THE BOX TOPS

“Cry Like a Baby”

1960s

Alex Chilton was never really cut out to be a pop star.

JAMES CARR

“You Got My Mind Messed Up”

Late 1980s Live Performance

I have no idea where this was filmed but I would guess it’s a late 80s performance, based on the outstanding yellow ensemble worn by guitarist Teenie Hodges (who also played on all the Hi Records Al Green sessions and Cat Power’s The Greatest album). And that’s definitely the Memphis Horns back there.

James Carr never had the hits, suffered from mental illness throughout the 70s & 80s and didn’t live long enough to get recognized as the greatest Southern soul singer.

But he is.

HAMILTON, JOE FRANK & REYNOLDS

“Don’t Pull Your Love”

1971

You can’t buy the best Elvis record of the 70s because the King didn’t actually make it.

Blame Col. Tom Parker. After Elvis got out of the Army, Parker made a business decision: his boy was only going to record a song if Col. Tom controlled the music publishing.

Of course, Col. Tom still made his money but Elvis’ records were a disaster for the rest of the 60s. Things got so bad that RCA Records staff producer Felton Jarvis gave up and let Chips Moman produce a session at American Studios in Memphis.

Chips went behind Parker’s back and played Elvis “Suspicious Minds.” They recorded the song before the Colonel knew what was happening. Elvis loved the track, but Parker demanded his usual cut of the song’s publishing. Chips said no. The Colonel announced that the record wasn’t coming out. Chips still said no. RCA heard the track and knew it was a hit. The record came out and was one of the biggest hits of 1969.

Of course, Col. Tom Parker was livid. He made damn sure Elvis didn’t record any more songs unless he got a taste. The result was easy to predict: Elvis had only one more real hit during his lifetime and “Burning Love” didn’t come out until three years later.

Which leads us to our moment of great loss.

The first time you hear “Don’t Pull Your Love,” there’s absolutely no question Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter wrote it for Elvis Presley. Since both of them were successful songwriters (”One Tin Soldier”), there was no way they were giving their publishing to the Colonel.

Elvis’ version of “Don’t Pull Your Love” would have changed the course of history. It would have at least changed his career and probably saved his life.

Instead, we have to make do with the best Fake Elvis record of all time. Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds were LA studio guys whose only other hit didn’t even feature Reynolds.

Whenever I play this song in my head, I hear the Elvis version. This record is the perfect demo: the arrangement sounds like the best American Studios Elvis so all you have to do is fill in his lead vocal.

And I hope Col. Tom is spending eternity watching the movies he kept Elvis from making, flying overseas to the shows he never booked and, mostly, listening to an endless loop of “Don’t Pull Your Love,” Elvis’ biggest hit record ever.

(Thanks to Jon Kincaid for having the same theory and reminding me I should write about it).

DON NIX

“I’ll Fly Away” & “He Never Lived a Day Without Jesus”

(Memphis/Muscle Shoals 1971)

Know this: there’s always another amazing record you don’t know about yet. No matter how much music you hear in your life, your next trip to the store might be the time when you find the greatest record you never heard of before.

I bought Don Nix’s In God We Trust last year in NYC because:

1. It was a rock record by Don Nix from the Mar-Keys and the Stax house band.
2. They made it at Muscle Shoals Sound.
3. Furry Lewis plays slide guitar on it.
4. Barry Beckett plays keyboards.
5. Eddie Hinton plays guitar.
6. David Hood (Patterson from Drive-By Truckers’ dad) plays bass.
7. Someone was helpful enough to print all those credits on the back cover.
8. The LP is on Denny Cordell & Leon Russell’s Shelter Records & has the original Shelter logo that rips off the Superman “S” right there on the front.
9. Don looks both surly and lit in the cover photo.

What I got was a genuine white-boy soul hippie Jesus record, the kind where true religious ecstasy is fueled by a fifth of Jim Beam and a little weed.

“I’ll Fly Away” features amazing electric sitar and piano parts, both so good that you can almost forgive Don for trying to pass off Alfred Brumley’s song as “Trad.” so he could take all the publishing money for his arrangement.

“He Never Lived a Day Without Jesus” sounds like a eulogy for a brother who died in Vietnam. Embracing the 60s counterculture was a lot more complicated in the South because almost everyone was rebelling against God and the military instead of against a middle-class lifestyle that few of them had anyway. I’m sure all the guys playing on this record (except maybe Furry) didn’t have college deferments from the draft and were disappointing their mothers as well.

In God We Trust is a completely sincere gospel record made by a bunch of guys who were definitely living the hedonist rock & roll life. There was likely no place for it on FM radio and, while Don went on to a success as both a producer and songwriter, he never made another record for Shelter.

My copy of this record is worn, so the transfer isn’t pristine. Then again, I’ve never seen another copy of the record and I’m grateful to have it.

• Download “I’ll Fly Away”
• Download “He Never Lived a Day Without Jesus”

(In God We Trust — Shelter Records SHE 8902)