In June 1970, Elvis entered RCA's Studio B in Nashville and recorded 34 masters over the course of five days. That's an average of nearly seven songs each day — recording artists of today could learn a thing or two from the past.
Realizing that they'd cut quite a few country songs, Elvis returned to the studio in September to record four more tunes. Two albums that resulted from these recording sessions were Love Letters from Elvis and Elvis Country (both released in 1971), which used a combined 25 songs.
So what happened to the other 13? They were scattered over singles, a quasi-soundtrack album to the documentary "Elvis: That's the Way It Is," and a compilation or two.
In essence, this album I present is a replacement for That's the Way It Is. Instead of being an actual soundtrack of the documentary, what was released was a mishmash of studio and live tracks.
SIDE A
1. Patch It Up
2. Twenty Days and Twenty Nights
3. How the Web Was Woven
4. Mary in the Morning
5. You Don't Have to Say You Love Me
6. Rags to Riches
7. The Sound of Your Cry
SIDE B
1. I've Lost You
2. Just Pretend
3. Stranger in the Crowd
4. The Next Step is Love
5. Sylvia
6. Bridge over Troubled Water
So I removed the four live songs, added five studio recordings and made Elvis in Nashville, an all-studio track album. In my opinion, this is what should have been released.
The album opens with "Patch It Up," probably the most rockin' of the tunes. It replaces a live version that was on That's the Way It Is. What follows is a mix of mostly contemporary songs.
Add this to Love Letters from Elvis and Elvis Country and you'll have the trifecta of 1971 albums that gives a more complete picture. I titled it Elvis in Nashville as a kind of follow-up to the 1969 album Elvis in Memphis. All of these tracks can be found on various compilation albums.
For a cover, I took a DVD cover of the "Elvis: That's the Way It Is" documentary and altered it.
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