3 a.m. Albums Archives - chimesfreedom

3 a.m. Albums: Elvis Presley’s “The Jungle Room Sessions”

Our series “3 a.m. Albums” examines albums that are perfect for those nights when you cannot sleep due to sadness, loneliness, or despair. Today we consider Elvis Presley’s “The Jungle Room Sessions” (and “Way Down in the Jungle Room”) a collection of songs from Presley’s final recording sessions.

Elvis Last Recording Just for the circumstances surrounding Elvis Presley’s recording of The Jungle Room Sessions (2000), the album constitutes the perfect “3 a.m. album.” The songs on The Jungle Room Sessions come from Presley’s final two studio recording sessions on February 2-7 and on October 29-30, 1976 in the late night and early morning hours. Presley was emotionally and physically drained, no longer wanting to go outside his home at Graceland even as he worked hard to fulfill his obligations for concerts booked by Colonel Tom Parker.

Because of Presley’s reluctance to leave Graceland, RCA brought a studio to him, setting up recording equipment in Presley’s famed “Jungle Room,” the den at the back of Graceland behind the kitchen. Although the room was not built for recording, Nashville engineer Brian Christian helped figure out how to adapt the room in ways such as draping the walls with heavy blankets to dampen the acoustics. Considering the obstacles, the music that came out of these sessions sounds fantastic.

The music from these sessions may be found on two similar releases from Sony’s Follow That Dream (FTD) specialty Elvis label. The Jungle Room Sessions from 2000 features outtakes from the sessions. FTD later released Way Down in the Jungle Room in 2013 as a two-CD set that includes both the masters and various outtakes. I own and love both of these releases, which are somewhat duplicative, with some differences. Either one makes for great three a.m. listening.

The masters from these Jungle Room sessions produced the final two official albums of Elvis’s career: From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee (1976) and Moody Blue (1977). The Jungle Room Sessions and Way Down in the Jungle Room compile unreleased songs from these recording sessions that according to Ernst Jorgensen’s Elvis Presley: A Life in Music, generally started after 9:00 p.m. and went all through the night. A more recent

And it is these gems and alternate takes — sometimes stripped down, sometimes featuring false starts and comments by Presley — where Presley through his beautiful voice sacrifices his own anguish to help heal yours. As his weakened body gives his lifeblood to each song, you find a close companion in the night. Allmusic describes the Jungle Room Sessions album as “one of the most revealing and emotionally draining releases ever issued by Elvis. Hear it and weep.”

The Jungle Room Sessions generally follows the order in which the songs were recorded, beginning with “Bitter They Are, Harder They Fall.” This recording includes some opening conversation by Elvis and two short takes before getting to the complete fifth take of the song. The missteps and chatter draw you into the sessions, so you feel you are sitting with Elvis and the band in the middle of the night in Graceland, or maybe they are with you wherever you are.

Other songs include a nice take on “The Last Farewell,” “Moody Blue,” “Danny Boy,” and “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain.” Another highlight is “She Thinks I Still Care,” a George Jones classic that was written by written by Dickey Lee and Steve Duffy.

The collection of songs also includes alternate takes on “Hurt,” a song where in Presley’s cries of anguish Greil Marcus found an “apocalyptic attack.” Similarly, Dave Marsh wrote, “If [Presley] felt the way he sounded, the wonder isn’t that he only had a year left to live but that he managed to survive that long.” This alternate take matches that description.

Finally, the Jungle Room Sessions album ends with the rocking “Fire Down Below.” But you no longer hear Presley on this track, except for a brief clip of Presley singing “America” after the track ends. The instrumental recording for “Fire Down Below” was made for Presley to later add his vocals. But he died before he got the chance to do that.

“Fire Down Below” is a fitting way to end the album, with the listener missing Presley, wondering what he might have done with the music, a track that sounds more like a sunrise than a 3 a.m. song.

Check out other albums in our series “3 a.m. Albums.” The Jungle Room Sessions and Way Down in the Jungle Room appeara on Graceland’s special collector label Follow That Dream and are available through Graceland’s official store. What is your favorite 3 a.m. album? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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3 a.m. Albums: Sam Cooke’s “Night Beat”

Sam Cooke Night In our series “3 a.m. Albums,” we look at albums that are perfect for those nights when you cannot sleep due to sadness, loneliness, despair, or other reasons. This post in the series considers Sam Cooke’s twelfth album, Night Beat, released in August 1963.

When you think of singer-songwriter Sam Cooke, who was born on January 22, 1931, you probably first think of the singles and his wonderful tracks like “You Send Me,” “A Change Is Gonna Come,” and “Twistin’ the Night Away.” But if you ask a Sam Cooke fan to name their favorite album by the R&B singer, chances are they will name an album without any of his most recognizable hits: Night Beat.

