Elvis Presley - The Albums and Singles Thread pt2 The Sixties

I understand. I also think it was wise for Elvis' first live album to feature a core group of hits to move it off the shelves. It could have easily been comprised of NONE of those hits, as he recorded enough of his own new material and previously not recorded material to fill the LP.

 

What you are making is more of an argument against the 50s stuff remaining a big part of his show for the entire rest of his career. But you have to remember that in 1969, nobody (least of all Elvis) knew how audiences were going to react. The notion that Elvis could sing Monkees songs and the crowd would love it was certainly not something anyone would have thought or expected prior to the opening of his first Vegas engagement. Elvis only knew that he hadn't performed live in front of a paying audience in 9 years, and that he'd had very few hits in the past 6 years, and that the last time he'd played in Vegas he'd been a flop. Given that, it would not be very realistic to expect him to do a set that was primarily new, untried material that was unfamiliar to the audience. It also wouldn't be realistic to expect him to do some of his better quality 60s songs that had not been hits. In that kind of context, there's no way he was going to go out and not do a decent amount of his biggest, best-known hits. And as noted, "biggest hits" meant songs from 1956-62, because he didn't really have any truly big hits from 1963-68. But it's to his credit that he didn't just do old hits, he did a fair amount of other stuff too.

I can see an argument being made that he should have dumped some of the 50s songs as the 70s wore on, because by then it was clear he didn't need them to please audiences and he was performing them in an increasingly perfunctory way. But in 1969 he did need to do his hits, and he did them in a way that was exciting and different than the records, and I think that was a good thing.

 

We will come to it soon. But it is too bad they did not have enough new material to fill On Stage. Even after rehearsing two new songs expressly for the LP (The Wonder Of You and See See Rider) they still had to pull two songs from the 69 season (Yesterday and Runaway) to come up with 10 songs for the LP. This lack of variety in his shows made it almost impossible to come up with a live compilation of all previously not recorded songs.

And I agree with Mark, it would have been great to hear more of his later 60s songs in his act. I mean they did not even have to be hits. He performed enough non-hit 70s material live. My basic complaint is lack of variety. And this has nothing to do with all these soundboards. I do not even like soundboard recordings other than they are at least better than audience recordings. It would have been good for all involved if he at least changed things up for each tour, the content the style and the presentation. But he voluntarily went from one tread mill (the movies in which he had little control) to concerts (where he had almost total control if he had wanted it). Some of his rare impromptu live performances through the years are far more interesting than his running though another 50s medley again.

 

Yea, good call.
Hindsight works two ways, and in this instance I'm seeing where it ended up.

 

The 3 LP or CD set Collector's Gold disc 3 is a good compilation of the 69 season as it incorporates most (if not all, I have not counted) of the songs performed.

 

Both disc 1 of the In Person FTD and disc 2 of the On Stage Legacy Edition do something similar, by appending most of those songs to the end of the album proper...but even given that the final sequencing surely would have been different had they gone for a double live album, I think they ultimately made the right call back in 1969 re: what to include on the album. I wouldn't mind swapping out Johnny B Goode for Jailhouse Rock/Don't Be Cruel, but with the possible exception of Reconsider Baby, I wouldn't trade any of those other songs for the tracks they actually picked for In Person. They're nice to have, but I don't enjoy them nearly as much as the In Person songs.

 

My point was not to trade them, but to include them as part of a double album instead of releasing it in the slightly odd live/studio combo. So it might have looked something like this:

Side A
Blue Suede Shoes
Johnny B Goode
All Shook Up
Are You Lonesome Tonight
Hound Dog
I Can't Stop Loving You
Hound Dog
My Babe

Side B
Funny How Time Slips Away
Inherit the Wind
Reconsider Baby
Baby What You Want Me To Do
Rubberneckin'
Yesterday/Hey Jude

Side C
I Got a Woman
Heartbreak Hotel
Jailhouse Rock/Don't Be Cruel
Love Me Tender
This is the Story
Monologue: Introductions and Life Story

Side D
Mystery Train/Tiger Man
Words
In the Ghetto
Suspicious Minds
Can't Help Falling in Love

 

I love seeing how everyone is being pretty balanced in their opinions on the music, and not being attacked. I've seen praise where it's needed, and criticism where it's deserved. I wish I had more to contribute to the conversation.

 

I could easily get behind that. I know percentage wise the old and new is the same, similar, but there are new songs, interesting songs. That's a good set list.
I would still personally swap some songs out, for me, ideally, but that looks better on paper to me.

 

I just found out that in the 1960s, Elvis had more USA top 40 hits than The Beatles. Yes, the Beatles had way more really big hits during that decade, songs that made the top 10 or to #1, but still, that is pretty mind-blowing.

He had more top 40 hits in the 1960s than the Stones, Elton John, and Madonna had their entire careers to this very day.

I was 13 in 1977 when Elvis died, and it boggled my brain at the enormous public reaction to that, I didn't really get it.

I guess you had to have lived it.

 

Hey, this has been probably the friendliest, most respectful and informative thread on this forum. Elvis fans must have some sort of commonality in that respect.

 

I have read great comments from you mate. Roll with it, if you feel drawn to say something, do... if not, it's cool.

 

I was 8 about to turn 9 when Elvis died. I vaguely remember being upset, but my memory isn't very good of my young years.

 

I should perhaps have said that the Legacy edition of On Stage was a complete and utter disaster, not least because it relegated In Person to a bonus album when it should have had a Legacy release of its own, with the best performance of each song from the engagement on the first disc and an unreleased show on the second.

What I think is clear even on In Person, though, is that Elvis was struggling to come up with potent arrangements of some of his early hits even at this stage. All Shook Up works, but only just, and it has none of the charm of the original. And Hound Dog is already something of a mess, with him shouting down the microphone for two minutes - although thankfully that's three minutes less than him doing the same thing for What'd I Say! There were certainly better versions of hits than these from the 1969 shows that perhaps would have been better choices.

