Early Access! TCBCast 333: The Elvis is Back! Sessions, Part 2

Gurdip and Justin wrap up their coverage of the March & April 1960 recording sessions that resulted in "Elvis is Back!" and three number one singles and the guys ponder whether these may have been the best sessions Elvis ever undertook. Then after the main topic, Gurdip taps out and Ryan Droste hops into the ring for a bit of Elvis news regarding the upcoming Oprah special with Riley Keough on October 8 and then Song of the Week, with Ryan returning to his favorite Elvis movie, "It Happened At the World's Fair" and its smoldering song of seduction, "Relax." Then, Justin closes things out by trying to put Elvis's 1957 recording of "I'll Be Home for Christmas" in context by showcasing how different it is from the only prior recorded versions between Bing Crosby's original and Elvis's version, and attempting to forget all about the other several thousand versions that followed. If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy. 

Gurdip and Justin delve into the landmark 1960 recording sessions in which Elvis declared that he was indeed back, both literally from the Army as well as on top of the charts, with the sessions giving him three massive US number one hits in "Stuck On You," "It's Now or Never" and "Are You Lonesome Tonight?"  As many of our listeners know, Elvis is Back is perhaps Gurdip's favorite Elvis album ever, and these are his favorite sessions, so he's thrilled to bits. Armed with the "Elvis is Back Sessions" FTD, we explore how Elvis had evolved as an entertainer in the two years since his last sessions in Nashville and appraise the choice of material, from covers/reworkings of existing songs that he'd been practicing at home, such as "Soldier Boy," "Like A Baby" and "There's No Tomorrow" as well as wholly new songs written expressly for him, like Doc Pomus & Mort Shuman's first song for him "A Mess of Blues," and, of course, the stunning doo-wop ballad "Fame and Fortune." Part 1 covers the March session and the first half of the April session, ending with "It's Now or Never." Part 2 will cover the rest of the April session, plus Song of the Week with Ryan! If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy. 

It's a fairly light episode this week, with Justin and Bec discussing the latest in Elvis news, including Graceland's big "Presley for a Day" tour announcement, briefly reacting to the Guitar Man Sessions FTD, Bec's latest Elvis book pick-ups and more. For Song of the Week, Bec spotlights Elvis' cover of the obscure Ivory Joe Hunter song "It's Still Here." Meanwhile, Justin cracks into the Guitar Man sessions FTD to explore the outtakes and early alternate arrangement of "Singing Tree," which languished for decades as a "Clambake" soundtrack bonus song. We have some beefy topics coming up in the coming weeks that we're busy preparing for, including discussions on the 1960 "Elvis is Back!" recording sessions, "That's The Way It Is" rehearsals and much more! If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy. 

Olivia & Justin continue their exploration of how "Viva Las Vegas" was made, on the 60th anniversary year of its release! The duo spends a good chunk of time on the filming schedule, deleted scenes, pondering why certain creative choices were made, and also digging a bit into post-production aspects like editing, scoring and marketing. The most critical resource by far for this episode was the excellent FTD book and CD set "The Making of Viva Las Vegas" which is sadly no longer in print after its 2019 release. For Song of the Week, Olivia picks "Love Letters," the song Elvis recorded in 1966 and then revisited again in the studio in 1970. Justin selects a holiday highlight with "If I Get Home on Christmas Day" off the "The Wonderful World of Christmas" album. If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy. 

We've talked so much about Elvis' recording sessions that it's fairly easy to understand how an Elvis record came together. Less clear to many, however, is how an Elvis movie was made. Olivia got super curious to learn the ins and outs of filmmaking, so Justin & Olivia decided to center the discussion around the making of one of the most celebrated and successful movies to star Elvis, 1964's Viva Las Vegas, in the year of the 60th anniversary of its release - since no one else is seeming to commemorate it! From concept and script to pre-production efforts like location scouting, casting, crew (and especially the music, as always!), from getting song demos all the way up to the initial recording sessions, we break down how it happened in part one. Part 2 will focus largely on filming, post-production and marketing, along with our Songs of the Week! One of our most vital resources this week is FTD's immaculately researched The Making of Viva Las Vegas by David English and Pal Granlund, which is unfortunately no longer in print.  If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy. Patrons get early access to new episodes (including Part 2 of this episode) and plenty of bonus content!

John Heath of EAP Society joins Justin for an extensive (but still HIGHLY abbreviated!) discussion about the history of the music industry in Memphis before and during Elvis' career, from early blues recordings made by Ralph Peer to Sam Phillips' Sun Records, from indie labels inspired by Sun's success to the monumental Stax Records, how Chips Moman's American Sound came together, and up through Elvis's Jungle Room recordings as the city's music industry wound down in the late 70s. It's all explored through a playlist of about two dozen tracks compiled by John, linked below. If you've been exploring the 2024 Sony box set release "Memphis," you will find this a great supplemental discussion. There are no specific songs of the week this week, just a ton of amazing music history to delve into. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0a1G2qR6gFfQT13UzrBTLg?si=09505e6244c44da8&fbclid=IwY2xjawEdLxBleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHTrNyBF-6SkoS9goKzglqEqOstRBysdp99mM1miKBy5StaEBDUZ1HVJJjw_aem_hAjH3ZILor4p4CAcxsoarw&nd=1&dlsi=f85c2bdb288d4a43 You can also find the final track intended for this playlist, which is not on Spotify, on YouTube at this link (current as of release): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ipqz1oIt4TA If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy. 

