Sony

Elvis Back In Richmond: Forty-Eight Hours To Memphis now available

/ TY / 7 Comments

Forty-Eight Hours To Memphis: Recorded Live On Stage In Richmond, Virginia – March 18, 1974, the latest Elvis Presley release from Sony’s Follow That Dream collectors label, hit the United States on November 1.

Ernst Mikael Jørgensen & Roger Semon produced the CD, which captures Elvis’ fourteenth appearance in Richmond—his third at the Richmond Coliseum.

The Richmond show has received a new mastering by Vic Anesini. Though presented in mono from a tape copy, apparently the concert was professionally recorded and mixed in multi-track.

According to Robert Frieser’s liner notes, the original multi-track recording is either missing or erased. Speculation is that it was a backup for the album Elvis Recorded Live On Stage In Memphis, which took place two days later at the Mid-South Coliseum.

The March 18 Richmond Coliseum concert was only six days after his March 12 appearance there. After visiting other cities, the tour swung back through Richmond due to a rapid sell out of the earlier show.

Richmond references
Track 04 at 0:02: Elvis says, “It’s a pleasure to be back here in Hampton Roads, uh, Richmond! Just kidding, just kidding.”
Track 15 at 2:23: Elvis says, “I’d like to thank the John Marshall hotel, where everybody’s staying, for taking care of us over there.”
Track 21 at 0:00: Elvis says, “You’re a fantastic audience, you really are. Until the next time here in Richmond, I’d like to wish you an affectionate adiós.”

As with other releases on Sony’s FTD collectors label for Elvis fans, the only physical store in the US authorized to sell the CD is Good Rockin’ Tonight, a Graceland gift shop in Memphis. However, the CD may be obtained online from a variety of other Elvis stores, including Graceland’s ShopElvis.com.

The CD comes in an oversized, 7-inch digipack that includes a 16-page booklet with photographs from the show. It marks the first official release of a Richmond Elvis concert.

Forty-Eight Hours To Memphis (2011)

Forty-Eight Hours To Memphis (2011)

Forty-Eight Hours To Memphis

Live At The Richmond Coliseum, March 18, 1974
01) Also Sprach Zarathustra/
02) See See Rider
03) I Got A Woman/Amen [edited with Memphis, March 20, 1974]
04) Love Me
05) Tryin’ To Get To You
06) All Shook Up
07) Steamroller Blues
08) Teddy Bear/Don’t Be Cruel
09) Love Me Tender
10) Long Tall Sally/Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On/Your Mama Don’t Dance/Flip, Flop & Fly/Jailhouse Rock/Hound Dog
11) Fever
12) Polk Salad Annie
13) Why Me
14) Suspicious Minds
15) Introductions By Elvis
16) I Can’t Stop Loving You
17) Help Me
18) An American Trilogy
19) Let Me Be There
20) Funny How Time Slips Away
21) Can’t Help Falling In Love/
22) Closing Vamp

Bonus Songs
23) Sweet Caroline [Tulsa, March 1, 1974]
24) Johnny B. Goode [Memphis, March 17, 1974]
25) That’s All Right [Memphis, March 17, 1974]

48 Hours To Memphis: Recorded Live On Stage In Richmond available for pre-order

/ TY

Available now for pre-order is the anticipated-turned-controversial CD 48 Hours To Memphis: Recorded Live On Stage In Richmond, Virginia — March 18, 1974.

The North America/Worldwide version of Elvis Presley Enterprise’s ShopElvis.com reports that the CD should arrive to US addresses on or around October 31. I know what’s going to be cranked up at my house Halloween night!

Direct link: Pre-Order Elvis Forty Eight Hours to Memphis FTD CD (Mono) — ShopElvis.com

As with other releases on Sony’s Follow That Dream collectors label for Elvis fans, the only physical store in the US authorized to sell the CD is Good Rockin’ Tonight, a Graceland gift shop in Memphis.

Online, FTD CDs can be obtained from a variety of other Elvis stores.

