March 18, 1971:

1. The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

2. Early Morning Rain

3. That's What You Get) For Lovin’ Me

May 16, 1971:

4. Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right

May 17, 1971:

5. Help Me Make It Through The Night

6. Until It’s Time For You To Go

Lady Madonna (informal recording)

May 18, 1971:

7.  Fools Rush In

May 19, 1971:

8. It’s Still Here

9. I’ll Take You Home Again Kathleen

10. I Will Be True

May 20, 1971:

11. I’m Leavin’

12. We Can Make The Morning

I Shall Be Released (informal recording)

13. It’s Only Love

May 21, 1971:

Love Me, Love, The Life I Lead (not finished)

June 8, 1971:

Until It’s Time For You To Go (remake) (not approved)

June 10, 1971:

My Way (shelved)

Looking at the above list we can see that discounting informal recordings, (which would not have been issued during Elvis’ lifetime) along with performances Elvis hadn’t finished or approved RCA were left with 13 finished secular masters from these sessions, along with the gospel and Christmas material they had wanted. On the face of it there was enough material in the can for a reasonably strong pop album release, and these performances could have been supplemented by the better recordings from the June 1970 sessions which were still held in the RCA vaults.

The problem was RCA were flooding the market with Presley product, and operating a quantity over quality policy. Two months after the acclaimed “Elvis Country” album had been issued in March 1971 they issued another budget album “You’ll Never Walk Alone” which was based (mainly) around previously issued gospel performances, and this was followed in June 1971 with the album “Love Letters From Elvis”. An album that gathered up most of the leftovers from the June 1970 sessions, and was described by Jon Landau in his review in Rolling Stone magazine as “the most discouraging event in the last three years of the Presley career”.  

This left only the thirteen masters listed above, and a few leftovers from other sessions for future pop album and single releases, until Elvis would record again in February of 1972, and as a result of this Elvis secular 1971 material was never showcased on the album it deserved.  RCA followed the “Love Letters” album with the budget release “C’mon Everybody” in June 1971, and this was followed in August by the four LP collection “The Other Sides”, a follow up to the extensive 1971 hits collection “Worldwide 50 Gold Award Hits”.

The first of the new material was issued in June when “I’m Leavin’”, the song that was considered to have the most hit potential, was issued as a single coupled with “Heart Of Rome” from the “Love Letters” album, but unfortunately the song only made No. 36 on the US chart.  “It’s Only Love” was issued as a single in September coupled with one of the few songs now remaining from the June 1970 sessions “The Sound Of your Cry”. Again it failed to make an impression on the charts, reaching only No. 51. The new Christmas album RCA and the Colonel had wanted was issued in October 1971, and the album’s best track “Merry Christmas Baby” was issued as a single coupled with “O Come All Ye Faithful” in November. Unfortunately, neither the album nor the single made the charts.

Elvis' first single of 1972 “Until It’s Time For You To Go” coupled with “We Can Make The Morning” was issued in January, and made No. 40. Both tracks were included on the first album of the year, the inappropriately titled, “Elvis Now” which was issued in February. The “Now” album included the aforementioned two tracks along with “Help Me Make It Through The Night”, “Fools Rush In”, and “Early Morning Rain”. The 1971 gospel recordings “Miracle Of The Rosary” and “Put Your Hand In The Hand” which hadn’t been slated for the forthcoming gospel album “He Touched Me” were also included, along with the following session leftovers: “Hey Jude” a song Elvis had attempted during the 1969 Memphis sessions, “Sylvia” the last remaining track from the June 1970 sessions, and “I Was Born About 10,000 Years Ago”. Another June 1970 performance that was originally used to link the tracks together on the “Elvis Country” album, and was being issued in it’s entirety for the first time on this release.   At just ten tracks the album was not great value for money, especially when you consider that two of its tracks had already been issued as a single.  Whilst the album had some good performances, the decision to mix secular and gospel performances, coupled with the fact that some songs were never intended for release, meant that the collection didn’t really hold together as an album.  As this was Elvis first (mostly secular) full price album release since the disappointing “Love Letters” album, a stronger collection was required, and it was no surprise that the album only made the No. 43 position on the US chart.

The gospel album “He Touched Me” was issued in April 1972, and Elvis’ version of  “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” was issued as a single during the same month as the flip side to “An American Trilogy”.  By this time Elvis had made further new recordings in Las Vegas during February, and RCA’s Hollywood Studios during March, and plans for a new album project were underway.  As a result of this the rest of Elvis’ secular 1971 recordings remained n the RCA vaults throughout 1972, and were only considered for release again in the summer of 1973, when following the success of the “Aloha From Hawaii” album, both Joan Deary and Felton Jarvis had different ideas for a follow up album compiled from material that was left in the RCA vaults. Felton’s idea was the one that was finally approved, and the album “Elvis” released in July 1973 included the following secular 1971 performances: “Love Me, Love The Life I Lead”, “It’s Still Here”, “For Lovin’ Me”, “I’ll Take You Home Again Kathleen”, “I Will Be True”, and “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right”. The “Don’t Think Twice” jam was considerably edited for this release, and we didn’t get to hear the longer version until the release of the album “Our Memories Of Elvis Volume Two” in 1979. The three songs Elvis had recorded at the piano were also given overdubbed strings for this release, although the original undubbed masters are now available on the 1995 release “Walk A Mile In My Shoes – The Essential '70's Masters".

It’s also worth noting that two of the tracks included on 1973’s “Elvis” album: “Love Me, Love The Life I Lead” and the gospel “Padre” were actually considered unsatisfactory performances by Elvis, but were still included regardless of this fact. This trend t had started with the release of the “Love Letters” album in 1971, and sadly by this point in Elvis career it seems that he had little input with regards to what songs were actually included on his album releases, and any preferences he did express don’t appear to have been followed by either his record company or his producer. RCA had shown a similar disregard for Elvis’ artistic credibility during 1972 when the hit singles “Burning Love”/It’s A Matter Of Time” and “Separate Ways”/”Always On My Mind” were issued on two self titled budget releases, when they could have been showcased on a new album of quality Presley recordings.

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