What Elvis didn't seem to be able to do was to come up with interesting new versions of the old songs - and perhaps this was because he didn't have the right arranger to help him out. Compare the hits to the arrangements of covers we got on On Stage or in February 1972, for example. But by that point those hits were already in the repertoire and seemed to become the template for any hits added thereafter too, with relatively few exceptions.

 

Sorry if I wasn't clear; what I was trying to get at was that I don't think that the songs that they left off were strong enough to have been released, particularly when compared to what actually came out. A hypothetical double-live album would have been a much weaker project than the lean, snappy live album that we got, imo.

Perhaps, but the FTD does that job quite well. I should add that the I came by the Legacy Editions first, before I was quite ready to start sinking money into FTDs, and that was how I fell in love with many Elvis albums - In Person included. In my case, it actually helped that it was coupled with On Stage, because whilst I loved On Stage at first listen, it took me a while to warm up to In Person. I finally "got" it after playing the Legacy set for probably the 40th or 50th time...and I'm not sure I would have given In Person that many spins had I only had the FTD (or its hypothetical Legacy Edition equivalent) at the time.

Basically, I know that the Legacy Editions don't have the greatest reputation...but for me, at least, they were an important part in my discovery of Elvis music beyond the decade boxes.

 

I don't think I have ever played any album 50 times!! lol.

 

Oh i have lol

 

To be fair, many of those listens were as background noise (I was doing a lot of gruntwork at the time), and I was in an extended phase where I literally didn't want to listen to anything other than Elvis (except as the occasional palate cleanser), so I became pretty familiar with most of the albums in my collection. I probably got an average of 12 hours' worth of listening in every day, and the various Legacy Editions, a handful of Double Features CDs, and the expanded GI Blues were in constant rotation, along with other favourites like the 70s box and Platinum. In retrospect, it's amazing that I didn't burn myself out on Elvis at the time!

In general, I can get pretty obsessive with songs/albums/artists/playlists, listening to them on repeat for absurd periods of time. The play counts tend to pile up. I daresay I've heard Something For Everybody at least a few hundred times...and I think that's an honest appraisal rather than an exaggeration!

 

I understand that. I can't listen to the same thing over and over, but when I'm on a kick that artist will be heard

 

What a great rock'n'roll performance: i specially dig those backing vocals and Burton's guitar playing. Elvis' voice is on fire. The "missing verse" was no issue at the time when I discovered the "In Person" album but it's different today: BLUE SUEDE SHOES, JOHNNY B., ALL SHOOK UP and HOUND DOG were all sung with verse repetitions which I guess was a sign of problems to come. At least, in 1969, the energy was all over the place.
About a double disc album, personally, I would have waited a little bit longer before releasing a best-of the first 3 seasons at the International Hotel:

SIDE A
Blue Suede Shoes ("In Person")
Mystery Train / Tiger Man (Aug. 12th 1970)
I Got A Woman (1969, "Writing for the king" FTD)
The Wonder Of You ("On Stage, february 1970")
I Just Can't Help Believin' ("TTWII")
Hound Dog ("Polk Salad Annie" FTD)

SIDE B
Heartbreak Hotel (1969, "Viva Las Vegas")
Jailhouse Rock / Don't Be Cruel (1969, "Viva Las Vegas")
One Night (Aug. 12th 1970)
I Can't Stop Loving You ("In Person")
Men with broken hearts / Walk a Mile ("Essential 70's Masters")
See See Rider / My Babe ("On Stage, february 1970" / "In Person")

SIDE C
Polk Salad Annie ("On Stage, february 1970")
Johnny B. Goode ("In Person")
Are You Lonesome Tonight ("All Shook Up" FTD)
Runaway ("On Stage, february 1970")
Baby What You Want Me To Do ("In Person" FTD)
Little Sister / Get Back (Aug. 12th 1970)

SIDE D
Bridge Over Troubled Water (1969, "Viva Las Vegas")
Suspicious Minds (1969, "Viva Las Vegas")
Patch It Up ("One Night with Elvis" FTD)
What'd I Say (1969, "Viva Las Vegas")
Can't Help Falling In Love ("In Person")

 

I was 20 when he died. I remember the night well. I'd just seen Buzzcocks and Penetration at The Electric Circus in Manchester and we stopped at a chip shop on the way home. The woman serving us said "Have you hear the news? Elvis is dead". Quite a shocker, even if his physical condition had betrayed the fact that something was wrong. I don't know why but I said "We did that". A bizarre thing to say but it was the feeling I had that all this exhilerating blast of Punk/New Wave had blown him away. Erased him.

 

We're all Elvis fans here and would have jumped at the chance to get all of the Elvis music that we could. I like the sequence of your three album set. I'm wondering how a three album set would have been a plus or minus considering that a live album was on its heels and a bottleneck of all of the Camden records would soon be dumped into the market at the same time. On the other hand, there may have been less Camdens without material from the new Memphis sessions. Something to ponder.

 

Elvis was back in the spotlight and New fans wanted Elvis' music too.

Camden records could've still been released, but with some type of strategy for the songs selection.

What RCA and/or Parker did get right imo, releasing Worldwide 50 Gold Award Hits Vol. 1 in Aug. '70, and the Camden Elvis' Christmas Album in time for the holidays. I'd bet they were bought by more New fans than Elvis fans.

 

Well I don't think that's what happened, but anyhow. lol

 

Are You Lonesome Tonight?
This is a nice arrangement and Elvis manages to carry the vocal off well. I guess some would be a little irritated with Cathy Westmoreland's (?) vocal but I am not particularly bothered by it.