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

Burning Love is also on the Hawaii via Satellite album - live of course.

 

I figure that's a typo of the word "rehash", but I kinda like the term "reharsh" as a description of bad re-masterings. Have these been reharshed?

 

Though of course Elvis being a US artist his US RCA releases tend to take precedent, it ought to be noted that this was not the first official release of Elvis' Sun material collected together on one album.

In 1975 "The Sun Collection" was released by RCA in the UK, with arguably superior artwork than the rather wonky, awkward looking artwork that appeared in 1976, with what looks like a 1968 era Elvis head.



For the deep fans there is a nice piece of dialogue from FTD's "Dinner at Eight" release, where an audience member shows Elvis a copy of the UK album, months before the reworked product appeared on US shelves:



Jump to 3.15 seconds, to avoid the usual tossed away 50s performances that proceed the dialogue.

 

The thing is, Elvis' complete album legacy doesn't really hold up well. Really, only about 1/3rd of the titles here are worthy and represent him somewhat well. I would have thought a "retail version" of Complete Masters would have made more sense but it is what it is.

Noteworthy is that this will be the first CD appearance of the original From Memphis to Vegas/From Vegas to Memphis release from 1969, which so far has only ever been issued in CD in its split 1970 incarnations In Person and Back In Memphis.

 

Yeah. With a very few exceptions, the original albums were compiled and sequenced in a random manner that didn't present the material in the best light. I can't imagine any reason besides nostalgia for wanting to listen to most of the material in those configurations.

 

I'm aware of the clipped beginnings of Promised Land and Tomorrow Night (overdubbed). What else is there?

 

I wonder if it's easier to market the box if they have the angle of it including all of the albums released during his lifetime...and perhaps they think a "complete masters" set won't take hold as well with the general public or the giant music fan that might be interested, but doesn't already have all of the material.

I'm trying to equate this to the Johnny Cash complete Columbia box and I think that using the complete album scenario helped to capture the consumer's attention quicker since they might have had some of the albums "back in the day" and it seems like a greater value to have "all of the albums (!)" in one nice box. There's an association with the Fabulous Johnny Cash or Folsom that might be lost if everything is released in the order of being recorded.

 

Wrong master used for I Want To Be Free. The overdubbed version of Tomorrow Night is not a mistake, as that WAS the original lifetime master. They repaired a few problems with the original masters to a varying degree of success, but they chose to keep the dropout in the beginning of You Don't Know Me which has been fixed on a couple of other releases. The excuse of keeping the dropout because of historical accuracy falls short when they "fix" some tape distortion on Any Way You Want Me (which has been there since day one) but botch the job so it is worse than the slight distortion.

 

The Complete Masters set retailed at twice the price, so there's that. Plus the disc storage was terrible.

 

I suppose there's also the angle of some people thinking "more CDs equals a better deal." I see a lot of special market reissues by artists that feature one CD's worth of music stretched out over 2 or 3 CDs, presumably because people think they are getting more for their money with a 2-CD set. Here we have 60 CDs used to contain material that fits onto 27 discs. I suppose there's also the fact that they know some collectors who already have the Complete Masters will buy this set too, just to indulge their OCD completeism. Those sales would be lost if they just reissued the Complete Masters.

 

$349.98.....................ah, no!

 

You're right that it's arbitrary to "fix" some things but not others. I'd prefer if they didn't try to digitally fix anything that's on the master tape. I was particularly annoyed that they removed the finger snap from the beginning of White Christmas... that's not even an error.

 

I do prefer my anthologies and other compilations to fill each disc to 70-80 minutes, but this is an album by album reproduction. I would not want say Girls, Girls, Girls and Fun In Acapulco on one disc just because it fits.

 

I agree! However, I would like if they fixed the dropout on You Don't Know Me (it was done well on Tomorrow Is A Long Time and FTD's Sings Guitar Man) and if possible bring the "S" back in Spring Fever, even though it was not on the original album. There are others of course. But to use the WRONG master for I Want To Be Free is just not acceptable.

 

It's my understanding that no one at BMG/Sony was aware of the difference prior to the Jailhouse Rock vol. 1 FTD. The tape that had been used without the composite ending sounds much better the master tape they had at the time. I don't know if a better tape was found but the correct master appeared on Jailhouse Rock vol. 2 in much better sound, but that one was released in 2011.

 

That no one was aware is what bothers me most. The FTD Jailhouse Rock CDs sound phenomenal, especially the Binaural tapes (before compression and reverb were added to make the masters).

 

Would this set be the next best thing (in terms of having most everything in one place), for those of us who were asleep at the wheel while the Complete Masters were available?

I have the original 50s, 60s, 70s boxes (all great in terms of content but not as good sounding as the Legacy stuff I have) but would love to have a really good comprehensive set.

 

I would say so. The Complete Masters isn't available at this point unless you're willing to shell out some cash on ebay. A lot of people seemed to enjoy the Franklin set but, yes, this seems to be a good option if you missed out on both. I did so I will be getting this.

 

The Complete Masters were 1/2 the discs at twice the price, so the argument they should have condensed this new box down so it would only need 1/2 the discs to make a box more accessible to "new fans" does not hold water. I have already pre-ordered my copy! I sold my CM set, it was disappointing.

 

I know, but a some of the information about the tapes has ben revised during the last ten years, propably because the binaural tapes were found. Jailhouse Rock was thought one complete take, but the master is a spliced.

 

If only these people had the original LPs, EPs and singles to reference, rather than getting their information second hand.

 

They had to pick so many titles or the box would have gone way over the 60 discs.

Mind on,i thought the SUN RECORDS lp would have been there as it was issued in the states in his life time etc.

 

Do you people ever think that maybe there are some people on this earth that DON'T have the Complete Masters, FTD's, Legacy editions, etc.?

Why not look at this as a springboard for a burgeoning hardcore Elvis fan? It's not as expensive as the Complete Masters, isn't as random as that other Masters box, and costs as much as 12 FTD's. For someone that wants to delve it's perfect. Think of it as a gateway box set.

 

Clearly they wanted to minimize/avoid repetition of songs on more than one disc. The only track unique to The Sun Sessions is the alternate take of "I Love You Because." Everything else would overlap with tracks on Elvis Presley, A Date With Elvis and For LP Fans Only. So it's hard to justify its inclusion from that standpoint.

 

A gateway to what? Outtakes?

It's pretty much a complete collection, possibly with a handful of missing masters. That's a pretty big jump for a casual buyer.