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Elvis' Hollywood years have tended to be dismissed as a failure, both artistically and musically. Whilst some may concede that some his 1950's output is of value, and others might argue that 'GI Blues', 'Blue Hawaii' and even 'Viva Las Vegas' film and soundtracks aren't that bad, the majority of fan and general public opinion is dismissive to such an extent that this part of Elvis' musical heritage is widely ignored.
This article sets out to re-visit the movie musical output to establish the truth.
Return To The Queen City of The South (3 CD Set) | In 2010 Audionics label released a fantastic double CD called 'Springtime Tours '76 - '77'. We have presented a bulk of the Johnson City, TN, March 17th, 1976 tour opening show in the straight stereo mix and Charlotte, March 20th, 1976 evening show in the pure binaural sound as well as the selection of various 1977 stereo live recordings. Now, we believe, the right time has come for the ultimate upgrade of March 1976 material combined with two Charlotte shows from 1977!
MRS will release a 3CD Deluxe set titled 'Summer Festival 1970 – The Rehearsals' on 12th March 2021. The CD's contain rehearsal highlights from one of the most memorable periods in Elvis' career - his captivating performances at The International Hotel Las Vegas in the summer of 1970. These truly historical recordings remastered and restored capture the raw and early development of songs that were performed weeks later in Las Vegas. The accompanying 40-page booklet includes rare photographs taken at some of these rehearsal sessions. As usual MRS has spared no expense in our remastering techniques. For the first time ever all, the tracks listed have had repairs and restorations having now the same mastering techniques, used on such recent MRS releases such as 'Made in Germany' and 'Such a Night in Pearl Harbor'. A sample sound of this will be available soon.
From Memphis to Taipeh has been released. This is the last chance to pre-order as a re-order is unlikely. This book is a reference guide to the colorful magic of Elvis' Asian vinyl. This is the very first book about Elvis' Asian vinyl records. The hardcover book measures 28cm x 28cm, lists 500+ different records on 500+ pages and contains almost 2,500 pictures. Covers and labels are reproduced with great care so you can enjoy the many mistakes on said covers and labels, they are sometimes hilarious and often tell a lot about how and why these records were made. And such things will also be explained throughout the book.
I started to call Tom Parker who was Elvis' manager every morning at 8:30 in the morning. 'Good morning, Colonel, this is Jerry Weintraub. I want to take Elvis on tour'. Finally, one morning he said to me, 'You still want to take my boy on tour'. I said, 'Yes'. He said, 'Okay, you be in Vegas tomorrow at 11:00 o'clock with a million dollars and we'll talk a deal' .... I said, 'Okay I'll get it and I'll be there'.
Music on Vinyl will release a limited edition of 2500 individually numbered copies on transparent red vinyl of 'Elvis On Stage' with printed inner sleeve and including a poster of Elvis.
A Valentine Gift For You - Volume I & II is a great way to celebrate Valentine's day! Two limited edition cd releases with some of Elvis' best love songs - for Valentine's Day! Including the original masters, alternate takes and home recordings. All tracks on these 2 albums are newly remastered/remixed (no overdubs) with some real surprises. You'll enjoy the 50's and 60's masters with more focus on Elvis' voice! And of course the home recordings which never sounded better... enjoy great versions of 'Her Hand In Mine', 'Earth Angel', 'Are You Lonesome Tonight?' and a short version of 'Return To Me'. A great gift for yourself or your loved one...
Elvis Presley Sings Flaming Star is a special edition release from the Elvis One label with 38 tracks from the movie FLAMING STAR and includes 'Flaming Star' and 'Summer Kisses, Winter Tears' (mono and stereo masters), the unedited master of 'Flaming Star', many alternate takes, seven original radio spots from the movie, the acetate recording of the composite master of 'Black Star', and more! All tracks in the best possible sound.
Paradise Road Records presents 'Oh, Happy Day'- Elvis live at the International hotel in Las Vegas. This cd contains a great audience recording from the August 14, 1970 Midnight Show PLUS camera sound recordings from this show (from the MGM tapes). Elvis is singing great songs like 'Oh, Happy Day', 'Bridge Over Troubled Water', 'Folsom Prison Blues' and 'I Walk The Line'... A very remarkable show. Elvis was in a really goofy mood and introduced himself as Johnny Cash. He seemed to be really enjoying this show, despite the cameras and the house lights being up so MGM could film him. He changed the words to the several songs and really had fun messing them up.