In the 1970s, Elvis performed live on four dates at the Richmond Coliseum, spanning 1972 through 1976. The March 18, 1974, concert was only six days after his March 12 appearance there. The tour swung back through Richmond due to a rapid sell out of the earlier show.

Elvis fans around the world highly anticipated the CD after revelations several weeks ago that it would feature a previously unknown multi-track recording of the event.

However, a more recent announcement that the source of the CD is a mono tape thought to have been mixed down from the apparently lost multi-track has made the release controversial and anti-climactic for some. As for me, I’m still excited about it.

48 Hours To Memphis (concept cover art)

The 48 Hours To Memphis title reflects that Elvis closed out his tour two days later with a concert in Memphis. An edited version of the Memphis show became the July 1974 album Elvis Recorded Live On Stage In Memphis. A song from that album earned Elvis his third and final Grammy Award.

48 Hours To Memphis marks the first official audio release of an Elvis concert in Richmond. Though MGM filmed a 1972 concert at the Richmond Coliseum for the movie Elvis On Tour, it used only a tiny portion of it in the documentary. Warner Brothers has never released the remaining Richmond footage, nor has Sony made any plans as of yet to release the audio. Elvis On Tour instead prominently featured a concert in Hampton Roads, Virginia.

From ShopElvis.com, here is the full product description:

Please note: Contrary to previous informal information given, please be advised that this is a MONO release.

Derived from what must have been a full professional 16-track multi track recording, the sound is absolutely great, and Elvis is in top form. The booklet is full of great pictures from the actual show and informative notes. The CD comes in a 7″ digi format with a 16 page booklet.

Recorded Live on stage in Richmond, Virginia. March 18, 1974″

Tracklisting

Live At The Richmond Coliseum: March 18, 1974
01) Also Sprach Zarathustra/
02) See See Rider
03) I Got A Woman/Amen [edited with Memphis, March 20, 1974]
04) Love Me
05) Tryin’ To Get To You
06) All Shook Up
07) Steamroller Blues
08) Teddy Bear/Don’t Be Cruel
09) Love Me Tender
10) Long Tall Sally/Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On/Your Mama Don’t Dance/Flip, Flop & Fly/Jailhouse Rock/Hound Dog
11) Fever
12) Polk Salad Annie
13) Why Me
14) Suspicious Minds
15) Introductions By Elvis
16) I Can’t Stop Loving You
17) Help Me
18) An American Trilogy
19) Let Me Be There
20) Funny How Time Slips Away
21) Can’t Help Falling In Love/
22) Closing Vamp

Bonus Songs
23) Sweet Caroline [Tulsa, March 1, 1974]
24) Johnny B. Goode [Memphis, March 17, 1974]
25) That’s All Right [Memphis, March 17, 1974]

Experience Elvis at full throttle in Young Man With The Big Beat (UPDATE: Individual songs available for purchase on Amazon)

/ TY / 6 Comments

Available today from Sony’s RCA/Legacy label, the five-CD boxed set Young Man With The Big Beat features a ton of 1956 material. For die-hard fans, the crown jewel of the set is the first-ever release of Elvis’ December 15, 1956, concert that marked the singer’s final appearance on the Louisiana Hayride radio program.

Also released today is the Sony Legacy edition of his debut album, Elvis Presley, which is paired with his second album, Elvis.

Note that this set is also available for purchase in digital format (audio only) at a substantially reduced price for the full set.

UPDATE: Possibly along with others, Amazon US is offering the opportunity to buy individual tracks in digital format. This means fans who only want the Hayride material do not have to purchase the entire set. Thank you to Sony for this consideration.

Below is a full break-down of the Young Man With The Big Beat set, adapted from Sony’s press release and marketing material.

Disc 1: Studio Recordings

17 tracks recorded in New York, Nashville, and Hollywood, starting with the 12 songs on the debut LP, Elvis Presley (‘1254’), followed by non-LP single A-sides and B-sides, and EP tracks.

