Life

Elvis had intended to record the inspirational “Only Believe” ever since the 1960 His Hand In Mine session. He recorded both it and “Life,” a more self-conscious expression of “New-Age” philosophy, at the June 1970 sessions. (An ambitious March session, with a “contemporary folk” agenda, had had to be cut short when Elvis was hospitalized with a painful case of secondary glaucoma.) Although Elvis was clearly drawn to the material, even he seemed to recognize its limitations, joking on the session tapes that the A-side is “as long as life itself.” Evidently, though, it came closer to singles material than anything still left in the can.