Elvis Presley – Elvis Today (1975/2015) [HDTracks FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

Elvis Presley – Elvis Today (1975/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 34:03 minutes | 693 MB | Genre: Pop, Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: HDTracks | Front Cover | © RCA Records
Recorded: March 10-12, 1975, RCA Studio C, Hollywood, CA

Today is a studio album by American singer Elvis Presley, released on May 7, 1975 by RCA Records. The Today sessions were held in RCA’s Studio C, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, March 10-12, 1975, and marked the last time Presley would record in a studio. He last recorded at Studio C, Hollywood in 1972 where he recorded the gold records “Burning Love” and “Separate Ways”. At this time, Elvis was 40 years old. He was accompanied by his then-current girlfriend, Sheila Ryan. In the 2005 FTD TODAY release from these sessions, Presley asked her to “step up here Sheila, let me sing to ya baby” on Take 1 of Don McLean’s “And I Love You So”. He continued to make “And I Love You So” and “Fairytale” a part of his live concerts until his death. On stage, he often referred to “Fairytale” as the story of his life.
Today featured a new rock song, “T-R-O-U-B-L-E”, which was released as its first single and went Top 40 in the US. “Bringin’ It Back” was its second single in the US. The album also features covers of songs by Perry Como, Tom Jones, The Pointer Sisters, Billy Swan, Faye Adams, The Statler Brothers and Charlie Rich.
“Green, Green Grass of Home” was released as a single in the UK, where it went Top 30, and also received US airplay. Presley first heard the song in 1967 while driving his bus back to Memphis after making another movie, and heard Tom Jones’ new single “Green Green Grass of Home” for the first time and loved it. He had the Memphis Mafia call the local AM station to make them replay it over and over again. Eight years later, he cut his own version.

As it turned out, Today would be the last full studio album Elvis Presley recorded in his life. Headed out to Hollywood to collect the Grammy he won for Best Inspirational Performance of 1975 (it was awarded for a live version of “How Great Thou Art”), Presley booked sessions in RCA’s L.A. Studio C with his longtime producer Felton Jarvis and settled in to knock out ten songs over the course of three days. Because it opens with the rollicking boogie “T-R-O-U-B-L-E” — a legitimate throwback to the dawn of rock & roll — and also finds space for the down-and-dirty gospel-soul groove of “Shake a Hand” and Billy Swan’s cheerful “I Can Help,” Today was pegged upon its initial release as something of a return to Elvis’ Sun roots, but the rest of the record plays straight down the middle: a collection of Presley’s preferred majestic ballads and MOR pop tempered by a touch of lushly produced Nashville country. This combination had long been a winning one for Elvis — it’s the blend developed in the wake of 1971’s Elvis Country (I’m 10,000 Years Old) — but in 1975, it was slightly past its sell-by date, so it didn’t quite sell in blockbuster numbers (“T-R-O-U-B-L-E” did turn into a hit, nearly cracking the country Top Ten and revived in 1992 by Travis Tritt). Nevertheless, these era-specific concerns fade over time and leave Today standing as an excellent latter-day Elvis album. Those rockabilly revivals find Presley game and loose, as does a nimble version of the Statler Brothers’ “Susan When She Tried”; the trio of orchestrated ballads (Don McLean’s “And I Love You So,” Jerry Chesnut’s “Woman Without Love,” Troy Seals’ “Pieces of My Life”) give Elvis an opportunity to find a moving heart beating underneath the shine, a skill that also enlivens an almost corny version of the ’60s standard “Green, Green Grass of Home”; while the country reinvention of the Pointer Sisters’ “Fairytale” and the soulful rendition of Gregg Gordon’s “Bringin’ It Back” are expert adult contemporary — gorgeous and skirting the edges of being overwrought. Added up, Today touches upon nearly everything he did well in the mid-’70s — a nice portrait of Elvis at a time when he was still an active, thriving working musician and a record that remains easy to enjoy today. -AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Tracklist:
1 T-R-O-U-B-L-E 3:00
2 And I Love You So 3:36
3 Susan When She Tried 2:15
4 Woman Without Love 3:31
5 Shake A Hand 3:46
6 Pieces Of My Life 3:59
7 Fairytale 2:41
8 I Can Help 4:01
9 Bringin’ It Back 2:58
10 Green Green Grass Of Home 3:32

Personnel:
Elvis Presley – lead vocals
James Burton, Chip Young, Johnny Christopher – guitar
David Briggs, Tony Brown, Glen Hardin, Jimmy Gordon – keyboards
Buddy Spicher – fiddle
Millie Kirkham, Mary Holladay, Ginger Holladay, Lea Berinati – background vocals
Weldon Myrick – steel guitar
Norbert Putnam, Mike Leech, Duke Bardwell – bass
Ronnie Tutt – drums
Charlie Hodge – guitar, harmony vocals

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