WITH THE RELEASE of If I Can Dream in October 1968, Elvis began a string of superb singles and albums that lifted him from the doldrums of the lifeless Hollywood movies that had defined his career for years. These new records lifted him back to the toppermost of the poppermost across the planet. His return to live performing in July 1969 cemented his superstar status.
When I say doldrums, I am not exaggerating: Between the release of the ELVIS IS BACK album in 1960 and FROM ELVIS IN MEMPHIS in 1969, Presley had not released a single studio album of exceptional quality that wasn’t of a religious nature. By the middle of ’68, plummeting sales of his records and movie tickets were threatening the lifestyle to which he had become accustomed to living.
The Elvis television special of December 1968 began a string of extraordinary achievements that carried him through the end of 1970. But this came to a smashing halt with the release of a trio of sub-standard records in 1971: the singles Where Did They Go Lord / Rags To Riches and Life / Only Believe and the LOVE LETTERS FROM ELVIS album in the first half of 1971.
“Elvis once again takes a dive and his admirers everywhere can only hope that it isn’t for the count.”
When these were released, most Elvis fans were stunned. How could the artist who gave us If I Can Dream, In The Ghetto, Suspicious Minds, FROM ELVIS IN MEMPHIS, and ELVIS COUNTRY release crap like this? This new material was barely good enough to be considered for use on a Camden budget album!
And it wasn’t just the fans who paid for the album who were baffled: In his review of the album for Rolling Stone magazine, Jon Landau called LOVE LETTERS the “most discouraging event of the last three years of Presley’s career. He once again takes a dive and his admirers everywhere can only hope that it isn’t for the count. Those of us who have loved him from the beginning . . . can only turn away in disgust from this sort of thing.”
Elvis never got his career back on anything resembling a consistent track through the remaining six years of his life. But it did not have to be that way.
When Colonel Parker inspected this artwork for the LOVE LETTERS album, he was miffed to see that RCA had had the temerity to place their logo above his client’s name. He demanded that it be changed. Why RCA acquiesced to such a ridiculous demand is unknown except to stand as a testament to the power and influence this crotchety old man wielded. For several years, copies of this jacket that escaped destruction were coveted by Elvis collectors.
If I were you
There was enough quality material in the can to have released a pair of fine singles and a strong album in mid-’71. What I am going to do here in this article is assemble an album that could have been released instead of LOVE LETTERS.
Below is a list of the recordings that were available to Elvis and RCA Victor at the time. I did not include sides that had already been released as singles even if they hadn’t been collected on an album (I’ve Lost You and Patch It Up) or sides scheduled for the upcoming gospel and Christmas albums.
I assigned each track a grade for overall quality using a simple 4‑star grading system. Here is what those grades indicate:
✮ ✮ ✮ ✮ Exceptional
✮ ✮ ✮ Solid
✮ ✮ Filler
✮ Camden
Three and four-star tracks are good enough to maintain the level of quality of the 1969–1970 albums. A two-star track should only be used when better sides aren’t available; more than one per side can drag down an otherwise strong album. A one-star track should have been set aside for use as a bonus track on a Camden budget album.
The grades are subjective but ones that I believe most critics would agree with. Not everyone will agree with me: I’ve heard fans defend the limp This Is Our Dance (which even Englebert Humperdinck would have probably rejected) and the ridiculous bombast of Rags To Riches, which seems to exist to allow Elvis to bellow instead of sing.
Tracks released as singles are marked with a single asterisk (*). Tracks that were deemed unfit for release during Presley’s lifetime but were included on a posthumous album are noted with two asterisks (**).
