The New Recordings

Please explain!

Voicemasters released years ago several Jim Reeves albums. With overdubbed versions.( and some live , radioshows, session and outtakes cd's) They overdubbed the songs with newly recorded music. Then they overdubbed the (stripped??) vocals with it. You can compaire it a bit with the christmas duet cd. I like the overdubbed songs of Jim Reeves because it sounds fresh and with respect for the original versions.

This is part of the press release : " This is unlike any other CD available! ELVIS: THE NEW RECORDINGS (an import) consists of 26 NEW (2015) overdubs of some of Mr. Presley's best tracks — both well known and obscure. Produced by Larry Jordan of VoiceMasters fame (who has done overdubs on stars ranging from Patsy Cline to Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney and Jim Reeves — the latter of whom had a #1 this past summer in Europe from one of Jordan's overdubs) —the new Elvis offering features stunning sound quality and top musicianship. "The King" may not have invented rock 'n' roll but he was its leading proponent. But he could also sing a quiet, tender love song and do so with great warmth and sensitivity. Unfortunately, on a lot of his masters, his voice is at least partially obscured by overwhelmingly loud (and sometimes off-key) background vocals and/or superfluous instrumentation, that were typical of the era in which he made his records. So VoiceMasters used the tools of the digital age to strip down some of Elvis's tracks to the bare essentials. His voice was remastered to bring out his purity of tone, overly loud vocal backings were subdued or eliminated entirely, and some of the original accompaniment that distracted from his singing was dispensed with. His voice was brought forward so you can hear him more clearly. Then, the producer recruited some world-class musicians — including alumni of the Atlanta jazz scene, current members of the Grand Ole Opry band in Nashville, and others — to help update Elvis's songs with tasteful new backings to showcase him to best advantage. These selections now sound amazingly fresh, beautiful and vibrant — as if Elvis just recorded them today!" . Always El.

Great! How do I go about buying a copy?

I'm satisfied with the original masters & outtakes (on most) that I already have. Thanks, but no thanks.

The CD is due for release on February 26 . Without any doubt it will available on Amazon who also sold other Voicemaster CDs in the past. Always El.

I can understand some of the remarks in the press release. I also like to hear his voice more upfront. Sometimes it just seems that he 'blends in' with the others and that are basically the songs I would like to see upgraded/remixed. Mind you not with the new bombastic computer sounds as that will be the same old story or even worse!

Well Benny's contribution which is usually accurate makes me want to give this one a try.

Not sure at all bout this one. One thing to change the sound on mediocre movie and xmas songs but there are some real classics here which personally I feel should never be altered.

Being also a huge fan of Jim Reeves I bought some VoiceMasters Jim Reeves CDs, in the first place because they had several completely new songs . After Jim's death many demos were found, demos on which his bandmembers of the 'Blue Boys' played basic instruments like bass, drums, piano, guitar... VoiceMasters replaced them (or kept them in some cases) adding more instruments and complete new arrangements and/or backing vocals. Those CDs had also some known Jim Reeves titles but with new backing tracks. I must admit they really sound great. In the first place not at all being a fan of remixes and having to agree with Memphis Fan (the originals will always be my first choice) I think I'll buy this release to be able to compare. This new forthcoming CD has probably nothing to do with remixes but with new backing tracks. Always El.

I've heard samples of some of the tracks and only a few are okay. I'm not against overdubs, but many of those that I heard didn't work. It is definitely intriguing, but not enough for me to buy it.

I love the idea. I kinda wonder, with a song like In My Way, which is nothing but Elvis and one acoustic guitar, what exactly are they going to "strip away". Also, I have to say, Reconsider Baby is pretty much a perfect flawless recording and I do not believe it can be improved.

King Kreole, agreed there's nothing to "strip away", but they can add things. Always El.

Jbert is right ! 13'52" of soundsamples are available. Some OK,others not, of course just my opinion, it's gonna be a matter of personal taste. Don't like 'Love Me Tender' at all, it's now partly a duet with a female singer. Not sure yet if I'll go for this silver disc. Always El.

