Elvis at American Sound

In 2019 I was asked to guest on a radio show to be broadcast over four consecutive weeks. The purpose being to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Elvis’s legendary recording sessions in Memphis. These sessions produced several of the defining performances of Elvis’s later recording career including ‘Suspicious Minds’, ‘In the Ghetto’ and ‘Kentucky Rain’.

In prepping for the radio shows I had what might be called a lightbulb moment. I decided to use the opportunity to write a kindle book on the subject of Elvis’s January and February 1969 sessions at American Sound. After all I figured, I have to do the research so why not take the opportunity to make a few bucks.

What music fans with any interest in the Elvis Presley story should probably know is that these sessions took place at incredibly short notice and in fact a scheduled session for Neil Diamond was delayed to facilitate Elvis. To secure his agreement to delay his own session, Neil managed to secure a promise from Elvis to record one of his songs during his session so it worked out financially well for him! Even more so when Neil returned to the studio and recorded ‘Sweet Caroline’ which Elvis covered in many live performances.

To put Elvis’s career in historical context, in December 1968 Elvis’s now iconic 1968 TV Special had been broadcast and Elvis was reinvented having spent a large part of the sixties making financially lucrative movies that were critically slated. Elvis did of course enter the studio on several occasions and produced non-movie soundtrack material and many of these songs are first rate but suffered from being released via lightweight soundtrack albums as filler. For example, two such classics being ‘Down in the Valley’ and Dylan’s ‘Tomorrow Is a Long Time’ both recorded in 1966 and effectively discarded on the movie soundtrack ‘Spinout’. Dylan allegedly referred to Elvis’s version of his song as “the one recording I treasure the most”.

Elvis wasn’t initially keen on recording in Memphis but was persuaded by members of his entourage that American Sound under the leadership of producer Chips Moman was the place to record. It already had a stunning reputation for creating top class hits. Chips was also a no-nonsense producer who simply wouldn't indulge Elvis's more outrageous behaviour. One could argue the reason Elvis never worked with Chips again was the fact Chips dominated proceedings through sheer force of personality. Certainly not a situation Elvis was used to. Anyway, the first two months of 1969 left fans with a stunning body of work and the rest as they say is history.

There were two albums released ‘From Elvis In Memphis’ and ‘Back In Memphis’. ‘From Elvis in Memphis’ being in my opinion, an essential album for anyone interested in arguably Elvis’s only cohesive album of material. I say that in the sense that it is effectively nothing but a country-soul album. And in case you’re interested the one song I’d say is my personal favourite from the sessions is ‘Long Black Limousine’.

Sadly the building no longer stands. It was torn down and today what you will find is a ‘Dollar General’ convenience store. Progress?