A contest fit for a King

Oh I may very well have a brand new pair of CDs.  Sorry Taylor, Brad, and Hank Williams, Jr., but Elvis is still King to me. A couple weeks ago I was given the opportunity to preview the new From Elvis in Memphis: Legacy Edition,a collection of two CDs stuffed full of Elvis awesomeness.  Here's what the email I had gotten said:

In 1969 Elvis Presley returned to Memphis to record his first hometown session in 13 years. He returned to Memphis with renewed focus and ambition sparked by his wildly successful TV comeback special the previous month. In just two weeks of sessions he made some of the most memorable and artistically satisfying music of his career. 

This burst of inspired creativity resulted in the critically acclaimed album From Elvis In Memphis and its companion Back In Memphis. "Suspicious Minds," "In The Ghetto," "Don't Cry Daddy" and "Kentucky Rain" were among the unforgettable hits that resulted. This 40th anniversary Legacy Edition contains every track from the sessions recorded at American Studios in Memphis in January and February of 1969.

Oh you guys, it's so great hearing all these wonderful Elvis classics in one - well two - CDs.  If you're an Elvis fan like I am, it's a must have.  Luckily I've been given the opportunity to give away three copies to other Elvis fans.  But you're going to have to work for these CDs.  This go around we're going to have a trivia contest.  The three readers who answer the most questions right will win the collection.

In the meantime, if you'd like to buy your own copy which will be available July 28th, you can preorder yours here .  You can also take a listen here.  

Now for the contest.  It'll run from today until next Sunday, July 19.  All you have to do is answer the questions below and send the answers to me at blogginmomma@hotmail.com.  The three people who answer the most questions correctly will win.  Feel free to Google, Yahoo, call in a friend, whatever you have to do to win.  Oh, you can also just read the press release after the jump to find the answers.  Just email me your answers and you'll be entered to win.  Good luck guys.

TRIVIA QUESTIONS:

1. How old was Elvis at the time of these sessions in 1969?
2. What year did Elvis move to Memphis? What church did the Presleys attend when they moved to Memphis?
3. Which famous old Hank Snow song (also recorded by The Rolling Stones) was included on the first of the Memphis albums? After Elvis left Sun records in 1955, he didn’t record in Memphis until the year?  
4. What is the title of the first song to hit the charts from these sessions? 
5. What was the name of the studio where the recordings took place? 
6. The fourth single hit from the sessions has the name of a U.S.state in it’s title. Which state? 
7. Elvis had a big hit in 1970 with “The Wonder Of You”. The b-side was from the Memphis sessions. What was the title?

FROM ELVIS IN MEMPHIS: LEGACY EDITION

CELEBRATES 40^thANNIVERSARY OF AMERICAN STUDIOS SESSIONS, 36 TRACKS ACROSS 2 CDs, INCLUDING

10 ORIGINAL MONO SINGLE MASTERS 

The sessions delivered a year of ‘comeback’ hits: “In the Ghetto,” “Suspicious Minds,” “Don’t Cry Daddy” and “ Kentucky Rain”  

Liner notes by Memphis music historians Robert Gordon and Tara McAdams 

Latest entry in distinctive Legacy Edition series available at both

physical and digital retail outlets starting July 28, 2009, through RCA/Legacy  

“The implicit challenge was accepted, and all sank in for hard work, real work.. The biggest hits of Elvis’ latter career came from these sessions: ‘Suspicious Minds,’ ‘In The Ghetto,’ ‘Don’t Cry Daddy,’ and ‘Kentucky Rain’… He went from selling a couple hundred thousand singles to having several hits that sold more than a million… Once again Elvis arose and again, Elvis triumphed.”

– from the liner notes by Robert Gordon and Tara McAdams 

            In January-February 1969, after 13 years of recording studio albums and movie soundtracks in Nashville and Hollywood, the time was right for Elvis Presley(1935-1977) to set foot once again in a Memphis studio.  Those sessions at Chip Moman’s American Studios yielded a year-long string of ‘comeback’ hit singles: “In the Ghetto,” “Suspicious Minds,” “Don’t Cry Daddy” and “Kentucky Rain.” 

            FROM ELVIS IN MEMPHIS: LEGACY EDITION collects that entire American Studios output, and then some.  The specially-designed 40^th anniversary double-CD package will be available at all physical and digital retail outlets starting July 28^th through RCA/Legacy, a division of SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT.

            The extensive 2,400-word liner notes essay for FROM ELVIS IN MEMPHIS: LEGACY EDITION was written by the homegrown Memphis team of Robert Gordon (whose books include It Came From Memphis and The Elvis Treasures, and whose documentary films include Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story and Shakespeare Was A Big George Jones Fan: Cowboy Jack Clement’s Home Movies) and his wife Tara McAdams, author of The Elvis Handbook among other works.