  1. Blue Suede Shoes
  2. I’m Counting On You
  3. I Got A Woman
  4. One-Sided Love Affair
  5. I Love You Because
  6. Just Because
  7. Tutti Frutti
  8. Trying To Get To You
  9. I’m Gonna Sit Right Down And Cry (Over You)
  10. I’ll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin’)
  11. Blue Moon
  12. Money Honey
  13. Heartbreak Hotel
  14. I Was The One
  15. My Baby Left Me
  16. Lawdy, Miss Clawdy
  17. Shake, Rattle And Roll

Disc 2: Studio Recordings

22 tracks recorded in New York, Nashville, and Memphis, starting with the 12 songs on the second LP, Elvis (‘1382’), followed by non-LP single A-sides and B-sides, and EP tracks.

  1. Rip It Up
  2. Love Me
  3. When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again
  4. Long Tall Sally
  5. First In Line
  6. Paralyzed
  7. So Glad You’re Mine
  8. Old Shep
  9. Ready Teddy
  10. Anyplace Is Paradise
  11. How’s The World Treating You
  12. How Do You Think I Feel
  13. I Want You, I Need You, I Love You
  14. Hound Dog
  15. Don’t Be Cruel
  16. Any Way You Want Me (That’s How I Will Be)
  17. Too Much
  18. Playing For Keeps
  19. Love Me Tender
  20. Let Me
  21. Poor Boy
  22. We’re Gonna Move

Disc 3: Live Recordings

Rare remasters of shows at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas (four songs); Little Rock, Arkansas (seven songs); and a recently discovered, previously unreleased concert in Shreveport, Louisiana, in December (ten songs).

Recorded Live At The Venus Room, Frontier Hotel, Las Vegas, May 6

1.  Heartbreak Hotel
2.  Long Tall Sally
3.  Blue Suede Shoes
4.  Money Honey

Recorded Live At The Robinson Memorial Auditorium, Little Rock, Arkansas, May 16

5.  Heartbreak Hotel
6.  Long Tall Sally
7.  I Was The One
8.  Money Honey
9.  I Got A Woman
10. Blue Suede Shoes
11. Hound Dog

Recorded Live At The Hirsch Youth Center, Louisiana Fairgrounds, Shreveport, Louisiana, December 15

12. Heartbreak Hotel
13. Long Tall Sally
14. I Was The One
15. Love Me Tender
16. Don’t Be Cruel
17. Love Me
18. I Got A Woman
19. When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again
20. Paralyzed
21. Hound Dog

Disc 4: Outtakes

Four outtakes from the first historic RCA session in January (“I Got A Woman,” “Heartbreak Hotel,” “I’m Counting On You,” “I Was The One”), segueing into the complete session of February 3rd (11 takes of “Lawdy, Miss Clawdy” and 12 takes of “Shake, Rattle And Roll”); plus the first of the interviews – the complete Warwick Hotel (NYC) interview by Robert Brown in March.

  1. I Got A Woman – take unknown
  2. Heartbreak Hotel – take 06
  3. I’m Counting On You – take 13
  4. I Was The One – take 02
  5. Lawdy, Miss Clawdy – take 01
  6. Lawdy, Miss Clawdy – take 03
  7. Lawdy, Miss Clawdy – take 04
  8. Lawdy, Miss Clawdy – take 05
  9. Lawdy, Miss Clawdy – take 06
  10. Lawdy, Miss Clawdy – takes 07, 08, 09
  11. Lawdy, Miss Clawdy – take 10 (master)
  12. Lawdy, Miss Clawdy – takes 11, 12
  13. Shake, Rattle And Roll – takes 01, 02
  14. Shake, Rattle And Roll – takes 03, 05, 06, 07
  15. Shake, Rattle And Roll – take 08
  16. Shake, Rattle And Roll – takes 09, 10, 11, 12, 12 (undubbed master)
  17. The Complete Warwick Hotel Interview

Disc 5: Interviews

The Paul Wilder interview, plus his interviews with Colonel Parker and Oscar Davis; plus two segments of Elvis’ rarely heard candid monologue, “The Truth About Me,” and two advertisements for RCA Victrolas.