FTD are doing a limited re-print of the 'American Sound 1969' 5 CD Set along with several other Classic Album titles. Elvis' pivotal Year of 1969 celebrated with Elvis: American Sound 1969 featuring over 90 tracks of rare and unreleased material from Elvis' 1969 legendary American Sound Studio sessions, including 'In The Ghetto' and 'Suspicious Minds'. FTD also advises that they will only be manufacturing to satisfy initial orders.
One of Elvis' trusted friends, Marty Lacker was instrumental in arranging Elvis' seminal recording sessions at American Sound Studios with producer
Chips Moman in January and February of 1969. Marty shares the genesis behind those historic sessions, which yielded the hits, '
Suspicious Minds', '
In The Ghetto', '
Don't Cry Daddy', and '
Kentucky Rain' and marked an artistic rebirth for the singer.
Follow That Dream is pleased to announce the release of 'Elvis: The His Hand In Mine Sessions' in the 'Elvis Sessions' series scheduled for late February. This 8" deluxe 3-CD package features a 28-page booklet with an insightful essay, recording data, memorabilia and rare photos.
Elvis Presley had the ability to touch others' lives as few human beings ever could. Just as people were magnetically drawn to him, so too, he had an almost fan-like devotion to those he admired. Among that group was Hawaii 5-0's Jack Lord and his wife, Marie. Theirs was a relatively brief but extremely intense friendship so illustrative of the rapid magnet-like attraction Elvis had for those comparatively few people he ever really got close to once fame had crowded in on him.
John Bramlett grew up with Elvis in the same neighborhood in Memphis. They spent time playing football, going to the movies and more.
In the 'Behind the scenes' section of the booklet accompanying Elvis (Fool) it states that the original LP 'is in essence an album of leftovers'. I guess the same can be said when it comes to 'Elvis Now', although to a lesser extent. But the FTD treatments of these two albums are essential, as they together include outtakes of all the non gospel and non Christmas songs Elvis recorded during the March–June 1971 Nashville sessions. Buy
Elvis (Fool) : FTD Special Edition 2 CD you won't regret it!!!
View a preview of some of the 1970s photos from the new large hardcover book 'Elvis Portraits - 1935 A Life In Photos 1977' by Erik Lorenzen and Robert van Beek. Here you will see more than 500 beautiful publicity photos spread over approximately 400 pages, taken from 1953 to 1977. The best photo material from the greatest and most famous photographers such as Alfred Wertheimer, William Speer, Sean Shaver, Virgil Apger.
For a few freewheeling days in June of 1970, Elvis Presley assembled some of Nashville's best session players to jam in RCA Studio B on Music Row. Elvis chose the songs himself, everything from Simon & Garfunkel's 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' and Bob Wills' 'Faded Love' to Willie Nelson's 'Funny How Time Slips Away' and Eddie Rabbitt's 'Patch It Up'. The sessions were marathon affairs, and naturally the musicians - and Elvis - would get hungry. Charlie McCoy, the multi-tool player who first recorded with Elvis on the soundtrack to 1965's awful Harum Scarum, vividly recalls trays of cheeseburgers and fries laid out cafeteria-style in the studio's control room. McCoy and his colleagues - like drummer Jerry Carrigan and bassist Norbert Putnam - would get in line and fill their plates.
For release in February is a new large hardcover book 'Elvis Portraits - 1935 A Life In Photos 1977' by Erik Lorenzen and Robert van Beek. Here you will see more than 500 beautiful publicity photos spread over approximately 400 pages, taken from 1953 to 1977. The best photo material from the greatest and most famous photographers such as Alfred Wertheimer, William Speer, Sean Shaver, Virgil Apger aso. Elvis up-close and personal.
MGM's Golden Globe-winning movie ELVIS ON TOUR was released in 1972. On the movie poster was mentioned: 'MGM presents a very different motion picture that captures all the excitement of ELVIS LIVE!'. This catchphrase says it all. Unfortunately, there never was a soundtrack album available for this movie. Now available is Elvis On Tour: The Singles Collection deluxe 45RPM boxset containing 6 beautiful 45's & a bonus CD containing some of the musical highlights from this movie. Available in RED of BLUE vinyl.
The arrival of winter at Graceland was always a special time of year for Elvis. It meant the holiday season was fast approaching and the anticipation of all the fun things the season would bring, including decorating for Christmas, opening Christmas presents with friends and family, the annual New Year's Eve party, Elvis' birthday, building snowmen in the front yard of Graceland and more.
