Where No One Stands Alone - From First Take to the Master

[Walter Hale 4]

Elvis Presley’s public redemption after years in Hollywood obscurity is often cited as being with the 1968 Comeback special, but that is only half of the story. The origins of this road can be traced back to the March 1966 recording session in Nashville where Elvis recorded some of his finest studio material.
The primary aim of the session was to create a gospel album, his first since 1960, and this was achieved with great aplomb. The session, which also included several superb secular recordings, would result in a gospel which would yield Elvis’ first Grammy award, How Great Thou Art.
Contained on the album was a song, which largely due to it’s superb vocal by Elvis, quickly became a fan favourite. The song, Where No One Stands Alone, was the fourth song recorded on 25 March 1966 at RCA’s studio B in Nashville, the first of four days of recordings.
The finale of the song was so demanding on Elvis’ voice that after four takes a decision was taken that he would now concentrate on that part of the song so as to save his voice for the remainder of the evening’s session. This was a practical and sensible decision as they were but four songs into the first of several days recording!
In the end, despite six attempts to create a suitable ending, none of the work parts were deemed suitable. As a result, Elvis and Felton Jarvis decided that they would use the bulk of take four and the ending of take one from the original four takes creating a spliced master.
In 2008, the song received a completely new backing track and his daughter, Lisa Marie, recorded her vocal and created a posthumous duet. This recording became the title track of a gospel album which featured a further thirteen tracks, all of which also received new instrumental backing. These new backing tracks were not as grandiose as those from the RPO project but regardless still seem wholly unnecessary.
Also included in this compilation, is the single live rendition of the song by Elvis on which he himself plays the piano. This rendition, from Montgomery on 16 February 1977, was fortunately recorded on the soundboard and so can be heard here in excellent sound.

As with all of these videos, to get the most out of the re-edited audio, Leon highly recommends you use ear /headphones and turn the volume up as much as you dare!