Elvis Presley - Love Letters - From First Take to the 1966 and 1970 Masters

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After his regular recording session on 26 and 27 March 1963, it would be over three years, on 25 May 1966, before Elvis entered a recording studio for a regular recording session again. Though no regular recording sessions occurred during this time, Elvis did have a mini session on 12 January 1964, consisting of two remakes and yielding one of the best recordings Elvis ever made: "It Hurts Me".
The recording sessions which began on 25 May 1966, the first of four consecutive recording days, are where the roots of recovery in Elvis' career would begin to sprout. Here, he began work on the second gospel album of his career, and this first day's session yielded two songs which would become Elvis classics: "How Great Thou Art", and Elvis' magnificent interpretation of Bob Dylan's "Tomorrow Is a Long Time". These sessions, aided by a further mini-session three weeks later, would also result in a worldwide hit, "Love Letters"; another of his finest recordings, "I'll Remember You"; one of his finest Christmas recordings, "If Everyday Could Be Like Christmas"; and, most importantly from a career legacy perspective, the award of his first Grammy for the album "How Great Thou Art". Despite the success of these sessions, there was still some way for Elvis to travel on the musical road to public redemption. However, this new-found confidence would follow Elvis into his next regular session in September 1967 at which he recorded "Guitar Man", before entering the most creative and triumphant period of his career between 1968 and 1972.
Whilst it is an excellent recording, "Love Letters" was not the best secular song recorded during the 1966 sessions. Nevertheless, it was the most commercially viable song, which would explain its choice as a single release. As good as Elvis' cover of the song is, it is Ketty Lester's 1961 version, itself a cover of Dick Haymes' 1945 original, which probably remains the definitive version, especially as Elvis' version contains a very similar arrangement to Lester's. Elvis' recording reached #19 in the US charts and #6 in the UK. This could be considered something of a success - Elvis' status as a recording artist had largely been forgotten, and such status was considered irrelevant at this point. Regardless, it was this release as a single that began to place him back, ever so slightly, in the consciousness of the music-buying public.
In a very strange move, probably in an attempt to improve or update the 1966 recording, Elvis decided to re-record the song on 7 June 1970 during "The Nashville Marathon". This was the final song recorded on the penultimate day of recordings, and there are obvious sounds of strain in Elvis' voice. This appears to have been caused by the previous three days of intensive recordings, as well as the eight songs preceding the recording of "Love Letters" on this particular day. This, however, is not the problem with the 1970 re-recording. Instead, it is the schmaltzy string overdubs added in post-production by Elvis' producer, Felton Jarvis, that is problematic, and this was further exasperated in 2017 when the Royal Philharmonic arrangement took the schmaltz to another level, smothering the piano, gentle percussion and vocal backings that had been the essence of the original 1966 recording.


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