August 1988 Worldwide 50 Gold Hits volume 1 parts 1 and 2 (2cd) 6401 2 R Part 1 Heartbreak Hotel2:01 I Was The One2:33 I Want You, I Need You, I Love You2:39 Hound Dog2:15 Don't Be Cruel2:03 Anyway You Want Me (That's How I Will Be)2:15 Love Me Tender2:45 Playing For Keeps2:48 Too Much2:32 I'm All Shook Up1:58 That's When Your Heartaches Begin3:25 I Beg Of You1:51 Loving You2:15 (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear1:53 Jailhouse Rock2:30 Treat Me Nice2:12 Don't2:48 Hard Headed Woman1:53 Wear My Ring Around Your Neck2:15 A Big Hunk O' Love2:12 Ain't That Loving You Baby2:22 (Now And Then There´s) A Fool Such As I2:36 I Got Stung1:50 Interviews (From "Elvis Sails")2:54 Crying In The Chapel2:23 Viva Las Vegas2:11 Part 2 Stuck On You2:16 A Mess Of Blue2:41 It's Now Or Never3:25 I Gotta Know2:14 Are You Lonesome To-Night?3:05 Wooden Heart2:02 Surrender1:51 I Feel So Bad2:54 Little Sister2:29 Can't Help Falling In Love3:01 Rock-A-Hula Baby1:57 Good Luck Charm2:24 Anything That's Part Of You2:03 She's Not You2:08 Where Do You Come From2:05 Return To Sender2:09 One Broken Heart For Sale1:35 Bossa Nova Baby2:01 (You're The) Devil In Disguise2:18 Kissin' Cousins2:12 If I Can Dream3:09 Don't Cry Daddy2:48 In The Ghetto2:44 Kentucky Rain2:15 Suspicious Minds4:27 ------------------------------------------------- This looks like a really good compile for the Elvis fan that gets one cd. I think Rock a-hula Baby seems like an odd inclusion, with the other tracks seeming so much more substantial, and Elvis Sails, seems to be a favourite of the record company, but I am really not sure of the value of keep releasing it on these kind of compiles. Do we need to know anything about this one guys?
As Claus noted, Suspicious Minds is the stereo mix without the false fade. Where Do You Come From?, Return To Sender, One Broken Heart For Sale, (You're The Devil) In Disguise, Viva Las Vegas, If I Can Dream, and Don't Cry Daddy are all in mono. Little Sister and Kentucky Rain are the 80s remixes. Anything That's Part Of You is take 9.
If I recall the promotional material mentioned they put all the Mono tracks on disc 1 and all the stereo tracks on disc 2 so the listening experience would be consistent. Hence Crying In The Chapel and Viva Las Vegas are out of sequence. The artwork even states Part 1 mono, Part 2 stereo. This leads me to believe the mono tracks on Part 2 are IN ERROR much like the wrong take for Anything That's Part Of You (which must hold the record of how many different takes were put on records/CDs in error). The Undubbed Wear My Ring Around Your Neck has been falsely used as the "master" on WAY too many releases, as has the unspliced version of A Big Hunk Of Love. I wonder at what point would RCA/BMG/Sony ever become embarrassed about how many errors they have made through the years? I am expecting a public televised apology to Elvis fans any day now.
Well I would settle for a PROPER Legacy Edition combining WWGAH V1 and V2 ala' The Album Collection style, with all the proper artwork and inserts, AND to replicate the original error of using the LP master of Doncha Think It's Time, since they mistakenly used the single version on The Album Collection. Hey and how about that drum beat ending for I Really Don't Want To Know this time? (so far only available on CD on the Japanese Complete Singles Collection) I suppose they should use only the original Mono masters too. (although I prefer stereo, this would not only be "correct" but it would offer variety as, let's face it, I already have the stereo masters of this material several times over). Oh and maybe they should do The Mono Album Collection box, from Elvis Is Back to Speedway for all the mono fans out there too.
Sound issues aside, I bought this soon after release as it was great to get more of this material on CD. I was in college at the time and there was no way I was brining vinyl to university but a few CDs were fine.
It's been a while, but I seem to recall thinking that Kentucky Rain on 50 Worldwide Gold Award Hits was the remix from The Memphis Record. Is that accurate?
Yes it is. There is absolutely no rhyme or reason to the mix choices on this CD. They appear to have just grabbed the first tape they could find for each track. The one upside is that their carelessness gave us a legit rarity that's pretty cool to hear: the Suspicious Minds work part... the master after it was overdubbed and looped, but before the fade was applied. Fortunately, the days of haphazard, slipshod tape compilation are just about behind us after this...
If those of us who were students in the 1970s had felt that way, we wouldn't have had any music to listen to...
Got that Worldwide double CD. It cost me £29.99, import from HMV in the Trafford Centre Manchester back in 2001. It says Part 2 all Stereo but several tracks are in Mono. Still worth it though.
Not in the UK. No-one I knew bought pre-recorded cassettes or owned a 8-track player. The best we could do was tape our LPs onto blank cassettes, but that was never as much fun. No cover art to look at.
That was one of my Elvis discs too. I later had Alternate Aloha, Essential Elvis, Moody Blue (before the reissue that stuck From Elvis Presley Blvd tracks on there) Gold Records Vol 5, several recently discussed discs.
A funnny memory from playing the Worldwide 50 Gold Hits discs way back when - switching from the mono CD 1 to CD 2 with Stuck On You and Mess of Blues it amazed me at how fantastic their stereo mixes sounded after listeing to the mono material. Not that the mono recordings aren't great, but I never noticed the contrast before getting this title.
"50 Worldwide Gold Award Hits" is the first Elvis title I ever bought, and although I later sold it, I regret it...someday, I know I'm going to see a used copy somewhere and take it home. I played this version of "Suspicious Minds" on repeat (I used to actually use such CD player features) and even though I haven't heard it in eons,it remains the "true" mix. Only in retrospect does it seem like a weird release; for example, only now do I notice that there is no 1970's material--as it contained a 1988 copyright date, I had no reason to suspect it had actually been first released in 1970. Even stranger, however, is the apparent lack of a "Volume 2"; now I know that the "Other Sides" comp was originally considered Vol. 2--but only on vinyl. I meant to post earlier--what I remember about the release of "The Alternate Aloha" is how many insisted it was superior to the "actual" Aloha concert. I've honestly never listened to either closely enough to tell them apart. Still, while I appreciate the fact that the vast majority of the existing multitrack recordings of Elvis in concert have been officially released, it is kind of a melancholy feeling to know that the hype surrounding the release of a full-length, professionally recorded, previously unreleased Presley concert hitting the market will never happen again. "The Alternate Aloha" may not be many people's nomination for the greatest Elvis concert ever (although I guarantee somebody somewhere believes it is) but it is a great example of a new audience discovering Elvis through the release of "new" music given tasteful and thoughtful packaging and marketing. If memory serves, this was also about the time HBO put together a special based on the sit-down performanced from the '68 TV special. Although there was no corresponding audio release at the time, the footage really opened the eyes of many.
