RCA Studio B – Nashville, Tennessee
Producer: Felton Jarvis
Engineer: Al Pachucki
(6.00pm – 9.00pm / 10.00pm – 1.00am / 1.30am – 4.30am)
Musicians:
- Guitar: Elvis Presley
- Guitar: James Burton
- Guitar: Chip Young
- Guitar: Charlie Hodge
- Drums: Jerry Carrigan
- Piano: David Briggs
- Bass: Norbert Putnam
- Organ / Harmonica: Charlie McCoy
- Marimba: Charlie McCoy (‘Twenty Days And Twenty Nights’)
Mystery Train / Tiger Man (jam) June 4 1970 (Thur)
- Jam 2:50 That’s The Way It Is (FTD)°°~The Nashville Marathon (FTD)°° (Elvis – off mic’)
Twenty Days And Twenty Nights ZPA4 1593 June 4 / 5 1970 (Thur / Fri)
- Rehearsal 0:36+ That’s The Way It Is (FTD)°°
- Take 1 FS 0:11 That’s The Way It Is (FTD)°°
- Take 2 LFS 0:20 That’s The Way It Is (FTD)°°
- Take 3 Complete 3:24 That’s The Way It Is (FTD)°°~The Nashville Marathon (FTD)°°
- Take 4
- Take 5 FS 0:34 “I Got A Woman” That’s The Way It Is (FTD)°°
- Take 6 LFS 1:09 Unedited Masters – Life (Venus)°°+That’s The Way It Is (FTD)°° (additional
dialogue) - Take 7 0:05+ That’s The Way It Is (FTD)°° (announcement only – not listed)+Unedited
Masters – Life (Venus)°° - Take 8 Complete 3:17 That’s The Way It Is (FTD)°°+Unedited Masters – Life (Venus)°° (count-in)
- Take 9 (M) 3:44 Undubbed master That’s The Way It Is (FTD)°°~Unedited Masters – Life (Venus)°° (dialogue
& count-in only)+Taking Care Of Business – In A Flash (FTD)°°~Pure
Diamonds Vol. 4°° (no count-in)+You Know, It Don’t Have To Be Strictly
Country Volume 1°°~Acetate°°(count-in) - Overdub (M) Backup vocal overdubs on June 22
- Overdub (M) 3:40 Brass & string overdubs on June 30
Unedited master That’s The Way It Is (FTD)°° (rough mix)+Unedited Masters – Nashville
1970 (Venus)°° (count-in – different mix) - Faded M 3:18 Master faded That’s The Way It Is – Deluxe Edition 1°°~Complete Elvis Presley
Masters 19 (Sony)°°~Loves Lost (Franklin Mint Complete Masters
Collection 12)°°~That’s The Way It Is (FTD)°°~That’s The Way It Is
(24 Bit)°°~That’s The Way It Is CD1°°+Acetate°° (no backup vocals
– different mixes)+The Other Side Of Memphis°°
I’ve Lost You ZPA4 1594 June 4 / 5 1970 (Thur / Fri)
- Take 1 Reh’sal 0:41+ That’s The Way It Is (FTD)°° Complete 4:43 That’s The Way It Is (FTD)°°~The Nashville Marathon (FTD)°°~That’s The
Way It Is – Deluxe Edition 1°° - Take 2
- Take 3
- Take 4 FS 0:30 (preceded by rehearsal) That’s The Way It Is (FTD)°°
- Take 5 FS 0:13 That’s The Way It Is (FTD)°°
- Take 6 Complete 4:38 That’s The Way It Is (FTD)°° (count-in)~Essential Elvis Volume 4°°
- Take 7 (M) 4:01 Undubbed master You Know, It Don’t Have To Be Strictly Country Volume 1°°~Live Live Live
Volume 2°°~Pure Diamonds Volume 4°° (faded – 3:31) - Overdub (M) Band overdubs on June 9
- Overdub (M) 3:31 Backup vocal overdubs on June 22 ? You Know, It Don’t Have To Be Strictly Country Volume 2°° (see notes)
- Overdub (M) 4:01 Brass & string overdubs on June 30
- Unedited master Heart And Soul (DSD)°°+Unedited Masters – Nashville 1970 (Venus)°°
- Faded M 3:32 Master faded Comp. Elvis Presley Masters 19 (Sony)°°~Loves Lost (Franklin Mint Complete Masters Collection 12)°°~Elvis 75 CD3°°~That’s The Way It Is (FTD)°°+The Mono Masters CD4 (Venus)°~That’s The Way It Is – DeluxeEdition 1° (single version)+Comp. Single Collection 7°°~70s Box 1°°~The Legend Lives On CD3 (Readers Digest)° (different mixes)
I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago ZPA4 1595 June 4 / 5 1970 (Thur / Fri)
- Take 1 M 3:33 Master is faded & without overdubs Elvis Country°° (FTD – Snippets)+Comp. Elvis Presley Mast. 19 (Sony)°°
~Gospel Jubilee (Franklin Mint Comp Masters Collection 11)°°~I Believe
– The Gospel Masters 3°°~Elvis Country (FTD)°° (complete)+Elvis Now
