Sixty years ago this Halloween, on October 31, 1966, RCA put out the soundtrack to an Elvis movie called “Spinout.” Like a lot of those movie albums, it came up a little short on songs. So the record company tucked three “special bonus” tunes onto it that weren’t even in the film.
One of those bonus songs is the real treasure here. And it wasn’t an Elvis original. It came from Bob Dylan.
The song is called “Tomorrow Is a Long Time.” Elvis recorded it back on May 26, 1966, at RCA’s Studio B in Nashville, during the sessions for his gospel album “How Great Thou Art.”
Here’s a fun wrinkle. Elvis didn’t fall for the song by hearing Dylan sing it. One of his session players, a fellow named Charlie McCoy, played him a record by the folk singer Odetta, her 1965 album “Odetta Sings Dylan.” Elvis heard her take on it and had to record it himself.
The version he cut runs over five minutes, which was considered way too long to put out as a single back then. So it sat quietly on the end of a movie soundtrack, where a lot of fans almost missed it.
Here’s the recording Dylan himself came to love.
Elvis Presley, “Tomorrow Is a Long Time”
Take it in. It’s slow and gentle, and surprisingly romantic, with Elvis singing soft and close like he’s telling you a secret. Not a trace of the throwaway movie filler you might expect.
So what did Bob Dylan make of it?
By the late 1960s, plenty of famous artists had covered Dylan’s songs. But in June of 1969, Dylan told Rolling Stone magazine that out of all of them, this one, Elvis singing “Tomorrow Is a Long Time,” was the cover of his own work that he “treasured the most.”
Stop and think about what that means. Bob Dylan, the greatest songwriter of his generation, heard hundreds of singers take a crack at his music. And the one he treasured most was Elvis, on a track RCA had basically hidden on a movie album nobody took seriously.
That’s why fans call this one of the most underrated songs Elvis ever recorded. It was buried, it was called too long and it quietly became the version that moved the man who wrote it.
Do yourself a favor and play it above. Then remember you’re hearing the cover Bob Dylan loved best.