"Bringing It Back"

[Juan Luis]

Recorded by Elvis Presley for the "TODAY" album on March 12, 1975 at RCA Studio C in Hollywood, California. Felton Jarvis producing with Rick Ruggieri behind the console. Overdubs of new bass part by Norbert Putnam on April 8 at Quadraphonic Sound Studio in Nashville, with Mike Schockley assisting Felton Jarvis, and Al Pachucki assisting on April 9 and April 14, for vocal and string overdubs, respectively. The strings were arranged by Mike Leech.

"Bringing It Back" was written by Greg Gordon and first recorded (January) by Brenda Lee though Elvis's version was released first (May 7), on the "Today" album. Her country hit single was released before (according to David Neale in July), Elvis's coupling of "Pieces Of My Life"/"Bringing It Back".

A song I've heard since Christmas 1975 (the album was a present), but did not notice it much way back then. It has been a grower throughout the years since. I like it a lot! The mix (on the original LP) had Elvis's voice a bit far back. Similar to "It's Easy For You". It was a revelation for both songs when I first heard the undubbed versions many years later with Elvis's voice being strong on both recordings, in my opinion.

BRINGING IT BACK for sure!


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[jetblack]

Something about this song I have always liked.

The way Elvis sings 'There it is I can see it in your eyes' around the 1.35 mark gets me for some reason.

Brenda's version taken at a slower tempo is also very good.

Andy

[midnightx]

Not one of the more memorable recordings from "Today."

[stevelecher]

This is one of those songs that shows how much wear and tear there was on his voice. His voice was back in the mix because it is weak. Poor vocal on a lackluster song. Skip it every time.

[goldbelt]

It's among the best tracks on the Today album.

Great performance, and some nice outtakes too.

Take 1

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Takes 2 and 3

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[norrie]

It's a good song on a good album.Love Ronnie's drumming on this and the backing vocals flesh out the chorus nicely.Although his voice is not as strong on this album as it once was it still works well on most of the material with the exception perhaps of T.R.O.U.B.L.E where the tempo and the quick fire lyrics are too much for him.Pity it could have been great.


norrie

[MikeFromHolland]

.

The man who wrote the song in his early twenties: Greg Gordon.

Short time member of The Imperials



And short time member of Voice

One of the songs from that session, 'Bringing It Back', came from Voice.

Yeah, that was one I used to sing at the piano for him. That was written by Greg Gordon, who was a member of Voice for a short time. The strange thing is that Ernst writes in his book that Greg is a piano-player. I don't know where in the world he got that, because Greg played guitar, but he wouldn't know a piano if it kicked him in the fanny! (laughs). He was a member of Voice for a short time, but he had a very religious girlfriend at the time, and she didn't want him to sing with us. Everytime I was trying to find work for the group, I'd come to a rehearsal, and he would decide to quit. And then he'd come back. So I told him: 'Here's the deal: If you're gonna be a part of Voice that's fine, but you're gonna either have to stay or go, because the next time you quit, if you join, you're gonna have to whip my ass! We're gonna end this situation'. So he decided to quit, he left and he didn't try to come back! It's amusing now, but that's how he ended up not being a member of the group. But I understand the problem that he had with that woman.

Source: Interview Arjan Deelen with Shaun 'Sherrill' Nielsen


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September 2, 1974 - Desert Storm
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[stevelecher]

It's a good song on a good album.Love Ronnie's drumming on this and the backing vocals flesh out the chorus nicely.Although his voice is not as strong on this album as it once was it still works well on most of the material with the exception perhaps of T.R.O.U.B.L.E where the tempo and the quick fire lyrics are too much for him.Pity it could have been great.


norrie

And I think T.R.O.U.B.L.E. is a recording he absolutely shines on. The exact opposite of Bringing It Back. He never did it justice during those mid- 1975 shows but his recording is beautiful.

[Ciscoking]

Love that song. ..fantastico...!!!

[jeanno]

Not a very good song, not a very good vocal performance.

[Juan Luis]

For those that missed it on another thread I posted. Rick Ruggieri remembers "Today" session he was engineering in Hollywood back in 1975.



"Ruggieri remembers Presley as he was in the early ’70s—not necessarily at the top of his game, but still a truly great artist with undeniable magnetism. “Let’s put it this way: When the man walked in the room, even if you weren’t looking, you knew he was there,” Ruggieri says. “He had that presence, something no one can describe.”