            Individually, disc one of FROM ELVIS IN MEMPHIS: LEGACY EDITION includes the 12 songs of 1969’s original From Elvis In MemphisLP.  Among these are “In the Ghetto” (written by Mac Davis, the song that jump-started his career the next year as a Columbia Records artist), and powerful covers of Gamble & Huff’s “Only The Strong Survive” (via Jerry Butler), Johnny Tillotson’s “It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin’,” Hank Snow’s “I’m Movin’ On” (famously covered by the Rolling Stones back in ’65), John Hartford’s “Gentle On My Mind,” and Burt Bacharach’s “Any Day Now” (via Chuck Jackson).

            The 12 songs are augmented by four bonus tracks, songs that showed up on various LPs over the next couple of years “Who Am I?”, “If I’m A Fool (For Loving You),” and covers of Bobby Darin’s  “I’ll Be There” and the Beatles’ “Hey Jude.”

            Disc two of FROM ELVIS IN MEMPHIS: LEGACY EDITION includes the 10 songs that comprised LP two of the double-LP From Memphis To Vegas – From Vegas To Memphis (more on this album below).  Among these are Percy Mayfield’s “Stranger In My Own Home Town,” Neil Diamond’s “And The Grass Won’t Pay No Mind” (ironically, it was Neil Diamond who yielded his studio time at American to accommodate Elvis), Bobby Russell’s “Do You Know Who I Am?,” Ned Miller’s “From A Jack To A King,” and Mort Shuman’s “You’ll Think Of Me.”

            These 10 songs are augmented by another 10 bonus tracks, grouped as The Original Mono Single Masters.  Four are (mono) reprises of songs that appeared on the aforementioned LPs: “In The Ghetto,” “Any Day Now,” “The Fair’s Moving On,” and “You’ll Think Of Me.”  The other six were all originally non-LP single sides at the time of their first release: “Suspicious Minds” (the Grammy Hall Of Fame and Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductee, written by Mark James); “Don’t Cry Daddy” (Mac Davis) b/w “Rubberneckin’”; Eddie Rabbitt’s “Kentucky Rain” b/w Shirl Milete’s “My Little Friend”; and finally, guitarist Johnny Christopher’s “Mama Liked The Roses.”

            Elvis Presley’s multi-faceted performing career underwent a heroic rebirth in 1968 and 1969, ignited by three factors: his NBC-TV “comeback” special of December 1968 (taped in June, his first live show before an audience in over seven years); his landmark sessions at Chip Moman’s American Studios in January-February 1969 (Elvis’ first official recording in his hometown of Memphis since leaving Sun Records in November 1955); and his triumphant return to Las Vegas (the International Hotel) in August 1969, which led to his return to touring for the rest of his life.

            The back-story originates with the NBC-TV broadcast of “The ’68 Comeback Special.”  A colossal success by every standard, the tv special (and those indelible black leather images) invigorated Elvis and everyone around him, including the two most formidable figures in his career at the time, Colonel Tom Parker (his manager) and Felton Jarvis of RCA Records (his A&R man and staff producer). 

            Several members of Elvis’ entourage had long-standing connections with producer and songwriter Chips Moman.  As busy as Memphis and the surrounding area’s studios were – Stax Records, Willie Mitchell’s Hi Records, and in Alabama, Rick Hall’s FAME Studios and the new Muscle Shoals Sound – it was Chips’ American Studios on Thomas Street that had all but eclipsed the competition, a steady rise in business that began in 1965.  Like those other studios, American had its core rhythm section of world-class players: guitarist Reggie Young, bassists Tommy Cogbill and Mike Leech, Bobby Emmons on organ, Bobby Wood on piano, drummer Gene Chrisman, plus the Memphis Horns led by Wayne Jackson and Andrew Love, and a dazzling array of background vocalists.  Holding it together was Chips Moman, a songwriter (“Dark End Of the Street,” Aretha Franklin’s “Do Right Woman Do Right Man”) and experienced producer since his earliest days at Stax Records.

            According to Peter Guralnick, American reportedly charted 120 hits between November 1967 and January 1971, landing 28 records on the Billboardcharts in one memorable week.  There were early national hits with local acts Sam the Sham (“Wooly Bully”), Sandy Posey (“Born a Woman”), the Box Tops (“The Letter”), Merrilee Rush (“Angel Of the Morning”), the Gentrys (“Keep On Dancin’”), and many others. Atlantic Records became a major client, as producer Jerry Wexler steered Aretha Franklin (“Think”), Wilson Pickett (“I’m a Midnight Mover”), Dusty Springfield (Dusty In Memphis), Cissy Houston and the Sweet Inspirations (“Sweet Inspiration”), Herbie Mann (Memphis Underground), and many other label acts to Chips’ American Studios.

