“Together Again – For The First Time…”

1963 was a busy year for Elvis Presley, even by his own hectic showbiz standards. He began the year with soundtrack sessions for the Paramount picture Fun In Acapulco, and spent the remainder of it juggling two more film and soundtrack projects: MGM’s Viva Las Vegas and Kissin’ Cousins. This new career direction would keep him on the silver screen (and off the concert stage) for most of the decade.

But it’s a little known fact that amidst all of the Hollywood hoopla of ’63, this rockabilly cat managed to squeeze in just one regular non-soundtrack session back in Nashville.

In April of that year RCA announced that Elvis had sold over 100 million records worldwide to date, and to be sure, nobody involved with the Presley phenomenon could see an end in sight. But, presumably to insure that his strong presence on the pop charts continued, Elvis left Hollywood behind briefly to spend some time in RCA’s “Studio B” on May 26th and 27th with Scotty Moore, D.J. Fontana, Floyd Cramer, the Jordanaires, and an assortment of top-notch Nashville sessionmen.

Judging by Elvis’ work habits of the past, it would seem that the purpose for these sessions was to complete key tracks for his next “non-movie” studio LP, a follow up to “Pot Luck.” But with the “It Happened At The World’s Fair” soundtrack still riding high on the charts, and the albums “Elvis Golden Records Volume 3” and “Fun In Acapulco” set to be released later in ’63. RCA decided that there just wasn’t enough room in the tight schedule for another complete album.

And so, in lieu of an LP, these masters slowly trickled out to radio and retailers through a number of chart singles, b-sides, and albums over a period of several years. In June of ’63 “(You’re The) Devil In Disguise” became the first of these to crack the Billboard singles charts, eventually ascending to the #3 position; “Witchcraft” followed a few months later and rose to #32. In ’64 “Ask Me,” and “It Hurts Me” charted; the latter as a b-side to “Kissin’ Cousins.” Amazingly, “Blue River” became the fifth single in early ’66.

Other tracks were included as “bonus songs” on various LP’s: “Love Me Tonight” wound up on “Fun In Acapulco,” “Echoes Of Love” appeared on “Kissin’ Cousins,” “What Now, What Next, Where To” on “Double Trouble,” and so on. Appropriately, “Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers” first. surfaced on the “Elvis For Everyone” LP, which was a “collage” album of sorts, containing various masters from past sessions.

Indeed, the great diversity of the material used at these sessions, together with the “A-1” musical appeal of each track, made it easy for the powers-that-be to sprinkle these songs throughout several releases: Chuck Berry’s “Memphis Tennessee” is a classic rocker, pure and simple; the veteran songwriting team of Pomus/Schuman contributed the inspirational imagery of “Long Lonely Highway;” and Elvis’ movie songsmith Ben Weismar offered the swinging, blues infected “Slowly But Surely.”

Yet there is in fact a cohesiveness in sound, production, accompaniment, and musicianship that makes the songs sound at their best back-to-back – it’s an irresistible set and one that stands quite well on its own as a unique, singular artistic statement. Appropriately titled “The Lost Album,” these tracks appear here together for the first time ever, transporting the listener back in a time capsule to those fateful Nashville sessions of ’63, song by song.

— Christopher Niccoli, 1991

Chart positions based on Joel Whitburn’s Top Pop Singles, 1955-1986.

For “The Lost Album” tape, please go to Cassette page.