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Easter Special

April 19, 2001 | Music
As usual the design is not too spectacular. Well-known pictures of Elvis in a somewhat dull setting are covering this special FTD-release. Most remarkable is that BMG decided to turn Elvis around on the front cover, compared to versions that were seen on the Internet earlier. At least the take info and recording dates are all included.

The first thing that catches the ear when playing this CD is the sound. It is by far not the level we are used to lately. Elsewhere we saw the adjective "disastrous" being used, we think it is a little strong, but certainly it isn't really good. A lot of background noise can be heard and it is a bit loud. Anyway, any decent equipment can recover a lot of that, and knowing Elvis' gospels are among his better work, were he really gave it all, we could say beforehand that this CD will give not much surprise, but will be very good to listen to. And it turns out that way indeed.

Not too many tracks were bootlegged before, relying on the take info we can only find 5 of them on one of the "Stand By Me"-volumes. On the other hand the difference isn't very big between different takes, because Elvis took the music so seriously. For many the take of "Saved" will be one of the highlights, at least it is for us. The in between chat is more fun (longer) on the second part (70's) of the CD.

As expected there can't be said too much about this CD. When you are in to Elvis' gospel music you'll love it. We think it is certainly one of the better releases in the series regarding content so far. You can play it any time, no matter who is around.

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pasa-ryu wrote on May 27, 2004
i got this from "essential elvis" in 2002 and i was very surprised at how good this cd really was! its so enjoyable and uplifting and elvis sings his heart out(with real conviction)and the quality is excellant too. i always play this cd when i'm feeling down as it always makes me feel happier,elvis had such a gift for singing gospel its unbelievable how close to god he seems when singing it./the best tracks are:7,8,10,11,13,17 and 17...track 16 got to be the best song on the entire cd. it blows you away. elvis seems so relaxed and happy and its good to hear such a good quality outtake of this excellant song(its quite funny too)..all in all,a cd you must have and enjoy for the rest of your life..10/10./p.s. it's a pity they aint bothered to release more great cd's like this one!-maybe they will oneday?