Elvis' "Love Me Tender" soundtrack in stereo.

Hiya.

Does anyone know how we got the Love Me Tender soundtrack stuff in stereo? Were the recordings made to film or tape? How did they "magically" appear over 30 years later? I've never heard the full story behind these tapes.

 

IIRC, SteveH was the first person to mix "Love Me Tender" to stereo.

 

The movie was filmed in stereo.

 

The recording sessions were held on 20th Century Fox's Stage 1 and rhythm tracks for several of the songs (Let Me and Poor Boy for sure) were laid down first by the Ken Darby Trio and Elvis later overdubbed his vocals. These binaural tapes were found in the early nineties. The stereo Love Me Tender first appeared on BMG's "Heart and Soul" compilation in January 1995 - more than two years before the September 1997 release of DCC's "24 Karat Hits" - so Steve was not the first to mix it.

 

Session info here:

http://www.keithflynn.com/recording-sessions/recordingsessions50s.htm

 

so when did Elvis start appearing in stereo? I always assumed 50s /pre army is mono, and 60s post army is stereo.

 

All of his 1957 sessions at Radio Recorders in Hollywood were recorded in binaural "stereo" on a back-up machine. The studio actually threw all of these tapes in the garbage and Thorne Nogar, the engineer for these sessions, asked if he could keep them. After he retrieved them from the dumpster he brought them home and stored them in his garage for decades until BMG/RCA purchased them in the late eighties. Much of the Loving You album sessions (along with miscellaneous tracks recorded for singles), all of the Peace in The Valley e.p. and Jailhouse Rock e.p. sessions survive in binaural. Unfortunately, the Christmas album sessions do not appear to have been saved.

 

I think Love Me Tender soundtrack was the first time Elvis appeared in stereo. Some of the sessions from January 1957 were also recorded in stereo as well as a few songs from the Loving You and Jailhouse Rock soundtracks.

 

The stuff RCA purchased in the '80s came from Bones Howe, no?

 

so on the King of Rock & Roll Complete 50s box set, is anything in stereo?

Kind of a dumb reason, but I've ripped that entire boxset in mono for my ipod, and want to know if I need to re-rip some in stereo

 

No, it's mono only, iirc. Haven't listened to the set in years.

 

Luke, you are correct - I mixed up the two. Thanks for the correction.

 

So, 20th Century Fox was using 2 track stereo (binaural) machines at that time? Or were they recording to 35mm film (as Mercury Living Presence were doing.) Tape would definitely have been the easier route to take, especially if vocals were overdubbed later.

 

Thanks Steve. And these particular film audio reels were discovered at 20th Century Fox's archives?