Online bonus: Engineer Rick Ruggieri tells more about what it was like working with the King, and what Presley wanted from his later recordings:

"It was pretty tough to get into the inner circle. I never actually did in all the years I worked with him. The band and his entourage, and even some of the engineers that worked with him in Nashville and Memphis did, but he was not an easy guy to get next to. That said, we'd sit and chat and he'd ask me questions about recording. Interestingly enough, given all the years he'd been in the business making all these great records, he knew very little about the recording process from a technical standpoint.

"One night, we sat down and chatted for an hour-and-a-half, and he says, "You know what? I come into the studios in Nashville, and we record my music and everything sounds great, but when I hear the records after their made, somebody's jacked up my voice so loud and buried the band, and I hate that. How could somebody do that?" Those were the kinds of things he was asking. But the whole time I worked with him, he never came in the control room. If he wanted to listen to something, we'd play it for him out there in the studio. I found it very interesting, considering all the other artists I'd ever worked with were always interested in that end of it and made sure they heard [in the control room] what they'd been hearing [in the studio].

"The last record I did with him was the Today album, which I cut 99 percent of, and I took it to Doug Sax's studio [Mastering Lab in Hollywood], and had him master it. After Elvis was complaining that the record sounded so different [on the master from what he heard in the studio], I promised him that what he heard in the studio was what he would get when he got the record. So, I convinced the powers that be to let me go outside of RCA to master it, which was unheard of at that time, and when the thing was all done, I set up a playback session in a studio behind the Mastering Lab called the Producer's Workshop.

"I actually got Elvis to come over and listen to the final acetate over there, and I wanted to show him the studio because I wanted to cut the next record there. Producer's Workshop was probably the best-sounding tracking studio in L.A., if not anywhere, at that time. He really liked it, and we sat there—we must have played that thing over and over again for four hours. He loved the sound of the room and the speakers, and we wanted to cut the next record there, but it just never happened." "


http://www.mixonline.com/news/profiles/classic-track-elvis-presley-burning-love/366396

[mike edwards66]

For those that missed it on another thread I posted. Rick Ruggieri remembers "Today" session he was engineering in Hollywood back in 1975.

"..........I actually got Elvis to come over and listen to the final acetate over there, and I wanted to show him the studio because I wanted to cut the next record there. Producer's Workshop was probably the best-sounding tracking studio in L.A., if not anywhere, at that time. He really liked it, and we sat there—we must have played that thing over and over again for four hours. He loved the sound of the room and the speakers, and we wanted to cut the next record there, but it just never happened." "

Thanks, Juan. How interesting.

[rlj4ep]

Thanks Juan. One of the terrific tracks Elvis recorded for the Today album. I love his voice on this one. His voice just draws you into the song and Elvis performs it in a convincing way. Elvis' voice is outstanding and coveys emotion with the lines, "Thinkin' in my solitude, wonderin' about your attitude / Thinkin' maybe that your love has died / There it is, I can see it in your eyes / A look of sweet surrender, a touch of too much sadness / 'Cause I've hurt you so, you know your sorrow shows / You just can't stay, but you can't let go." Just love the song.

rlj

[elvisalisellers]

Excellent vocal that dovetails perfectly with the lovely acoustic arrangement.

Impossible not to like.

New mix I created using a sync of the undubbed master and the out-of-phase album master > http://www99.zippyshare.com/v/Gq6zORMD/file.htm

[drjohncarpenter]

Not a very good song, not a very good vocal performance.

A pedestrian piece done as a favor to his personal vocal group. This is not a song anyone will point to in a positive assessment of his work from this period.

An artist of his stature should not have even considered such material for his first studio session in almost a year and a half.

[TINML]

Not a very good song IMO but at least Elvis sounds committed unlike some of the material that was recorded at Stax.

[goldbelt]

For those that missed it on another thread I posted. Rick Ruggieri remembers "Today" session he was engineering in Hollywood back in 1975.



"Ruggieri remembers Presley as he was in the early ’70s—not necessarily at the top of his game, but still a truly great artist with undeniable magnetism. “Let’s put it this way: When the man walked in the room, even if you weren’t looking, you knew he was there,” Ruggieri says. “He had that presence, something no one can describe.”

