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December 12 1973
(+ means you need both    ~ means same material    °° means stereo or binaural    ° means mono)
(SFS = Short False Start | FS = False Start | LFS or BD (Breakdown) = Long False Start | PB (Playback) or Complete = Complete Take)

Stax Studio - Memphis, Tennessee
Producer: Felton Jarvis
Engineers: Mike Moran / Dick Baxter
(9.00pm - 12.00am / 1.00am - 5.00am)

Musicians:   Backup Vocals:
Guitar:
James Burton JD Sumner & The Stamps: Bill Baize; Ed Enoch; David Rowland
Guitar: Charlie Hodge Voice : Donnie Sumner; Sherrill Nielsen; Tim Baty; Per Eric "Pete" Hallin
Guitar:
Johnny Christopher Mary Holladay; Susan Pilkington; Kathy Westmoreland; Jeannie Greene
Piano / Organ: David Briggs  
Bass: Norbert Putnam Harmony Vocal:
Drums: Ronnie Tutt Sherrill Nielsen (Help Me)
Piano: Per Eric "Pete" Hallin (Help Me & Love Song Of The Year)

Mr Songman
CPA5 1621
  December 12 1973
Take 1 Reh'sal 1:14   Promised Land (FTD)°°
  Complete 2:15   Promised Land (FTD)°°
Take 2 Complete 2:07   Promised Land (FTD)°°
Take 3 LFS 1:27   Promised Land (FTD)°°
Take 4        
Take 5 Complete 2:15   Promised Land (FTD)°°
Take 6 (M) 2:18 (Undubbed Master) Our Memories Of Elvis Volume 3 (Victrola)°° (Track 20)~Our Memories
Of Elvis (FTD - 3 Bonus)°°~More Pure Elvis°°~Stax Trax°°
         
Overdub M 2:07 String overdubs on January 11 1974 Complete Elvis Presley Masters 25 (Sony)°°~Heartache (Franklin Mint
Complete Masters Collection 6)°°~Promised Land (FTD)°°~Complete
Single Collection 8°°~Promised Land (20 Bit)°°+(2000)°°~70's Box 2°°
(Different Mixes)~Our Memories Of Elvis Volume 3 (Victrola)°° (Track 11)

Thinking About You
CPA5 1622
  December 12 1973
Rehearsal 1:52 "The Christmas Song" Promised Land (FTD)°°
Take 1        
Take 2 FS 0:45   Promised Land (FTD)°° (Dialogue & Count-In)~Made In Memphis (FTD)°°
(Not listed - 0:20)
Take 3 FS+Comp 4:31   Promised Land (FTD)°°~Made In Memphis (FTD)°°
Take 4 Complete 5:05 (Preceded by Rehearsal) Essential Elvis Volume 5°° (Faded)+Promised Land (FTD)°°+On A Jet
To The Promised Land°° (Rehearsal & Complete - Listed as Take 3)
Take 5 FS 0:13   Promised Land (FTD)°°
Take 6 Complete 4:26   Promised Land (FTD)°°
Take 7        
Take 8 (M) 4:53 (Unedited Undubbed Master)
(JPA5 6068)
Stax Trax°° (Edited)+Our Memories Of Elvis°°~Our Memories Of Elvis
(2 - FTD)°° (Edited - See Note)+Our Memories Of Elvis Vol 3 (Victrola)°
~By Special Request - From Louisiana To Tennessee°~Tiger Man - An
Alt. Anthology Volume 2° (Faded - 3:58)
         
Overdub (M) 4:53 String overdubs on January 11 1974 Unedited Masters - Stax 1973 (Venus)°° (Count-in & Unedited)
Faded M 3:02 (Master Faded) Complete Elvis Presley Masters 25 (Sony)°°~Heartache (Franklin Mint
Complete Masters Collection 6)°°~Promised Land (FTD)°°~Complete
Single Collection 8°°~Promised Land (20 Bit)°°+(2000)°°~70's Box 2°°
(Different Mixes)