June 1970
Love Letters ✮ ✮ ✮
When I’m Over You ✮ ✮ ✮
If I Were You ✮
Got My Mojo Workin’ / Keep Your Hands Off Of It ✮ ✮ ✮ ✮
Heart of Rome * ✮
Only Believe * ✮ ✮
This Is Our Dance ✮
Cindy, Cindy ✮ ✮ ✮
I’ll Never Know ✮ ✮
It Ain’t No Big Thing (But it’s Growing) ✮ ✮ ✮
Life * ✮
Sylvia ✮ ✮
The Sound Of Your Cry * ✮ ✮ ✮
A Hundred Years From Now ** ✮ ✮ ✮
I Didn’t Make It On Playing Guitar ** ✮ ✮ ✮
September 1970
Where Did They Go, Lord * ✮ ✮ ✮
Rags To Riches * ✮ ✮
March 1971
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face * ✮ ✮ ✮
Early Morning Rain ✮ ✮ ✮
(That’s What You Get) For Lovin’ Me ✮ ✮ ✮
May 1971
Miracle Of The Rosary ✮
Padre ✮
Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right ✮ ✮ ✮
Help Me Make It Through The Night ✮ ✮ ✮
Until It’s Time For You To Go * ✮ ✮ ✮
Fools Rush In ✮ ✮
It’s Still Here ✮ ✮ ✮ ✮
I’ll Take You Home, Kathleen ✮ ✮ ✮
I Will Be True ✮ ✮ ✮ ✮
I’m Leavin’ * ✮ ✮ ✮ ✮
We Can Make The Morning * ✮ ✮
It’s Only Love * ✮ ✮
Love Me, Love The Life I Lead ✮
Elvis was in fine form, his voice flexible and beautiful. He was still riding the wave of creative energy that had begun in June 1968 with the beginning of the filming of the NBC television special. Almost every track that Elvis recorded in 1970 has some fans as he sings even the lamest songs with some conviction.
In October 1971, RCA released yet another hodgepodge compilation on their Camden budget imprint. I Got Lucky contained nine soundtrack recordings that had originally appeared on EPs in the ’60s along with one B‑side. An essentially pointless collection, it nonetheless featured one of the most attractive cover photos of any Elvis albums of the decade (see Featured Image below).
What was released
This is the LOVE LETTERS album that was released in June 1971:
Side 1
Love Letters ✮ ✮ ✮
When I’m Over You ✮ ✮ ✮
If I Were You ✮
Got My Mojo Workin’ / Keep Your Hands Off Of It ✮ ✮ ✮ ✮
Heart of Rome ✮
Side 2
Only Believe ✮ ✮
This Is Our Dance ✮
Cindy, Cindy ✮ ✮ ✮
I’ll Never Know ✮ ✮
It Ain’t No Big Thing (But it’s Growing) ✮ ✮ ✮
Life ✮
By adding the eleven grades together (24) and then dividing that number by 11, the album has a grade or rating of 2.2. RCA had issued Camden albums of old Presley material by 1971 that had higher grades.
The reworked art for LOVE LETTERS saw the RCA logo moved to the lower right corner. Rather than reposition the photos, RCA had “Love Letters from” reset as two lines instead of one, thereby filling up the white space left at the top of the cover. This was the jacket that fans purchased in 1971. In the wake of Presley’s death in 1977, a stockpile of the original jackets was found and copies of the record were shipped in both the first and second printing jackets.
What could have been released
This is the album that I would have assembled had RCA simply taken the time and phoned me forty-eight years ago. I mean, I had just dropped out of college and didn’t have a whole lot to do except for the usual sex, drugs, and rock & roll.
Side 1
Got My Mojo Workin’ / Keep Your Hands Off Of It ✮ ✮ ✮ ✮
(That’s What You Get) For Lovin’ Me ✮ ✮ ✮
When I’m Over You ✮ ✮ ✮
It Ain’t No Big Thing (But it’s Growing) ✮ ✮ ✮
Love Letters ✮ ✮ ✮
Side 2
Cindy, Cindy ✮ ✮ ✮
Early Morning Rain ✮ ✮ ✮
Help Me Make It Through The Night ✮ ✮ ✮
It’s Still Here ✮ ✮ ✮ ✮
I’ll Take You Home, Kathleen ✮ ✮ ✮
I Will Be True ✮ ✮ ✮ ✮
By adding the eleven grades together (36) and then dividing that number by 11, the album has a grade or rating of 3.3. This would have been a decidedly weaker album than FROM ELVIS IN MEMPHIS nor ON STAGE – FEBRUARY 1970, but it would not have been an embarrassment. Finally, I would have titled this new album something other than “Love Letters from Elvis.”
Coda
This is the first in a series of articles here on Elvis – A Touch Of Gold that will look at albums as they were released during Presley’s life and consider the material that was available and the albums that could have been released instead.
