One of the many highlights of the great 1969 Elvis Presley album From Elvis in Memphis is “Any Day Now.” While that album yielded other hits, Presley’s “Any Day Now” was not even released as a single. But seven years earlier, someone else had scored a hit recording of the song. Singer Chuck Jackson had a top 25 hit with the song, sometimes listed as “Any Day Now (My Beautiful Bird).” The song was written by Burt Bacharach and Bob Hilliard.
Jackson was born July 22, 1937 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After starting off with a gospel group, he joined the 1957 to sing with a gospel group. Later that year, he joined the Del-Vikings (also known as the Dell-Vikings) in 1957 before leaving the group in 1959 to start a solo career.
Jackson’s biggest pop hit would be 1962’s “Any Day Now.” But he had other successes on the R&B charts like “Something You Got” and “Beg Me.” The latter song featured backing vocals by Whitney Houston’s mother Cissy Houston, who also later often sang back up for Elvis. Jackson passed away on February 16, 2023.
“Any Day Now” is a somewhat unique pop song as it is not directly a love song and not about a break up. Instead it is about an in-between time, where the singer laments that his lover will soon leave him “any day now.”
Any day now,
When the clock strikes go,
You’ll call it off;
Then my tears will flow;
Then the blue shadow will fall all over town;
Any day now,
Love will let me down;
Oh, oh, oh.
In the video below, a young Burt Bacharach, who passed away eight days after Jackson died, introduces Jackson to sing the song that Bacharach co-wrote. Check it out.
As noted above, Elvis Presley’s version appeared on what was a “comeback” album for him in 1969, recorded at American Sound Studio. That album featured many outstanding tracks like “Suspicious Minds,” which partly explains why he never released “Any Day Now” as a single. But the song did appear as the B-side to “In the Ghetto.”
Elvis’s version is very similar to Jackson’s, down to the introduction. Unfortunately, Elvis never performed “Any Day Now” in concert, although he came close. On August 12, 1972, he rehearsed the song in the Main Showroom of the Las Vegas Hilton before starting a run of shows there. But unfortunately, the song did not make it into the setlist. The song did, however, make it into the recent Elvis (2022) movie and soundtrack.
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Elvis sang Any Day Now best -when Elvis sings good bye my love n his deep note on love hits you, you feel it in your toes. Then he goes high again n u remember how it feels when a lover is restless