September 22 1970

(+ means you need both ~ means same material °° means stereo ° means mono)
       

RCA Studio B - Nashville, Tennessee

 
A&R / Producer : Felton Jarvis
  Engineer : Al Pachucki
 
  (6.00pm - 9.00pm / 10.00pm - 1.00am)
   

Musicians:    
       
  Guitar : Eddie Hinton  
  Guitar : Chip Young  
  Drums : Jerry Carrigan  
  Piano : David Briggs  
  Bass : Norbert Putnam  
  Organ / Harmonica : Charlie McCoy  
  Harmony Vocal : Elvis Presley (Snowbird)  

 

Warm Up (Instrumental) September 22

Jam 1:53 Elvis Country (FTD)°°

 

Snowbird ZPA4 1797 September 22

Rehearsal   0:51   Elvis Country (FTD)°°
  Take 1 Complete 2:33   Elvis Country (FTD)°°Extra dialogue)~Nashville Marathon (FTD)°°~Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On°°
  Take 2 Complete 2:08   Elvis Country (FTD)°°~Country (Time Life Elvis Presley Collection Volume 4)°°+Today Tomorrow
          & Forever 4°°
  Take 3        
  Take 4 FS 0:13   Elvis Country (FTD)°°
  Take 5   0:08 (No Take) Elvis Country (FTD)°°
  Take 6 (M) 2:08 (Undubbed Master) You Know, It Don't Have To Be Strictly Country Volume 2°°~Acetate°°
           
  V.O. (M) 2:08 Harmony vocal overdub by Elvis Pure Diamonds Volume 2°~Rough Cut Diamonds° (See note)
           
  Overdubs (M)   Backup vocal overdubs on September 23  
  Overdubs M 2:04 String overdubs on October 12 Elvis Country (Paper Sleeve - 24 Bit)°°~Country (2006 - DSD)°°~Elvis Country (FTD)°°~70's Box 3°°

 

Where Did They Go Lord? ZPA4 1798 September 22
  Take 1 Complete 2:18   Elvis Country (FTD)°°~Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On°°
  Take 2 FS+FS 0:26   Elvis Country (FTD)°°
  Take 3 Complete 2:25   Elvis Country (FTD)°° (Count-In)~The Nashville Marathon (FTD)°°~Essential Elvis Vol 4°°
          (Listed as Take 1)
  Take 4        
  Take 5        
  Take 6 (M) 2:37 (Undubbed Master) You Know, It Don't Have To Be Strictly Country Volume 2°~Pure Diamonds Volume 2°~Rough Cut
          Diamonds°~Acetate°
           
  Overdubs (M)   Backup vocal overdubs on September 22  
  Overdubs M 2:27 Additional Backup vocal overdubs on Sept. 23 Elvis Country (FTD)°°~Complete Single Collection 7°°~70's Box 1°°

 

Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On ZPA4 1799 September 22

Take 1 FS 1:42   Elvis Country (FTD)°° (Not Listed)
  Take 2 (M) 4:36 (Unedited Undubbed Master) You Know, It Don't Have To Be Strictly Country Volume 2°~Essential Elvis Volume 4°°
           
  Overdubs (M) 4:40 Horns overdubs on October 12 (Not used) Elvis Country (FTD)°° (Rough Mix)~Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On°°
  Overdubs M 3:02 (Horns eliminated)(Edited) Elvis Country (FTD)°°~Elvis Country (Paper Sleeve - 24 Bit)°°~70's Box 3°°

 

Rags To Riches ZPA4 1800 September 22

Rehearsal   2:09   Love Letters From Elvis (FTD)°°
  Take 1   0:59 (Talking Only) Love Letters From Elvis (FTD)°° (Not Listed)
  Take 2 Complete 2:00   Love Letters From Elvis (FTD)°°+The Nashville Marathon (FTD)°° (Count-In)
  Take 3 Complete 1:54 (Used for spliced master) Essential Elvis Volume 4°° (Edited)
  Take 4 Complete 2:03 (Used for spliced master) It Don't Have To Be Strictly Country Vol 2°~For The Good Times°+Pure Diamonds Vol 2°
           
  V.O. (M) 1:55 Vocal repair of Take 4 Complete Single Collection 7°°~70's Box 1°°
           
  Overdubs Take 3 1:55 Backup vocal overdubs of Take 3 on Sept. 23 Love Letters From Elvis (FTD)°°
        (Alternate Master?)  
           
  Spliced (M)   Spliced from Take 4 & one line of Take 3  
  Overdubs (M)   Piano 'Intro' overdub  
        (Undubbed Master)  
  Overdubs M 1:57 Backup vocal overdubs on September 23 Elvis Aron Presley 3°°~Elvis The Collection Vol 4°°~Greatest Hits (Readers Digest 7 LP Vinyl Box)°
          ~Single°+Love Letters From Elvis (FTD)°° (Different Edit)

 

Notes:

The master of Rags To Riches is take 4 with a vocal repair on 'cuss me' (changed to 'kiss me'), spliced with the line 'tell me you're mine ever more' from take 3, along with a piano 'Intro' overdub. Problem is, the version masquerading as the master on the 70s box, Japanese singles collection box, and all current releases, is just the repaired take 4, without the line from take 3. Curiously it is also missing some backing vocal overdubs and the piano. The stereo mix on the silver box has the correct splice and piano and all backing vocals are present. The original mono single mix can be found on Hits Of The 70s LP (UK, 1974) or the 1975 Reader's Digest 7LP Greatest Hits box, among others.

The correct 'Spliced Master' of Rags To Riches can be found on RCA's 'Elvis Aron Presley' box set, as well as 'Elvis - The Collection Volume 4', and a different splice ("...that I'm living for, hold me and kiss me, and tell me you're mine ever more" from take 3) can be found on FTD's 'Love Letters From Elvis' Classic Album.

Take 3 of Rags To Riches on 'Essential Elvis Volume 4' is edited (mixed) to take out Elvis' falsetto voice at the end of the take. Take 3 is complete on FTD's 'Love Letters From Elvis' Classic Album, but strangely it also contains backup vocal overdubs on this release too. It seems take 3 must have been considered to be the Master originally, and was overdubbed, before it was decided to use take 4 spliced with the line "tell me you're mine ever more..." from Take 3 as the Master.

Snowbird on 'Pure Diamonds Volume 2' and 'Rough Cut Diamonds' are both probably just the left channel only (centred) of a stereo acetate of the fully overdubbed master. By eliminating the right channel on the same tracks on 'Elvis Country' and the '70's Box' I was able to get the exact same results. This is possible because backing vocals (and occasionally strings) tend to be panned 100% right on the original mixes from these sessions, so you can often eliminate them by cutting out the right channel, with no discernable bleed.

Backup vocals were removed from Snowbird (September 23) before release.

"Sessions III" wrongly lists the undubbed master (Take 6) of Snowbird as being released on 'Country (Time Life Elvis Presley Collection Volume 4)'. It was actually Take 2 on that release, the same take that appeared on 'Today Tomorrow & Forever', and later on FTD's 'Elvis Country' Classic Album.

'Sessions III' lists the date as being October 28 when Brass & Strings were overdubbed to Snowbird but there is no indication in the Session Log of Snowbird being overdubbed on this date. There is however, a log listing musicians for the unused Horn overdubs for Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On, that also shows Snowbird as having Strings overdubbed by this date too. At the bottom right hand corner of the Session Log there is a hand written date "10/12" indicating a date of October 12 1970 for this overdub session.

Overdubbed Horns were removed from Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On, at Elvis' insistence, before release.

Session Log.