FEATURED IMAGE: The photo at the top of this page was cropped from this photo, which was taken at the same show in September 1970 as the photo used on the LOVE LETTERS album. Why such a killer photo was wasted on a Camden album will remain one of those questions about Elvis and the Colonel and RCA Victor that we mere mortals will never know the answer to!
Mystically liberal Virgo enjoys long walks alone in the city at night in the rain with an umbrella and a flask of 10-year-old Laphroaig who strives to live by the maxim, “It ain’t what you know that gets you into trouble; it’s what you know that just ain’t so.
I’ve been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn, and a college dropout (twice!). Occupationally, I have been a bartender, jewelry engraver, bouncer, landscape artist, and FEMA crew chief following the Great Flood of ’72 (and that was a job that I should never, ever have left).
I am also the final author of the original O’Sullivan Woodside price guides for record collectors and the original author of the Goldmine price guides for record collectors. As such, I was often referred to as the Price Guide Guru, and—as everyone should know—it behooves one to heed the words of a guru. (Unless, of course, you’re the Beatles.)
“Heart of Rome” was MUCH better than the dull “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.”
BLANE
Well, we certainly disagree on this one: Elvis’ rendition is a lovely reading of Ewan MacColl’s “The First TIme.” It doesn’t sound like anything else he ever recorded. I’d like to hear it without the female voice and Elvis up a bit in the mix but then it would probably sound more like a normal Elvis recording.
Thanks for the comment and keep them coming!
NEAL
PS: So, there is a version without the female accompaniment and it is even better!
I actually love “Heart Of Rome” and “Rags To Riches.” One fan’s Elvis poison is another fan’s Elvis gold. Thus it has ever been. I agree though, that your imagined album would have been a scorcher.
Huh. Mostly I agreed, but I’ve always thought his recording of “Rags to Riches” was very impressive. I’ve always wondered why such great songs like “Steamroller Blues” weren’t recorded in the studio and released as singles, but only showed up on live albums. “Steamroller Blues” kicks ass and would have been a big seller as a single, I would think.
CASEY
Thanks for the comment!
Well, I agree that “Rags To Riches” is impressive—in its way. It’s just not what I want to be impressed by when I listen to Elvis. Instead of his over-the-top take on the song, I think a more subdued interpretation would have worked better. Mind you, I’m not against all of Elvis’s bombastic singles: “You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me” and “Hurt” work fine and both are among my fave singles of the ’70s.
I would have liked to see a studio rendition of “Steamroller Blues” also. Given the exposure it received on the Aloha special, I was surprised back in ’73 when it wasn’t a bigger hit all over the world.
Oh, well.
NEAL
I find it strange sometimes that Elvis fans have such different views on various songs. I absolutely love “Rags To Riches” and did from my first hearing on release and still do today. I do though remember reading the review in the top UK music magazine at the time saying it was his worst single ever, which considering “Kissin Cousins” and “Do The Clam”—to name but two—is an insult too far I think.
DG
Elvis’s worst singles through 1971 (although I think ineffective might be a better adjective than worst):
• “Rock-a-Hula Baby” (The A‑side in the UK.)
• “Viva Las Vegas” (I love the track but what a weird thing to release at the height of the British Invasion. Made Elvis seem even older and more out of it than he was.)
• “Kissin’ Cousins” (More silly junk heard alongside the Beatles DC5 Kinks Animals Stones etc.)
• “Do the Clam” (Its release is an existential dilemma I don’t expect will be understood in my lifetime.)
• “Frankie and Johnny” (The Frankie and Johnny movie is begging to be made into a Broadway musical.)
• “Spinout” (The road to love may be paved with danger signs but this was one dumb record. For a brief time, “Spinout” was a nickname given to me by a few of my brother’s more asshole-ish friends I kinda dig it with decades of hindsight.) (“All That I Am” was a better A‑side, as the UK found out.)
• “Long Legged Girl With The Short Dress On” (Ouch ...)
Then came 1971 and “Rags To Riches” and “Life” and “It’s Only Love,” all of which would probably make my list of Presley’s most ineffective singles.
Keep on keepin’ on!
NEAL