(FTD)°°~(20 Bit)°° (3:16)+70s Box 3°°+Unedited Masters – Nashville 1970
(Venus)°° (complete – unedited)+Pure Diamonds Volume 4°°+You Know,
It Don’t Have To Be Strictly Country Vol. 1°°+Acetate°° (different mixes)
The Sound Of Your Cry ZPA4 1596 June 4 / 5 1970 (Thur / Fri)
- Take 1 2xFS+LFS 2:15 Love Letters From Elvis (FTD)°°
- Take 2 FS 0:18 Love Letters From Elvis (FTD)°°
- Take 3 Complete 5:27 Love Letters From Elvis (FTD)°° (count-in)~Nashville Marathon (FTD)°°
- Take 4 FS 1:21 (preceded by rehearsal) Unedited Masters – Life (Venus)°° (FS)+Love Letters From Elvis (FTD)°°
(rehearsal & FS) - Take 5 FS 0:11 Love Letters From Elvis (FTD)°°~Unedited Masters – Life (Venus)°°
- Take 6 Complete 4:05 Love Letters From Elvis (FTD)°°~Unedited Masters – Life (Venus)°°
(count-in)~Platinum 3°° (3:31)(listed as Take 3)+A Legendary Performer
Volume 8°° - Take 7
- Take 8
- Take 9
- Take 10
- Take 11 (M) 4:36 Unedited undubbed master
- Edit (M) 3:13 Edited undubbed master You Know, It Don’t Have To Be Strictly Country Vol 1°°~Pure Diamonds
Volume 4°° - Overdub (M) 3:25 Backup vocal overdubs on June 22 Pure Diamonds Volume 2° (too slow – see note)
- Overdub (M) Brass & string overdubs on June 30
- Overdub (M) 4:36 Additional backup v.o’s on Oct. 1
Unedited master Greatest Hits Volume 1°°~The Sound Of Your Cry°° (4:02)
+Unedited Masters – Nashville 1970 (Venus)°° - Faded M 3:15 Master faded Complete Elvis Presley Masters 19 (Sony)°°~Loves Lost (Franklin Mint
Complete Masters Collection 12)°°~Love Letters From Elvis (FTD)°°
~Complete Single Collection 7°°~70s Box 1°°+The Mono Masters CD4
(Venus)°~Rare Elvis° (different mixes)
Faded Love (country version) WPA5 2584 June 4 / 5 1970 (Thur / Fri)
- Take 1 Tryout 0:50 Complete Elvis Presley Masters 30 (Sony)°°+Elvis Country (FTD)°°
+Essential Elvis Volume 4°°+Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On°°
The Fool ZPA4 1597 June 4 / 5 1970 (Thur / Fri)
- Take 1 Complete 2:38 Elvis Country (FTD)°°+Essential Elvis Vol 4°° (count-in from ‘Little Cabin
On The Hill’)~You Know, It Don’t Have To Be Strictly Country Volume 1°°
~Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On°°+Unedited Masters – Nashville 1970
(Venus)°° (different mixes) - Take 2 (M) 2:33 Undubbed master Unedited Masters – Nashville 1970 (Venus)°° (unedited)~Pure Diamonds
Volume 4°° (2:28) - Overdub M 2:24 Backup v.o’s on October 1 Complete Elvis Presley Masters 19 (Sony)°°~Country Legend (Franklin
Mint Comp. Masters Collection 18)°°~Elvis 75 – Good Rockin’ Tonight 4
(Legacy)°°~Elvis Country (24 Bit)°°~70s Box 3°°+Elvis Country (FTD)°°
A Hundred Years From Now WPA5 2569 June 4 / 5 1970 (Thur / Fri)
- Take 1 Incomp. 2:22 Elvis Country (FTD)°°~The Nashville Marathon (FTD)°°
- Take 2 Complete 1:35 Elvis Country (FTD)°°~The Nashville Marathon (FTD)°°~Essential Elvis
Volume 4°°~Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On°° - Spliced M 1:42 Spliced from takes 1 & 2 Complete Elvis Presley Masters 28 (Sony)°°~Country (2006 – DSD)°°~70s Box 3°°
Little Cabin On The Hill ZPA4 1598 June 4 / 5 1970 (Thur / Fri)
- Take 1 Complete 2:04 Elvis Country (FTD)°° (count-in)~Unedited Masters – Nashville 1971
(Venus)°°~Essential Elvis Volume 4°°+Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On°°
(different mix) - Take 2 FS+(M) 1:45 Undubbed master You Know, It Don’t Have To Be Strictly Country Vol. 1°°~Pure Diamonds
Volume 4°° - Overdub M 1:45 Fiddle & banjo overdub on July 22 Comp. Elvis Presley Masters 19 (Sony)°°~Country Roots (Franklin Mint
Complete Masters Collection 8)°°~Elvis Country (FTD)°°~Elvis Country
(24 Bit)°°+70s Box 3°° (different mixes – no James Burton guitar track)