Online bonus: Engineer Rick Ruggieri tells more about what it was like working with the King, and what Presley wanted from his later recordings:

"It was pretty tough to get into the inner circle. I never actually did in all the years I worked with him. The band and his entourage, and even some of the engineers that worked with him in Nashville and Memphis did, but he was not an easy guy to get next to. That said, we'd sit and chat and he'd ask me questions about recording. Interestingly enough, given all the years he'd been in the business making all these great records, he knew very little about the recording process from a technical standpoint.

"One night, we sat down and chatted for an hour-and-a-half, and he says, "You know what? I come into the studios in Nashville, and we record my music and everything sounds great, but when I hear the records after their made, somebody's jacked up my voice so loud and buried the band, and I hate that. How could somebody do that?" Those were the kinds of things he was asking. But the whole time I worked with him, he never came in the control room. If he wanted to listen to something, we'd play it for him out there in the studio. I found it very interesting, considering all the other artists I'd ever worked with were always interested in that end of it and made sure they heard [in the control room] what they'd been hearing [in the studio].

"The last record I did with him was the Today album, which I cut 99 percent of, and I took it to Doug Sax's studio [Mastering Lab in Hollywood], and had him master it. After Elvis was complaining that the record sounded so different [on the master from what he heard in the studio], I promised him that what he heard in the studio was what he would get when he got the record. So, I convinced the powers that be to let me go outside of RCA to master it, which was unheard of at that time, and when the thing was all done, I set up a playback session in a studio behind the Mastering Lab called the Producer's Workshop.

"I actually got Elvis to come over and listen to the final acetate over there, and I wanted to show him the studio because I wanted to cut the next record there. Producer's Workshop was probably the best-sounding tracking studio in L.A., if not anywhere, at that time. He really liked it, and we sat there—we must have played that thing over and over again for four hours. He loved the sound of the room and the speakers, and we wanted to cut the next record there, but it just never happened." "


http://www.mixonline.com/news/profiles/classic-track-elvis-presley-burning-love/366396

Very interesting, Juan. Thanks!

[fn2drive]

Elvis makes the most of this never should have been recorded track on the very weak LP that stands out only because of the even weaker Stax outings that preceded it. Bang out 10 tracks any 10 tracks, get as much publishing as we can grab and fulfill contract obligations. Little kid, Xmas present-I understand your soft spot for the LP. Let's just not kid ourself-this track did nothing for his legacy.

[Juan Luis]

Not a very good song, not a very good vocal performance.

A pedestrian piece done as a favor to his personal vocal group. This is not a song anyone will point to in a positive assessment of his work from this period.

An artist of his stature should not have even considered such material for his first studio session in almost a year and a half.

Disagree. Good song. Good performance. Brenda Lee obviously like it first. So it wasn't a favor to anyone. He just liked it and recorded it. Simples.

[Juan Luis]

Elvis makes the most of this never should have been recorded track on the very weak LP that stands out only because of the even weaker Stax outings that preceded it. Bang out 10 tracks any 10 tracks, get as much publishing as we can grab and fulfill contract obligations. Little kid, Xmas present-I understand your soft spot for the LP. Let's just not kid ourself-this track did nothing for his legacy.

It did not hurt it either. Worst case scenario...an album track. No more, no less. But I (and others), like it a lot!

[Juan Luis]

Excellent vocal that dovetails perfectly with the lovely acoustic arrangement.

Impossible not to like.

New mix I created using a sync of the undubbed master and the out-of-phase album master > http://www99.zippyshare.com/v/Gq6zORMD/file.htm

Thank you, sounds great!

[rlj4ep]

There must be some attraction to the material on the Today album for Elvis. He featured "T-R-O-U-B-L-E," "And I Love You So," Shake a Hand," "Fairytale," "I Can Help" (one line), "Bringing It Back" (once by Voice with Elvis performing bass lines---before even recording the song), Pieces of My Life" (one time), and Green, Green Grass of Home" in various concerts. He even was performing two of the songs from this album until his final tour. Beyond this, RCA/BMG/Sony/and even FTD have continued to keep this album before the public. For the most part it is a "country" album. Certainly not to the level of "Elvis Country," but Elvis gives us a fresh sounding solid album with good numbers, arranged and produced very well, with Elvis in good voice. The song featured in this thread is one such quality performance.

rlj

[keninlincs]

Not his best work,but a decent song from a decent album

[Jambalaya]

It is interesting to read such different opinions regarding the song but also the whole "Today" Album. I declare myself on the positive side and i even go that far to say that IMO this is a very good contemporary Country Album and one of his best of the 1970´s.

[JimmyCool]

I like it a lot.