Elvis Presley - Bitter They Are, Harder They Fall - From First Take to the Master

This was the first song recorded at the final batch of recording dates of Elvis’ career, sessions which took place within the confines of Elvis’ den in Graceland, now more commonly known as “The Jungle Room”. Recordings began on 2 February 1976 and concluded on 31 October. On these recordings, musical accompaniment would be provided by Elvis’ own TCB stage band with vocal backing from The Stamps, Myrna Smith and Kathy Westmoreland. The song would be the second song on side B of the “From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee” album which was released in May 1976. Although two albums contained songs from these “home” sessions, this was the only album which had content sourced exclusively from the sessions. Written by Larry Gaitlin, Elvis achieved the RCA master take in seven takes with five of the these seven takes being complete run throughs. Elvis on stage tenor Sherill Nielsen would add additional vocal backing at an unknown date in February although it is suspected that it was later the same week. These additional vocals were added at Young ‘Uns Studios in Nashville. Orchestral backings were added on 24 March 1976 at the same studio to an arrangement by Bergen White. 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!