Elvis Presley – Today (1975) {Legacy Edition 2015} [AcousticSounds FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

Elvis Presley – Today (1975) {Legacy Edition 2015}
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 2:12:49 minutes | 2,01 GB | Genre: Pop/Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: AcousticSounds | Front Cover | © RCA/Legacy

The Today sessions were held in RCA’s Studio C, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, March 10-12, 1975, and marked the last time Elvis Presley would record in a studio.

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.

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:
CD1 #01 – T-R-O-U-B-L-E
CD1 #02 – And I Love You So
CD1 #03 – Susan When She Tried
CD1 #04 – Woman Without Love
CD1 #05 – Shake a Hand
CD1 #06 – Pieces of My Life
CD1 #07 – Fairytale
CD1 #08 – I Can Help
CD1 #09 – Bringin’ It Back
CD1 #10 – Green, Green Grass of Home
CD1 #11 – Fairytale (Undubbed Version)
CD1 #12 – Green, Green Grass of Home (Undubbed Version)
CD1 #13 – I Can Help (Undubbed Version)
CD1 #14 – And I Love You So (Undubbed Version)
CD1 #15 – Susan When She Tried (Undubbed Version)
CD1 #16 – T-R-O-U-B-L-E (Undubbed Version)
CD1 #17 – Woman Without Love (Undubbed Version)
CD1 #18 – Shake a Hand (Undubbed Version)
CD1 #19 – Bringing It Back (Undubbed Version)
CD1 #20 – Pieces of My Life (Undubbed Version)

CD2 #01 – Also Sprach Zarathustra (Theme from 2001 A Space Odyssey) (Live)
CD2 #02 – See See Rider (Live)
CD2 #03 – I Got a Woman – Amen (Live)
CD2 #04 – Love Me (Live)
CD2 #05 – If You Love Me (Let Me Know) (Live)
CD2 #06 – Love Me Tender (Live)
CD2 #07 – All Shook Up (Live)
CD2 #08 – (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear – Don’t Be Cruel (Live)
CD2 #09 – Hound Dog (Live)
CD2 #10 – The Wonder of You (Live)
CD2 #11 – Burning Love (Live)
CD2 #12 – Introductions – Johnny B. Goode (Live)
CD2 #13 – Introductions – School Days (Live)
CD2 #14 – T-R-O-U-B-L-E (Live)
CD2 #15 – Why Me Lord (Live)
CD2 #16 – How Great Thou Art (Live)
CD2 #17 – Let Me Be There (Live)
CD2 #18 – An American Trilogy (Live)
CD2 #19 – Funny How Time Slips Away (Live)
CD2 #20 – Little Darlin’ (Live)
CD2 #21 – Mystery Train – Tiger Man (Live)
CD2 #22 – Can’t Help Falling In Love (Live)