Roben Jones, Memphis Boys - page 218
Those who were there recall the success of the 1969 Presley work also shed tremendous light on all of them, both a good and bad thing. And they also noticed that although Elvis did not return for encore sessions, he continued to reach back to the kind of songs that came his way while working with producer Chips Moman and the peerless house band. Or to new songs from the same writers.
Among those mentioned:
It's Only Love
Raised On Rock
Moody Blue
Always On My Mind
Holly Leaves and Christmas Trees
If You Talk In Your Sleep
Steamroller
For those who don't know the Memphis recordings of that last one, cut at American Sound, here it is:
Masqueraders "Steamroller" (Bell 932, November 1970)
Then keyboardist Bobby Emmons mentions a track he claims Presley had an acetate of in his briefcase "for his last ten sessions." And then writer Wayne Carson mentions a handful of tunes given to the Box Tops, and even one he first cut on his own before handing it to B.J. Thomas, who had a hit with it in 1971.
All of them are damn good. Ah, if only Elvis had given Chips and the gang another shot in 1970. Maybe we'd have missed out on songs like "Life," but how bad would that be today?
Dan Penn "Nobody's Fool" (Happy Tiger 538, April 1970)
Box Tops "The Letter" (Mala 565, August 1967)
Lead vocal: Alex Chilton (just 16 at the time!)
Box Tops "Soul Deep" (Mala 12,040, June 1969)
Lead vocal: Alex Chilton
Wayne Carson "No Love At All" (Monument 1192, February 1970)
He would have sung the sh'it out of "No Love At All."
- Wayne Carson
Yup.
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