Customer Reviews

Back in Memphis

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In January of 1969, Elvis made a serious attempt to record music that would would once again propel him to the top of the pop music world. With hits like Suspicious Minds, In the Ghetto, and Kentucky Rain, Elvis succeeded. In addition to the three tunes were dozens of other songs recorded during these same studio sessions that would spawn two key albums: The Memphis Record and Back in Memphis.

Back in Memphis did not contain any top 40 hits but traditional favorites and Elvis' renditions of tunes made popular by other artists make this a top-notch collection. I would say that this is perhaps Elvis' easiest-listening album. One cannot help but to relax and find an overwhelming sense of peace and calm while listening to this material.

Do You Know Who I Am, And the Grass Won't Pay No Mind, and Inherit the Wind are perhaps the three most gentle and soothing tracks ever sung by Elvis, and this is even when drawing comparisons with Side 2 of Elvis' Christmas Album.

For the person who really wants to remove himself or herself from the fast-paced, stressed-out contentions of modern-day life and who yearns to go back to a simpler place and time, I highly recommend Elvis Presley-Back in Memphis.

The CD is uniformly good...Elvis voice is marvelous here, the songs are uniformly good, and Elvis handles the ballads like This Is The Story with sincerity and emotion, and the bluesy pop-country stuff weighs in at least that strong. If you thought "The Best Of Elvis" ended with the fifties, you're in for an enjoyable education. Top notch stuff.

Originally the second LP of the two-LP 1969 opus FROM MEMPHIS TO VEGAS/FROM VEGAS TO MEMPHIS, BACK IN MEMPHIS, released on its own in November 1970, is the second part of Elvis' hugely successful sojourn to Chips Moman's American Studios that also yielded the classic FROM ELVIS IN MEMPHIS during the summer of 1969.

Often thought of as the lesser companion to the live Vegas album and to the first Memphis project, BACK IN MEMPHIS nevertheless contains more than a few revelatory tracks from the King, all of which, like those on FROM ELVIS IN MEMPHIS, touch on pop ("And The Grass Won't Pay No Mind"); country ("From A Jack To A King") and 1960s R&B ("You'll Think Of Me", the B-side to "Suspicious Minds"). And although this album doesn't include the hits that the expanded FROM ELVIS IN MEMPHIS does, it does have Elvis very much in command with Moman's enthusiastic blessing. Three tracks in particular stand out: the poignant, Bobby Russell-penned ballad "Do You Know Who I Am?"; the Percy Mayfield blues classic "Stranger In My Own Hometown", done with incredible gutsiness by the King; and the R&B/gospel standard "Without Love (There Is Nothing)", which would almost certainly have been a hit for the King had not Tom Jones hit with the same song at the same time.

Sadly, because of some pretty severe conflicts between the Colonel and the equally-headstrong Moman, Elvis never worked with Moman again. It's a true pity, because Moman really encouraged Elvis to unleash himself in ways that the Colonel never did when he was making all those mediocre B-movies during what should have been the King's most productive years in the 1960s. And although Elvis' regular producer Felton Jarvis was no slouch himself, not even Jarvis was able to consistently encourage Elvis during the final eight years the way Moman had been able to do during those '69 Memphis sessions--though it certainly wasn't for lack of trying.

Still, this is an important album from its time--a document of the King at his best, not only in a recording studio, but perhaps the most important recording studio of its era in his own hometown.

ELVIS IS SOUL,ELVIS IS COUNTRY.ELVIS IS ROCK,ELVIS IS EVERYTHING IN MUSIC,STYLE,AND PERFORMANCE. THIS DEMONSTRATES ALL OF HIS STRENGTHS.

This was the second Elvis album to feature material from the legendary January/February Memphis recording sessions. It starts off with three great songs, and it ends with three great songs. In between, it features four of the weaker tracks from the Memphis sessions. Not to say that they aren't good, just not as good as the others. This CD would almost be worth getting just to hear the amazing "Stranger in My Own Home Town", but it's also available on The Memphis 1969 Anthology: Suspicious Minds. I would recommended getting that CD, instead of this one. Here is the track listing for this CD:

1. Inherit the Wind
2. This is the Story
3. Stranger in My Own Home Town
4. A Little Bit of Green
5. And the Grass Won't Pay No Mind
6. So You Know Who I am?
7. From a Jack to a King
8. The Fair's Moving on
9. You'll Think of Me
10. Without Love (There is Nothing)

This was the second Elvis album to feature material from the legendary January/February Memphis recording sessions. It starts off with three great songs, and it ends with three great songs. In between, it features four of the weaker tracks from the Memphis sessions. Not to say that they aren't good, just not as good as the others. This CD would almost be worth getting just to hear the amazing "Stranger in My Own Home Town", but it's also available on The Memphis 1969 Anthology: Suspicious Minds. I would recommended getting that CD, instead of this one.

underappreciated. The voice, the ballads, and the feeling that he emits into these recordings...BUY THIS NOW!!

-20 something Elvis fan

This album was released in late 1970 and was a commercial flop. It is made up of songs that were left over from the recording sessions with Chips Moman at Memphis' American Sound Studios. The best songs from those sessions were previously released as singles or included on the excellent "From Elvis In Memphis" album. While it is not a bad album, it is not very good either. My favorite song on here is "Stranger in My Own Home Town", after that the rest are pretty mediocre. This is only for avid Elvis fans that have to own everything he released.

THIS ALBUM REALY SHOWS HOW MUCH POWER AND HOW MUCH HEART ELVIS REALY HAD. HIS SOUL IS ALL THERE AND THE MUSIC PICKED FOR THIS RECORDING IS IN MY OPINION, THE MOST TEAR JERKING AND HEART FELT MUSIC I'VE EVER HEARD.

This was the second Elvis album to feature material from the legendary January/February Memphis recording sessions. It starts off with three great songs, and it ends with three great songs. In between, it features four of the weaker tracks from the Memphis sessions. Not to say that they aren't good, just not as good as the others. This CD would almost be worth getting just to hear the amazing "Stranger in My Own Home Town", but it's also available on The Memphis 1969 Anthology: Suspicious Minds. I would recommended getting that CD, instead of this one.