Robert Baird

The death of famed Memphis producer Lincoln Wayne “Chips” Moman, sent me scurrying off to listen to some Elvis records. Moman was a producer, songwriter, engineer and the man who capped Elvis’ short career revival that followed the 1968 Comeback Special. While he produced “Mama’s Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys,” for Willie Nelson, produced the later Box Tops recordings and wrote or co-wrote a pack of great tunes including “Luckenbach, Texas” (Waylon Jennings), “The Dark End of the Street” (James Carr) and “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man” (Aretha Franklin), it’s the sessions he ran in 1969 with Elvis Presley at his American Sound Studios in Memphis that remain his most famous achievement.

They’re arguably the best recordings Elvis ever made—after the early Sun records. They also mark the only time in Elvis’ recording career that he stood up and defied his manager Tom Parker. Finally, they represent the last time Elvis had a hit single. “In the Ghetto,” “Suspicious Minds,” “Daddy Don’t Cry” and “Kentucky Rain” all hits, come from the Memphis sessions as does “Stranger in My Own Home Town” and “Any Day Now” which should have been hits.

Everything recorded there was loose and funky and quite unlike the by then increasingly hard-to-listen-to movie soundtracks. Studio cats like electric guitarist Reggie Young, organist Bobby Emmons, bassists Tommy Cogbill and Mike Leech and drummer Gene Christman played with inspiration and verve. And Glen Spreen’s horn and string arrangements were the icing on these landmark recordings. And the sound, while too gutbucket for some, ideally suits the material and has grown more detailed and vivid thanks to a 1999 remastering

Like much of Elvis’ recording catalog, the fruits of the Memphis sessions were scattered across a number of LPs and later, CDs. Most of the results of the Moman/American Sound sessions were originally released on a pair of LPs, From Elvis in Memphis and Back in Memphis. The biggest hit, “Suspicious Minds” was only released as a single at first and is not on either LP. It first appeared on the awkwardly-titled live record, From Memphis to Vegas/From Vegas to Memphis. It can also be found on the double LP set, 1969: Year in Review, which has the bulk of the recordings made during the Moman sessions and the 2 disc CD collection, Suspicious Minds, The Memphis 1969 Anthology which contains a full disc of 24 alternate takes.

Unlike the cutesy, humdrum movie soundtracks, the music recorded by Moman and Elvis in Memphis had some connection to what was actually going on musically in 1969. The reason why is that the material cut in those sessions did not all belong to Hill & Range publishing. From the mid-1950s 'til well into the '70s, Elvis only recorded tracks from the Hill & Range catalog because he and Tom Parker got a cut of the publishing rights. Trouble was that by 1969 all the gems from that catalog had been combed out and recorded and only the dregs were left. Happily, Elvis made the decision, without Parker’s input, to cut tracks from outside the Hill & Range deal. With “Suspicious Minds,” for example, which had been written by singer/songwriter Mark James, Elvis and Parker, despite attempts to be cut in, received nothing in publishing royalties. And yet because the material was fresh, the albums sold. “Suspicious Minds” became Elvis 18th and last number one single and his career, if only briefly, became relevant again.

It leaves you to wonder what might have happened had Elvis had the courage to follow his artistic instincts rather than settle for a life of buying things, abusing painkillers and allowing money to make him indolent. But in 1969, the King spent a minute being ascendant once again, thanks to the material, being in excellent voice, and Chips Moman and his crew of studio musicians.

Another true musical legend has passed.The toll of 2016 marches on.