In this thread we are going to look at compilation albums, some reissues that have sprung up over the years. Our plan is to go through these albums, and a few of the important singles. 78 Unchained Melody/Softly As I Leave You He Walks Beside Me lp Mahalo From Elvis Elvis Sing For Children ... and adults too Canadian Tribute From Elvis With Love Legendary performer 3 79 Our Memories of Elvis Vol 1 Memories Of Elvis vol 2 80 Elvis Aaron Presley (8lp) silver box Legendary Performer 4 81 Guitar Man This Is Elvis Greatest Hits Vol 1 82 Memories of Christmas The Elvis Medley 83 I Was The One 84 The First Live Recordings Golden Records vol 5 Golden Celebration (6lp) Rocker Elvis greatest Hits - Golden Singles 1 Elvis greatest hits Golden Singles 2 85 A Valentine Gift For You Reconsider Baby Always On My Mind 86 Return Of The Rocker 87 The Memphis Record Number one Hits Top Ten hits Complete Sun Sessions All Time Greatest Hits 88 Essential Elvis Vol 1 first Movies Elvis Country (This Gets a combo treatment of "I Was The One" and "Guitar Man" overdubs). The Alternate Aloha Elvis In Nashville Essential Elvis Vol 2 stereo 57 90 Million Dollar Quartet (I do not remember if we have covered this earlier or not in LP form) Great Performances 91 Sings Leiber & Stoller Essential Elvis Vol 3 Hits Like Never Before Collectors gold The Lost Album 92 Complete Fifties Masters 93 The Double Features releases x4 Essential sixties masters' 94 double features x3 Amazing Grace If Every Day Was Like Christmas 95 Heart and Soul double features x3 Essential sixties masters two - Command Performances Heart And Soul Essential seventies masters walk a mile in my shoes 96 Elvis 56 essential Elvis Vol 4 a hundred years from now Country Classics (Similar to Essential Elvis releases) Great Country songs The Original Elvis Presley Collection (50cd) 97 An Afternoon In the Garden Platinum - A Life In Music The Time Life Collections 98 Tiger Man Memories The 68 Comeback special Aloha remixed and remastered Get Down And Get With It This thread will probably have a slightly different make up than previous threads, as we have been through most of the tracks. There will almost certainly be some alternate takes, and version, and I would appreciate you guys helping me if I happen to miss any. I do have a few of these, but I am not generally a compilation buyer, so I am guessing you will all know much more about these than I. Looking forward to talking more about the music Cheers Mark
What's the plan? One of these a day, maybe? And I assume the end point at '98 is because FTD started in '99? Really enjoyed these threads so far. Long live the King.
It will be a bit of - "see how we go" Some of these may just be a day. Some will take a little longer. There are a few boxes that will need more time, especially when alternate takes come into play. There are other important posthumous releases, but yea, the ftd's kick in, in 1999. Glad you're enjoying them mate!
Imvho, the silver and gold boxes definitely deserve more time, especially when it comes to things like the Hawaii '61 concert (Elvis Aron Presley) and the home recordings (A Golden Celebration). The 80s are an interesting time for Elvis comps, because we got some very interesting "themed" releases that put Elvis' performances in a wholly different context, and even the "hits" comps featured remixes or other rarities, so there's something interesting to say about almost all of them. Looking forward to this thread!
Something to keep in the mind is that the mainstream BMG catalogue started an extensive reissue program around '96 and several significant reissues, compilations, and archival releases were issued after 1998. 1998 doesn't seem like a natural cut-off. Perhaps this thread should extend to the mid-2000's when Sony and BMG merged and Sony took control of the catalogue?
No indication this'll be the last thread. It's an ideal enough cutoff to not have this thread be a thousand page monstrosity
For now, we'll see how we roll. This is probably going to be somewhat less precise than the other threads, purely due to the nature of it.
Question: At what point did the Camdens revert from Pickwick back to RCA? Did that coincide with Pickwick shutting down? I remember a small line of RCA Camden CDs. It included some of the Camdens, but not all of them. The Christmas album used Pickwick's cover art. Mahalo From Elvis was part of this, so it finally got an RCA release. You'll Never Walk Alone had a different cover. But I remember albums which were NOT originally Camdens being part of this, like Legendary Performer Volume 1 (and maybe 2).
The immediate posthumous releases in 78 seem to be a total dogs breakfast. Six albums released in 1978? With the first one after his death a gospel album, then a bunch of oddball titles like Elvis Sings For Children, off cuts from Aloha, A Canadian Tribute? And none of them appear to have done anything on the charts. Why couldn't they get it together to do one beautiful presented posthumous double album of the best of the best and just leave it at that for a year. Would have been a massive seller. Even after he died the Colonel couldn't resist his bottom feeding tendency to throw any old sh-t out there, and hope the rubes went for it.
