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Reconsider Baby
Words & Music: Lowell Fulsom
Well so long
Oh how I hate to see you go
Yes so long
Oh how I hate to see you go
Well the way that I will miss you
I guess you'll never know
We've been together so long
To have to separate this way
We've been together so long
To have to separate this way
Well I’m gonna let you go ahead on baby
But let you come back home some day
Play the blues boys, play the blues
One more time
You said you once had loved me
But now I guess you've changed your mind
You said you once had loved me
But now I guess you've changed your mind
Why don't you reconsider baby
Give yourself just a little more time
Recorded: 1960/04/03, first released on Elvis Is Back
Reactions
I remember the first time I heard this song on my original LP "Elvis Is Back!" A saxophone solo and this tune was preceded by "Like A Baby" on the same album where I took notice of an actual sax playing. This was really different for Elvis and it fit perfectly with a blues song (actually much, much better than the original). A no-brainer! 5-stars!
Greatest blues recording elvis ever made, with an fantastic "jam" character. I love this track.
This song (along with Like A Baby, When It Rains It Really Pours, and One Night) is quintessential Elvis
at his r&b/blues best!
Anyone who doubted Elvis's abilities as a true blues singer had best listen to this. Everything from Elvis's growling vocal to the band are perfection. I often have wondered what would have happened if Elvis had devoted more of his time to pure blues. I think he could have held court with anyone from Muddy Waters to Robert Johnson.
It can be Hank on electric, but I know that Scotty didn't like to play the acoustic, so I'm just wondering if it's Elvis on acoustic.
I'm not 100% sure on this , but I believe it's Hank Garland on lead electric guitar . You can hear Elvis' acostic rhythm guitar, up front in the mix . And yes this is one of the greatest blues performances of all time - so much happening in a relatively short track .
It must be Scotty Moore on the electric guitar, doing runs in the background. One must remember that Elvis did a lot of blues songs at Sun, like That's alright, tomorrow night, good rockin' tonight,milkcow blues boogie, baby let's play house, mystery train and when it rains, it really pours. They just weren't recorded as straight blues songs. It's easy to put your own blues CD together with Elvis songs, but they're also on the market to buy. Billy Swan recorded this song with Boots, but Boots don't come close to his work on this song with Presley. No magic I suppose. Elvis played around with this song at Sun as you can hear on the Million DQ album, when you listen to what Sam Phillips asks Elvis.
Even the live versions he cut in the 70's are great. Robert Plant remembers getting goose-bumbs when he heard this one live. The 1960 version is the best though.
If you don't like "Reconsider Baby" you are a big oaf! No amount of stars is enough for this great blues number.
Gut wrenching blues by Elvis and he extracts every bit of emotion from it to give one of the greatest performances of his career.
I think this is my favourite track. Energy, Production, Vocals, Instrumentation all superb. Every time you listen to it you hear something else. I think its perfectly placed on the album too, just as you have heard a great mixture of different types of tracks this comes on. perfect closer.
This is such a marvelous, fun and catchy blues song and Elvis' rendition of it was fabulous. "Elvis Is Back" is easily one of the very best albums in history by far.
Another instant classic from one of the greatest albums in history, the "Elvis Is Back!" LP.
wonderful song! Every version of this song is great and a highlight!
There is only problem with this song. There ain't enough of them! Ok, a blues album would have been super, probably the crowning achievement of his career, not to mention the critical acclaim it would have gotten, but Elvis should have cut a blues number for every LP. Since his LPs were always just random styles with no theme to them, a closing blues number on each would have been super and made a statement no other singer would have dared to make. The Lps only went downhill from here in the 60's until the Memphis sessions.
Took me years to like this recording, now i too wish Elvis had made a full Lp of the stuff. And 1960 would have been a great time to do this, Elvis fresh out of the army had the world at his feet. Yes, songs like Now or Never, Lonesome Tonight, Surrender, Wooden Heart were great and correct for the singles market, but Lp's allowed Elvis and other singers to really express themselves. Elvis is Back, Something for Everyone & Pot Luck where okay, but with a Blues album Elvis could have had an Lp to remember.
5 stars for this masterpiece!
5 stars all the way for this one. Elvis growls this blues number perfectly.
This is truly one of the best Elvis recordings ever. Truly legendary.
