Click to return to Dave’s Music Database home page.

Released: May 1969

Rating: 4.822 (average of 9 ratings)

Genre: early rock and roll

Quotable: Elvis’ “greatest album” and “one of the greatest white soul albums” – Bruce Eder, All Music Guide

Album Tracks:

  1. Wearin' That Loved on Look [2:41]
  2. Only the Strong Survive (Butler/Gamble/Huff) [2:45]
  3. I’ll Hold You in My Heart (Till I Can Hold You in My Arms) (Arnold/Dilbeck/Horton) [4:32]
  4. Long Black Limousine [3:41]
  5. It Keeps Right on A-Hurtin' [2:35]
  6. I'm Movin' On [2:50]
  7. Power of My Love [2:35]
  8. Gentle on My Mind [3:20]
  9. After Loving You (Lantz/Miller) [3:05]
  10. True Love Travels on a Gravel Road [2:37]
  11. Any Day Now [2:55]
  12. In the Ghetto (Davis) [2:44]
  13. Suspicious Minds (James) [4:30] *
  14. The Fair Is Moving On *
  15. Don’t Cry Daddy (Davis) [2:47] *
  16. You’ll Think of Me *
  17. Kentucky Rain *
  18. Mama Liked the Roses *
* bonus tracks added to the CD reissue

Sales:

sales in U.S. only ½ million
sales in U.K. only - estimated --
sales in all of Europe as determined by IFPI – click here to go to their site. --
sales worldwide - estimated ½ million

Peak:

peak on U.S. Billboard album chart 13
peak on U.K. album chart 1 1

Singles/Hit Songs:

  • In the Ghetto (5/3/69) #3 US, #2 UK, #8 AC, #60 CW. Sales: 1 million. Airplay: 2 million
  • Suspicious Minds (9/13/69) #1 US, #2 UK, #4 AC. Sales: 1 million. Airplay: 5 million
  • Don’t Cry Daddy (11/29/69) #6 US, #8 UK, #3 AC, #13 CW. Sales: 1 million
  • Kentucky Rain (2/14/70) #16 US, #21 UK, #3 AC, #31 CW. Sales: ½ million. Airplay: 2 million
* bonus track on reissue

Notes: “The spring 2000 remastered edition…[adds] six bonus tracks [see the track listing] cut at the same sessions but only released as singles at the time” (Eder). Everything from this album is also on the box set From Nashville to Memphis: The ‘60s Masters.

Awards:

Rated one of the top 1000 albums of all time by Dave’s Music Database. Click to learn more. One of Blender’s 100 Greatest American Albums

From Elvis in Memphis
Elvis Presley
Review:
“Elvis’ 1968 TV comeback restored his priapic glory and mocked his silly movies” (Blender). That special, “although a lot of work, had led him to the realization that he could be as exciting and vital a performer in 1969 as he’d been a dozen years before” (Eder). So, “after a 14-year absence from Memphis, Elvis Presley returned” (Eder) to “a little Memphis studio with no one watching, [and] he let rip” (Blender), cutting “what was certainly his greatest album (or, at least, a tie effort with his RCA debut LP from early 1956)” (Eder). “He sang like a wild animal with a wounded heart – so rough and raw, he made Otis Redding sound calculating” (Blender).

“The fact that From Elvis in Memphis came out as well as it did is something of a surprise, in retrospect – Presley had a backlog of songs he genuinely liked that he wanted to record and had heard some newer soul material that also attracted him, and none of it resembled the material that he’d been cutting since his last non-soundtrack album, six years earlier” (Eder).

“And for what was practically the last time, the singer cut his manager, Tom Parker, out of the equation, turning himself over to producer Chips Moman. The result was one of the greatest white soul albums (and one of the greatest soul albums) ever cut, with brief but considerable forays into country, pop, and blues as well. Presley sounds rejuvenated artistically throughout the dozen cuts off the original album, and he’s supported by the best playing and backup singing of his entire recording history” (Eder). “This disc proves that he not only came back – he was better than he’d ever been as a singer or stylist — and is an essential part of any music collection” (Eder).

Review Source(s):

Related DMDB Link(s):

Elvis Presley’s DMDB page

Last updated November 8, 2008.