Elvis Presley: The Album Collection - 60th anniversary of Elvis' RCA contract (18th March 2016)

OK. Given the above assumptions and released records from the Box I compiled the singles, EPs and other non LP songs within the concept of this Box. So at first I put all Sun recordings into CD numbered 00 and named simply Sun Recordings. I include here Harbor Lights and When It Rains... - total 12 songs. Then I add to Loving You CD Is It So Strange and move Tell me Why onto GR4 as I think despite the time of the recording this Box main theme is release time. Then I go further with CDs that are in the box until CD5 GR1 where I put all released singles from Heartbreak Hotel to Jailhouse Rock (16 tracks) in the proper order (including Love Me Tender and Jailhouse Rock). Then after CD6 King Creole I put CD7 For LP Fans Only with changed content where I put 2 EPs - Love Me Tender and Jailhouse Rock - altogether 9 songs. Then I leave out from the Box A Date With Elvis CD and put GR2 as CD8 with all 6 singles from Don’t to Big Hunk (12 songs) in proper release order. Then I put Flaming Star EP (with all 4 songs featured in the movie) as standalone CD12 right after His Hand In Mine. Then after Blue In Hawaii CD I put Follow That Dream as separate CD and after Pot Luck CD I add to the Box Kid Galahad 6 songs EP as standalone CD17. These 3 EPs given that they contain 14 songs make a perfect LP having a bit Double Features series flavor (one could use here A Date With Elvis title for example although this would be incorrect given its release time, For LP Fans Only Vol. 2 or one could use Camden Flaming Star and Other Songs CD name with all 3 EPs put in there). Given that EPs release time is a bit stretched out I think that priority here is the release time so separate way of presentation is perhaps better. Then as CD20 I put GR3 revised with 8 full singles in their proper order starting with Stuck On You and finishing with She’s Not You and its B side (taking it from GR4). After Kissin’ Cousins CD I add to the box Viva Las Vegas as standalone CD with all tracks from the movie minus Santa Lucia (leaving this way Elvis For Everyone intact). The next change in the box is adding standalone CD with 7 Easy Come Easy Go movie songs after His Hand In Mine CD. Then I have revised GR4 CD where I put all singles starting with (You’re The) Devil In Disguise) to You’ll Never Walk Alone leaving out all songs that were put on other CDs. I added here Long Legged Girl different mix version from Almost In Love and Too Much Monkey Business from Flaming Star RCA Camden LP. Then on NBC Special I added as a bonus Tiger Man from Flaming Star CD. Then I changed Almost In Love CD content with revised list of songs from Stay Away Joe and Live A Little movies (total 9 songs). As the next CD revised I have Let’s Be Friends, again with new list of songs. This CD in my version contains the songs from the last 3 movies Elvis did namely Trouble With The Girls, Change of Habit and Charro. As the last change I added to the Box GR5 with the singles not released on LPs starting with Suspicious Minds to Unchained Melody (24 songs in total). So there you go. I think within the Box content I have made collection of records that take into consideration records release time chronology and compilation records remain as they were but have now revised and more release time correct content. Off my chest...

 

I could almost forgive them that ethic if they could've just put the correct version of 'I Want to be Free' on 'A Date with Elvis'! Bah! Etc...

 

Speaking of sound quality of this Box I do like it a lot. Yet I also like vinyl sound and spinning The Lost Album LP I just noticed differences in mixes of the tracks. Here are the snippets of Memphis Tennessee from vinyl Lost Album and RCA Box version for you to compare. Would you know anything more about the story behind Lost Album mixes? My Lost Album LP comes from 1990 and it is German pressing.

Dropbox - mt s1.aif
Dropbox - mt s2.aif

 

Wait, the recording of "I Want to be Free" on ADWE, in the Album Collection, is not the recording that was actually on the original vinyl album release?! Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you meant here.

 

That is correct. The original had a spliced ending and can be found on both Jailhouse Rock FTD's and A Date with Elvis FTD. The one on the album collection does not have that spliced ending and is used more often than not on numerous collections. I know it may be a small difference but if Elvis thought the original ending could be improved upon and spent 5(?) takes getting there I think the producers or whatever of these collections should at least supply us with the correct master.
It irks me a lot.
Rant over, as the saying goes!