+Unedited Masters – Life (Venus)°° (additional guitar strums – listed as
Take 1 – different mix)
Cindy, Cindy ZPA4 1599 June 4 / 5 1970 (Thur / Fri)
- Take 1 Complete 3:54 Love Letters From Elvis (FTD)°°~You Know, It Don’t Have To Be Strictly
Country Volume 1°°~Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On°° (unedited)
~Unedited Masters – Nashville Revisited (Venus)°° (faded – 3:48)
~Essential Elvis Volume 4°° (faded – 3:46) - Take 2 LFS 0:53 Love Letters From Elvis (FTD)°°
- Take 3 (M) 3:29 Unedited undubbed master Love Letters From Elvis (FTD)°°
- Edit (M) 2:41 Edited undubbed master Pure Diamonds Volume 4°°
- Overdub (M) Backup vocal overdubs on June 22
- Overdub (M) 2:34 Brass overdubs on July 20 Pure Diamonds Volume 2° (see note)
- Overdub (M) 3:16 Additional backup v.o’s on Oct. 1
Unedited master Unedited Masters – Nashville 1970 (Venus)°° - Faded M 2:31 Master faded Complete Elvis Presley Masters 19 (Sony)°°~Girls! Girls! & More Girls!
(Franklin Mint Comp. Masters Collection 17)°°~Love Letters From Elvis
(FTD)°°~Love Letters From Elvis (20 Bit)°°~70s Box 3°°
The Japanese 24-Bit release of That’s The Way It Is runs slow all the way through at differing speeds between tracks, as opposed to the same tracks on the special edition box-set (BMG – 2000) and FTD’s That’s The Way It Is classic album. The differences between tracks on the 24-Bit CD are as follows:-
I Just Can’t Help Believin’ (-1,3%)
Twenty Days And Twenty Nights (-1,6%)
How The Web Was Woven (-2,0%)
Patch It Up (-2,3%)
Mary In The Morning (-2,5%)
You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me (-2,9%)
You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ (-0,9%)
I’ve Lost You (-1,2%)
Just Pretend (-1,7%)
Stranger In The Crowd (-1,5%)
The Next Step Is Love (-1,9%)
Bridge Over Troubled Water (-2,5%)
Sessions III lists July 18 as being the date when brass and strings were overdubbed to ‘Twenty Days And Twenty Nights’, ‘I’ve Lost You’ and ‘The Sound Of Your Cry’ but this cannot be the correct date for these overdubs. In the session logs they show that these overdubs were added before July 7, as this is the date of the listing in the logs, and all musicians used for these overdubs are listed as of this date. At the bottom right hand corner of the session log there is a date of what looks to be “06/30” indicating a date of June 30 1970 for this overdub session. The book Day By Day by Ernst Jørgensen and Peter Guralnick, as well as RCA’s own single listing notice lists July 14 as the date when the single ‘I’ve Lost You’ / ‘The Next Step Is Love’ was shipped to suppliers, so these two songs couldn’t have had overdubs done on July 18!
The count-in’s for takes 7 and 9 of ‘Twenty Days And Twenty Nights’ can be found in the dialogue after Take 6 on FTD’s That’s The Way It Is classic album.
The undubbed master of ‘Twenty Days And Twenty Nights’ on the bootlegs You Know, It Don’t Have To Be Strictly Country Volume 1 and Pure Diamonds Volume 4, along with the alternate takes of the song on FTD’s That’s The Way It Is classic album all have the left and right channels swapped.
The master of ‘Twenty Days And Twenty Nights’ is faded, the complete rough mix master can be found on FTD’s That’s The Way It Is classic album.
‘I’ve Lost You’ is not listed in Sessions III as having backup vocals overdubbed on June 22, but the master contains backup bocals as well as brass and strings overdubs.
The stereo master of ‘I’ve Lost You’ is faded at the end during the second “I’ve lost you, yes i’ve lost you” part. The complete unedited stereo master can be found on the album Heart And Soul, as well as the Venus bootleg Unedited Masters – Nashville 1970 where it also contains the count-in.
