Here are some commends by Ernst Jorgensen on the upcoming "Elvis By The Presley's" CD release.
Sony/BMG plans May 3 for the soundtrack to Elvis by the Presleys, a two-hour CBS-TV special on Elvis Presley's life slated to air in May. The TV special will have plenty of Elvis music, but the highlight will be ex-wife Priscilla and daughter Lisa Marie telling their stories throughout the show. The soundtrack CD will consist of one primary 24-track disc with material ranging from the expected ("Heartbreak Hotel," "In the Ghetto") to less-famous ("I'll Hold You in My Heart," "Got a Lot O' Livin' to Do!").
A second bonus disc features eight rarities, some of which were outlined by album co-producer Ernst Mikael Jorgensen:
"It Wouldn't Be the Same Without You" (1954) - "We don't have any unreleased [Sun] demos with Elvis," Jorgensen says, "but we have this one which was only used once. We wanted to show what Elvis sounded like before anybody, even Sam Phillips, knew him."
"Jailhouse Rock" (1957) - "We hear him do the first five takes of 'Jailhouse Rock,' how he builds that song." In Duophonic stereo, with four of the five takes perviously unreleased.
"You'll Be Gone" (1962) - "A song that Elvis wrote with Red West and Charlie Hodge. Their initial idea was to re-do 'Begin the Beguine' with new lyrics, but Cole Porter didn't grant them permission. So the guys decided, 'Let's just change the chords around a bit and create a new song.' The reason we've included it is because it's the last time Elvis ever wrote a song.
"Too Much Monkey Business" (1968) - "We hear him goof around in the studio with Jerry Reed, totally enjoying it, semi-jamming on the song before they get a real take done. It's the same session that produced 'U.S. Male,' and they're running out of repertoire, so they start doing this [Chuck Berry] song. They're just having fun, with Elvis going off, singing small pieces of other songs. Elvis's mannerisms completely take over, because he knows it's not the final take, that they're still 'getting there.' So it's very charming."
"Baby What You Want Me to Do" (1973) - "We've acquired two recordings of Elvis just sitting at the home of friends. He's sitting there in somebody's living room, playing this Jimmy Reed song, with just a guitar."
There's more release news in the pipeline for Elvis fanatics. Jorgensen oversees and produces the Follow That Dream series of special Elvis releases that are sold only through Graceland, the fan club and very selected outlets. The series presents live concerts, studio outtakes and expanded versions of Elvis albums that are deemed too specialty - driven for the normal marketplace - a "legal bootleg series," if you will. The series is up to about 40 titles at this point.
Elvis Lives In His 70th Birthday Year
April 11, 2005 | Music
Danny_b wrote on
April 11, 2005
Sounds very interesting, I am looking forward to the show and buying the CD!
Martin DJ wrote on
April 12, 2005
The "somebody's living room" sounds like Linda Thompson's living room, which means they've probably finally purchased all the songs taped at the time - hopefully sounding better than the previous illicit releases.
jb gude wrote on
April 12, 2005
Well I guess we will have to take the bait again ! I would get this set only for the " Monkey business" session.
I agree with Martin, hopefully all the tracks from Linda Thomson's house have been purchased. I guess we can look forward to these " Unreleased" or "Ultra Rare" songs that were on a Box set or similar. Only thing is will it be a BMG or FTD release? For those who do not know, among some of those tracks we can hope for are " Teardrops" and " Your life has just begun" ....
CD King wrote on
April 13, 2005
I am looking forward to this new double 2 CD-set. The tracks listing are good especially the rare 5 takes of 'Jailhouse Rock.' 'You'll Be Gone' is a superb song. I like that rare alternate take on the BMG Argentina CD ELVIS LATINO 1st edition. Of-course 'Too Much Monkey Business' is a gem.