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

Well, for me, I like that I now have pretty much everything with very little redundancy

 

I am in total agreement hear with you. I once suggested the box set to a fan who wanted to explore Elvis's music a little further on another thread a while back and someone else took a shot at me saying, "Why should he commit to that huge collection when he could explore piecemeal so to speak. I responded something like, "For the value of the box set, I thought he could save himself some money in the long run by buying The Complete Album Collection and then going from there further as it was warranted." To each his own I guess, but I am with you, SKATTERBRANE.

 

@MJD just did some research on this. It's on his website Chart Masters.

 

Thank you, I will look into that!!

 

While RCA soundtrack LPs WERE $1 more that did NOT apply to Elvis' soundtrack LPs. They were still $3.98 for mono and $4.98 for stereo.

 

I agree. I have seen you get ripped for this suggestion. Then when you tally up other people's recommendations it goes well over $50-$75 and only hits the broad strokes.

I have 75 or so FTD's, the Complete Masters set, all the Legacy sets, and about a dozen other box sets and tons of single CD's. I have not bought an FTD since I bought this box set.

In fact, I have only purchased "A Boy From Tupelo" since I got The Album Collection.

I do plan on getting the new VLV set, though.

 

The Sun material and a few others say on Elvis For Everyone, have better SQ on The Complete Masters. A few of TCM glitches (not all) have been addressed on this 60CD box set. The Complete Masters is, well, more complete. As usual it is two steps forward and one step back as it always seems to be the case with Elvis/RCA/BMG/Sony. Sometimes they get soooo close to perfection but fumble, even if they have what it takes to make a perfect set. I say TCM and this 60 CD set are complimentary rather than supplementary to each other.

NEITHER of them have the single version, take one of It's A Long Lonely Highway. You have to go with one of three FTD titles to get that!

 

Told ya. Glad you’re enjoying it.

 

Yes, you did. And I'm taking the mindset, as far as the soundtracks go, is that as albums they're ok, but they're better in context with the movies.

 

True. But, there are some GREAT songs hidden in those soundtracks.

 

Ok, then I'm looking forward to finding them. I know of a few, like "Can't Help Falling in Love", "Jailhouse Rock", and the G.I.Blues soundtrack wasn't too bad

 

"Shoppin' Around" and "Pocketful Of Raonbows" are two I like a whole lot.

The trick is not to let the bad songs dull your senses so that you're still able to notice the good ones.

 

Amazon UK has this for basically $165-ish USD.

https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B019YQJRKO/ref=nosim/marvelmasterw-20

Oh, how I wish I could afford it right now.

 

That is one of the challenges with the recently released "Viva Las Vegas Sessions" release. While there are certainly some highlights, the soundtrack is uneven. Not that "Blue Hawaii" and "GI Blues" were flawless soundtracks, but Elvis' soundtrack work definitely became inconsistent and declined after 1961.

 

I got lucky and grabbed one on eBay from a US seller who had a sealed for $130. I can’t wait!

 

Even if you get this(I did), you'll still need:
Some duplic
Elvis At Sun
Ask The Lonely(The "lost" album)
Down In The Jungle Room
24 Karat Hits!
Elvis 1Some duplication, but these are needed for a more complete pucture.

 

For The Asking, 100% duplication and no real advantage to own if you own this box. Elvis At Sun has much superior SQ to the same material in this box, and that is the best reason to get it. Elv1s and 24 Karat are simply other hit collections, and 100% duplicates at that (Except the atrocious A Little Less Conversation mixup. Except for the unnecessary reverb added to Jungle Room, it is generally an improvement over the original mixes.
In summary: Any hits collection is going to be redundant because ALL the hits on in this box. Plus this box has 4 hits collections anyway. Elv1s is controversial as it comes to SQ.

 

I agree that the only title that one needs to seek out is "Elvis At Sun" or alternatively, "A Boy From Tupelo." The SUN era is not effectively represented on this box set. That said, unless one is a huge fan of Elvis' 1976 sessions at Graceland and wants an additional CD of alternates, there is no reason to also acquire "Way Down In The Jungle Room."

 

"Well, that's nitpicking, isn't it?"-Nigel Tufnel

 

Which would you recommend? At sun or Tupelo?

 

My link earlier was to Amazon US. Here's the UK link to the Elvis RCA Album Collection ... currently at £149.98.

Edit: Never mind. It reroutes the UK link to Amazon US. Just go to Amazon UK and do a search and you'll find it.

 

As far as I am concerned, I prefer Elvis At Sun. The one thing I bought A Boy From Tupelo for was the never before available on CD DRY (original) version of That's All Right. RCA had this terrible habit of adding reverb and compression to the Sun sides. And this compression, frequency limiting and compression plagues the versions heard on the 60CD set. Of course if you want outtakes and live performances, then A Boy From Tupelo is for you.

 

I have that collection. The very fact that almost all of the 60s material is in stereo is proof that they are not single masters. Only a very few singles from 1960 and 1961 were available in stereo and then again by the mid 7os they were also stereo. For some reason, although it is stated as Mono on the label, Charro was released in stereo on the single. A Long Lonely Highway/I'm Yours is from a vinyl single however. A Long Lonely Highway is take one on the single and take two on the Kissin Cousins LP.

The dry version found on A Boy From Tupelo is rather startling and once heard no other will suffice!

 

It depends on how much you like the SUN era. "Elvis At Sun" is arguably still the best audio release of the SUN masters. That said, the sound quality on "A Boy From Tupelo" is also outstanding, and the set contains an expansive overview of the period with very good liner notes, outtake material, rarities, and live material. As an Elvis enthusiast, I have to go with the latter collection because of its expansive nature.

 

This has what I presume matches the mono single master of "(It's A) Long Lonely Highway" (it's take 1, at least):

Elvis Presley - Complete Single Collection

Not many of the post 1960 masters used for this set are mono so presumably they had no access to take 1 aside from the single.

It does sound like it could have been transferred from vinyl (slight distortion on the lead vocal - still sounds pretty good though, as does the set overall).

This might explain what sounds like an edit at 0'22'', despite it all being the continuous take 1 - maybe they used two different singles for the transfer?