A 50th Anniversary Celebration

Released for the 50th Anniversary of the birth of Rock and Roll, will it be of value after the hype of this anniversary is over?

Design

The package looks very attractive, Elvis in his gold lame suit is of course a classic. Most fans know the pose by heart, but it is a very well known picture to the general public too. Combined with all the famous faces on the back this is a package an average person might pick up easily. The disc has a well designed menu, very attractive.

Content

This release is of course a documentary, just like 99 percent of the non official releases. People who worked with him like Sam Philips, George Klein, Dixie Locke, Hal Kanter and Scotty Moore and people who were inspired by him (or inspired Elvis) like Tom Jones, Cliff Richard, Neil Sedaka, Pat Boone (interviewed by Joe Esposito), Joe Cocker, Barry Gibb and a lot of others tell the story of Elvis (which we all know) and share memories.

Between the stories and photos there is some candid footage, some fragmentss we hadn’t seen before, but unfortunately these were only a few snippets. The familiar story is told in a very attractive and entertaining fashion, but since it isn’t new to us, not too interesting to most fans. Fortunately the footage is mainly fifties, but there are a few fragments from the seventies too (wearing a dragon, blue rainbow, black suit with stones and several other suits).

The bonus section contains a long (uncut) interview with Chris Bearde, one of the producers of the Comeback Special. Usually we get Steve Binder, but is is refreshing to hear stories from a different person and point of view.

This is a release from the producers of the 16 hours "Definitive Elvis" documentary set, parts from this release probably come from that release.

Conclusion

An attractive documentary in an attractive package. A good buy for the general public, and a good replacement for fans who have worse documentaries in their collection.