Dinner At Eight FTD CD

I was really looking forward to this 'Dinner At Eight' FTD CD release, and I didn't get disappointed. This time we're back in Las Vegas, on December 13th, 1975 at eight o'clock. It's time for Elvis and dinner.... Or was it the other way around...? Elvis starts out as usual with 'See See Rider' and 'I Got A Woman/Amen'. His voice sounds good and he's obviously in a good mood. Just listen to how he lets J.D. take the B-52 down, and 'yells' at him afterwards... Fun! The sound is quite good too actually. Of course any reel-to-reel tape will suffer under the voice of J. D. Sumner.

Next song out is 'Love Me', which he does quite nice. And since we are in Vegas, why don't we take a request song? You guessed right! A nice version of 'Help Me Make It Through The Night' is sung before we go back to one of the old fifties songs: 'Trying To Get To You'.

Elvis continues with a beautiful version of 'And I Love You So'. The next songs are the routine songs 'All Shook Up' and 'Teddy Bear'/'Don't Be Cruel'. Then he surprises us (and maybe even himself, but for sure the band! Just listen to how they try to keep up with themselves) with a version of an old song, namely 'Wooden Heart'. Afterwards he introduces Lisa Marie to the audience before doing a fair version of 'You Gave Me A Mountain'. Then the band and the big E are ready to rock'n roll. They give us a very good version of 'Polk Salad Annie'. Make a note of how the rhythm section is playing. And the brass... Great! And we even get to HEAR the organ playing for one time's sake. Pretty cool! And of course, after a demanding song like that, we need a break, and we get one. For almost nine (9) minutes Elvis lets us enjoy his group. And 'Hail Hail Rock'n Roll' we get to hear twice. Probably because Elvis wanted to do something different...

The next song is, as always, with the Stamps; 'How Great Thou Art'. This is a song that Elvis clearly enjoys singing. There weren't many times when we could hear him make fun of the song, but this time he delivers a beautiful version of it. And Bill Baize of the Stamps impresses us once again with his fabulous tenor singing.

'Softly, As I Leave You' became a Vegas classic as soon Elvis and Shaun started singing it together. It is December and the bicentennial celebration is only a few days away. Elvis knows and has prepared a beautiful version of 'America the Beautiful'. He encourages his backup singers to 'sing it out'.

After what should have been 'My Heavenly Father' (with Kathy Westmoreland), we jump to 'Mystery Train'/'Tiger Man'. He sure has fun on stage, and so does the band.

Even if Elvis was supposed to stay on stage for only 50 minutes, he can't resist a request for 'Blue Christmas'. That shows us what kind of entertainer Elvis was, once again. He loved the people, and they loved him. The last song is as usual 'Can't Help Falling In Love', which he does in an excellent way.

All in all, this is a show that you get happy to listen to. Elvis is in a good mood. The band is fit for fight (as always). Ernst Jorgenson and Roger Semon have once more given us a good CD to have in our CD-player. The CD is mixed in a good way. You can clearly hear the strings, even the organ sometimes! If it had been possible I would have preferred to hear a little bit more of Kathy Westmoreland in the sound. She seems to be a little too much back in the sound picture. But, that's my personal opinion, and wish. But just keep up the good work!

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Dinner At Eight - Elvis Presley FTD CD

Tracklisting:

 See See Rider - 3:10
 I Got A Woman/Amen – 9:47
 Love Me – 2:21
 Help Me Make It Through The Night – 3:06
 Trying To Get To You – 2:33
 And I Love You So – 3:34
 All Shook Up – 1:13
 (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear/Don't Be Cruel – 4:32
 Wooden Heart – 2:03
 You Gave Me A Mountain – 3:13
 Polk Salad Annie – 4:41
 Introductions – 8:40
 How Great Thou Art - 3:11
 Softly As I Leave You – 2:54
 America – 2:24
 Mystery Train/Tiger Man –2:43
 Blue Christmas – 3:03
 Can't Help Falling In Love

Buy Dinner At Eight FTD CD

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