Elvis Is Back! Review

The received story is that the army ruined him. This record is the direct refutation. He came out with a deeper voice and far more control, walked into a studio with a saxophone player and a vocal quartet, and recorded in two long overnight sessions. Fever is the famous one, a bass line and finger clicks and a vocal that hangs behind the beat for three minutes without ever pushing. Reconsider Baby is six minutes of real blues with a sax solo, the most convincing thing he did in that idiom.

Such a Night and Like a Baby are grown up performances of grown up material. Girl of My Best Friend and The Girl Next Door Went a Walking are pop, and good pop. Nothing here is a novelty and nothing is padding, which makes it the most complete album of his career alongside the Memphis sessions nine years later. It sold well, then the film contracts closed in, and he would not make another one this focused for a very long time.