Elvis Is Back!

Elvis Is Back!
Studio album by Elvis Presley
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 Presley chronology
Elvis' Gold Records Volume 2
(1959)		 Elvis is Back!
(1960)		 G.I. Blues
(1960)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [1]

Elvis Is Back! is the tenth 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.[2]

Contents

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.[3] 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.[4] 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.[5] Prior to this, only his second album fully derived from a specific set of sessions undertaken expressly to make a particular album.

The original twelve track album was first issued on compact disc in 1988. 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.[6]

On January 18, 2011, Legacy Records released a Legacy Edition with the entirety of the 1999 reissue on one disc, appending the single "Surrender." A bonus disc included the entirety of Something for Everybody along with the b-side to "Surrender" "I Feel So Bad," the singles "His Latest Flame" and "Good Luck Charm" along with their respective b-sides. Other reissues include a Steve Hoffman remastered DCC Gold CD prepared from the original tapes in 1997, and an expanded edition by the Follow That Dream collectors label on April 1, 2005.

Track listing

Side one

Track Recorded Song Title Writer(s) Time
1. 3/20/60 Make Me Know It Otis Blackwell 1:58
2. 4/3/60 Fever John Davenport and Eddie Cooley 3:31
3. 4/3/60 The Girl of My Best Friend Beverly Ross and Sam Bobrick 2:21
4. 4/3/60 I Will Be Home Again Bennie Benjamin, Raymond Leveen, Lou Singer 2:33
5. 4/3/60 Dirty, Dirty Feeling Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller 1:35
6. 4/3/60 Thrill of Your Love Stan Kesler 2:59

Side two

Track Recorded Song Title Writer(s) Time
1. 3/20/60 Soldier Boy David Jones and Theodore Williams Jr. 3:04
2. 4/3/60 Such A Night Lincoln Chase 2:58
3. 3/20/60 It Feels So Right Fred Wise and Ben Weisman 2:09
4. 4/3/60 Girl Next Door Went a'Walking Bill Rice and Thomas Wayne 2:12
5. 4/3/60 Like A Baby Jesse Stone 2:38
6. 4/3/60 Reconsider Baby Lowell Fulson 3:39

1999 reissue bonus tracks

Chart positions for singles from Billboard Hot 100

Track Recorded Catalogue Release date Chart peak Song title Writer(s) Time
1. 3/20/60 47-7740 3/23/60 1 Stuck on You Aaron Schroeder and S. Leslie McFarland 2:18
2. 3/20/60 47-7740b 3/23/60 17 Fame and Fortune Fred Wise and Ben Weisman 2:29
3. 4/3/60 47-7810 11/1/60 1 Are You Lonesome Tonight? Lou Handman and Roy Turk 3:05
4. 4/3/60 47-7810b 11/1/60 20 I Gotta Know Paul Evans and Matt Williams 2:15
5. 4/3/60 47-7777 7/5/60 1 It's Now or Never Eduardo di Capua, Aaron Schroeder, Wally Gold 3:14
6. 3/20/60 47-7777b 7/5/60 32 A Mess of Blues Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman 2:39

2011 legacy edition reissue

Disc one

No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Make Me Know It"   Otis Blackwell 1:58
2. "Fever"   John Davenport and Eddie Cooley 3:31
3. "The Girl of My Best Friend"   Beverly Ross and Sam Bobrick 2:21
4. "I Will Be Home Again"   Bennie Benjamin, Raymond Leveen, Lou Singer 2:33
5. "Dirty Dirty Feeling"   Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller 1:35
6. "Thrill of Your Love"   Stan Kesler 2:59
7. "Soldier Boy"   David Jones and Theodore Williams Jr. 3:04
8. "Such A Night"   Lincoln Chase 2:58
9. "It Feels So Right"   Fred Wise and Ben Weisman 2:09
10. "Girl Next Door Went a-Walking"   Bill Rice and Thomas Wayne 2:12
11. "Like A Baby"   Jesse Stone 2:38
12. "Reconsider Baby"   Lowell Fulson 3:39
13. "Stuck on You"   Aaron Schroeder and S. Leslie McFarland 2:18
14. "Fame and Fortune"   Fred Wise and Ben Weisman 2:29
15. "It's Now or Never"   Eduardo di Capua, Aaron Schroeder, Wally Gold 3:14
16. "A Mess of Blues"   Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman 2:49
17. "Are You Lonesome Tonight?"   Lou Handman and Roy Turk 3:05
18. "I Gotta Know"   Paul Evans and Matt Williams 2:15
19. "Surrender"   Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman 1:51

Disc two

No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "There's Always Me"   Don Robertson 2:16
2. "Give Me the Right"   Fred Wise and Norman Blagman 2:32
3. "It's A Sin"   Fred Rose and Zeb Turner 2:39
4. "Sentimental Me"   James T. Morehead and James Cassin 2:31
5. "Starting Today"   Don Robertson 2:03
6. "Gently"   Murray Wisell and Edward Lisbona 2:15
7. "I'm Comin' Home"   Charlie Rich 2:20
8. "In Your Arms"   Aaron Schroeder and Wally Gold 1:50
9. "Put the Blame on Me"   Fred Wise, Kay Twomey, Norman Blagman 1:57
10. "Judy"   Teddy Redell 2:10
11. "I Want You with Me"   Woody Harris 2:13
12. "I Slipped, I Stumbled, I Fell"   Fred Wise and Ben Weisman 1:35
13. "I Feel So Bad"   Chuck Willis 2:53
14. "(Marie's the Name of) His Latest Flame"   Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman 2:07
15. "Little Sister"   Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman 2:30
16. "Good Luck Charm"   Aaron Schroeder and Wally Gold 2:23
17. "Anything That's Part of You"   Don Robertson 2:04

Chart positions

Chart (1960) Peak
position
UK Albums Chart[7] 1
Preceded by
South Pacific by Original Soundtrack		 UK Albums Chart number-one album
30 July 1960 - 6 August 1960		 Succeeded by
South Pacific by Original Soundtrack

Personnel

See also

References

  1. ^ Allmusic review
  2. ^ Rocklist Website 1001 Albums
  3. ^ Jorgensen, Ernst. Elvis Presley, A Life In Music. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998; ISBN 0-312-18572-3, p. 120.
  4. ^ Guralnick, Peter, From Nashville to Memphis: The Essential 60s Masters insert booklet, p. 8.
  5. ^ Jorgensen, op. cit., p. 128.
  6. ^ Guralnick, op. cit., p. 12
  7. ^ "Chart Stats - Elvis Presley - Elvis Is Back!". chartstats.com. http://www.chartstats.com/albuminfo.php?id=1624. Retrieved 2 June 2011. 

External links