FTD added another ‘classic’ (cough, snort) album to their 7” series: the fourth in the Gold(en) Records series.
Design
We know the drill by now. Nice collection of images, covers and other memorabilia. Add some background info and you’ll have another neat presentation of a ‘classic’ album.
Content
The original was already pretty unbelievable at the time. RCA was hardly able to get enough tracks together to fill the album (don’t even ask if they went really gold). The bonus songs FTD added are questionable too in that respect. Not that there is anything wrong with the result. It may not be Elvis’ strongest songs, but I am afraid this is “the most played FTD in its first week” of the last decade. Maybe I am exaggerating a bit, but it comes close. Nice up-tempo songs like Witchcraft, Please Don’t Drag that String Around, Devil in Disguise (a real hit!) and A Mess of Blues coupled to beautiful ballads like Love Letters and It Hurts Me (in my opinion one of his best ballads EVER) and about the same goes for the bonus songs.
As extra bite FTD added unreleased (officially) outtakes. Nice to have, but not spectacular, or it must be the breaking up of A Mess of Blues. And hey, where are Kiss Me Quick, Suspicion and Gonna Get Back Home Somehow coming from? Oh, well, they had some space left…
Disc 2 is a trick FTD did before: add the original mono album on one CD! Ridiculous! They should have at least taken the time to add mono versions of the bonus tracks too.
Conclusion
If you hear a loud “DOINK”, it’s FTD hitting the bottom of the barrel they’re scraping. Just to keep the collection complete, but a completely unnecessary release in itself, these not so Gold Records Volume 4.