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The ultimate site about the king of the analogue age

 

On September 21, 1971 RCA Victor released another single of the king. "It's Only Love" entered Billboard's "Hot 100" on October 9th at number 90, had a run of six weeks and peaked at number 51. The song could also be found on the "Easy Listening Chart". Here it stayed for five weeks and reached number 19. Worldwide the single barely sold 700,000 units, which translates to 112.5 million paid streams. Somehow Elvis didn't seem able to score a hit anymore. However, in 1980 the king landed a top5 hit with "It's Only Love" on the UK Charts when RCA released the song coupled with "Beyond The Reef". In general the song appears to grow on the fans. Compared to the sales figures of the original single the 3.5 million streams on Spotify are surprisingly solid. "It's Only Love" is requested more than twice as much as "Rags To Riches", "Life" or "I'm Leavin'" - the other deadbeats from 1971. However, "The Sound Of Your Cry" shares the fate of the other b-sides. With around 700,000 streams the track is almost forgotten.

The cover was made up with a photo from late 1970, of course the new boxed set "The Other Sides - Worldwide Gold Award Hits Volume 2" was also advertised.

On the streaming platforms this single is not available, but the tracks have been included by Sony Music Entertainment on the digital versions of "Elvis Now" (1972) and "Love Letters From Elvis" (1971). During the king's lifetime neither "It's Only Love", nor "The Sound Of Your Cry" was released on an album.

 

It's Only Love

Elvis recorded the song on May 20, 1971 at RCA Studio B in Nashville/Tennessee and selected the 10th attempt for postproduction and release. It's quite strange, because often he screams more than he sings and also fails to hit several notes. Felton Jarvis tried to cover these mistakes with a clever mix and also added harmony voices (May 21st), violins (May 25th), horns and even more strings (June 21st). The first recording of "It's Only Love" was made by B. J. Thomas, the writers are Mark James and Steve Tyrell. Even though Elvis performs the song in a very sloppy manner, I like "It's Only Love" very much. It's another one of my guilty pleasures.

The Sound Of Your Cry

Here the singer leaves his woman in the middle of the night, because he couldn't stand her crying. To me the melody is reminicent of a musical tune, maybe that's what sets it apart from other power ballads of the king. He recorded it on June 4, 1970 at RCA Studio B in Nashville/Tennessee within 10 takes. On June 22nd Felton Jarvis added harmony voices, on June 30th strings and brass. The production was finalized on October 1st. The producer added more backup vocals and shortened the recording of more than a minute. Even though "The Sound Of Your Cry" was just the b-side of "It's Only Love", RCA released the track ten years later on the album "Elvis' Greatest Hits Volume 1"..

 

Verdict

Back in 1971 the single couldn't arouse anyone's interest, but still both songs have a certain charme.

 (C) RCA Records