  1. The Complete TV Guide Presents Elvis interview
  2. Colonel Parker Interview
  3. The Truth About Me
  4. The Truth About Me Interview
  5. Victrola Radio ad 1
  6. Victrola Radio ad 2

Book

The focal point of the book, spread across its 80 pages, will be a unique, meticulously-researched, day-by-day chronology of Elvis’ iconic year, including every concert, every recording date, every television appearance, personal events in Elvis’ life, and much more. A dazzling photo array of memorabilia will illustrate each day and entry. Concert ticket stubs, RCA memoranda, letters from fans, postcards from Elvis to his family, tour itineraries, magazine covers and articles, trade charts, fan club relics, RCA publicity photos, concert photos, candid photos, and more will be a feast for the eyes and the imagination as 1956 unfolds.

Other Items

Will also include five rare 8×10 photographs, five original-size poster replicas, and a replica concert ticket stub.

Elvis Shocker: 1974 Richmond concert is a multi-track recording

/ TY / 5 Comments

48 Hours To Memphis, capturing Elvis’ March 18, 1974, concert at the Richmond Coliseum in Virginia, will feature a recently discovered 16-track recording of the event.

48 Hours To Memphis (concept cover art)

48 Hours To Memphis (concept cover art)

Instead of the typical soundboard recording most fans expected, it turns out that this is actually a fully mixed, professionally-recorded show. “Taken from a tape copy (2 channels mix-down) of a 16-track recording, the show is complete (with some tape damage that has been fixed/altered),” notes the Elvis In Norway site.

Two days after the Richmond concert, Elvis closed out his tour with a live appearance in Memphis. RCA also recorded that performance at the Mid-South Coliseum in multi-track. It appeared in an edited form a few months later as the album Elvis Recorded Live On Stage In Memphis.

Questions abound. Did RCA record Richmond as preparation for that Memphis concert album? Or did RCA originally conceive the album as a tour compilation? How did RCA seemingly lose this multi-track recording and any record that it ever existed?

Sony’s Follow That Dream collectors label will release the CD in September, packaged in an oversized, 7-inch digipack and including a 16-page booklet with photographs from the show.

See below for the tracklisting. Is it September yet? Elvis is coming to town!

Live At The Richmond Coliseum: March 18, 1974
01) Also Sprach Zarathustra/
02) See See Rider
03) I Got A Woman/Amen [edited with Memphis, March 20, 1974]
04) Love Me
05) Tryin’ To Get To You
06) All Shook Up
07) Steamroller Blues
08) Teddy Bear/Don’t Be Cruel
09) Love Me Tender
10) Long Tall Sally/Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On/Your Mama Don’t Dance/Flip, Flop & Fly/Jailhouse Rock/Hound Dog
11) Fever
12) Polk Salad Annie
13) Why Me
14) Suspicious Minds
15) Introductions By Elvis
16) I Can’t Stop Loving You
17) Help Me
18) An American Trilogy
19) Let Me Be There
20) Funny How Time Slips Away
21) Can’t Help Falling In Love/
22) Closing Vamp

Bonus Songs
23) Sweet Caroline [Tulsa, March 1, 1974]
24) Johnny B. Goode [Memphis, March 17, 1974]
25) That’s All Right [Memphis, March 17, 1974]

FTD releases are official products and available from various online stores. They originate in Denmark and then ship to retailers, so there is sometimes a two or three week delay after the release date before the CDs arrive for those of us in the US.

Amarillo ’77 for completists only

/ TY

Amarillo '77I originally planned to write a full review of Follow That Dream’s Amarillo ’77, but I just don’t have the heart to do it. I enjoy much of the 1977 material on Elvis In Concert, Spring Tours 77, and Unchained Melody, so I was looking forward to this release.

I’ve played it twice now, and I’m going to have to put it away for awhile. It pains me to write this, but Amarillo ’77 is the worst Elvis concert album I’ve ever heard. I don’t own every FTD release, so perhaps there are some worse ones out there. If so, I don’t need to hear them. I have never felt like this after listening to an Elvis album. Unless this is the last CD you need to complete your collection, I can’t recommend Amarillo ’77.