The Recording and “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen”

Early in 1963, less than two years before Cooke’s tragic death, he went into the studio for some late night recording sessions with talented musicians such as pianist Ray Johnson (piano), the sixteen-year-old Billy Preston (organ); Barney Kessell (guitar), Hal Blaine (drums), Ed Hall (drums), Cliff Hils (bass), Clif White (bass), and René Hall (rhythm guitar). During those nights, they created a moody masterpiece for late-night listening.

The opening track on side one of the album creates the mood with Cooke singing an old spiritual, “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen.” While the singer tells us about his lonely troubles, Cooke adds a layer of rhythm and blues that both provides comfort to the troubled and offers a little bit of hope.

Cooke’s Originals on the Album

Night Beat includes some Cooke originals, like “Mean Old World,” a song Cooke had recorded with the Soul Stirrers six years earlier. The other songs written by Cooke were “Laughin’ and Clownin'” and “You Gotta Move.”

Below is “You Gotta Move.”

An Uplifting Coda

Most of the songs were written by other artists, including classics like the blues song “Little Red Rooster.” Indeed, many of the songs are steeped in the blues, with many of the songs reflecting themes of heartbreak.

The one song, however, that stands out as an uplifting coda is the closing track on side two, Cooke’s version of “Shake, Rattle, and Roll.” It is as if after sorting through the heartbreak, he wants to remind us that after you get through it all you will find pure joy once again.

So, after reflecting on your misery, “Get out of that bed, go wash your face and hands.”

The Song That Sums Up the Album

According to Peter Guralnick’s excellent biography of the singer, Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke (2005), the song that best summed up the mood of the album was recorded at the end of an evening, “Lost and Lookin’.” Cooke’s voice in the minor-key number faces the world alone, accompanied only by bass and the cymbals on the drum set.

According to Guralnick, “Lost and Lookin'” “showed off every one of Sam’s characteristic vocal effects.” But it did so “without in any way suggesting, either to the listener or himself, that they were effects, so intrinsic were they to his feeling for the music, to the feelings he wanted to express.”

An Album To Get You Through the Night

The album is a wonderful friend to have late at night. Allmusic explains, “The songs are intimate blues, most taken at the pace of a late-night stroll, but despite the dark shading and heart-rending tempos, Cooke’s voice is so transcendent it’s difficult to become depressed while listening.”

So, the next late night where you need some company to help get you through until sunrise, put on Sam Cooke’s Night Beat.

What is your favorite 3 a.m. album? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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3 a.m. Albums: Frank Sinatra’s “In the Wee Small Hours”

One of the great albums for finding solace amidst middle-of-the-night anxiety is Frank Sinatra’s “In the Wee Small Hours.”

In our series “3 a.m. Albums,” we look at albums that are perfect for those nights when you cannot sleep due to sadness, loneliness, despair, or other reasons. We begin the series with an album that is appropriately named, In the Wee Small Hours, which is one of Frank Sinatra’s masterpieces.

Frank Sinatra recorded most of In the Wee Small Hours in the late night hours in early 1955, releasing the album not long after completion in April of that year. Often considered as an early concept album, In the Wee Small Hours received its main inspiration from the dissolution of the relationship between Sinatra and actress Ava Gardner, who Sinatra had married in 1951.

The ballads, arranged by Nelson Riddle, features more sparse instrumentation than on many Sinatra classics, allowing the heartache in Sinatra’s voice to bleed through your speakers above the sounds of the guitar, celesta, piano, and strings. The title song, which was new at the time, stands well next to the album’s classics like “Mood Indigo.” The song “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning” remains one of the great opening album tracks of all time, setting the mood for the entire album.

Sinatra poured his tears, sweat, and blood into these tracks. The liner notes claim the album creates “the loneliest early-morning mood in the world.” Reportedly, Sinatra broke down crying after recording “When Your Lover Has Gone.”

The album has stood the test of time. The song “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning” has stood the test of time, being covered by many singers, including a recent cover by another singer famous for his relationships, John Mayer. B.B. King has talked about listening to the album on many late nights (“I practically put that In the Wee Small Hours album under my pillow every night when I went to sleep”), and Tom Waits lists it as one of his favorite albums of all time, echoing the album’s artwork on his own The Heart of Saturday Night (1974).

When one thinks of Sinatra, the songs on In the Wee Small Hours may not be the ones you first think of as you run through songs like “Lady is a Tramp” and “Summer Wind.” But it is one of his original albums best heard in its entirety from start to finish rather than as a collection of greatest hits or live performances. And it is best heard at 3 a.m. as you face the demons in your own life, somehow finding comfort knowing that even Ol’ Blue Eyes knew (and somehow survived) the same type of heartbreak. Thankfully, he is there, giving words and music to your feelings like a friend buying you a drink in an empty bar at closing time.

What is your favorite 3 a.m. album? Leave your two cents in the comments.