The long wait ends: Elvis’ 70s MASTERS arrives [The Elvis Beat newsletter]

/ TY

I was 20 when I wrote this article back in 1995 for The Elvis Beat #13, my official Elvis Presley Fan Club newsletter.

A little late, Elvis’ new boxed set hit the stores on October 10. The 5-CD release from RCA is titled ELVIS: Walk A Mile In My Shoes – The Essential 70s Masters. The set contains 26 previously unreleased tracks, including seven new songs.

The Essential 70s Masters features 120 tracks in all, many of which have never been available on CD. An accompanying 94-page booklet contains many rare photographs as well as liner notes by Dave Marsh. A sheet of stamps depicting some of Elvis’ LP album covers from the period is also in the boxed set. Each of the 5 CDs is pressed with a different photograph of Elvis on the top.

Discs 1 and 2 contain all of Elvis’ 1970s singles, with the exception of those released after his death. Discs 3 and 4 contain other studio highlights of the era. Disc 4 is devoted to a sampling of his 1970s concert performances and rehearsal tracks.

Among the previously unreleased tracks are studio versions of “My Way” and “For The Good Times,” prior releases of which had been concert recordings.

The “new” songs never before released by Elvis in any form are:

  • A Hundred Years From Now
  • Lady Madonna
  • I Shall Be Released
  • It’s Diff’rent Now
  • The Twelfth Of Never
  • Alla’ En El “Rancho Grande”
  • Froggy Went A Courtin’

All of the new songs are either informal jams or rehearsals.

With the releases of ELVIS: The King Of Rock ‘n’ Roll – The Complete 50s Masters in 1992 and ELVIS: From Nashville To Memphis – The Essential 60s Masters I in 1993, many fans anticipated seeing the 70s set last year. Instead, the 2-CD Elvis Presley: Amazing Grace – His Greatest Sacred Performances collection was released and The Essential 70s Masters was pushed back a year.

This year, RCA originally scheduled the 70s set’s release to be September 12 – which was soon moved to September 26. When the release date was changed once again, this time to October 10, many fans undoubtedly wondered if it would ever be released.

On the tenth of October, what seemed like the “Twelfth Of Never” was finally here.

According to posts to an Elvis newsgroup on the Internet, Roger Semon of RCA states the next big Elvis project will be a boxed set for his legendary 1968 ELVIS “comeback” television special.