Description:
STUDIO SESSION FOR ELVIS PRESLEY
AT THE MEMPHIS RECORDING SERVICE FOR SUN RECORDS 1955
SUN RECORDING STUDIO
706 UNION AVENUE, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
SUN SESSION 11: BETWEEN NOVEMBER 1-4, 1955 SUNDAY
MOST LIKELY NOVEMBER 20, 1955
SESSION HOURS: UNKNOWN
PRODUCER AND RECORDING ENGINEER - SAM C. PHILLIPS
This final session at Sun Records, Elvis recorded "When It Rains, It Pours", but the session never finished because the session was probably broken off due to the imminent sale of his contract to RCA Victor. Elvis is back on familiar ground: once again, we hear him confidently singing the blues, though this time, seemingly, with far more knowingness than the innocent nineteen-year-old of just one year earlier could ever have assumed.
''WHEN IT RAINS, IT POURS''
Composer: - William Robert Emerson
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Hi-Lo Music Incorporated
Matrix number: - None - Incomplete Take 1 (1:36)
Recorded: - November 1-4, 1955
Most likely November 20, 1955
Released: - August 3, 2012
First appearance: - FTD Records (CD) 500/200rpm 506020-975049-2/36 mono
A BOY FROM TUPELO – THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS 1953-1955
Reissued: - 2016 Memphis Recording Service (CD) 500/200rpm MRS 10053055-2/17 mono
ELVIS PRESLEY - THE COMPLETE WORKS 1953-1955
Johnny Bernero remembers this session shortly before the RCA deal was consummated. "We had cut one side and started on another", recalls Bernero, "when Elvis went up into the control room with Sam. They were up there about thirty minutes. We were just sitting around on the studio floor chewing the fat. Then Elvis came back down and came over to me and said, "John, we're not going to finish this session, but I really appreciate you coming over". "He gave me fifty dollars. The next thing I knew, Sam had sold his contract".
The songs that were to be used for Presley's sixth Sun single are a matter for some conjecture. Sam Phillips undoubtedly wanted to use his own copyrights, and Elvis Presley had started work on Billy Emerson's "When It Rains, It Pours". For a country flipside, Elvis Presley was being pressured to perform another Kesler-Feathers song, "We're Getting Closer To Being Apart". A curiously muffled Sun rehearsal tape of "When It Rains" was discovered by RCA's Gregg Geller on one of his rummages through the vaults, but "We're Getting Closer To Being Apart" has never surfaced.
Johnny Bernero never saw Elvis Presley again after the aborted rehearsals for the sixth single. "He called me over at the Light Gas & Water Company one day", recalls Bernero, "and asked me to come on the road with him. I was really tempted. I had been with the Light Gas & Water for ten years and wanted to go, but I had five children at that time. The wife and I talked it over and we decided that it wouldn't have been the best thing for me". As it happened, Elvis Presley soon picked up a drummer, D.J. Fontana, from the Louisiana Hayride.
The original "When It Rains, It Pours" is a song originally written and recorded by Billy "The Kid" Emerson. His version was released by Sun Records in 1954. The song was recorded on October 27, 1954 at Sun Recording Studio in Memphis, Tennessee. Sam Phillips was the producer. It was released on January 8, 1955 as Sun 214, as the B-side to the song "Move Baby Move" which did not chart. Personnel at the season were Billy Emerson, piano: Elven Parr, guitar: Robert Prindell, drums: Charles Smith, alto sax: Bennie Moore, tenor sax: and Luther Taylor, trumpet.
Presley was recorded performing the song during the Million Dollar Quartet session on December 4, 1956. On February 24, 1957 Presley again recorded the song, this time for RCA. This version also went unreleased until it appeared on the 1965 album ''Elvis For Everyone''. The musicians on this session were Scotty Moore and Presley on guitars, Bill Black on bass, D.J. Fontana on drums, Dudley Brooks on piano and the Jordanaires singing backup. In 1968, during rehearsals for the television special ''Elvis'', Presley was recorded singing it as a potential song for the show. Although the song was not chosen for the special, the rehearsal was released on ''The Complete '68 Comeback Special CD'' released in 2008.
Source: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Name (Or. No. Of Instruments)
Elvis Presley - Vocal and Acoustic Rhythm Guitar (Martin Dreadnought 18)
Scotty Moore - Electric Lead Guitar (Gibson ES 295)
Bill Black - Acoustic Upright Bass (Kay Maestro M-1)
Johnny Bernero - Drums (Gretsch Round Badge Kit)
*- Digitally Remastered
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©
Share this link via
Or copy link