This is an interview I conducted with the great recording engineer Bill Porter back in 1987. I met up with Porter at Denver audio dealer Listen Up! We chatted and listened to some of his recordings. In one week of 1960, Bill Porter-engineered recordings accounted for 15 of Billboard's Top 100 Singles. You could chalk it up to his having folks like Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Chet Atkins and the Everly Brothers to record, but then you'd have to explain why, with Porter out of the picture, so many of their careers took a nose-dive. The fact is, the original pressings of many of those classic Porter recordings possess a natural, spacious, jump-out-at-you 'live' feel that today's engineers don't seem capable of achieving.
John Wilkinson was Elvis' rhythm guitarist from 1969 to 1977 and - along with lead guitarist James Burton - was the only one of the TCB Band never to miss a single show in all those years, notching up over 1100 performances with the King on stage. He's had a long and distinguished career in the music business, and has been playing the guitar since he was five. I spoke to John via telephone from his home in Springfield Missouri.
Elvis Presley had a life-long love affair with motor cars. Beginning in the '50s with Cadillacs, including the Pink Cadillac that he eventually gave to his mother - probably the most famous car in the world - to a second hand Volkswagen and two BMW 507s in Germany. In the '60s there where more Cadillacs, Ford Lincoln's and a Rolls Royce among many others. In the '70s, again Elvis purchased Cadillacs, a Mercedes-Benz 600, even a Ford T-Bird - but his most prized cars of the 1970s were his Stutz Blackhawk's. Elvis was the first person to own a Stutz Blackhawk, and there can be no doubt his favourite car of the 1970s was his 1973 Stutz Blackhawk III.
Paul McCartney: 'Elvis is a truly great vocalist, and you can hear why on this song. His phrasing, his use of echo, it's all so beautiful. It's the way he sings it, too. As if he's singing it from the depths of Hell. It's a perfect example of a singer being in command of the song. Musically it's perfect, too. The double-bass and the walk-in piano create this incredibly haunting atmosphere. It's so full of mystery, and it's never lost that for me. The echo is just stunning. When
The Beatles were recording, we'd often ask George Martin for 'the Elvis echo. I think we got it down perfectly on
A Day in the Life'.
'I approached writing for Elvis differently than I did for any other artist. The songs had to have acombination of blues, country, rock and pop [what came to becalled 'rockabilly']. It was like walking in his musical shoes. With each new Elvis movie, more of my songs were being recorded. It became more and more exciting, for I was becoming the only songwriter to have so many songs recorded by him.
FTD has released 'The Something For Everybody Sessions' (including 'The Wild In The Country Session') 4 CD Box Set that includes REMIXED and REMASTERED UNRELEASED STUDIO outtakes. This 8" deluxe 4-CD package features a 28-page booklet with an insightful essay, record and movie data, memorabilia and rare photos.
FTD Vinyl has released the first official RCA Victor Easy Come, Easy Go 2-LP edition. As there was no official publicity portrait session for the movie, the original EP featured a cover shot from Girl Happy. Around the same time as the ECEG EP release, 'See Elvis The USA Way' EP (based on the ECEG EP art design) was released exclusively in Australia and New Zealand. For this 2-LP limited edition, we have mirrored this rare design that included a publicity portrait from Spinout. Buy Easy Come, Easy Go 2-LP edition.
The Gold Standard label presents 'Easy Come, Easy Go', a new CD release with 27 tracks all related to the movie. Including great-sounding alternate takes, movie versions, demos and more!
The Gold Standard label presents 'Stay Away, Joe' (And other Great Recordings), a new CD release with 28 tracks all related to the movie. Including great-sounding alternate takes, movie versions and more!
The Gold Standard label presents 'Girl Happy', a new CD release with 29 tracks all related to the movie. Including alternate takes, acetate recordings, movie versions and more!
The 2020 Christmas CD release from Elvis One featuring 16 tracks. All tracks on 'Elvis: A Legendary Christmas' are newly remastered/remixed versions with the main focus on the legendary and unique voice of Elvis Presley. Hear special and beautiful versions from 'I Believe' and 'Oh Little Town Of Bethlehem'. No extra overdubs but only the original recordings were used for this release. Also included are 2 home recordings (including 'The Lord's Prayer'), a spliced take version from 'It Is No Secret', a recording from the 'Million Dollar Quartet' and the Red West version of 'If Everyday Was Like Christmas' with Elvis supposedly singing background vocals.
Elvis: Country Ballads CD in the well-received 'Ballads' series is 'Country Ballads'. As a follow-up to 'California Ballads' and after the great success of the previous releases 'Nashville Ballads', 'Memphis Ballads' & 'Vegas Ballads' this is a compilation of some of his best country style ballads.
