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It was late March 1972 when Elvis Presley first entered RCA’s Studio C at 6363 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood – The King’s first time recording at the Hollywood venue. Most of RCA’s marquee artists, from Jefferson Airplane to Henry Mancini, had already made their mark there, as the studio had opened in 1964. Presley had previously rehearsed for his Las Vegas engagements in the 32 x 22′ space (the smallest of the building’s three studios) and now, the March 27-30 sessions would be his first proper recording sessions to feature his road musicians (including James Burton on lead guitar, John Wilkinson on rhythm, Charlie Hodge on acoustic, Ronnie Tutt on bass, and Glen D. Hardin on piano, plus Emory Gordy subbing for Jerry Scheff on bass) and J.D. Sumner and The Stamps. The sessions were successful, yielding such classics as “Burning Love” and “Always on My Mind.”
Now, those recordings – as well as those from Elvis’ subsequent 1975 return to the studio for the album Today – form the centerpiece of the 5CD collection Sunset Boulevard, the latest in Legacy Recordings’ series of geographically-minded box sets chronicling Elvis’ recordings. Previous volumes have been dedicated to Nashville (both From Elvis in Nashville and Back in Nashville) and Memphis; this set brings together new mixes of the 1972 and 1975 master takes along with a disc of outtakes and three discs of rehearsals captured in the room in 1970 and 1974. (A 2LP “highlights” version is also available.)
Colin Escott writes in his liner notes for the set of Elvis’ heartbreaking connection with one of the songs from that initial 1972 session, Red West and Richard Mainegra’s “Separate Ways.” He had separated from his wife, Priscilla, at the beginning of the year, and the songwriters had tweaked its lyrics to reflect the singer’s real-life situation: “Elvis’ friend Jerry Schilling remembered that ‘Separate Ways’ resonated so deeply with Elvis that he played the tape incessantly after the session. ‘We listened to it for three hours in the studio. He’d just look up and shake his head: “You guys wanna hear it again?” And we’d play it and play it. It was a real sad time. [It] was very reflective of his life. He wasn’t getting any hit material [so] I think he just sang about his life.'”
With one key exception, most of the songs recorded on those March evenings likely could have formed a powerful concept album on the themes of loneliness, separation, and regret. Instead, they were parsed out on various releases as was RCA’s custom with Presley’s recordings; the effect of hearing them back-to-back is one of the major pleasures of this collection. Matt Ross-Spang’s new mixes are clean with pronounced stereo separation; by stripping the masters down to the vocals and the rhythm section only, Ross-Spang has given them a sound both fresh and authentic. (Only The Stamps’ prominent background vocals, however wonderful, still sound of their time.)
Elvis was clearly invested in these songs and their expressions of heartache, including the Paul Williams-penned hidden gem “Where Do I Go from Here,” Kris Kristofferson’s wistfully tender “For the Good Times,” or Wayne Carson, Johnny Christopher, and Mark James’ soon-to-be-standard “Always on My Mind.” The breakout hit, though, was one which didn’t capture melancholy but, rather, exultation: Dennis Linde’s “Burning Love.” Though Presley was initially reticent about the song, Felton Jarvis was insistent – for good reason – that Elvis record it. Lord Almighty, listeners everywhere felt their temperatures rising as Elvis threw himself into the uptempo rocker and its multiple hooks. “Burning Love” shot to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and has been certified 2x Platinum. It was Elvis’ final top ten hit.
The first disc of the set continues with Ross-Spang’s new mixes of the 1975 sessions which comprised the Today album. Duke Bardwell played bass, with David Briggs on clavinet and Tony Brown on piano. If these sessions aren’t as affecting as the earlier ones, they nonetheless yielded plenty of worthwhile material including Presley’s sensitive reading of Don McLean’s “And I Love You So,” The Pointer Sisters’ country pastiche “Fairytale” (to which Elvis brought a great degree of verisimilitude), and even the oft-covered “Green, Green Grass of Home.” The second disc of Sunset Boulevard offers new mixes of alternate takes from both the 1972 and 1975 sessions. While all of these outtake versions have been previously released (mostly on various titles in the limited-edition Follow That Dream series), Ross-Spang’s remixes are new.
