Elvis (Presley) '56 - Remastered?

BMG recently remastered and reissued four previously released Elvis compilations. Elvis '56 was one of them along with Heart & Soul, Great Country Hits and one last title that I cannot recall off the top of my head.

 

The last one is "Can't Help Falling In Love - The Hollywood Hits"

Vic Anesini remastered "Great Country Songs", but I don't know if he did all of them.

 

I saw in the record store that some of the release have a BMG Heritage release yellow band around the CD's. This must be part of the slimming down the Elvis catalog campaign.

 

The slimming down of the Elvis Presley catalog is an absolute disgrace. While keeping dozens of superfluous compilations in print, legitimate five-star original issue albums such as Elvis is Back, Loving You and King Creole are out-of-print. I realize economics are involved, but why can't these stay in print - at least as two-fers?

The same thing is currently happening to the James Brown catalog except his albums are going out-of-print and there are only a few Polydor compilations out there.

These are pivotal figures in 20th century music. The music of Elvis and James, along with Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Bob Marley, Hank Williams, the Beatles and Louis Armstrong should ALWAYS be available to music consumers.

We can have extensive and thorough reissue programs for cult artists and barely heard of garage bands from the 60's, but we cannot get all the music from 20th century icons. What are the majors thinking?

 

You are absolutely right! Thank god some record companies have the sense of keeping an artist like Miles Davis' catalog in print. But some artists are treated horribly. Even rock icons like Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper & Deep Purple don't have all their albums in print in the US. It's a shame.

 

Down right criminal IMHO! (as he silently thanks God that there are guys in this world like Steve, Kevin, and Marshall and slips on DCC Elvis Is Back!)

 

It is a sad situation. I found the work Harry Weinger and Bill Levenson did on the James Brown catalog as phenomenal. Their compilations such as Messing with the Blues, Roots of a Revolution, Dead on the Heavy Funk, Make it Funky, Foundations of Funk and Soul Pride were exceptional. The only problem is, four out of these six titles are now out of print. I am also disappointed that Polygram did not go far enough and release all of his individual albums from the 60's and early 70's. Again, I understand the economics in such a decision, but we're talking about James Brown here. He may have never sold the numbers Elvis and the Beatles did, but he is no less important or influential. These titles might not sell in the millions, but I am sure they would be steady sellers over many years if grouped as two-fers.

Maybe a specialty label can lease these recordings and release them.

 

I believe one (or more) of the titles includes "I Want You, I Need You, I Love You" from a much better source tape than previously used. Also, the packaging says these discs were DSD mastered.

 

It's a disgrace that a lot of Elvis's catalog is now OOP while the entire Steve Goodman catalog and the entire John Prine catalog remains in print.

 

Steve and John are cult icons and have never sold millions (and great artists, BTW and their catalogs deserve to remain in print) but Elvis, he's a 20th Century icon. I'd tell RCA to keep his entire catalog in print.