Elvis Country (I'm 10,000 Years Old)

Last updated
Elvis Country (I'm 10,000 Years Old)
Elvis Country.jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedJanuary 7, 1971 [1]
RecordedJune 4–8 and September 22, 1970
Studio RCA Studio B (Nashville)
Genre
Length38:49
Label RCA Victor
Producer Felton Jarvis
Elvis Presley chronology
That's the Way It Is
(1970)
Elvis Country (I'm 10,000 Years Old)
(1971)
You'll Never Walk Alone
(1971)
Singles from Elvis Country
  1. "I Really Don't Want to Know"
    Released: December 8, 1970
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [2]
Christgau's Record Guide B− [3]
MusicHound Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [4]
Rough Guides Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svg [5]

Elvis Country (I'm 10,000 Years Old) is the 13th studio album by American singer and musician Elvis Presley, released on RCA Records (LSP 4460) in January 1971. Recorded at RCA Studio B in Nashville, it reached number 12 on the Billboard 200. [6] It peaked at number six in the United Kingdom, selling over one million copies worldwide. [7] It was certified Gold on December 1, 1977, by the Recording Industry Association of America. [8]

Contents

The lead single of the album, "I Really Don't Want to Know" backed with "There Goes My Everything", was released on December 8, 1970 and peaked at number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100, number two on the Adult Contemporary chart, and number 23 on the country singles chart. [9]

Content

The bulk of the album came from five days of recording sessions in June 1970 which yielded 35 usable tracks. Presley performed every track "live", recording his vocal part in the same take as the band, as was standard practice for him. Eight tracks from the session were released two months earlier in November 1970 on the That's the Way It Is album. During the sessions, Presley and producer Felton Jarvis realized they had several country songs in hand and decided to record several more to create a full album of country material. Needing two more satisfactory tracks, Elvis returned to the same studio in September where he recorded "Snowbird" and a manic, one-take version of "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On."

Nearly every style of country music is represented: bluegrass, honky tonk, Western swing, rockabilly, countrypolitan, and even the then-nascent "outlaw" movement. Snippets of the song "I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago" act as a bridge between each track.

After this album, Presley would return to his usual practice of recording a seemingly random batch of songs on each trip to the recording studio, letting his producer assemble them into albums.

Cover

The sleeve image is a colourised photograph of Elvis as an infant, with an inset of the original shot of the artist flanked by his parents Vernon and Gladys Presley, [10] anticipating by several decades the rap fashion of musicians using their baby pictures for album covers. [11] [12]

Reissues

The June 14, 2004, compact disc reissue included six bonus tracks from the same sessions. Three of them had been previously released on the LP Love Letters from Elvis . The others were the B-side "Where Did They Go, Lord?" (a track that made its first LP appearance on the 1978 compilation He Walks Beside Me) and the unabridged version of "I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago" later released on Elvis Now .

In 2008 Elvis Country was reissued on the Follow That Dream label in a special two-disc edition that contained the original album tracks along with numerous alternate takes. In late 2011, RCA Legacy (owned by Sony) announced a two-CD "Legacy Edition" set of the Elvis Country album. Enthusiasm was short-lived as fans quickly criticized the decision to pair the album with the leftover set that was 1970's Love Letters LP instead of compiling rarities from the acclaimed Elvis Country set.[ citation needed ] However, both albums originated from the same recording sessions. An unreleased Quadraphonic version is also known to exist.

Track listing

Original release

Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Recording dateLength
1."Snowbird" Gene MacLellan September 22, 19702:17
2."Tomorrow Never Comes" Johnny Bond, Ernest Tubb June 7, 19704:07
3."Little Cabin on the Hill" Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt June 4, 19701:58
4."Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On"Dave "Curlee" Williams, Sunny DavidSeptember 22, 19703:10
5."Funny How Time Slips Away" Willie Nelson June 7, 19704:32
6."I Really Don't Want to Know" Howard Barnes, Don Robertson June 7, 19702:59
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Recording dateLength
1."There Goes My Everything" Dallas Frazier June 8, 19703:10
2."It's Your Baby, You Rock It"Shirl Milete, Nora FowlerJune 5, 19703:04
3."The Fool"Naomi Ford, Lee Hazlewood June 4, 19702:34
4."Faded Love" Bob Wills, Johnnie Lee Wills June 7, 19703:19
5."I Washed My Hands in Muddy Water"Joe BabcockJune 7, 19703:54
6."Make the World Go Away" Hank Cochran June 7, 19703:46

2000 reissue bonus tracks

Tracks 1-12 are from the original album
No.TitleWriter(s)Recording dateLength
13."It Ain't No Big Thing (But It's Growing)"Shorty Hall, Alice Joy Merritt, Neal MerrittJune 6, 19702:47
14."A Hundred Years From Now" Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs June 4, 19701:40
15."If I Were You"Gerald NelsonJune 8, 19703:01
16."Got My Mojo Working" / "Keep Your Hands Off of It"Preston Foster, Elvis PresleyJune 5, 19704:34
17."Where Did They Go, Lord" Dallas Frazier, A.L. "Doodle" Owens September 22, 19702:27
18."I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago"TraditionalJune 4, 19703:13

2012 legacy edition reissue

Disc one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Snowbird" Gene MacLellan 2:17
2."Tomorrow Never Comes" Johnny Bond and Ernest Tubb 4:07
3."Little Cabin on the Hill" Bill Monroe and Lester Flatt 1:58
4."Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On"Dave "Curly" Williams and Sunny David3:10
5."Funny How Time Slips Away" Willie Nelson 4:32
6."I Really Don't Want to Know"Howard Barnes and Don Robertson 2:59
7."There Goes My Everything" Dallas Frazier 3:10
8."It's Your Baby You Rock It"Shirl Milete and Nora Fowler3:04
9."The Fool"Naomi Ford and Lee Hazlewood 2:34
10."Faded Love" Bob Wills and Johnnie Lee Wills 3:19
11."I Washed My Hands in Muddy Water"Joe Babcock3:54
12."Make the World Go Away" Hank Cochran 3:46
13."I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago"Traditional3:13
14."A Hundred Years From Now" Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs 1:40
15."Where Did They Go, Lord" Dallas Frazier and A.L. "Doodle" Owens 2:27
Disc two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Love Letters" Edward Heyman, Kang Dadang2:53
2."When I'm Over You"Shirl Milete2:28
3."If I Were You"Gerald Nelson3:01
4."Got My Mojo Working" / "Keep Your Hands Off of It"Preston Foster, Elvis Presley4:36
5."Heart of Rome" Alan Blaikley, Ken Howard, Geoff Stephens 2:56
6."Only Believe" Paul Rader 2:50
7."This is Our Dance" Les Reed, Geoff Stephens 3:16
8."Cindy, Cindy" Dolores Fuller, Buddy Kaye, Ben Weisman 2:32
9."I'll Never Know"Fred Karger, Sid Wayne, Ben Weisman2:25
10."It Ain't No Big Thing (But It's Growing)"Shorty Hall, Alice Joy Merritt, Neal Merritt2:49
11."Life"Shirl Milete3:10
12."The Sound of Your Cry" Bernie Baum, Bill Giant, Buddy Kaye 3:17
13."Sylvia"Geoff Stephens and Les Reed3:17
14."Rags to Riches" Richard Adler and Jerry Ross 1:54

Personnel

Sourced from Keith Flynn. [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18]

Overdubbed
Production staff

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