July 23rd: "Early Elvis" UK RCA 2-CD Set



>> 2007 UK 25-track digitally remastered [from the original RCA master tapes] 2-CD album set featuring all of the greatest material from the early years of Elvis Presley's career, including 'Blue Suede Shoes', 'Don't Be Cruel', 'Hound Dog', 'Heartbreak Hotel', 'Lawdy, Miss Clawdy', 'Love Me Tender', 'Jailhouse Rock' and more... <<

CD1:
1. Blue Suede Shoes
2. Tutti Frutti
3. Don't Be Cruel
4. Hound Dog
5. Anyway You Want Me
6. I Want You, I Need You, I Love You
7. My Baby Left Me
8. Heartbreak Hotel
9. I Was The One
10. Trying To Get To You
11. Lawdy, Miss Clawdy
12. Shake, Rattle & Roll

CD2:
1. Love Me Tender
2. One Sided Love Affair
3. Money Honey
4. Love Me
5. Rip It Up
6. Paralyzed
7. So Glad You're Mine
8. Teddy Bear
9. Loving You
10. King Creole
11. As Long As I Have You
12. Jailhouse Rock
13. Treat Me Nice

Amazon USA:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000RG174U/?tag=imwan-20

Amazon UK:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000RG174U/?tag=imwan-21

Please please please don't make me buy another Elvis comp! I got box sets and collections up the wazoo! (Not a pretty picture, I know.)

There are too many of these. There are already better than a dozen "remastered" Elvis compilations out there, maybe more than that! I have the complete 50s masters, "Platinum, a life in music", and countless other things which I will never listen to because I have those two. Except Reconsider Baby, because the title track is one of the best blues songs ever recorded.

I have plenty of Elvis CD's too, including somethng like eight boxed sets, but haven't purchased any new Elvis product in quite awhile, for no better reason than there really hasn't been anything new released. The most recent release I have is the "Close Up" box set that came out in 2003. I suppose if I had the time and the $$$ I could start to get into those FTD releases, but I have neither, so...

Is it me, or did these Elvis compilations start to get more and more redundant after Lisa Marie sold off her father's estate?

Okay - I agree - Elvis lit the spark. I have these on 45's - vinyl LPs (single albums and comps) - CD remastered versions of the LPs - CD comp after comp after comp. Even ALL of the movie soundtrack CD's.

I stopped trying to cover EVERYTHING Elvis when the imported fan club only CD's came out. I feel I have everything I need - unless a more complete SUN sessions comes out (I am sure they will discover more.


I think I have ELVIS OD'd

BTW, are the Las Vegas box and the two boxes of outtakes, etc from RCA/BMG getting tough to get or are there still plenty around to be purchased? I'm not saying I could get any of these super soon because I'm getting buried under a ton of other things I need to buy. But I'd like to keep it in the back of my mind.

I think the brick-and-mortar stores are offering progressively less and less shelf space to boxed sets (at least the ones around here). I was looking for the Monkees "Music Box" set a few months back and it was nowhere to be seen, but apparently still in print. DVD packages, especially "complete season boxes", seem to be pushing aside the slightly pricier older sets, especially in stores where said pricier items are traditionally kept under lock and key. I know the CD versions of the Gold and Silver Elvis boxes are both out of print and hard to find, but I don't know if "Platinum", "Today, Tomorrow & Forever", and "Close Up" fall into that category--yet. I never picked up the Las Vegas box--I find Elvis's 70's studio work much more fascinating than his live stuff--but if I thought it (or that 3-CD "That's The Way It Is" set) was going out of print, I'd pick it up tomorrow.

August 13th: "The King" Australian RCA/Sony BMG 2-CD Set



>> 2007 Australian issue 52-track 2-CD album set, a superb collection from The King of Rock 'n' Roll himself, offering a career overview including the classics 'Blue Suede Shoes', 'Jailhouse Rock', 'Suspicious Minds', 'A Little Less Conversation' and many more, with many recordings offering newly remastered sound plus 2 exclusive bonus tracks: 'Welcome To My World' and 'If I Can Dream'! <<

CD 1
1. Suspicious Minds
2. Blue Suede Shoes (New Sound Remastered)
3. Jailhouse Rock
4. Love Me Tender
5. Don't Be Cruel
6. King Creole (New Sound Remastered)
7. Hard Headed Woman
8. All Shook Up
9. Hound Dog
10. Too Much
11. Heartbreak Hotel
12. (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear
13. (Let's Have A) Party
14. That's All Right (New Sound Remastered)
15. One Night
16. (Now And Then There's) A Fool Such As I
17. A Big Hunk O' Love
18. Wear My Ring Around Your Neck (New Sound Remastered)
19. Crying In The Chapel
20. Stuck On You
21. Wooden Heart
22. Viva Las Vegas (New Sound Remastered)
23. (You're The) Devil In Disguise
24. Guitar Man
25. A Little Less Conversation (Jxl Radio Edit Remix)
26. Welcome To My World - bonus track

CD 2
1. In The Ghetto
2. Burning Love
3. Always On My Mind (New Sound Remastered)
4. The Wonder Of You
5. I Just Can't Help Believin'
6. There Goes My Everything
7. You Don't Have To Say You Love Me (New Sound Remastered)
8. An American Trilogy (New Sound Remastered)
9. Are You Lonesome Tonight? (Laughing)
10. My Boy
11. Green, Green Grass Of Home
12. Can't Help Falling In Love
13. Rock-a-hula Baby (New Sound Remastered)
14. Return To Sender
15. Don't
16. (marie's The Name) His Latest Flame
17. Good Luck Charm
18. Surrender
19. She's Not You (Remastered)
20. A Mess Of Blues (New Sound Remastered)
21. It's Now Or Never
22. Fever (Essential Elvis Version)
23. Moody Blue (New Sound Remastered)
24. Way Down
25. My Way
26. If I Can Dream (2004 Sony Remaster) - bonus track

Amazon USA:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000S20HD0/?tag=imwan-20

Amazon UK:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000S20HD0/?tag=imwan-21

Yawn... for completists only...

At least that Australian one is packed...that first one up there only has like 25 songs spread across 2 CDs?! What gives with that?

It is such a pet peeve of mine when they do multi-disc collections that could have fit on half as many discs. You especially see this a lot on budget releases. What a waste.

As for all the Elvis compilations, I'm just thankful that I'm a fan and not a true collector.

You know what? RCA actually got it right in the mid-90's thru the early 00's (before the Sony whores threw marketing muscle back into his catalogue).

The 3 (and a half) decades boxed sets were well done, and the subsequent rarities boxed sets (Today, Tomorrow, & Forever, Platinum, Close Up, etc...) were perfect complements.

The re-thinking of the Memphis years (Suspicious Minds) and the '68 comeback (Memories, Tiger Man) were winners too. And the Essential Elvis series was killer as well.

After Elv1s 1's and 2nd To None, they've gone back to the early CD-era whore days, which RCA sought to rectify with Ernst Jorgenson and Roger Semon taking control of the catalog beginning with the decades sets.

What I'd like to see is them re-releasing the boxed sets with improved DSD-transferred masters. But they'll never do that when they can just throw some on a new comp and watch the completists grab them. Not me.

Colonel Tom would be happy if he were around...