Walk a Mile in My Shoes: The Essential '70s Masters

Walk A Mile In My Shoes: The Essential 70s Masters
Box set by Elvis Presley
Released	October 10, 1995 (1995-10-10)
Recorded	February 1970–June 1977
Genre	Rock
Length	6:12:11
Label	RCA Records
Producer	Ernst Mikael Jorgensen Roger Semon
Elvis Presley chronology
Command Performances: The Essential 60s Masters II (1995) Walk a Mile in My Shoes: The Essential '70s Masters (1995) Elvis 56 (1996)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
MusicHound	[2]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[3]
Rough Guides	[4]

Walk a Mile in My Shoes: The Essential '70s Masters is a boxed set five-disc compilation of the recorded work of Elvis Presley during the decade of the 1970s, issued in 1995 by RCA Records, 66670-2. In its initial format as a long box issue, it included a set of collectable stamps duplicating record jackets from every LP released by RCA corresponding to the selections here. It also includes a booklet with an extensive sessionography, discography, and lengthy essay by Dave Marsh, some of it excerpted from his 1982 book on Presley. The box set was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America on July 15, 1999.

Contents

The first two discs present the A and B sides of every single released in the United States by Presley during the decade, with the following exceptions: "Kentucky Rain" b/w "My Little Friend", and the B-side "Mama Liked the Roses", recorded in the 1960s; the gospel single "He Touched Me" b/w "Bosom of Abraham", the gospel b-sides "Only Believe" and "Help Me", already included on his first gospel compilation; and "O Come All Ye Faithful", the flipside to the 1971 Christmas single "Merry Christmas, Baby." His final two singles issued posthumously, the #22 "My Way" b/w "America the Beautiful" from November 1977, and "Unchained Melody" b/w "Softly As I Leave You" from February 1978, are also not included, although "Unchained Melody" is on the fifth disc, and versions of "My Way" and "Softly As I Leave You" are also on other discs in the set. Of the 23 American singles on these discs, 19 made the Top 40, with "The Wonder of You" and "Burning Love" also making the top 10. Included as well are four tracks issued at 45 rpm in Great Britain only: the top ten single "I Just Can't Help Believin'" b/w "How the Web Was Woven", the A-side "Green Green Grass of Home", and "Loving Arms", the British flip side to "My Boy." In the U.S., the "Can't Help Believin'" single appeared as two LP tracks on That's the Way It Is, "Loving Arms" on Good Times, and "Green Grass" on Today.

Discs 3 and 4 compile studio tracks from various albums, with 10 previously unreleased recordings or alternate takes. All but five of the 23 tracks on disc three originate from a single series of sessions, held over four days during June 1970, at RCA Studio B in Nashville, Tennessee. A facsimile of the album "Elvis Country" can be assembled from this disc, minus the lead single, "I Really Don't Want to Know" b/w "There Goes My Everything", included on disc 1. Disc 4 continues highlights through Presley's final studio session, at home in Graceland on October 30, 1976. It also includes a take of "Merry Christmas Baby" shorter than the album track but longer than the single, as well as two songs by Bob Dylan, "I Shall Be Released" and "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right", and a master studio take of the Sinatra signature song, "My Way."

The fifth disc approximates a Presley stage show typical to the era, taken mostly from shows in 1970 and 1972, with 21 songs running to about an hour. Eleven of the concert tracks are previously unreleased, "Reconsider Baby" and "I'll Remember You" originating from the matinee show at Madison Square Garden issued in 1997 on An Afternoon in the Garden. The disc does not open, as Presley shows often did, with the introduction to Strauss' tone poem Also sprach Zarathustra, played by the backing orchestra to announce the entrance of Elvis. The rock and roll instrumental support consists of the TCB Band, in addition to Presley's usual coterie of back-up vocalists, and the orchestra led by Joe Guercio. The final five songs present a "rehearsal" for the show, deriving from informal recordings made at actual rehearsals at RCA Studios in Hollywood in preparation for Elvis: That's the Way It Is and for a summer 1974 engagement in Las Vegas.

RCA Records issued two similarly configured box set companions, one for the 1950s, and another for the 1960s, the former his complete known masters from that decade, and the latter set chronicling his non-soundtrack/non-gospel recordings from the second decade of his career. Additional two-disc sets featuring his complete gospel recordings and selections from his soundtracks were also issued under this series. Unlike the first two decades collections, however, the compilers of Walk a Mile in My Shoes chose not to collect every studio recording Presley made during his final decade, choosing to focus on the singles, a sampling of "studio highlights" and an example of his live work.

Professional studio recordings made at RCA Studio B in Nashville, RCA Studio C in Hollywood, Stax Studio in Memphis, and in the Jungle Room at Graceland. Live recordings from The International Hotel in Las Vegas, Madison Square Garden in New York City, the H.I.C. Arena in Honolulu, and the Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Original recordings produced by Felton Jarvis. "Are You Sincere" recorded at Elvis' home in Palm Springs, California, and produced by Presley.

Purpose

After the success of his television special in 1968, the album From Elvis in Memphis and the chart-topping single "Suspicious Minds" in 1969, Presley took himself off the treadmill of churning out the motion pictures that had become his public identity in the 1960s, and returned full-time to music. During the course of the 1970s, in addition to the abovementioned singles, 41 Presley albums appeared in the U.S. prior to the deluge of reissues and vault releases after his death: seven new compilations from RCA, including The Sun Sessions; nine compilations on the budget RCA Camden label, including an altered reissue of the 1957 Christmas album; two additional compilations on the bargain bin Pickwick label; four more reissues; six concert documents, including Having Fun with Elvis on Stage and the posthumous Elvis in Concert; and thirteen original albums of new material, with one Christmas LP and one gospel LP among them.

As seen from the chart positions in the discography, public reaction to Presley's output during this period was mixed, in part owing to the sheer volume of released items. Unlike the fifties box, Walk a Mile in My Shoes cherry-picks the material in three sections – commercial singles, choice album cuts, and live performance. Winnowing down the selections argues for the continued vitality of Presley's work in this period. As stated by Marsh in the liner notes:

Elvis' Seventies music has been picked at and picked over, issued and reissued, discussed, dissected, distorted, displayed, and dismissed. But it's only now, gathered into one place, that it kind of makes you gulp a bit to realize how productive he was in the last six years of his life...Certainly, Elvis' albums lack the structural integrity of some other artists recording in this period – which is one reason a box set such as this can in fact present a clearer picture of his music than weeding through all his discs one by one.^[5]

Collective personnel

Track listing

Chart positions for albums from the Billboard 200; positions for singles from the Billboard Hot 100, except as indicated. Certain tracks listed as unreleased on the insert card of the jewel cases are unedited masters of issued tracks, or without later overdubs; those are indicated with an asterisk and listed with the original issue information for the released master.

Disc one: The Singles

Disc two: The Singles

Disc three: Studio Highlights 1970–1971

Disc four: Studio Highlights 1971–1976

Disc five: The Elvis Presley Show

References