            A lifelong Memphis resident (since age 13) whose story – and the story of the birth of rock and roll itself – is inextricably linked for all time, Elvis Presley arrived at American Studios at the perfect moment: January 13, 1969.  It was just six weeks after the NBC-TV broadcast of December 3^rd, and a month after the release of the TV Special soundtrack LP, a platinum seller whose climactic closing number, “If I Can Dream,” was turning into Elvis’ first hit single since 1966. 

            With the exception of the impromptu “Million Dollar Quartet” session of December 1956 at Sun Studios with Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash (officially unreleased until 1990), it was the first time Elvis was recording in his hometown in over 13 years.  The first results of the American Studio sessions came quickly; “In the Ghetto” was issued as a non-LP single in May 1969, and was welcomed as a platinum-selling hit. 

            In June 1969, From Elvis In Memphis presented 12 of the 32 master recordings that Elvis completed at American Studios, climaxing with “In the Ghetto.”  The album became his first gold-selling studio (non-movie soundtrack) LP since 1961.  In August, “Suspicious Minds” (b/w “You’ll Think Of Me”) was released as a new non-LP single.  “Suspicious Minds” not only hit the million-selling mark, but became Elvis first #1 hit since 1962 (“Good Luck Charm”) and the last #1 of his career.

            Also in August, buoyed by his comeback chain of events, Elvis kicked off a four-week run at the brand newInternational Hotel in Las Vegas, following Barbra Streisand’s run in the 2,000-seat showroom.  Live recording over the course of six nights was produced by Felton Jarvis, and five months later in November, the double-LP From Memphis To Vegas – From Vegas To Memphis was released. 

            The first LP gathered 13 songs recorded live at the hotel; the second LP brought out another 10 of the American Studio tracks.  The concurrent November single release, however, was not drawn from the album tracks.  Instead, it came from the American sessions, as “Don’t Cry Daddy” chalked up another million-selling Top 10 hit.  Two months later in January 1970, “Kentucky Rain” extended the string, a Top 20 gold-selling hit.

            A couple of as-yet unreleased American tracks - Bobby Darin’s  “I’ll Be There,” “If I’m A Fool (For Loving You)” - surfaced on Let’s Be Friends, a Camden budget LP released April 1970.  In November, RCA spun off the studio half of the double-album as a single LP, Back In Memphis.  In March 1971, another as-yet unreleased American track – “Who Am I” – surfaced on Elvis’ Christmas Album, also a Camden budget LP.  And in February 1972, one more as-yet unreleased American track – the Beatles’ “Hey Jude” – popped up in the middle of Elvis Now.  It was the last time that the non-LP American sides were heard from until the 1993 box set, From Nashville to Memphis: The Essential 60's Masters.

            Elvis Presley scored a major conquest with the music he recorded at American Studios that winter of 1969, a triumphant return to his hitmaking ways in the company of another Mid-South visionary, Chips Moman.  “But fires must be fed, or else they go out,” Gordon and McAdams warn.  Still, “After revisiting the spirit of home, Elvis had a victory he could reflect upon, a confirmation that he was capable of more, a know­ledge of the fire burning inside us all that we call hope.”

FROM ELVIS IN MEMPHIS : LEGACY EDITION by ELVIS PRESLEY (RCA/Legacy 88697 51497-2) CD One – Selections: 1. Wearin’ That Loved On Look • 2. Only The Strong Survive • 3. I’ll Hold You In My Heart (Till I Can Hold You In My Arms) • 4. Long Black Limousine • 5. It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin’ • 6. I’m Movin’ On • 7. Power Of My Love • 8. Gentle On My Mind • 9. After Loving You • 10. True Love Travels On A Gravel Road • 11. Any Day Now • 12. In The Ghetto • Bonus tracks: 13. I’ll Be There • 14. Hey Jude • 15. If I’m A Fool (For Loving You) • 16. Who Am I? 

Notes:

Tracks 1-12 from From Elvis In Memphis, originally issued June 1969, as RCA 4155.

Tracks 13 & 15 from Let’s Be Friends, originally issued April 1970, as Camden 2408.

Track 14 from Elvis Now, originally issued February 1972, as RCA 4671.

Track 16 from You’ll Never Walk Alone, originally issued March 1971, as Camden 2472.

CD Two – Selections: 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. Do 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) • Bonus tracks – The Original Mono Single Masters: 11. In The Ghetto • 12. Any Day Now • 13. The Fair’s Moving On • 14. Suspicious Minds • 15. You’ll Think Of Me • 16. Don’t Cry Daddy • 17. Rubberneckin’ • 18. Kentucky Rain • 19. My Little Friend • 20. Mama Liked The Roses.

Notes:Tracks 1-10 from LP Two of the double-LP From Memphis To Vegas/From Vegas To Memphis, originally issued November 1969, as RCA 6020; tracks 1-10 re-released November 1970 as single LP Back In Memphis, RCA 4429.

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