Moody Blue is the twenty-fourth and final studio album by American singer and musician Elvis Presley, released on July 19, 1977, by RCA Records, about four weeks before his death. The album was a mixture of live and studio work and included the four tracks from Presley's final studio recording sessions in October 1976 and two tracks left over from the previous Graceland session in February 1976. "Moody Blue" was a previously published hit song recorded at the earlier Graceland session and held over for this album. Also recorded at the February session was "She Thinks I Still Care". "Way Down" became a hit after Presley's death less than one month after this album's release. The album was certified Gold and Platinum on September 12, 1977, and 2× Platinum on March 27, 1992, by the RIAA.
The first American copies of Moody Blue were pressed on limited edition translucent blue vinyl, the first time a Presley album had been issued on colored vinyl. The album soon reverted to black vinyl; after Presley's death, the album was heavily in demand and repressed in blue vinyl, making the original US black vinyl issue the scarcer of the two. All overseas pressings were on black vinyl.
Contents
As described in Elvis: The Illustrated Record, RCA was not able to obtain sufficient new studio material for a complete album, with all but two songs of Presley's studio recordings of 1976 having already been used in the previous album, From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee or released as singles. The company chose to use the contents of two singles that had not yet been included on an album, along with the two last remaining unreleased tracks from the Graceland sessions; the track list was then augmented with three live songs recorded in multi-track
in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on April 24 and 26, 1977, which were heavily overdubbed for the album. One of these was his version of "Unchained Melody", on which he accompanied himself on the piano.
RCA producer Felton Jarvis had booked a recording studio in Nashville, Tennessee, for January 1977, to record some new tracks for this album. Presley had chosen a few songs to record with the help of Jarvis, most of them country and uptempo. Unfortunately, Presley never appeared for that session, claiming that he was ill and thus staying at home (an excuse that Presley used rather frequently during the 1960s to avoid recording poor soundtracks for his motion pictures). Additionally, Jarvis had tried to get Elvis to record the song "There's a Fire Down Below" (written by Elvis’ bassist Jerry Scheff of his TCB Band) during the October 1976 sessions, but succeeded only in getting the backing instrumental track recorded and was unable to get Elvis to record a vocal. Jarvis and RCA had nothing left to do but complete the album using the live tracks mentioned above. "Let Me Be There" which had already been issued only three years earlier on the album Elvis: As Recorded Live on Stage in Memphis and was still available at the time of this album's release was also included as RCA did not have any other new tracks to include besides live versions of previously released songs.They had a few new songs as live recordings but only as a poor quality soundboard recordings.
The song "Moody Blue" was released as a single in November 1976 and it reached number one on the Billboard Country Singles Chart and #31 on the pop chart. "Way Down" was released as the album's next single during the early summer of 1977. It did not go very far up the chart initially, but it soared to #18 after Presley's death in August (jumping to number one in the U.K.) It was a bigger hit on the country charts, and it had risen to number one in the same week of the death of Presley. This album reached number three on the Billboard album charts after his death, although it had already entered the top 40 before he died. This was the last album by Presley to reach the top 40. Moody Blue was also a number one album on the Country Albums chart. Moody Blue was issued in late June 1977, and it peaked on the album chart at #3 after Elvis' death on August 16, 1977.
RCA pressed the album on blue vinyl, to match the title track. Since colored vinyl pressings were relatively uncommon at the time, and they almost never occurred in a wide release, this has led to collectors mistakenly assuming that blue vinyl copies of Moody Blue are collectors' items, when in fact, the true collectables are pressings from immediately before Presley's death on standard black vinyl. (Immediately following his death, the production of Moody Blue was shifted back to blue vinyl. However, in later years the album was produced again using standard black vinyl).
Following Presley's death, "Unchained Melody" was also released as a single, and it peaked at #6 on the country music charts. This version was not the same as on the Moody Blue LP. The single version was an overdubbed version of another live version, recorded in Rapid City, June 21, 1977, during one of the two concerts that produced the album and TV specialElvis In Concert.
The Los Angeles Times concluded that "the voice is still intact, but the arrangements are often off-center and the material is often uninspired."[6]
Reissues
The original RCA CD issue contained the same tracks and cover art as the original vinyl LP. RCA reissued the album on CD again in 2000 with revised cover art including a different concert photo of Elvis and omitted the track "Let Me Be There", due to its presence on Elvis: As Recorded Live on Stage in Memphis, and it added the complete album From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee as tracks 10–19 – in effect compiling the Graceland sessions rather than reissuing the original album. In 2013, Moody Blue was reissued on the Follow That Dream label in a special edition that contained the original album tracks along with a selection of alternate takes.
"Blue Eyes Crying in The Rain" (unedited rough mix of master)
4:23
12.
"Moody Blue" (takes 7, 5)
5:31
13.
"Bitter They Are, Harder They Fall" (rough mix of master)
3:29
14.
"Pledging My Love" (takes 4-5)
2:06
15.
"Pledging My Love" (undubbed, unedited master)
5:24
16.
"Way Down" (take 2B)
1:42
17.
"Way Down" (rough mix of master)
2:39
18.
"Moody Blue" (takes 8, 9)
1:04
19.
"Moody Blue" (master unedited rough mix)
3:57
20.
"She Thinks I Still Care" (take 15)
4:16
21.
"America, The Beautiful" (composite of single master and the surviving ending of the erased studio version)
2:16
Personnel
Partial credits from Keith Flynn and Ernst Jorgensen's examination of session tapes, RCA paperwork, and AFM/musicians' union paperwork/contracts,[8][9][10][11][12][13] except where noted.
Elvis Presley – vocals, piano on "Unchained Melody", executive producer
Sheldon Kurland, Lennie Haight, George Binkley III, Brenton Banks, Carl J. Gorodetzky, Martin Katahn, Lawrence M. Hertzberg, Steven M. Smith, Samuel Terranova, Donald Teal Jr., Pamela Sixfin, Lisa Silver – violins on "Moody Blue" and "She Thinks I Still Care"
Marvin Chantry, Gary Vanosdale, Virginia Christiensen, Kathy Plummer – violas on "Moody Blue" and "She Thinks I Still Care"
Roy Christiensen, Martha McCrory – cellos on "Moody Blue" and "She Thinks I Still Care"
Cindy Reynolds – harp on "Moody Blue" and "She Thinks I Still Care"
Eberhard Ramm, David Elliott – French horns on "Moody Blue" and "She Thinks I Still Care"
Dennis A. Good – trombone on "Moody Blue" and "She Thinks I Still Care"
Bobby G. Taylor – oboe and/or English horn on "Moody Blue" and "She Thinks I Still Care"
Production and technical staff
Felton Jarvis – producer
Brian Christian – engineer ("Moody Blue", "She Thinks I Still Care")
Al Pachucki – engineer ("Moody Blue" and "She Thinks I Still Care" overdub sessions)
Sheldon Kurland – overdub session contractor ("Moody Blue" and "She Thinks I Still Care" overdub sessions)
Joe Layne – string and horn arrangement copyist ("Moody Blue" and "She Thinks I Still Care" overdub sessions)
Don Wardell – executive producer, producer (reissue)
^"Top Albums 1977"(PDF). Music Week. 24 December 1977. p. 14. Archived(PDF) from the original on 9 March 2021. Retrieved 1 December 2021 – via worldradiohistory.com.
