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Sin City's Hottest Ticket

March 03, 2014 | Music

Coming out soon is the new Straight Arrow's double feature CD release entitled "Sin City's Hottest Ticket!", featuring the August 23, 1973 Dinner and Midnight performances. Both shows are taken from original „booth recordings“, taped by the same person who recorded previous Straight Arrow’s release, „Endless Summer Festival“. The sound quality is far superior to the usual audience recordings.

Following the great success of the ‘Aloha’ special, Elvis was more in demand than ever, and he was truly the hottest ticket in town. Las Vegas hotels at the time routinely booked their shows 20% over room capacity, because they knew that normally many of those who ordered tickets would not turn up for the shows. In Elvis’ case this caused problems, because virtually everybody who ordered tickets DID show up!

In private, Elvis was fighting his personal demons at the time, including a severe Demerol addiction, but on stage he was delivering the goods. Perhaps his delivery was not quite as tight as at earlier Vegas engagements, but he was in good voice and genuinly seemed to enjoy the interaction with the fans. The shows presented here are two solid, engaging performances with plenty of highlights, including a gorgeous ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’ and a rare-for-this-engagement one to last performance of ‘Something’.

It should be noted that neither of these superb-quality, off-line concert recordings have been previously issued. The August 23, 1973 Dinner show is completely new, even to die-hard Elvis fans. This concert was never in circulation, in any form.

Tracklist:

CD1 - Thursday, August 23, 1973 Dinner Show
01. Introduction: Also Sprach Zarathustra - 02. C. C. Rider - 03. I Got A Woman / Amen - 04. Love Me - 05. You Gave Me A Mountain - 06. Blue Suede Shoes - 07. Medley: Long Tall Sally / Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On / Your Mama Don't Dance / Flip Flop And Fly / Jailhouse Rock / Hound Dog - 08. Love Me Tender (with false start) - 09. Fever - 10. How Great Thou Art - 11. Suspicious Minds - 12. Introductions of singers, musicians, orchestra - 13. My Boy - 14. Release Me - 15. Something - 16. An American Trilogy - 17. A Big Hunk O'Love - 18. Can't Help Falling In Love - 19. Closing Vamp / Announcements.

CD2 - Thursday, August 23, 1973 Midnight Show
01. Opening Vamp / C. C. Rider - 02. I Got A Woman / Amen - 03. Love Me - 04. Steamroller Blues - 05. You Gave Me A Mountain - 06. Blue Suede Shoes - 07. Medley: Long Tall Sally / Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On / Your Mama Don't Dance / Flip Flop And Fly / Jailhouse Rock / Hound Dog - 08. Love Me Tender - 09. Fever - 10. What Now My Love - 11. Suspicious Minds - 12. Introductions of singers, musicians, orchestra - 13. The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (with false start) - 14. An American Trilogy - 15. Release Me - 16. Mystery Train / Tiger Man - 17. Can't Help Falling In Love - 18. Closing Vamp.

Source:For CD Collectors Only
Ciscoking wrote on March 03, 2014
And the hottest sound around for such kind of recordings....another must-have without hesitating... The DS was unreleased in any form before....the MS only available on a bad sounding CD-R...
You Dont Know Me wrote on March 03, 2014
Exactly as Ciscoking says and from the 2 sound samples i heard yesterday an ESSENTIAL purchase!~ The M/S is in far, FAR better sound than i had B4 and also better mix of songs in these shows than the day B4
Natha wrote on March 04, 2014
Thanks CiscoKing for your valuable intel. Always a great guideline for a purchase.
Boxcar wrote on March 04, 2014
After all these years these tapes still have perfect quality. The clearness of the sound and the 'showroom' feeling they create is amazing. Great to see that there's a whole bunch of these tapes popping up on Keith Flynn's site. With Audionics's last two releases (Aloha Jerry and Echoes Of Aloha) this adds up to 8 of these great tapes during the last few month. Keep 'em coming. Can't get enough.