Separate Ways (Budget Release)

In December 1972 "Burning Love And Hits From His Movies" was still on the charts, but the contract ran out and CAMDEN nevertheless had to release their third budget album. "Separate Ways" entered the "Top LPs Chart" on January 27, 1973, had a run of 18 weeks and peaked at number 46. On the "Hot Country Albums Chart" the sales of 300,000 units were enough for a stay of 10 weeks and a peak at number 12. To avoid "bought" chart success by price dumping, Billboard calculated the charts by using the value in USD, therefore the ranking of budget albums was lower. But the RIAA counted the sold units and honored the domestic sales with Gold (1999) and Platinum (2004). Globally CAMDEN retailed two million units, which equals 300 million paid streams of the complete album or 3 billion paid streams of individual tracks. "Separate Ways" didn't match the success of "Burning Love And Hits From His Movies", but still sold almost as well as the gospel album "He Touched Me" and moved twice as many units as "Elvis Now".

To symbolize separate ways, the art department put a stage photo from April 1972 on a painting of a fork. The result is one of the cheapest looking album covers of the Presley catalogue. The backside advertised the previous CAMDEN releases as well as the forthcoming live record "Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite".

Because all songs from this longplayer are included on other albums or have been added as bonus tracks to their digital versions, "Separate Ways" is obsolete today and cannot be found on the streaming platforms.

This time CAMDEN used the single "Separate Ways" / "Always On My Mind" as a hook and added eight older songs, which also dealt with heartache and separation. In contrast to the previous releases the company didn't limit itself to movie tunes, but also used regular studio recordings. The songs were taken from the albums "Elvis" (1956), "A Date With Elvis" (1959), "Something For Everybody" (1961), Elvis For Everyone!" (1965) and "Double Trouble" (1967). Once again the king didn't interfer and accepted, that his current single was used on a budget release. It's pretty safe to say that he was happy to be paid without having to do anything.

In the song, the narrator splits from his wife and therefore has to leave his little daughter, too. "Separate Ways" was written by Red West and Richard Mainegra directly for Elvis and fit the current situation of the king like a glove. On March 27, 1972 he recorded 25 takes at RCA Studio C in Hollywood/California and selected the 21st attempt for release. On the day of the recording Felton Jarvis added harmony voices, strings and horns followed on May 8th. Later the violins were removed, because Elvis didn't like the arrangement. With sales of 1.75 million units "Separate Ways" earned the king another Gold Award, but compared to "Burning Love" the demand was 42% lower.

Elvis needed just two attempts to record a perfect version of this lovely ballad. RCA Victor released the track on a single in several European countries, in Italy the king even scored a number one hit with "Sentimental Me". There are many versions of this song around, for example there's a German one named "Mondscheinmelodie" (translated it would be "Moonlight Melody"), which was performed by Peter Alexander. The original recording was released in 1950 by The Ames Brothers, the writers are Jimmy Cassin and Jim Morehead. Elvis' version can be found on the album "Something For Everybody".

The ballad was penned by Fred Wise and Ben Wisman, was known from the motion picture "Wild In The Country" (1961) and released by RCA Victor on the longplayer "Elvis For Everyone!" (1965). The king recorded it on November 7, 1960 at Radio Recorders in Hollywood/California and needed eight takes to archive a satisfactory master. The singer cannot promise his girl eternal love and doesn't expect it of her, too. Elvis is just accompanied by a guitar and performs this sad, slow song very well.

This one can also be found on "Elvis For Everyone!". The singer tells his (presumably) unfaithful girlsfriend that he will finally leave her, after he had warned her serveral times. Elvis sounds very emotional, almost fragile. I like this ballad very much and to me it's somewhat of a mystery why it was left at the vaults for so long. The king had recorded this song by Don Robertson on October 15, 1961 at RCA Studio B in Nashville/Tennessee. He worked hard on the ballad and recorded 18 takes before the result met his idea.

Originally Don Robertson had written the song for Johnny Cash, but he refused it. So it was offered to Elvis, who recorded it on May 26, 1963 at RCA Studio B in Nashville/Tennessee within a single take. I like that popsong very much, it's one of the highlights of the "Double Trouble" album.

The singer affirms, that his wife was always on his mind, even though he had treated her not well and finally was left. Once again the lyrics could have been an excerpt of Elvis' diary, but this time it was nothing but a coincidence. "Always On My Mind" was written by Wayne Carson, Mark James and Johnny Christopher and had nothing to do with the king's situation. Elvis recorded the song on March 28, 1972 at RCA Studio C in Hollywood/California and needed seven takes to get it right. On April 27th further instruments were added, strings and horns followed on May 8th. Once again Elvis wanted to do without the violins, so they were removed before release.

Because there was no separate soundtrack for "Wild In The Country", Colonel Parker and Elvis used the album "Something For Everybody" to feature one of the tracks and promote the picture. On November 8, 1960 at Radio Recorders in Hollywood/California the king recorded 18 takes of "I Slipped, I Stumbled, I Fell" and decided to release take 13. The song was written by Bed Weisman and Fred Wise.

This ballad was written by Faron Young and was released on the ep "Just For You" (1957) and the album "A Date With Elvis" (1959). The king recorded it on January 19, 1957 within 12 takes, on the same day the harmony voices were taped, too.

This is another slow, sad ballad from "Wild In The Country" (1961), which is sung just accompanied by a guitar. Once again Elvis performs it in a very believable way and sounds nothing but great. The king recorded the song by Fred Wise and Ben Weisman on November 7, 1960 at Radio Recorders in Hollywood/California and needed just three takes to get it right.

Old Shep

At the time of the release of Elvis' second album "Old Shep" must have been a real surprise, because nobody expected a sad ballad about a boy and his dog from somebody, who was said to be the king of rock'n'roll. In fact Elvis loved "Old Shep" and sang this song since his childhood days. I like the track very much, because it's one of the very few ballads, that Elvis sang well at the time. In the 1950s he was really good at uptempo songs, but he simply lacked the technique to perform the slow tunes well. On September 2, 1956 the king recorded five takes of "Old Shep", but finally approved his first attempt for release. Because of a mistake some pressings of "Elvis" include take 5 of the song. Today these versions of the album are quite expensive. The song was written by Red Foley, who was also the first to release it.

Verdict

Just like "Burning Love And Hits From His Movies" this album is compiled well.