Jim Hoff: best song review ever read on this site. are working as a writer or a journalist? Great. I like metaphors. big fan of John Steinbeck "Grapes of Wrath" is my favourite and Jack Kerouac (complete works). You should write a book about elvis as watching his 50's performances...I'd buy your first copy.
Blues, soul, rock'n roll - or whatever, Elvis nails this song with a voice like a slowed down machine gun spitting bullets of raw natural talent into the amplifiers and out of the speakers. Perfect song, perfect artist. Waughhhh!!!
Isn't this a great song from Elvis ? Yes, it is. Like the Live versions of Vegas 1969 and Madison Square Garden 1972. But even the Live version in Charlotte (?) 1977 is great ! I even belive that Elvis really liked this song..
A performance that illustrates Elvis as one of the most (if not THE most) versatile singer ever! It is really a pity that Elvis never recorded 'concept' albums. He grew up in an era that singles dominated the sales and got all the attention and never saw the album as a way to express himself. Only exceptions to the rule were his gospel and Christmas albums. Even 'Elvis Country' was just a collection of songs recorded at two successive recording sessions in 1970. One reason might be that Elvis didn't really plan his recording sessions. He just arrived there, selected some songs on the spot (usually from songs that were presented to him at the time or songs that he knew) and that was it. We can only dream of what he might have achieved if he worked (or was allowed to work) a lot more to prepare his recording sessions. If he were to rehearse for example like he did for the live performances... On the other hand he achieved so much even so that he can silence any criticism...
there was a reporter question during the MSG press conference if he'd once ddo a blues album, evlis stated: "working on..." unfortunately this project never saw the light of day...what great tracks would have yielded a concept album! Memphis Blues as sung by Elvis Presley...a duet with BB King...naa the Col wouldn't have allowed that...
Just can't live without it! This is one of the best song ever performed by Presley. After earring this song everyone will understand why Joe Coker said Elvis was one of the best Blues Singers he ever knew! Elvis never let anyone down with his rendition of this classic even in the 70's Reconsider Baby was a major highlight, either in '72 MSG or '76 Pittsburgh.
Elvis sang the blues as well as any other kind of music. This one is without a doubt his best blues recording, even if both Like A Baby and Merry Christmas Baby are tremendous. I saw someone was complaining that E didn´t record a blues album. Well, with Reconsider Baby in mind, he should. And Elvis Country was such a success and a blues album would be successful too, I´m sure. But don´t forget that Elvis Country wasn´t planned, it was more like a coincidence.
In Lowell Fulsom's version it's a plea, Elvis transforms it into a threat...you better reconsider or get lost. Nobody could sneer like Our Man. In the same league as "One Night".
The 1961 Bloch Arena recording of this song rocks like nothing else!! Boots and Elvis in fine form. Unforgivable that he didn't have a saxophone player in his 70's band. He should have recruited a small blues band instead of the TCB players, his 3 vocal groups (Voice, the Inspirations AND the Stamps?!) and the orchestra. Bigger is not necessarily better. There's a certain romance too about Elvis and the gang wailing away in the early hours of a Nashville morning, Elvis on his Gibson J200 I think, leading off just like he did at Sun.
One of the all time greatest recordings by anyone. Certainly Elvis' best blues recording. Oh if only he had cut a full blues album with such material. Wow!
A classic Lowell Fulsom song from 1954, recorded by both Elvis and Eric Clapton two major exponents of "blue eyed blues music". The Elvis is Back album, from where this track came, was a mixture of great blues songs such Reconsider Baby, together with "pleasant ballads" I prefered the bluesy side, with this raunchy vocal from Elvis and the wild sax of Boots Randolph
Elvis showing he is not just the king of rock 'n' roll. There one witnesses the enormous drive in him put in yet another setting. In those days an unexpected song showing the musical world again his prowess as a master of styles too. The perfect way he sings from the heart opened mine to realise how great non-R'n'R can be if sung by the right person. A delight for the ears and mind.
Any doubt of Elvis' ability to sing the blues is thrown to the wind when you listen to this superb
rendition. His vocal delivery is fautless, complimented to perfection by the great Boots Randolph on sax. A sheer delight. Has to be one of the greatest songs from the Sixties period.
Available Alternate Versions