Elvis Presley - I'll Never Know - From First Take to the Master

The expansion of the internet, the invention of the official Elvis Collectors label, “Follow That Dream” by Sony and the plethora of session outtakes on Elvis Sony Legacy releases has made what was essentially only open to hard core bootleg collectors available to all fans. In days gone by, the majority other than those with bottomless pockets had access only to the regular RCA releases.
With this in mind, the recent “Nashville” releases have now turned many of the songs recorded at these sessions a whole new listening experience to many. In many cases, this extends as far as even making them sound like completely new songs.
A song which fits into this category is “I’ll Never Know” which was originally heard on the “Love Letters from Elvis” album in June 1971. However, like many of the songs on this album, it was smothered in strings therefore irrecoverably dating them. Stripping these away gives the song a whole new lease of life and shows what miracles Elvis could perform with what is fundamentally poor material.
Elvis recorded “I’ll Never Know” on 5 June 1970 and was the second to last song recorded that evening and was completed in seven takes. The post production was undertaken in three parts with the vocal overdubs added first on 22 June. Eight days later, the brass and strings were added using an arrangement by Glen Spreen and Gene Mullins. Finally on 1 October, the final touches were added by way of additional backing vocals.


As with all of these videos, to get the most out of the re-edited audio, I highly recommend you use ear /headphones and turn the volume up as much as you dare!