 

Thank you for the clarification! That is a disappointing choice on RCA's part!

 

Does the version on this album collection originally appear anywhere else on vinyl in the 50s?

 

Not that I'm aware of... If I'm not mistaken this version came to light when RCA/BMG began the big tape trawl in the late eighties?

 

I can tell you the original release of I Want To Be Free on the original 1957 45EP was the spliced master and was released absolutely dry, no echo or reverb. I believe this is that version:
youtube.com/watch?v=Yo9MTfHXS1s
The uploader of that did not say where this version comes from and it is obviously not a needledrop.

This one sounds like (and looks like) a needledrop of a contemporary 1957 NON-US release BUT it cuts off the end, which is what was changed! At least you can hear the authentic dry version that was released in 1957.
youtube.com/watch?v=MJsXHkLZCo4

The same recording then was issued on the original A Date With Elvis LP slathered in reverb. I can't find that on youtube.

Here is the two-track, called the master version, from Close-Up, uploaded by SonyBMGRCA itself, but it is apparently not the spliced master released in 1957
youtube.com/watch?v=RG2dvoXvcJY

There is the most subtle difference between the two. To identify, at the end after the wrong piano note, Elvis sings the last "Like The Bird In A Treeeeeeeeeeeee---eeeyuh" Elvis' "eeeyuh" is MORE prominent in the 1957 released version. I think the splice occurs in the Treeeeeeeeeeee or right after. And, Elvis still did the "eeeyuh" again for the work part that was spliced in for the end. ODD. I'll take a guess that Elvis wanted to get rid of the wrong piano note he heard, and they recorded a work part of the end with a proper piano note, but the master-splicer in 1957 didn't get that message, and probably wondered what was the problem, and spliced long after the wrong note, and nobody ever cared, including current remasterers. This is a guess. But some of us can hear it.

I do not have the FTDs of Jailhouse Rock. I do not have the 60CD set. If someone has both, feel free....
I have the 1957 45EP and LPM-2011 and LSP-2011(e) and way way way way too many others.

This variation of a wrong version used for a "remaster" is supersubtle. You can't imagine what else I have heard on remasters, repeatedly, that makes my skin crawl.

 

Did they actually put the correct version of "Doncha Think It's Time" ?

Or are we stuck with the single version on Gold Records Vol. 2 again?

 

Single version I'm afraid.
I've been working my way through this collection just lately listening with headphones and there's quite a few sound glitches on some tracks that aren't on other releases. Playing for Keeps, One Night, Make Me Know It all suffer from tape drop out or something, that has either been repaired previously or are new developments. Glad I've still got my FTD's...

 

That is too bad. I would have loved to hear Elvis sing Fire.

 

Me too. Talk about a song tailor made for an artist. Elvis would have knocked that out of the park.

 

Besides the minor hiccups I've read about, it doesn't sound like a terrible set.

Using older masterings for the Sun recordings is unexcusable.
The two filler albums from '58-'59 did have lackluster sound, but why replicate that?

The chopped notes hear and there... another "c'mon, seriously?" but for what it's worth, nice set.

 

It is an AWESOME set.

 

As much as I adore the set and the concept, it's difficult for me to play it much.
I'm so used to playing the Sun tracks together and many of the other tracks in chronological order, especially the 50s and early 60s material.

 

84 pages thread and I'm a bit lazy in the summer heat. Is the sound on this box set considered to be the best available for Elvis on CD? Is there a consensus?

 

Vic Anesini.
.

 

All cds in the box?

 

Assuming Elvis was no longer under the constraints of Tom Parker, Felton Jarvis, and RCA, it is not hard to imagine that Springsteen would have attempted to collaborate with Elvis during the early 1980's like he did with Gary US Bonds. In addition to "Fire," there are a number of songs from Springsteen's 1976-1978 songbook that would have been fantastic tracks for Elvis, such as "Rendezvous," "The Brokenhearted," "The Way" and "Breakaway."

 

Yes.

 

The mastering is not the concern with the Album set, but rather some questionable sources used on some tracks where previous releases derive from superior elements.

This is generally limited to some Sun recordings though, the majority of the content is fine.

 

But if I also add the "A boy from Tupelo" 3xCD, I should be fine then?

 

For the masters I think Elvis At Sun is better.

 

Yes.