*(1973) RCA ''It's Midnight'' (Takes 1, 2, 3, 4 4xFS, Take 8 FS) Elvis Presley

''It's Midnight'' (CPA5-1618)
Recorded Monday/Tuesday December 10, 11, 1973 (9:00 PM - 4:30 AM)

Name (Or. No. of Instruments)
Elvis Presley - Vocals
James Burton - Lead Guitar
Charlie Hodge - Guitar
Johnny Christopher - Guitar
David Briggs - Piano & Organ
Norbert Putnam - Bass
Ronnie Tutt - Drums

J.D. Sumner & The Stamps consisting of Bill Baize, Ed Enoch, Dave Rowland - Backup Vocals
Voice consisting of Donnie Sumner, Sherrill Nielsen, Tim Baty, Per Eric ''Pete'' Hallin - Backup Vocals
Mary Holladay, Susan Pilkingson, Kathy Westmoreland, Mary ''Jeanie'' Green - Backup Vocals

It's Midnight" is a 1974 song recorded by Elvis Presley. It was written by Jerry Chesnut and Billy Edd Wheeler. Elvis Presley recorded it during his December 10–16, 1973, recording sessions at Stax Records in Memphis. The session produced three more charting songs: "Promised Land", "If You Talk In Your Sleep" and "Help Me".

The song was first released in October 1974 as a B-side to a cover of Chuck Berry's "Promised Land". (While the Goldmine Standard Catalog of American Records indicates "Promised Land" as the A-side, different pressings have "It's Midnight" as the A-side and "Promised Land" as a B-side and vice versa.)

"Promised Land" rose to number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100, while the two sides together (as "It's Midnight'' b/w Promised Land") and "It's Midnight" on its own charted on the Hot Country Singles chart. "It's Midnight" peaked on it at number 9 in January 1975. Billboard in its review of the album Promised Land (in the January 18, 1975 issue) picked "It's Midnight" as one of the best cuts on the album.

Jerry Donald Chesnut (May 7, 1931 - December 15, 2018) was an American country music songwriter. His hits include "Good Year For the Roses" (recorded by Alan Jackson, George Jones), "It's Four In The Morning" (recorded by Faron Young and Elvis Costello) and "T-R-O-U-B-L-E" (recorded by Elvis Presley in 1975, and Travis Tritt in 1992.)

Born and raised in Harlan County, Kentucky, he moved to Nashville in 1958 to pursue his career. In 1967, Del Reeves recorded Chesnut's "A Dime At A Time" to give the songwriter his first chart hit single. In 1968, Jerry Lee Lewis's hit recording of Chesnut's "Another Place, Another Time" was nominated for a Grammy Award. In 1972, Chesnut was named Billboard's 'Songwriter of the Year', and in 1992 he became a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Jerry Chesnut died in Nashville on December 15, 2018, at the age of 87.

Billy Edward "Edd" Wheeler (born December 9, 1932, Boone County, West Virginia, United States) is an American songwriter, performer, writer, and visual artist. His songs include "Jackson" (Grammy award winner for Johnny Cash and June Carter) "The Reverend Mr. Black", "Desert Pete", "Ann", "High Flyin' Bird", "The Coming Of The Roads", "It’s Midnight", "Ode To The Little Brown Shack Out Back", "Coal Tattoo", "Winter Sky", and "Coward Of The County" (which inspired a 1981 television movie of the same name) and have been performed by over 160 artists including Judy Collins, Jefferson Airplane, Bobby Darin, The Kingston Trio, Neil Young, Kenny Rogers, Hazel Dickens, Florence and the Machine, Kathy Mattea, Nancy Sinatra, and Elvis Presley. "Jackson" was also recorded by Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon for the movie Walk the Line. His song "Sassafras" was covered in the folk rock era by Modern Folk Quartet and The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band.

Wheeler was born on December 9, 1932. He graduated from Warren Wilson College in 1953, and Berea College in 1955. After serving as a student pilot in the Navy, he served as Alumni Director of Berea College. Wheeler recorded a couple of albums for Monitor Records, then from 1961 to 1962 he attended the Yale School of Drama, majoring in playwriting. With Ewel Cornett, he co-wrote the musical Hatfields and McCoys, which has been performed annually since 1970 by Theatre West Virginia in the Grandview Cliffside Amphitheatre (part of the New River Gorge National River area). He is married to the former Mary Mitchell Bannerman. They have two adult children, Lucy and Travis, and live in Swannanoa, North Carolina.

In the 1968 book by Milt Okun Something to Sing About: the personal choices of America's folk singers Wheeler's choice was "Turtle Dove" (Fare Thee Well).

Source nand more information see: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

* - Digitally Remastered

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