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The remixed third and fourth takes of “Burning Love” bring out detail in Emory Gordy’s already prevalent bass part as well as the guitars and even the background vocal arrangement. The familiar call-and-response in the final moments hadn’t yet been introduced, yet Elvis still exhibits comfort with the song and its rock-and-roll milieu. Occasional flashes of a more tentative vocalist come across in these outtakes, too, though Elvis’ leads are remarkably consistent in power and interpretation. There are occasional false starts and chatter as on “Always on My Mind” and “It’s a Matter of Time” which dissolves into a shout of “Goddammit!” and laughter. A loose, jaunty run through “Fairytale” is another highlight. Mike Piacentini has beautifully mastered Ross-Spang’s mixes.
The third, fourth, and fifth discs of Sunset Boulevard are dedicated to some of the rehearsals which Elvis held in the studio for his shows at the Las Vegas Hilton. The rehearsals (from July 24, 1970 and August 16, 1974) are just that: they’re far from polished and clearly not intended for release, but nonetheless fun for those who enjoy the raw and unvarnished fly-on-the-wall experience. Elvis, who was still adding new songs (such as “Softly, As I Leave You” and “The Twelfth of Never”) in ’74, often isn’t singing full-out and is sometimes barely audible; the tight, sympathetic, and altogether intuitive rhythm section accompanies him as driven by Ron Tutt’s propulsive drums. Still, there’s a certain power to these unvarnished performances of such songs as “I Just Can’t Help Believin’,” “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” and “Sweet Caroline.” All of these rehearsals were mixed by Vic Anesini for the Follow That Dream series, and his exemplary mixes have been retained here.
The 8 x 8″ packaging of Sunset Boulevard will be familiar to anyone who’s picked up the past titles in this series or even earlier Elvis boxes from Legacy including Aloha from Hawaii Via Satellite, Elvis on Tour, Live 1969, ’68 Comeback Special, The Searcher, and Prince from Another Planet. The slipcase contains a 28-page squarebound book with Escott’s always-erudite notes and copious photos and memorabilia images. The discs (adorned with replica RCA orange labels) are housed in slots within two folders that reproduce master tape box images.
The 1975 sessions on Sunset Boulevard would turn out to be Elvis Presley’s final recordings within a proper studio; RCA’s mobile truck would capture subsequent recordings in the Jungle Room of his Memphis mansion, Graceland. This set is a poignant re-evaluation of these late-career sessions, both the familiar classics and lesser-known tracks. It’s available now at the links below. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
5CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
2LP Highlights: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
Joe Marchese
JOE MARCHESE (Editor) joined The Second Disc shortly after its launch in early 2010, and has since penned daily news and reviews about classic music of all genres. In 2015, Joe formed the Second Disc Records label. Celebrating the great songwriters, producers and artists who created the sound of American popular song and beyond, Second Disc Records, in conjunction with labels including Real Gone Music and Cherry Red Records, has released newly-curated collections produced and annotated by Joe from iconic artists such as Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross and The Supremes, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, The Spinners, Johnny Mathis, Bobby Darin, Meat Loaf, Laura Nyro, Melissa Manchester, Liza Minnelli, Darlene Love, Al Stewart, Michael Nesmith, and many others.
Joe has written liner notes, produced, or contributed to over 200 reissues from a diverse array of artists, among them America, JD Souther, Nat “King” Cole, Paul Williams, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield, BJ Thomas, The 5th Dimension, Burt Bacharach, The Mamas and the Papas, Carpenters, Perry Como, Rod McKuen, Doris Day, Jackie DeShannon, Petula Clark, Robert Goulet, and Andy Williams.
Over the past two decades, Joe has also worked in a variety of capacities on and off Broadway as well as at some of the premier theatres in the U.S., including Lincoln Center Theater, George Street Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, and the York Theatre Company. He has felt privileged to work on productions alongside artists such as the late Jack Klugman, Eli Wallach, Arthur Laurents, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. In 2009, Joe began contributing theatre and music reviews to the print publication The Sondheim Review, and in 2012, he joined the staff of The Digital Bits as a regular contributor writing about film and television on DVD and Blu-ray.
Joe currently resides in the suburbs of New York City.