By a good friend, for a good cause: recently Jordan’s Elvis World decided to release a CD(R), “Doing The Best I Can – From Fans To Fans” to collect $500.00 for the American Red Cross.
Design
Nightrider Design took care of the cover, and most fans know that stands for a quality design. Unfortunately the design doesn’t get exactly what it deserves, because of the poor printing quality. The grain disturbs what could have been a marvelous cover a bit. The idea of putting the disc in a DVD-case is fun, but not very practical, since it doesn’t fit in our CD cabinet this way.
There are no liner notes in the inlay, but only a short article by Bob Nelson explaining the “WOW factor” of Elvis. This remaining of the paper is filled with remarks by fans about the meaning of Elvis to them.
Content
First the content holder… the CD turned out to be a CDR. Even after we got a positive answer on the question if it would be a real CD and not a CDR. Normally we would have returned the disc immediately, but since it is for a good cause we decided to keep and try to get used to the idea of having a CD-R in our collection.
Okay, it’s time for the real content! The disc starts with Paralyzed from the December 1956 “Million Dollar Quartet”-sessions. Always great to hear the fun those icons had, no complaints about this choice. Neither we can have comments on the next three tracks, “I Got A Woman”, “I’m Counting On You” and “Lawdy, Miss Clawdy” show the pure power and diversity of the man in a great way.
Unfortunately the listening pleasure is disturbed by track 4, a home recording of “Send Me Some Lovin’”, which is hardly audible and doesn’t fit in this overall very nice compilation. Gladly “Fame And Fortune” heals the ears quickly, and after that it is big jump to the legendary 1969-sessions. With songs from this sessions one can’t go wrong and both “Rubberneckin’” and “Any Day Now” are good choices. The sixties are closed with a live version from August 1st 1969 of “Baby What You Want Me To Do”.
The seventies are a bit over represented with not less than 15 out of the 25 tracks, but there are some gems among them, like the undubbed version of “Life” and the live version of “Good Times Charlie’s Got the Blues”. The only thing we don’t understand is why the overdubbed version of “Twelfth Of Never” was chosen, since we prefer the original rehearsal version much better.
Conclusion
It is a very nice compilation, roughly disrupted by one track, but bringing nothing new for most (hard core) fans. Since the CDR was taken out of production already, it doesn’t really matter anyway because you probably won’t be able to get it. It surely served its purpose, collecting $500.00 for the Red Cross (and please some fans in the process).
Doing The Best I Can
November 16, 2005 | Music
Jordans-Elvis-World wrote on
November 17, 2005
Without being too candid, the company told me these were real cd's - and I still believe them to be.
carolynlm wrote on
November 17, 2005
I think that your review is a bit harsh... it's a cd of requests made by fans, not the normal run of the mill compilation by BMG or the sometimes inaudible imports that are released. The artwork is by far better than most of the official artwork done by BMG. I say to Jordan... 'bring on volume 2'.
borachiosfish wrote on
November 18, 2005
I bought this CD, for two reasons, Firstly, there are tracks on here that I have not been able to obtain from other sources, without spending a fortune on variuos bootleg CD's. Secondly, it's for charity. As stated elsewhere it is a cd with the fans choices on, so it will never please everyone. I also have to agree with Jordan, this is a properly produced CD. Agreed not of the quality you can buy in the stores, which are mass produced in the thousands, if not millions, but it certainly is not of the poor DVDR quality you can get ripped off with. Overall, it does what it says on the sleeve & it delivers. Thanks, Dave.
Neckywoudje wrote on
November 18, 2005
Since we in Europe use a "," instead of a "." in numbers i'm a but confused...Did this cd raise 5 hundred dollars or 50 thousand dollars?
Jordans-Elvis-World wrote on
November 19, 2005
Hi Necky. Sorry about that. It's five hundred dollars. I wish I could have raised fifty-thousand for the charity.
2kisses&3scarfs wrote on
November 19, 2005
I think this was a great CD, with a nice choice of tracks. I, for one, had never heard the home recording of "Send Me Some Lovin'", so I was pleased to hear it on this promo. I was well satisfied with my purchase, and I helped out a charity besides.
oldie56~2 wrote on
November 19, 2005
This compilation was a success by my vote. Keep up the good work Jordan. Those of us who enjoy the many genre's of Elvis music can enjoy a good mix.
CD King wrote on
November 20, 2005
I've more than 2,000 Elvis Presley CDs in my humble collection. I must say that this Doin The Best I Can is one of the very superb one. Keep up the good work Jordan. You've done a marvelous job in helping Charity and also helping collector fans like me add another great CD to my collection. More please...
Greg Nolan wrote on
November 21, 2005
This is truly one of the great Elvis sets of 2005! It reminds me of the spirit of the "Lengedary Performer" series (RCA & Madison) and could easily be a new volume. They say hard-core fans have all this but even I was surprised by a quite a few numbers. Besides, it's never been assembled like this. Kudos to Jordan for his charity CD!
Greg Nolan wrote on
November 24, 2005
A few footnotes:
(a) Why is the reviewer calling this a CD(R)? It's a real CD and it's not understood why the reviewer feels he has a "CD-(R)".
(b) Why the dismissal of "Send Me Some Lovin'"? Just because it's a rough sounding? It's historical importance is the key - and it's not been officially released yet. These tracks were actually suggested by many fans so this is what the makers ran with.
(c) The inclusion of "The Twelfth of Never" with the fuller remix sound by David Briggs was obviously done on purpose. It all comes down to personal taste. There's no objective reason to include the original. The whole set is a bunch of oddities to begin with -one that makes for a whole new feel when heard at once.
I've always thought the '90s remix of "12th" has an other-worldly sound that the original track lacked because of, well, the poor fidelity. I think it's especially effective coming after his last-ever version of "Can't Help Falling In Love." Get a hold of this disc if you can, folks!
cathyreno wrote on
November 28, 2005
I love to have got it keep up the good work Jordan. you are a gem in the elvis world
jeff wrote on
December 02, 2005
I must complain of your review of this release. It is for me a beautiful release, from the cover, the cd, not cdr!!and the cd contents. The comments are sincere from all fans, and Bob Nelson is right, Elvis is and always be the wow!!! factor,superstar is used so freely these days, Elvis was, is and always will be the worlds greatest superstar, period..wow!! To select a tracklist to please every fan is almost impossible, but there are enough treasures included to please most, and those who cant find any would be better off listening to another artist. The money raised for charity is from the heart, and Jordan, and the fans should be supported and thanked for thinking of those less fortunate. Most import releases are for profit and personal gain, jeff stables, much annoyed..in support of Jordan.