[REX]

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Q:What are your memories of being in the studio when Elvis recorded If I Can Dream!

STEVE BINDER ... memories of Recording Session for IF I CAN DREAM..

A: Elvis asked if he could put a vocal down just so he could learn the song.

We had sent all the musicians home and the studio was kind of eerie

with all these empty chairs, music stands, music cases and a drum kit.

[REX]

23rd JUNE 1968 ~ Elvis getting ready to record his Vocal Track...

for IF I CAN DREAM ! ! !

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Steve Binder... on setting up for Elvis' Recording.....

Bones got him a hand mike and I said,

"Why don't we turn out all the lights in the studio so we don't see this vast empty
looking studio the size of a football field.

Let's make it as intimate as we can."

We could barely make Elvis out through the glass from the control room into the studio.

[REX]

NBC Session ~ 1 or 2 days earlier for Memories etc.,,,

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More;... Steve Memories.....

We cued that days backing-track and Elvis starts to sing.
It was magic.

Next thing I know he's curled on the floor in almost a fetal position singing with a microphone next to his mouth.

That brought chills to everyone, the hair on my arms were standing up.

That's the take that we wound up using on the soundtrack album.

[REX]

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Steve on picking the right TAKE ....

But I did not use that one in the TV show because I'm a total believer that if you're doing television I don't want anyone lip-synching,

I want the real thing.

And to be completely honest, as great as the sit-down shows are,

had I been able to get cameras into the dressing room and tape him there, it would have been even greater.

[REX]

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Q: Did Elvis recognize the significance of what he'd done with the show?

STEVE BINDER... later Memories...

A: I found out years later from Priscilla that Elvis knew that this show was special and important.

He sensed it from day one.

I'm positive that he took on The Colonel all the time while we were doing the show.

There were so many confrontations between me and The Colonel that, every day, I expected to get fired.

[REX]

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STEVE BINDER (Final Memories...)

And it never happened and I'm convinced that it never happened because Elvis,

in no uncertain terms, told The Colonel, "Hands off, I'm doing this and Steve has to stay."

It was the No 1 show of the year and to this day it's one of the highest rated shows in the history of NBC.

It got a 42 per cent share, which is huge.

Literally half of the population of the entire country was watching the show.

(sad but THE END...)

[REX]

W. EARL BROWN “If I Can Dream”

EARL ~ has had songs recorded by Frank Sinatra, Dinah Shore, Cher and The Jacksons

Yet W. Earl Brown’s extraordinary “If I Can Dream” is the centerpiece of his career.

It was the soul stirring closer of Elvis’s historic ‘68 Comeback Special television show

and heralded Presley’s resurrection as a serious recording artist.

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[REX]

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W. EARL BROWN “If I Can Dream”

“They wanted to close the show with a song of peace, hope and brotherhood-a message song.

‘A Change Is Gonna Come’ by Sam Cooke was the kind of song I wanted to write.

And I thought that if Elvis doesn’t record it, I’ll give it to Aretha Franklin.

[REX]

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W. EARL BROWN “If I Can Dream”

So one night at my place in Sherman Oaks, California,

I wrote the song while looking out the window at the garden,
with the sun coming in and thinking how much I mean it, how much I felt.

This was not a hack job. I really believed in the song so much.

‘If I Can Dream’ came quickly, both words and music.

I didn’t even sit at the piano; it just came to me.

I quickly scribbled it out on manuscript paper.

It just unfolded. I didn’t think about form.

It was a very inspired and pure song.

[REX]

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W. EARL BROWN “If I Can Dream”

“I took it in the next morning, and Billy Goldenberg played the piano while I sang it

for Bob Finkel [the producer] and Steve Binder [the director].

They loved it.

From the other room I heard Colonel Parker say,

‘That ain’t Elvis’s kind of song.’

Then from behind me I heard, ‘I’d like to try it, man.’

I didn’t know that Elvis had been standing in the doorway and had heard it.