Love Song Of The Year
CPA5 1623
  December 12 1973
Rehearsal 3:43   Promised Land (FTD)°°
Take 1 Complete 3:39   Promised Land (FTD)°° (Extra Dialogue)~On A Jet To The Promised Land°°
Take 2 Complete 4:02 "Rags To Riches" Promised Land (FTD)°°
Take 3 LFS 0:39   Promised Land (FTD)°°
Take 4 FS 0:13   Promised Land (FTD)°°
Take 5 LFS 0:39 "Five" Promised Land (FTD)°° (Not Listed)
Take 6 Reh'sal+ 0:53 "OK this is six" "Surrender" "OK this
is Five"
Promised Land (FTD)°°
  LFS 0:53 "Six" Promised Land (FTD)°°
Take 7 Complete 3:39   Promised Land (FTD)°°
Take 8 (M) 3:15 (Undubbed Master) Live Live Live Volume 2°° (Backing Vocals)+Our Memories Of Elvis Vol 3
(Victrola)°°~Stax Trax °°+Tape°° (Backing Vocals mixed out)(Faded)
         
Overdub (M)   Band Overdubs on January 2 1974  
Overdub (M) 3:59 String overdubs on January 11 1974 Unedited Masters - Stax 1973 (Venus)°° (Count-in & Unedited)
Faded M 3:18 (Master Faded) Complete Elvis Presley Masters 25 (Sony)°°~The Ultimate Love Songs
(Franklin Mint Comp. Masters Collection 25)°°~Promised Land (FTD)°°
~Promised Land (20 Bit)°°+(2000)°° (Different Mixes)+Tape°°

Help Me
CPA5 1624
  December 12 1973
Take 1 FS+(M) 2:48 (Undubbed Master) Promised Land (FTD)°°
         
V.O. (M) 2:29 Harmony Vocal overdub Our Memories Of Elvis Volume 3 (Victrola)°~By Special Request - From
Louisiana To Tennessee°+Tiger Man - An Alternate Anthology Volume 2°
~Stax Trax°° (Different Mixes)
         
Overdub M 2:25 String overdubs on January 11 1974 Comp. Elvis Presley Masters 25 (Sony)°°~Moved By Faith (Franklin Mint
Complete Masters Collection 13)°°~I Believe - The Gospel Masters 3°°
~Promised Land (FTD)°°~Complete Single Collection 8°°~Inspirational°°
~Ultimate Gospel (DSD)°°~Promised Land (20 Bit)°°+(2000)°° (Different
Mixes)+Unedited Masters - Stax 1973 (Venus)°° (2:50 - Including
Count-in & False Start)
         

Notes

The undubbed masters on 'Our Memories Of Elvis' weren't really the pure undubbed masters. They were the fully overdubbed or regular masters but with certain instruments and backing vocal channels removed or stripped down.

Thinking About You was edited for release. The complete unedited master, with overdubs can be found on the Venus bootleg release "Unedited Masters - Stax 1973" where it contains Elvis doing the chorus again another twice, which was faded on the release of the master by RCA.

"Unedited Masters - Stax 1973" also contains the unedited overdubbed master of Love Song Of The Year and the overdubbed master of Help Me, with false start before the master take.

Mr Songman and Thinking About You were remixed when used on the '70's Box' and the BMG 2000 release of 'Promised Land'.

Love Song Of The Year and Help Me were remixed when used on the BMG 2000 release of 'Promised Land'.

Elvis fooling around with Surrender before Take 6 of Love Song Of The Year was edited in before Take 3 of If You Don't Come Back (July 21 1973) on 'Essential Elvis Volume 5'.

In March of 2007, Sony decided to go through all of Elvis' masters. They retransferred everything and remastered all tracks including repairing as many clicks, pops, bad edits and dropouts as they could. They have used these newly mastered recordings on their new releases since 2007 including budget soundtracks, 'Legacy' releases, the 30 disc 'Complete Elvis Presley Masters' collection and the Franklin Mint package.

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