I'd love to hear these samples--looked all over online, but cannot find them. Benny Scott-are they using the same awful Love Me Tender duet from Viva Elvis maybe? Or the Barbara Streisand recent duet version, possibly? I really hate when they turn Elvis songs into posthumous duets. I'm totally cool with remixes, with new backing music, whatever--but I hate the duets. (Could someone please point me to these samples)

OK, I found the samples. It's A Sin is the 1st sample and it isn't bad. There is a nice string arrangement now and I think it works well. She's Not You, to me, sounds more cluttered and now has a very hokey countrified fiddle going on, turning a beautiful perfect pop ballad into much more of a country song--it is NOT an improvement (I actually hate what they did to this beautiful song. It's a square dance now.) Fame and Fortune has a saxophone throughout...it isn't terribly bad, but it makes the song sound more dated, not updated. It's like Kenny G. is now playing along. I Will Be Home Again is still Elvis drowned out by the harmony--the new backing track is not too intrusively bad, its just there--no better or worse to me. There is a decent guitar playing along now. I Gotta Know, again, has a bunch of added saxophone, making it sound much much more dated--like an oldies cover band at the bar down the street is covering it right before they launch into Yakety Sax and show Benny Hill videos. Can't Help Falling In Love has a lot of added strings, which I actually kinda like. (I was a fan of those new string arrangements on official RCA recordings of Always On My Mind, Separate Ways and The First Noel too.) I can't decide of the string arrangement on this one is a bit too much or not. It might be, but overall, I think this one isn't bad. Love Me Tender starts really nicely, with an acoustic guitar with a nice full stereo sound. This is very quickly ruined by some woman singing half the song. Why people keep trying to turn this into a duet, I really do not know. Too bad. Stuck On You again features more saxophone and has the exact same result as the other heavily saxed songs--it makes it sound older and dated. Speaking of being older and dated, if you remember the TV show Happy Days, this is what Stuck On You would have sounded like if covered by Potsie and Richie Cunningham's band playing at Arnold's--except with Elvis singing. Anything That's Part Of You--ok, this sounds pretty darned good. It sounds like the only addition is a string section. I can honestly say I like the sound of this track from the sample. I like it a lot, in fact. The piano is still clear, but some beautiful strings are now in the mix. Nice. Home Is Where The Heart Is--once again, I will say I liked the sound of this one. Elvis actually does sound clearer and more up front than I had heard previously and the arrangement is pretty and simple. Now this sounds less like a movie song and more like a real serious ballad. Nice again! Soldier Boy---The saxophone is back. It really is just like some guy with a sax is playing along with the record, and it doesn't help. I guess it seems minimal on this sample. Fever...Hmm, seems ok. It is still sparse, as it should be. There are a few more drum fills and I think it used Micheal Buble's version of Fever as a guide. It is ok, it has not been ruined.I kinda like it. Mansion Over The Hilltop is perfectly acceptable. Some steel guitar is added. It feels a bit more like bluegrass. This isn't a song I really play often anyway. What they did with it is fine, I guess. And that ends the samples that are available. So, for me, a VERY mixed bag. Anything That's Part Of You was the standout of the samples for me. The saxophone additions were, in my opinion, horrible and truly made may songs much much worse. (And I do not hate saxophone--I love Boots Randolph's playing on King Of The Whole Wide World and Reconsider Baby and lots of other Elvis songs. But this guy is not as good, and I don't think the sax should be throughout the songs. I'm curious about the songs that were not sampled. It really doesn't sound like the original backing tracks were "stripped away" on anything I heard--It sounds like people playing along with the record. In other words, it doesn't sound as professional as the Guitar Man/Too Much Monkey Business albums, where Elvis really sounds like he is recording with a new group of musicians--this is much more like a few extra musicians playing along with a cd or record.

King Creole, just google 'elvis day by day' and you'll find elv75blogspot. Scroll down 'till you reach the announcement of 'The New Recordings'. At the bottom of the press release click on 'listen to a sample. Always El.

KC, my posting came a few seconds too late . Glad you found what you needed. Always El.

Thanks Benny! Yeah, found it :-)

Am I the only one who finds posts by "snowplow floater" almost totally indecipherable? "I'm sorry but messing with one take king white boy blues as the sun is rising"??? What? I think somewhere in there you are saying you hate any type of remix or update to anything Elvis ever recorded. You hated Guitar Man from 1980, you hated Viva Elvis, I assume you hated the A Little Less Conversation remix and the string overdubs on Always On My Mind and the new arrangement of The First Noel from the otherwise awful Christmas duets cd. I hated most of Viva Elvis, but only because it was done so badly. It should have been the Elvis version of the brilliant Beatles Love album, but clearly a lot more time and effort and care went into creating the Beatles Love cd than the Viva ELvis cd. Overdubbing strings or horns or even voices was something that took place even while Elvis was alive and recording. There is the story of the voices being dubbed onto In The Ghetto, where Elvis didn't like them at first, but they eventually grew on him. There is no other means of having "new" Elvis music at this point. He's been dead for close to 40 years, and it seems like everything RCA had in the vaults is nearly gone. The idea of being able to put Elvis' voice into a new setting, to me, is as good an idea as there can be--if and when it's done correctly. The music we have, we will always have--nothing is ever going to take away the music that already exists. At this point we can either say "that's all she wrote" or add to it with remasters, remixes, re-imaginings etc. One way puts a lid on Elvis and the other tries to go forward. But the music Elvis made while he was alive will always be there.