Justin is joined by John Michael Heath of EAP Society (youtube.com/EAPSociety) to give their first impressions of the new Sony Legacy box set, "Memphis" which released today, August 9, 2024.  Marketed as "a comprehensive collection" of 111 recordings of Elvis made in his adoptive hometown from his time at Sam Phillips's Sun Records through to Chips Moman's American Sound, the iconic Stax, live at the Mid-South Coliseum and at his home, Graceland, "Memphis" is said to contain "newly mixed versions of the select recordings, pure and without overdubs" overseen by award-winning engineer Matt Ross-Spang and producer Ernst Jorgensen.  Spoilers: there's good news for those who want to re-experience the 1973, 1974 and 1976 material in a different light than you may be familiar with, and a faithful collection of the Sun material... but this set's presentation of the 1969 American Sound music is a different story altogether. And that "pure and without overdubs" claim? Well, you'll hear. The guys also answer listener feedback on this episode, including several about a recent Song of the Week, but since this discussion ran long, Justin and John will be back later with a separate, full length episode for the main topic intended to supplement and compliment the "Memphis" set, focused on the history of the music industry in Memphis, how Elvis was influenced by it, and how he in turn helped reshape it. 

Justin was out last week, so we've pulled this from deep in the archives buried in the back of the TCBCast salt mines: Gurdip and Justin's 2022 review of Pat Boone's landmark 1963 Elvis tribute record "Pat Boone Sings Guess Who?" No, we're not joking!  This may be the most we're ever gonna talk about Pat Boone at one time so we crammed in a few of his other hits into the discussion on top of this... album? Experience? Prank? It's the project that got Boone inducted into Colonel Parker's Snowmen's League of America and features arrangements by credible jazz pianist Paul Smith. Part spoof, part homage... if you can only say one thing, well you can't say that Pat Boone was never in on the joke! Then, from the July 2022 edition of TCBCast Now, Justin heads west for our "Song of the Month" segment, selecting Marty Robbins' iconic 1959 showdown ballad "Big Iron," while Gurdip was inspired to pick Englebert Humperdinck's sweeping 1968 recording "A Man Without Love" by a recent movie viewing. Both songs Elvis was likely to have been familiar with, released during his lifetime from contemporaries! Next week on TCBCast, we'll be bringing our first impressions of the "Memphis" box set which releases THIS FRIDAY, August 9 - plus EAP Society co-host John Michael Heath will be joining in for a special episode about the history of Memphis' music industry.  If you like this kind of content, you can hear more bonus content just like this that we do for our supporters over at Patreon.com/TCBCast. We kindly thank all our Patreon backers - your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy!

Ryan & Justin convene to revisit one of their all-time favorite live Elvis albums, "On Stage 1970," which was conceived as an album full of new songs, compiled from a mix of Vegas shows from February 1970, padded out with a couple leftovers from the August 1969 engagement. Both of the guys had the album early in their respective fandoms and have a huge appreciation for this period of Elvis's career, just a few months prior to the famous "That's The Way Is It" run in August 1970. The duo also briefly touches on the bonus tracks included on the 1999 expanded edition, the 2010 Legacy edition, and "The On Stage Season," the FTD release which featured a high quality soundboard of the closing show from February 23, 1970, which gives a better idea of what an Elvis show during this period felt like front to back than the sort of fantasy concert presented by the album. For Song of the Week, Justin goes back into the history behind Bob Wills' "Faded Love," which Elvis cut in mid-1970 for the "Elvis Country" album, which stretches as far back as an incredible, heartbreaking true story from the mid-19th century that inspired "Dear Nellie Gray," the song whose melody that became Faded Love. Ryan, on the other hand, takes it light with the breezy "There's A Brand New Day on the Horizon" off the 1964 "Roustabout" soundtrack. If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy. 

Gurdip was really feeling the season, so in between prepping for next week's meaty episode with Ryan on "On Stage 1970", Justin and Gurdip had a breezy little classic TCBCast-style discussion about the Elvis songs that evoke memories or give them vibes of warm summer days.  The guys also quickly tackle two Songs of the Week, with Gurdip giving "Once is Enough" from "Kissin' Cousins" the second chance he feels it deserves, and Justin simmering with the understated (and oft-overlooked) Don Robertson-penned ballad "Love Me Tonight" from the early 1963 sessions that should have led to a studio album (later known as The Lost Album or For the Asking), but instead the song was buried as a bonus on the soundtrack for "Fun in Acapulco." If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.