www.elvis-presley.website

The ultimate site about the king of the analogue age

 

The latest single "If I Can Dream" / "Edge Of Reality" promoted the forthcoming tv special "SINGER presents Elvis" as well as the current motion picture "Live A Little, Love A Little". It was released on November 5, 1968 and entered the "Hot 100" on the 30th of the month. Domestically it sold over a million copies which made it stay on the chart for 13 weeks and peak at number 12. The RIAA honored the sales in 1992 with a Gold Award. In the rest of the world "If I Can Dream" also was quite popular, just the Australians preferred "Edge Of Reality" and made it a top10 hit. Worldwide the single sold two million units, which translates to 300 million paid streams. Even though these figures still were far away from his glory days, "If I Can Dream" / "Edge Of Reality" proved, that Elvis still could sell records if he chose the right songs.

On the streaming platforms this single is not available. However, "If I Can Dream" is included on the album "Elvis" (1968) and "Edge Of Reality" can be found on the long player "Almost In Love" (1970). In 2016 the complete Presley catalogue was restored and remastered by Vic Anesini for a boxed set of 60 compact discs called "The Album Collection". Sony Music Entertainment provides the streaming platforms with the same versions of the individual tracks, albeit in 24 bit/90 khz flac. That means, if the platform of your choice supports high resolution audio, you can enjoy the songs in the same quality Sony used to scan and master them. On Spotify, which has a market share of approximately 30% and is the only platform that publishes streaming figures, "If I Can Dream" accumulates 118 million streams. 111 million of them can be allocated to the original recording, 17 million are owned by the remake, which features The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. "Edge Of Reality" is almost forgotten and clocks in at just 1.6 million streams.

On the cover the king looks modern, but with the longer sideburns and his coiffure also somewhat reminiscent of the past. It was Elvis 2.0. Of course the sleeve also promoted "Live A Little, Love A Little", even though it wasn't shown globally and had already left some of the domestic cinemas.

 

If I Can Dream

W. Earl Brown's dream of a better world was the finale of the tv special "SINGER presents Elvis". The king sounds unfamiliar rough and very emotional. In a certain way he (unintentionally) copied Tony Bruno, whom he had seen several times in Vegas in the months before he made the recording. This was done on June 23, 1968 within five takes. RCA Victor also released "If I Can Dream" on the albums "Elvis" (1968) and "A Legendary Performer - Volume 2" (1976) as well as on the boxed set "Worldwide 50 Gold Award Hits - Volume 1" (1970).

Edge Of Reality

Elvis recorded "Edge Of Reality" on March 7, 1968 at Western Recorders in Hollywood/California. He needed eight takes to archive a satisfactory result. The song itelf is more than a tad on the psychedelic side and is anything but an average movie tune. It was written by Bill Giant, Bernie Baum and Florence Kaye, who had delivered a truckload thereof in the past few years. Because there was no soundtrack album to "Live A Little, Love A Little", CAMDEN used the track on their budget album "Almost In Love" (1970).

 

Verdict

It needed a television special to attrackt attention again, but the king surely proved that he was able to deliver. With a new style of performing, a modern arrangement and sociocritical undertones Elvis slowly opened up the market for his music once more.

 (C) RCA Records