Feeling Fast Vibrations . . . Early 1970. The light’s red at Sunset and Vine. Among those making the rounds in Hollywood, looking for work and hoping for the big break are Michael Jarrett and Sonny Charles. Behind the wheel is Charles, and as they stop at the corner, Jarrett looks to his right and sees Elvis Presley. Yes, it was him, Jarrett remembers, as if it were yesterday, “I was in the passenger seat and looked over and there he was driving his black Stutz Bearcat, wearing his famous sunglasses. He looked over at me and smiled and I smiled back. He had another person with him. The light turned green and away they went. Little did I know at the time how our lives would connect.”
Less than a year and a half later, Michael Jarrett, hustling his songs in Los Angeles, got the break of his life. Elvis Presley recorded “I’m Leavin’,” a song Jarrett had written, with help from Charles, the previous fall. Another Jarrett song, ”I’ll Be Home On Christmas Day,” was also recorded by Presley around the same time as “I’m Leavin’.” Jarrett believed he was on top of the world. There’d be no Stutz Bearcats in his future, but the Presley association left a great impact. He was, Jarrett said, “the man who changed my life.”
“I’m Leavin'” wasn’t a top request of the housewives flocking to Presley concerts in the ’70s, but it was favored by Elvis. He included it in concerts from July ’71 through December ’75, sometimes introducing it as “one of my favorite songs.” It’s also been highly regarded by Presley followers who’ve spent much time taking in his career. A reader of elvis-collectors.com mentioned playing “I’m Leavin'” for young people previously indifferent to Presley. Most of them, fans of Nine Inch Nails or aficionados of Johnny Cash’s “Hurt,” were drawn to the dark quality and sadness of “I’m Leavin’.” Hopefully, as many young people did with the works of Johnny Cash, they’ll give Presley further consideration.
Michael Jarrett says that “I’m Leavin'” was “a radical departure for Presley fans in ’71,” recalling the song “was considered esoteric to the market in those days.” It reminds him of when he first arrived in Hollywood “shopping my songs to publishing companies and producers.” Their advice was, “Michael, your songs are esoteric, if you want to be a hit songwriter, go home and listen to Top 40 radio and write songs like that.” Being “tenacious and stubborn,” Jarrett says, “I refused to write crap…. still do.”
50,000,000 Elvis fans couldn’t be wrong: By the mid ‘60s, they were tired of the crap Presley was putting out. As was Presley. None of the soundtrack albums to his last five frivolous movies were certified Gold by the RIAA. For his most successful album in a decade, he could go nowhere but to the Lord, as How Great Thou Art climbed the charts, going platinum multiple times. Over a more than two-year period beginning in June ‘66, only one of Presley’s ten single releases, “U.S. Male,” made it as high as #28 on the U.S. charts. During perhaps the most innovative period for popular music in the 20th century and despite the dozens of fine songwriters wanting nothing more than for Presley to record their songs, the “King of Rock ‘n’ Roll” couldn’t score a hit record, that is, without a sort of divine intervention.
Presley was troubled with the turn his career had taken and was determined to make the most of his next big opportunity, an NBC special sponsored by the Singer Company. Scheduled to air on December 3, 1968, the ‘68 Comeback Special, as it came to be known, would make Presley relevant once again. His new recordings would consistently climb the charts, and even more, he would return to giving live performances. What America, including Presley himself, would see on that December night was what they’d been missing since he was inducted for a two-year stint in the U.S. Army in March ‘58. Welcome back, Elvis, there’s a reason we’ve called you the King.
Not only did Presley want to give the performance of his life on the ‘68 Comeback Special, he also wanted to present new music reflecting his thoughts on the world order. So out with “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” as the closing song of the special. A new song was ordered up from composer Billy Goldenberg and lyricist Walter Earl Brown. Very quickly, “If I Can Dream” was delivered to Presley. He studied the lyrics and with each reading, he knew it was the one. Presley was ecstatic. Here was a song that offered words of hope in turbulent times. A man like Martin Luther King, Jr. had been assassinated for trying to make his dreams come true. Presley’s new song spoke to the legitimacy and rewards of such dreams. Upon hearing the demo as presented by Brown, Presley signaled the direction he wanted his career to take, “I’m never going to song another song I don’t believe in. I’m never going to make another movie I don’t believe in.”
Presley appeared a man of his word for a time. Less than five months after his live debut of “If I Can Dream,” “In the Ghetto,” another socially conscious song, this time with a mournful narrative, went all the way to number three on the Billboard Hot 100, nine places higher than “If I Can Dream.” A few months later, when most of the litter and debris at Woodstock was finally removed, Presley released “Suspicious Minds,” his most popular single in nearly a decade. It climbed to number one and would be his last single to top the Billboard chart during his lifetime. Still more hits would follow — yet even before Nixon, elected just before the ‘68 Comeback Special, resigned from the presidency, Presley was devoting less effort to his music, no doubt recording a number of songs he really didn’t believe in.
Off and on, into the mid ‘70s, a fire within Presley would ignite and he’d release a new single that made the ‘68 Comeback Special seem not so long ago. “Patch It Up,” the B-side to “You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me,” is a full-tilt rocker in which Presley delivers an impassioned vocal performance, pushed on by his band, especially guitarist James Burton, his exuberant back-up vocalists, and a blazing horn section. For three minutes and six seconds, no one lets up.
A reminder of the hot and cold period Presley entered so soon after the grand comeback comes to us by way of Elvis Back In Nashville, a 4-CD set released two years ago. Presented are 82 tracks featuring Elvis and his small group of musicians gathered in the spring of ‘71 to lay down central tracks for singles and albums to be released in the next couple of years. There are two takes of “I’m Leavin’” included, the first clocking in at 3:54, sans the strings and back-up vocals included when released as a single in June ‘71. We get to hear Presley and his band carry the song brilliantly without the glossy overlays that would supposedly guarantee more airplay. Particularly strong is the song’s bridge, coming up twice with strong vocals by Presley and smart, energetic performances by pianist David Briggs and drummer Kenneth Buttrey. It’s a great Elvis Presley song we should have heard that way more than 50 years ago.
You gotta remember, even though i am very impressed with this article, but this is the guy who put Dylan on the map for me with his strange, eerie take of "Tomorrow Is A Long Time" reminiscent of "Blue Moon" from Sun. He hadn't gone away you know plus i believe the Dylan song was recorded during the same sessions as the brilliant, "How Great Thou Art" lp. Elvis, truely inspired.
All his soundtracks contained bonus songs, which trandscended the fluff on the soundtracks, even though some of them were pretty good too. " Can't Help Falling In Love", "Return To Sender,"
Fun loving songs, for fun loving times.