The original mono master of ‘I’ve Lost You’ is spliced to take out the first “I’ve lost you, yes i’ve lost you, I can’t reach you any more, we ought to talk it over now but reason can’t stand in for feeling…. oh…” at the end.
Different edits for ‘I’ve Lost You’ are shown below:-
Heart And Soul (1) / Single Version (2) / Essential 70s Masters (3)
Last verses
(1-2-3) Ohhh, i’ve lost you oh, i’ve lost you
(1-2-3) Though you won’t admit its so
(1-2-3) I’ve lost you on the journey
(1-2-3) But can’t remember where or when, oh no
(1-2-3) short solo
(1-3) Oh, i’ve lost you, yes i’ve lost you
(1-3) I can’t reach you any more, we ought to talk it over now
(1-3) But reason can’t stand in for feeling, oh
(1-3) short solo
(1-3) Oh, oh, i’ve lost you, yes i’ve lost you
(1-2-3) I can’t reach you any more, we ought to talk it over now
(1-2-3) But reason can’t stand in for feeling
(1-2) short solo
(1) (very faint Oh, oh)
(1-2) Oh, oh, i’ve lost you, yes i’ve lost you
(1-2) I can’t reach you any more, we ought to talk it over now (fade at 3:27)
(1) But reason can’t stand in for feeling (fade at 3:54)
‘I’ve Lost You’ on the bootleg You Know, It Don’t Have To Be Strictly Country – Volume 2 (track 19) does not appear to be an original mix. It is possibly just one channel only (centred to mono) of a stereo acetate of the fully overdubbed master which sounds like it has been processed to create a fake stereo effect – electronically produced stereo!
Sessions III wrongly lists the unedited undubbed master of ‘I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago’ as being released on Essential Elvis Volume 4. It wasn’t!
‘The Sound Of Your Cry’ and ‘Cindy, Cindy’ on Pure Diamonds Volume 2 are both probably just the left channel only (centred) of a stereo acetate of the fully overdubbed master. By eliminating the right channel on the same tracks on Love Letters and the 70s Box I was able to get the exact same results. This is possible because backing vocals (and occasionally strings) tend to be panned 100% right on the original mixes from these sessions, so you can often eliminate them by cutting out the right channel, with no discernable bleed.
The unedited master of ‘The Sound Of Your Cry’ on Greatest Hits Volume 1 and The Sound Of Your Cry has remixed backing vocals.
In the “In And Outtakes” section of FTD’s Elvis Country classic album, it has Take 1 of ‘The Fool’ listed as being the master, and released on the original album, but Take 2 is the master! Take 1 was originally released on A Hundred Years From Now – Essential Elvis Volume 4.
On the Venus release Unedited Masters – Nashville 1971, as a bonus track is ‘Little Cabin On The Hill’ that is listed as being the unedited master (Take 2). This is in fact Take 1 that appeared on FTD’s That’s The Way It Is classic album release where it also contained the full count-in.
Take 1 of ‘Cindy, Cindy’ on Essential Elvis Volume 4 is edited to take out Elvis’ bad language (“Fade this mother fucker…”), it is complete on FTD’s Love Letters From Elvis classic album, and the bootlegs You Know, It Don’t Have To Be Strictly Country Volume 1 and There’s A Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On.
The original title of the Love Letters From Elvis album was entitled Festival, and was going to include the following songs – Hence the inclusion of ‘The Sound Of Your Cry’ and ‘Sylvia’ on FTD’s Love Letters From Elvis classic album:-
The Sound Of Your Cry
Cindy, Cindy
Got My Mojo Working / Keep Your Hands Off Of It
I’ll Never Know
It Ain’t No Big Thing (But It’s Growing)
This Is Our Dance
Heart Of Rome
When I’m Over You
If I Were You
Sylvia
Love Letters
Elvis also fooled around with the songs ‘My Little Friend’ and ‘I Got A Woman’ at these sessions.
By taking out two of the four channels from the rare Japanese Quadraphonic LP of Elvis – That’s The Way It Is is how the “previously unreleased versions” were created on the bootleg The Other Side Of Memphis (Bilko).
In March of 2007, Sony decided to go through all of Elvis’ masters. They retransferred everything and remastered all tracks including repairing as many clicks, pops, bad edits and dropouts as they could. They have used these newly mastered recordings on their new releases since 2007 including budget soundtracks, Legacy releases, the 30 disc Complete Elvis Presley Masters collection and the Franklin Mint package.
Thanks to Christian Beiden for detailed analysis of the two You Know, It Don’t Have To Be Strictly Country bootleg sets.