(a slightly different version of the Events.. strange how you end up remembering "A DREAM")

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[REX]

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W. EARL BROWN “If I Can Dream”

The next thing I know I find myself at Western Recorders and Elvis is recording it and -

....The Blossoms have tears running down their faces.

Darlene Love said to me,

‘He really loves the song.

He really believes in the song and means every word of it.’

“There was such a sense of excitement in the air with Elvis doing the Comeback special.

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[REX]

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W. EARL BROWN “If I Can Dream”

He had done his concert in the little boxing ring with the kids all around.

When he began to sing ‘If I Can Dream’ at the end of the show,

you could feel something in the air.

It was truly electric. I’m not being dramatic…it really was.

“I still have my original handwritten lyrics for ‘If I Can Dream.’

Up in the left corner Elvis wrote, ‘My boy, my boy-this could be the one!’

Because he hadn’t had a hit in nine years, and it was.”

...you couldn't Dream up this stuff.. telling it like it really was...

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[elvislady]

Stunning pics rex...steve binder did a great job with elvis on the 68 special... elvis trusted him 100pcent!


elvislady (IMG:style_emoticons/default/thumbup.gif)

[Tigerman]

great thread again Rex. "If I can Dream" is one of Elvis best numbers ever, and I belive it's a very specail song to Elvis fans no matter if they like "Rock Elvis", "country Elvis", balldad/pop/blues etc. etc. This was and is a epic song of hope .

[SweetCaroline]

I LOVE the thread. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/thumbsup.gif) Sure wish ELVIS would have found the strength to sass back to the Colonel a little more often. ELVIS would have been better off if he had.
I remember after watching the special on tv....(I was 21 at the time)....and thinking....
"WhoooHoooo....my ELVIS is BACK!!!!!!!" (IMG:style_emoticons/default/woohoo.gif)

[NightRider]

The ultimate perfect song for Elvis. A stunning vocal performance..... i doubt that anyone EVER would be able to perform that song in the same way Elvis did. I do think the guy might want to do a tad more revision on Elvis though... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif) ...wasn't quite nine years since he had a hit....but we can forgive that for the wonderful song he had written. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/notworthy.gif)

Magnificent Song in the spotlight Rex ! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/notworthy.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/notworthy.gif)

[colonel snow]

A high light in Elvis' singing career.


colonel snow

[REX]

...A highlight in Elvis' singing career....colonel snow..

Many thanks Colonel Snow - a turning point in Elvis' career, starting with Guitar Man, then "DREAM" and the amazing Suspicious Minds and In the Ghetto.
I also remember just before IF I CAN DREAM .. getting TIGER MAN on the Singer Presents Album.. Great times for Elvis fans.

Also ~ (IMG:http://www.elvis-tkc.com/forums/uploads/1265482872/gallery_21960_53_14922.gif) to ~ ELVISLADY - TIGERMAN - CHRIS & CAROLE.


1968: NOVEMBER RECORD RELEASES
Single: IF I CAN DREAM / EDGE OF REALITY sent out to retailers on the 5th November.

 IfIcanDreamRed.jpg ( 29.33K ) Number of downloads: 0

Released just a month in advance of the NBC Special broadcast.
With the Special being shown on the 3rd December,
Sales climb dramatically, cresting at something like 800,000 units ~
the single surprisingly fails to make the USA Top Ten, peaking at Number #12

The '68 Special Album with the Closing IF I CAN DREAM is shipped on 22nd November.
It sells over Half a Million copies through that Xmas period, peaking at Number # 8

[REX]

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RCA and RELEASING THE SONGS

"The contract for the ‘Comeback Special’, according to a June 13th William Morris Agency memo,
stated that Steve Binder & Bones Howe would be responsible for the writers,
choral director, choreographers, and musical conductor/arranger. …

The Colonel phoned me back and personally gave me his word of honor that there
would definitely be no RCA song or soundtrack album released from the television special
so we had nothing to worry about.

Fred phoned me to back up the Colonel's conversation.

I was very naive and took the Colonel and the William Morris Agency at their word.

[SweetCaroline]

We all know The Colonel could be pretty slick.... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/whistling.gif)