis felt his voice wasn’t suitable. The twelfth cut, Lowell Fulsom’s bluesy Reconsider Baby, began as a jam and ended with everybody taking solos. By the time he left the studio, Stuck On You was Number 1 and Elvis had two weeks before starting work on GI Blues. A new beginning, but the end was already in sight.