That's the Way It Is (Elvis Presley album)
Studio and live tracks from Presley's 1970 Nashville and Las Vegas sessions.
In November 1970, RCA Records issued Elvis Presley's twelfth studio album, That's the Way It Is (catalog number LSP 4445). The record features eight Nashville studio cuts and four live performances from Las Vegas's International Hotel. Though it accompanied the documentary Elvis: That's the Way It Is, it's not typically classified as a soundtrack. It reached number 21 on the Billboard 200 and number eight on the country chart. The Recording Industry Association of America awarded it Gold certification in 1973, upgrading it to Platinum in 2018.
Quick Facts
- Artist
- Elvis Presley
- Released
- 11 November 1970
- Recorded
- June 5–7 & August 11–12, 1970
- Venue
- International Hotel (Las Vegas)
- Studio
- RCA Studio B (Nashville)
- Length
- 47:00
- Label
- RCA Victor
- Producer
- Felton Jarvis
Facts from the source article.
Track listing
Side one
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | I Just Can't Help Believin | Cynthia Weil, Barry Mann | 4:34 |
| 2 | Twenty Days and Twenty Nights | Ben Weisman, Clive Westlake | 3:15 |
| 3 | How the Web Was Woven | Clive Westlake, David Most | 3:25 |
| 4 | Patch It Up | Eddie Rabbitt, Rory Bourke | 4:03 |
| 5 | Mary in the Morning | Johnny Cymbal, Michael Rashkow | 4:11 |
| 6 | You Don't Have To Say You Love Me | Vicki Wickham, Simon Napier-Bell, Pino Donaggio, Vito Pallavicini | 2:30 |
Side two
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin | Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, Phil Spector | 4:23 |
| 2 | I've Lost You | Alan Blaikley, Ken Howard | 3:43 |
| 3 | Just Pretend | Guy Fletcher, Doug Flett | 4:02 |
| 4 | Stranger in the Crowd | Winfield Scott | 3:47 |
| 5 | The Next Step Is Love | Paul Evans, Paul Parnes | 3:31 |
| 6 | Bridge Over Troubled Water | Paul Simon | 4:29 |
Track listing from the source article.
Content
The original album comprises eight studio tracks recorded at RCA Studio B in Nashville during June 1970 sessions that also produced singles and the Elvis Country album, plus four live tracks from Presley's August 1970 engagement at The International Hotel in Las Vegas. The advance single "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" was released October 6, 1970, with its B-side "Patch It Up" appearing here in a live version. "The Next Step Is Love" had been a B-side in July 1970; its A-side "I've Lost You" also appears live. The concert version of "I Just Can't Help Believin'" was released as a UK single in November 1971, reaching number six.
Critical and commercial reception
Robert Christgau gave the album a C+ rating, writing that it leaned toward uptempo countryish ballads rather than usual pop-rock eclecticism and proved Presley could remember words without cue cards. Music historian John Robertson noted that the authority of Presley's singing helped disguise a decisive step away from American-roots inspiration toward a middle-of-the-road sound, with country, soul, and R&B left behind in favor of classy white pop suited to the Las Vegas crowd, which he considered a retrograde step. Stephen Thomas Erlewine observed that the album's original LP incarnation is not precisely a soundtrack to the documentary, with only a third capturing Presley live on-stage. He stated that many 1970s clichés—jumpsuits, splashy arrangements of contemporary standards, snazzy melodies of old hits—were born on That's the Way It Is, either on film or record. In the original LP, this was not especially apparent due to reliance on Nashville sessions where Presley recorded middle-of-the-road material pitched between Hollywood and Music City, such as "Twenty Days and Twenty Nights," "How the Web Was Woven," "Just Pretend," and "Stranger in the Crowd." These songs, not part of the live set, indicated a shift away from the soulful, funky sound of his 1968 comeback toward something showbiz. The live recordings showed he still performed with passion, figuring out what worked on-stage after his long hiatus, though this was not so apparent on the 1970 LP, which was basically a good studio album essaying his new persona for the coming decade.
More in Songs & Singles
Elsewhere in Elvis Presley
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced