Forrest Over Troubled Water...

[ForrestGump]

A few more random Elvis songs I've messed around with lately...just go to the link to download the MP3s if you want to hear any of them...

Bridge Over Troubled Water
Elvis did this in the Nashville studio in 1970 and live 1970-1977 (relatively rarely after 1973, but he revisited it -- after a long break from it being in his setlist -- during his final concert in June of 1977). Paul Simon was blown away by Elvis' treatment of the song (Elvis also did it at his first show in Madison Square Garden, in 1972, with Paul in the audience), stating that it was extremely drama-laden but that the song was supposed to be dramatic. Quite different from Simon and Garfunkel's original, for sure.

Promised Land
Recorded at Stax Studios in Memphis in December, 1973 (excellent sessions), allegedly as the result of an extended between-takes studio jam -- a thing very common with Elvis -- that got worked up into the arrangement I've copied. Elvis' version of this Chuck Berry song is what inspired Mojo Nixon to get into music, and this song and the album it led off also similarly inspired Travis Tritt.

Rock medley
During 1973 and 1974 (June '73 to March '74, to be exact) Elvis did a rock medley as part of many of his concerts that varied a little in its specifics but mostly stuck to this collection and sequence: "Long Tall Sally," "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On," "Your Mama Can't Dance" (then a new song), "Flip, Flop, And Fly," "Jailhouse Rock," and "Hound Dog."

My Babe
Done live during Elvis' return to the stage in 1969. He also did it a couple of times in 1971 and in the summer of 1972 (to the best of my recollection, during one of his June 17 concerts in Chicago and during the opening show in Vegas on August 4). This song shares the same melody as "This Train," a gospel song.

Are You Lonesome Tonight?
Elvis' original 1960 recording of this, made in Nashville the month he got out of the US Army, was a massive hit -- Elvis rearranged and recorded it as a favor to Colonel Parker's wife, Marie, who loved the old Al Jolson version. Elvis recorded it with the lights off in the studio.

Young And Beautiful
A ballad from the 1957 movie Jailhouse Rock, recorded in a few different versions by Elvis for the film.




First show at Madison Square Garden, June 9, 1972.