Studio Sessions for RCA June 4-8, 1970: RCA's Studio B, Nashville
"Just Pretend" was recorded June 6, 1970, first released on LP That's The Way It Is, 1970. Upon his return to live performing Elvis had been criticized for choosing to appear in Las Vegas, generally thought of as a playground for middle-aged gamblers, not the ordinary folks who were Elvis's fans..
If you could get beyond the trappings, the actual content of Elvis's 1970 releases went a long way toward revealing his rapidly maturing talent. Two new albums arrived, just six weeks apart, not long after Elvis announced them to the Las Vegas audience. If Elvis Country represented a return to roots, That's The Way It Is, the soundtrack from the eagerly awaited documentary, pointed to the future with its mix of eight more contemporary tracks from the June sessions and four live tracks from the film. Each album made the top twenty, and each went gold, as expected. Yet right away the accompanying singles failed to match their success. That's The Way It Is was a graceful, well- crafted album, weaving together powerful cuts like "Just Pretend" and "Stranger In The Crowd" At the end of the day, though, it is the singles that people remember---the songs that were on the radio. And by that measure, to many listeners, Elvis was working the same ground as Tom Jones or Engelbert Humperdinck--an imitation, in other words, of his own imitators.
The live engagements piled triumph upon triumph; if the film That's The Way It Is wasn't the critical success Elvis might have been hoping for, it certainly served the Colonel's purposes. "Now don't you go winning no Oscar with this picture," Parker had joked with producer-director Denis Sanders in July, "because we don't have no tuxedos to wear to the celebration." As far as the Colonel was concerned, the film was a fine piece of product he could sell to anyone not fortunate enough to be able to attend an Elvis show in person.
At the end of their first year, then, the 1970s were shaping up to be the most productive and rewarding years of Elvis's career.
(The Complete Recording Sessions by Ernst Jorgensen)
This is for Sharon from someone who wishes to remain anonymous. This is also one of my personal favorites. |