HE WALKS BESIDE ME (LP) (US) RCA AFL1 2772 Released: February 1978 He Is My Everything Miracle Of The Rosary Where Did They Go, Lord Somebody Bigger Than You And I Evening Prayer Impossible Dream * Side 2 If I Can Dream (Take 4) Padre Known Only To Him Who Am I How Great Thou Art * Recorded: Hilton Hotel, Las Vegas, February 16, 1972 Midnight Show 113 US Billboard 200 6 US Country 17 UK album chart
We weren't going to cover He Walk Beside Me, but even for albums we aren't looking deeply at, I will do my best to post them all for reference at least
Unchained Melody ** Softly As I Leave You * (US) RCA PB 11212 Released: February 27, 1978 * Recorded: Hilton Hotel, Las Vegas, December 13, 1975 ** Recorded: Rushmore Civic Center, Rapid City, South Dakota, June 21, 1977 When he performed the song live in Las Vegas, Elvis Presley prefaced with a story about the origins of the song. Presley said the song originated when a man was dying and his wife was sitting by his bedside. As she began to doze off, he felt himself beginning to die and he wrote the words to the song on a notepad. However, Elvis insiders claim that his explanation for the song was merely an example of Presley's flair for storytelling, so his explanation is most likely apocryphal. Elvis said he heard the story "from some people in Florida." Elvis doesn't actually sing this song; he speaks the words while his backing tenor Sherrill Nielsen sings it. Elvis's one recorded version of this song was a bootleg made by a fan in the Las Vegas Hilton show on 13 December 1975. RCA was able to release it commercially in March 1978[3]and it now appears on the boxed set Walk A Mile In My Shoes: The Essential 70's Masters. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unchained Melody is the same version that was on the Moody Blue album. Softly As I Leave you is an unusual one. It appears as if Elvis was touched by this song, it was actually an old Italian song called Piano, and was released as a single in 1960. Hal Shaper noticed the song, and rewrote it with English lyrics, and MattMunro and Frank Sinatra both had minor hits with it. As described above Elvis spoke the song while Sherrill sang it. No matter what one thinks of this song, I think the thing that comes home is Elvis ability to build the story into something quite emotional, from something essentially a little on the cheesy side.
I'm not rushing us, I just want to get a couple of things on the board here, to give everyone something to participate in MAHALO FROM ELVIS (LP) (US) Pickwick ACL1 7064 Released: May 1978 Side one consists of five previously unissued tracks Presley recorded in Honolulu on January 14, 1973 for inclusion in the U.S.-version of the live concert TV special Aloha from Hawaii (these tracks were, in fact, recorded after the conclusion of the concert, with no audience present, therefore they are not considered truly "live" recordings). The recording of No More, however, was not used in the special. All songs on side two were previously issued recordings originating from various Presley movie soundtracks from the 1960s. The album was issued by Pickwick Records by arrangement with RCA Records, who leased Pickwick the rights to reissue certain recordings by Presley and other RCA recording artists, most of which were previously issued on the budget label, RCA Camden. In 1991, the album was reissued on compact disc on the RCA Camden label. Mahalo from Elvis was certified Gold on September 15, 2011 by the RIAA. 1. "Blue Hawaii" Ralph Rainger, Leo Robin 2:30 2. "Early Morning Rain" Gordon Lightfoot 2:52 3. "Hawaiian Wedding Song" Al Hoffman, Dick Manning 2:53 4. "KU-U-I-PO" George David Weiss, Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore 2:05 5. "No More" Hal Blair, Don Robertson, Sebastián Iradier 2:28 1. "Relax" (from It Happened at the World's Fair) Roy Bennett, Sid Tepper 2:18 2. "Baby, If You'll Give Me All Of Your Love" (from Double Trouble) Joy Byers 1:47 3. "One Broken Heart For Sale" (from It Happened at the World's Fair) Otis Blackwell, Winfield Scott 1:34 4. "So Close, And Yet So Far (From Paradise)" (from Harum Scarum) Joy Byers 3:00 5. "Happy Ending" (from It Happened at the World's Fair) Sid Wayne, Ben Weisman 2:07 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is an interesting release in the sense that at this stage the record companies were seemingly still in the mindset of "just get everything out there". Elvis is less that twelve months gone and we have a couple of seemingly thrown together albums to try and capitalise on any ground swell of interest in the music. It is so strange that of all the material available to release, we get a faux gospel album (one presumes because Elvis Gospel albums always sold very well) and then we get some odds and sodds from the Aloha material, with a few soundtrack songs to bolster the ranks and actually make it an album. It is more than likely just a sign of the times, but with a modern mentality, it seems unusual that it didn't cross anyone's mind to release a Aloha complete type album, with perhaps the whole concert on three discs, and these leftover semi-studio tracks on side four or something like that. Anyway, you guys are the ones with all the knowledge, so please give us the lowdown on this album, and if I am able I will start to post the tracks we haven't seen yet tomorrow. Cheers Mark
I received this album as a Christmas gift in 1978. I was pretty excited to get it even though I had most of the songs already. It was an alright album but I would call it more "inspirational" than gospel.
It coulda and should been a better compilation. "Padre" is a real head-scratcher. Perhaps it was included because it's parent LP was out of print. Not sure if "The Impossible Dream" or "If I Can Dream" qualify as gospel, but perhaps inspirational. Of course both of those songs (in these forms) were only available on this release for quite a while. So if you were one to have to have EVERYTHING, you were going to splurge for an album that had a lot of stuff you already owned. RCA - Record Cemetery of America
'Padre' is a funny one, it could be vaguely construed as quasi-religious I guess with the main protagonist of the song, in his grief, turning to the local priest to see if they can help with his marital probs, I s'pose... These days we have facebook etc.
Correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t think that the Unchained Melody from Rapid City, that’s on this single was from the Moody Blue album. Wasn’t the version on Moody Blue from the spring tour?
The single version of "Unchained Melody" is indeed from the June 21 Rapid City performance. But I can't stand the added instrumentation, vocals, etc.
Mahalo from Elvis was originally scheduled for November, 1973 as an RCA Camden release. The track lineup is Joan Deary's.