Elvis Presley - It's Only Love - From First Take to the Master

“It’s Only Love” was recorded by Elvis on the evening of May 20 into the morning of 21 May, 1970 and never appeared on an Elvis album until after his death, and a single released in the UK in 1980 to promote the “Elvis Aron Presley” box set reached a very respectable #3. Elvis took ten takes, of which only three were complete takes, with the tenth becoming the master take. The final master was edited from three minutes down to just over two and a half minutes after vocal overdubs were added on 21 May, strings on 25 May and final brass and strings on 21 June 1971. The undubbed unedited master has never been released, either officially or unofficially, but both the bootleg titled “Pure Diamonds Vol.1” and “Rough Cut Diamonds” claim to contain the edited undubbed master, but a close listen reveals the presence of strings – definitely not undubbed then!
What these outtakes reveal is that Elvis was definitely struggling with the phrasing of the original bridge, which contained the lyrics “I never woke up from my dream girl” but eventually this became “There must be something else for me girl”. The creation of this largely unknown track shows Elvis engaged in the creative process, and take five found Elvis give an informal version of Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released” which despite being barely over a minute long, was given a master matrix number and initially released on the 70’s boxset “Walk A Mile In My Shoes”.