Elvis Presley - Is It So Strange - From First Take to the Master

In order to complement a recording session which concluded six days earlier, sandwiched in between the soundtrack recordings for his second movie "Loving You" was a regular mini session on 19 January 1957 which yielded four tracks the last of which was "Is It So Strange?". For this session, Elvis moved from the Paramount Movie Stage to Radio Recorders' studio one, both of which were situated in Hollywood and the other tracks recorded were "It Is No Secret (What God Can Do), "Blueberry Hill" and "Have I Told You Lately (That I Love You)". On the recording of "Is It So Strange?" in his book "A Lifetime In Music" Ernst Jotgensen writes - "There was time for one last song, “Is It So Strange,” by country singer Faron Young, who had toured on several early shows with Elvis. He had submitted the song to Elvis himself, and Elvis commented at the Sun jam session that Faron wouldn’t give him any part of the writer’s share. But he was determined to cut it, so Freddy was forced to work out whatever arrangement he could. The band was more at ease here, making a substantial improvement on their previous two efforts and producing a master that recalled Elvis’s great early ballad 'I Was The One.'" The recording of "Is It So Strange?" is intriguing in that it was the just the second non soundtrack recording to have overdubs applied, the first being "Shake Rattle and Roll", in both cases of the backing vocal variety but in the case of "Is It So Strange?" it appears that they were applied out of necessity rather than for cosmetic value. Originally, the master of 'Is It So Strange' was documented as being just Take 12, but the Jordanaires had to overdub two additional Bop, Bop's to cover Elvis trying, and failing, to hit the high note at the point where he sings "waste a love like ours would be a si-hiii-hiiiiin". This was never documented and only transpired when the binaural version of take 12 was released on the "Close Up" box set in 2003, where the difference to the original master could be heard. If nothing else, this recording emphasises the difference in Elvis' vocals both in maturity and in experience since in the late 60's and in the 70's reaching the note that he failed to on this song would have been effortless. However the raw talent and his naturally excellent singing voice, often exposed in ballads by lesser talented artists, is all too apparent. As with all of these videos, to get the most out of the audio, I highly recommend you use ear /headphones and turn the volume up as much as you dare!