I’m Leavin’

The A-side, a big, hyper-dramatic ballad, was from the recent week-long series of sessions in Nashville, and Elvis clearly believed in the song. “Phew, man, it’s tough,” he declared at one point in the recording, “but the thing is worth working on.” It was, and Elvis and the band achieved a suitably emotional result. But the public wasn’t buying, and with sales of just 300,000 it was a genuine disappointment, perhaps sounding a faint cautionary note about Elvis’ continuing connection with his new contemporary audience.