After 1966’s studio recordings turned out to produce hit singles and a hit album, RCA was eager to get Elvis back in Nashville for a second round. It was an interesting reversal from everyone’s attitudes just a few years prior. When the 1963 studio album was nixed, the reasoning was that the soundtracks for his hit movies were far out-selling the studio work and that their focus should be spent on doubling-down on movie tunes. Almost immediately after that decision was made, Elvis’s soundtracks started falling down the charts and Elvis’s “hit” movies started to become less and less of a “sure thing.” With the release of How Great Thou Art, the tables had turned: Now it was the studio album that was making bank while the soundtracks were failing to move the needle.
In September of ’67, Elvis returned to Nashville, eager to sink his teeth into some new material. Rock, pop, blues, R&B and Gospel were all on the docket and to each Elvis brought a passion and energy that simply wasn’t there in his Hollywood studio. Even compared to his 1966 studio recordings, Elvis sounds more engaged. He sounds older, more seasoned as a singer and clearly happy to have some lyrics and arrangements in front of him that were not beneath him.
“Guitar Man” and “Big Boss Man” brought the rock and roll, while “High Heel Sneakers” brought the blues. The aforementioned “second try” at “You Don’t Know Me” easily bested the version recorded in Hollywood, and it along with “Mine” gave RCA two quality pop ballads to work with…
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“Just Call Me Lonesome” and “Singing Tree” were fine-enough country/western tunes, and Elvis ended the session with a pair of Gospel numbers, “We Call on Him” and the magnificent “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” clearly intending to offer a sequel to last year’s success. As with the work he did a year earlier, Elvis proved here that when he does get his hands on quality material, he still has what it takes to be the best. He just needed more opportunities to show it…
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Unlike the 1966 session, there was no album produced from this material. Instead, the songs were released as single material, and—where needed—as soundtrack supplements. Still, as it was a year prior, his late-night recordings, with music in front of him that he actually wanted to sing, was the best sort of pick-me-up that Elvis could have asked for.
Stay Away Joe was the final film and soundtrack of the year, though the movie would not see the light of day until the following Spring and the soundtrack would never come; only three songs were recorded and one was a love song to a cow. Other than the flimsy title song, there was “All I Needed Was the Rain,” a country-inspired ballad that was better than it had any right to be, but still wasn’t anything remarkable. Felton Jarvis stayed on as producer and the work was done in one evening in Nashville, which probably added to the fuller and richer sound present in the material. It was still a far cry from what he’d recently completed, however.
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With the session ended, Elvis’s career obligations for 1967 ended with it. He ended the year much where he had started it: Looking back with promise on some great studio recordings, and looking back with frustration on the movie career that remained fixed over his head like a grey cloud.
Looking ahead to 1968, there was no more time for frustration; Elvis’s career simply couldn’t take another ho-hum year with ho-hum soundtracks and ho-hum movies. Something big needed to happen. Something big needed to be done to shake up his image. How Great Thou Art had been a brief respite; an oasis in the desert, but he had moved past it and was still searching for the true fountain of youth to bring him back to where he hadn’t been in years:
The top.
Fortunately for him, just such a “comeback” opportunity was about to present itself.