Despite its misleading title, Amarillo ’77 is actually a compilation of songs from five different concerts. While it could be said that the performances on Spring Tours 77 were cherry-picked to cover only highlights, I believe the opposite is true of Amarillo ’77.

This is one of only four official albums ever released that is devoted to 1977 material. Given how rarely this Elvis year is visited, why were these particular performances chosen? Rather than picking cherries, I believe someone intentionally plucked a bunch of sour grapes this time.

I don’t believe in kicking a man while he is down, even if it is 34 years after the fact, so I’m just going to leave my thoughts on this depressing disc at the above.

I can really use a good laugh right now, so I’m going to pull out FTD’s All Shook Up, which covers Elvis’ August 26, 1969, Midnight Show at the International Hotel in Las Vegas. It features Elvis in good spirits and at the top of his game.

Back In Richmond

/ TY

An Elvis Presley concert recorded in Richmond, Virginia, will soon become an official album. In September, Sony’s Follow That Dream collectors label will release 48 Hours To Memphis, a CD that captures Elvis’ March 18, 1974, concert at the Richmond Coliseum.

In the 1970s, Elvis performed live on four dates at the Richmond Coliseum. The March 18 concert was only six days after his March 12 appearance there that same year. The tour swung back through Richmond due to a rapid sell out of the earlier show. An audience sign in 1972’s Elvis On Tour modified the state tourism slogan to say, “Virginia Is For Elvis Lovers.” This clearly was still the case two years later.

I’m glad that they gave this CD a creative title, rather than just slapping a song name on it. Richmond is about 13 hours from Memphis by car – and much shorter, obviously, by plane. The 48 Hours To Memphis title reflects that Elvis closed out the tour two days later with a concert in Memphis on March 20. An edited version of the Memphis show became the July 1974 album Elvis Recorded Live On Stage In Memphis.

To the point of sounding like a broken record, I’ve noted several times here that I missed out on seeing Elvis perform live due to being only two years old when he passed away. I have intentionally avoided the bootleg versions of concerts like this for years in hopes of someday enjoying official releases. 48 Hours To Memphis will be a very special way to think of what might have been. Thank you, FTD.

You’ll never guess who put this Elvis career retrospective together

/ TY / 6 Comments

With literally thousands of performances from which to choose, it is difficult to distill Elvis’ entire career down into a single disc.

One of Sony’s most recent attempt to do just that was the release Elvis 75, from 2010.

Here’s another list of songs chosen by someone else, many years before the Elvis 75 release:

  • That’s All Right
  • Tryin’ To Get To You
  • I Got A Woman
  • Hound Dog
  • Don’t Be Cruel
  • Love Me
  • Teddy Bear
  • Jailhouse Rock
  • It’s Now Or Never
  • Are You Lonesome Tonight
  • Hawaiian Wedding Song
  • Can’t Help Falling In Love
  • Little Sister
  • What’d I Say
  • How Great Thou Art
  • Johnny B. Goode
  • See See Rider
  • I Really Don’t Want To Know
  • Early Morning Rain
  • You Gave Me A Mountain
  • My Way
  • Fairytale
  • And I Love You So
  • Hurt
  • If You Love Me

Other than one or two out-of-place songs, this is a single-disc retrospective I could get behind. I like the way it incorporates well-known hits with some rarities (to the mainstream, general public, that is).

Take another look at this list. It should be familiar to most of you.

These songs have indeed appeared together on an album. Way back in 1977. It was the first album released after Elvis passed away.

That’s right, you are looking at the songs from Elvis In Concert, which compiled two shows from Elvis’ final tour.

Elvis receives a lot of criticism from fans for his concert set lists, particularly in later years.

Sometimes, looking at something in a different way – or sequence – can shed new light on a subject.

We can debate the quality of his performances, but the songs Elvis selected during those two nights represented a look back at his entire career. Sadly, they also became a final farewell.