Huh?

OK. We're in agreement about the perfection that is Reconsider Baby, but I am still curious to see if the screwed it up or somehow were able to add something to it. I don't much like sampling, but if it gets done right, in a new way, I am not closed off to it--Prince has not sampled Elvis, but has a repeated sample referring to Elvis in the song Face Down. I like the 1980 Guitar Man remake for the time--a time when there was a pop-country crossover thing going on in the US. I thought that album had a few cool tracks. This set of songs isn't going to have any hits and isn't likely to be on any radio stations. I think a lot of Elvis' music didn't get the full respect it deserved from RCA back at the time it was recorded and released. With the ballads especially, I am totally into adding a restrained string section to them, the way it was done with the acoustic Beatles track "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". There was a time when Nat King Cole was complaining because he thought his ballads deserved strings, but some higher ups wanted to keep the whole Jazz trio vibe. But he finally won out and his sales skyrocketed when the string arrangements were added, taking him to Sinatra levels. I always thought Elvis' ballads and voice didn't get the respect as those other vocalists, so I am a huge proponent of elevating some of those songs ("Almost" is the one song during his career that got the full orchestra treatment, and it is one of my personal favorites.) His rock and blues songs, the Sun records stuff, all that might be pretty perfect the way it is, but the ballads and a few movie songs could really have a second and better life with some smart remixes and new arrangements.

To be honest, this practice has always been in play. Think 1965 and Tomorrow Night from Elvis For Everyone. Even the piano on Its Now or Never was dubbed in. As long as they keep the vocal in tact without any trickery like I hear on some of the awful remixes, new instrumentation could be interesting.

Great post KingKreole and makes a lot of sense, while Steve's comment on the vocals is right on. I assume KK you meant Almost In Love and not Almost.

Gorse, no I meant Almost. I love the song Almost In Love as well---it is as close as Elvis got to recording a true bossa nova, along the lines of How Insensitive or Dindi or a few other beautiful songs associated with Astrid Gilberto and Carlos Jobim (Sinatra did 2 albums of Jobim material. Almost In Love fits in perfectly). But I was talking about Almost, which starts with just piano and then features a whole orchestra. Honestly, I kind of misspoke, because there are indeed other Elvis songs with big arrangements like that, just not very many. Almost In Love does have some strings, and later This Is Our Dance does too (not many folks like that song). But I would love to hear the kind of arrangements Nelson Riddle was doing for Sinatra on a few Elvis tracks. (I know Elvis is the king of rock and roll, and I am not trying to turn him into Mr Easy Listening--but the fact is he did a lot of beautiful ballads and I think some of them deserve more attention and would benefit from better arrangements) I once, mostly unsuccessfully, took the vocal from "I Need Somebody To Lean On" and tried to put it over the music only from Sinatra's "I'm Drinking Again" and, if I were actually better at knowing what the hell I was doing, it would have worked perfectly. Both songs have the same late-night in a bar, lonely feeling to them. But this has always been a fantasy of mine. Elvis is my favorite singer by a long way, but I love Dean Martin and Bobby Darin and Sinatra and Nat Cole and Julie London....and I have always wished for an Elvis album with songs like City By Night and Almost and those sorts of dramatic after-hours in bar, lonely songs. I'm not sure there are quite enough songs in Elvis' catalog that would fit.... I could probably come up with a list (City By Night, Almost, I Need Somebody To Lean On, Pieces Of My Life....possibly Blue Moon and Harbor Lights) but you couldn't just throw those songs into a compilation. To do it right, to make it really cohesive, you'd do new arrangements. I wish I was in a position such as this Larry Jordan guy apparently is. Basically what I am talking about is an Elvis concept album. Guitar Man in 1980 was basically the same thing, the "concept" being a modern country album back then. My idea is simply to shine a light, a new light, on some of Elvis most obscure lonely ballads--Like Frank Sinatra's album in the 60s called Only The Lonely (no relation to the Orbison song). ....my little fantasy project :-)

Thank you "benny scott" for the information on finding the samples. I just listened and I'll pass on this CD. I like the original Elvis versions. In my opinion, don't tamper with Perfection!!