The Ol' Swivel Hips Still Wows' Em | April - May 1977 deluxe box set is focused on the third tour of 1977. Elvis' live performances in 1977 are often criticized and not without a reason. But Elvis was still offering his fans an enjoying time, the magic of seeing Elvis in person probably exceeded the fact he often delivered a standard and sometimes even mediocre performance. The reactions of the spectators are very telling. They scream, shout and get wild for their hero. While listening to the recordings of these shows you cannot draw any other conclusion than that the shows were below par. But the charisma of Elvis was enormous, which probably made this unnoticed by most of the fans present. This set mostly contains soundboard & multitrack recordings but also contains two rare audience recordings. These high-quality audience recordings of the April 27 & 30 performances deserve a place in this box set. Both being first-class audience recordings and remastered from scratch to achieve an optimal listening experience. This 6 cd set includes a wonderful booklet with many rare and unpublished photos.
Petticoat records is back! This time with a fantastic vinyl album full of early to mid-sixties classics. This high-quality album (including bonus CD) featuring 18 rare and hard to find alternate versions of these classics is now available. Great stuff: beautiful ballads as well as some great rockers! And as always housed in a STUNNING full-color sleeve suitable for framing! This high quality 180 grams virgin vinyl pressing is now available in RED or BLUE vinyl. Don't miss out on this wonderful limited edition album.
This interview with Scotty Moore took place in May 1973 at Music City Recorders in Nashville, Tennessee, several years before the death of Elvis Presley and the avalanche of Elvis books which followed. We found Scotty to be very easy going and he genuinely seemed to enjoy reminiscing about the early years of his career in the music business. The interview was originally published in the August 1973 issue.
Bones Howe. Recognize the name? You should. For more than 40 years, Bones Howe has been producing hit records and putting music in the movies. The Grammy he won for producing one of the '60s' top hits sits tarnished on an out-of-the-way shelf in the den. His stack of gold records 'are in a box around here someplace'. That's Bones Howe-a 40-year veteran of the L.A. music scene, labeled 'legendary' by the trades, who's made records with Elvis Presley and movies with Steven Spielberg without getting wrapped up in the Hollywood tinsel.
Imagine you could 'Get Back in time' ..... Last summer fans were surprised with the release of the 'And I Love You So' DVD, never before we had seen a concert from '76 in this quality and of course a follow up HAD to be done. This time we have Get Gack | The Fantasy Series volume 2 DVD Set and they chose footage from 71/72. Elvis is in great shape, not only his amazing voice but the moves and spirit he brings on stage, unfortunately, was probably the last time fans got to witness this.
'Roustabout At The Fair' is another nice 'spliced' album with lots of surprises, this time the producers choose to use both 'Roustabout' and 'It Happened At The World's Fair'. Combined you get a new fresh album which sounds like it's brand new mainly due to the clever edits which also brings extended and very different sounding versions of master tracks.
After his '69 comeback on stage Elvis wanted more. In 1970 there were two more seasons in Vegas, both were partly recorded for a live release. (On Stage and That's The Way It Is). 'To Good To Be True - Live Chronicles volume 3' is a 2 disc set with lots and lots of songs were tried out, some stayed in the show, some were only sung once. The title of this new CMT album lives up to their name since it has an amazing collection of live songs, presented on 2 discs, one for the February Season, and one for the August Season. Like the previous releases in this series, the edits make it sound like it is one great live show... which would be... 'To Good To Be True'.
Interview with Teri Garr who started out as a background dancer in uncredited roles for youth-oriented films and TV shows like 'Pajama Party', a beach party film, the 'T.A.M.I. Show', 'Shindig!', 'Hullabaloo', 'Movin' with Nancy' (a Nancy Sinatra / Frank Sinatra Special), and nine Elvis Presley movies ...
Never before have we seen an Elvis Presley concert from the 1950's with sound. Until Now! The DVD Contains recently discovered unreleased film of Elvis performing 6 songs, including Heartbreak Hotel and Don't Be Cruel, live in Tupelo Mississippi 1956. Included we see a live performance of the elusive Long Tall Sally seen here for the first time ever. + Plus Bonus DVD Audio.
This is an excellent release no fan should be without it.
The 'parade' footage is good to see as it puts you in the right context with color and b&w footage. The interviews of Elvis' Parents are well worth hearing too. The afternoon show footage is wonderful and electrifying : Here is Elvis in his prime rocking and rolling in front of 11.000 people. Highly recommended.
Tupelo's Own Elvis Presley DVD Video with Sound.