Tuesday, February 16, 2016

February 16 - Elvis Golden Records Reach Austin City Limits

Memphis Recording Service released their first release in 4 years entitled "Elvis Live In The 50's - The Complete Concert Recordings". 

This box set is the ultimate tribute to Elvis Presley documenting his shows from the 1950's. The 3 CD's represent for the first time ever, the release of the complete collection of archival live concert recordings (including rare interviews and the recently discovered new material) by Elvis Presley in the 1950's.

All of the 82 tracks included have been painstakingly remastered and restored. Fans who enjoyed previous mastered works of the MRS team such as "Such a Night in Pearl Harbor", "The Complete Hayride Archives" and Boxcar's remastered works of the Orlando February 1977 concert, are in for a treat. Our restoration techniques have now been applied to the Tupelo shows as well as the Eagles Hall, Frontier and Robinson Auditorium shows. Combined with further works on the Hayride and others shows, the quality of these recordings is now far superior to ever before.


The 172 page book is a chronological photo journey following Elvis from the very first to the very last shows performed in the 1950's. It contains linear notes that includes every show listing (now updated) and is accompanied by hundreds of photographs many of which are rare and unpublished.

You can pre-order the CD at the >>> Memphis Recording Service website


No Grammy For Elvis

The "My Happiness" re-issue by Nathanio Strimpopulos from the Third Man Records label did not win Grammy for "Best Recording Package". It was won by Sarah Dodds, Shauna Dodds & Dick Reeves, Asleep at the Wheel, Still the King: Celebrating the Music of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys.

Elvis Reaches Austin City Limits

The E.P. Collector import-label announced the release of "Elvis Reaches Austin City Limits" containing an audience-recording of the March 28, 1977 show.

From the press-release:

Expected soon is our new CD titled ”Elvis Reaches Austin City Limits” (label E.P. Collector, catalogue number EPC 2016-05), recorded live from the audience in Austin, TX, March 28th, 1977. The 2nd tour of 1977 was cut short due to illness, but some of the concerts were surprisingly good, especially the Abilene show on March 27th. In Austin, Elvis performs another solid and entertaining show. 

Note: David Briggs was replaced by Bobby Ogdin on electric piano and clavinet. Among the concert highlights are ”You Gave Me A Mountain“, ”Little Sister”, ”Help Me”, “Fever“ and ”Hurt”. Special moment: it was the very last time that Elvis performed “Steamroller Blues” – a really cool performance! 


The March 28th, 1977 Austin, TX show was previously released 14 years ago by the “Crown” label (a poor sounding CD called “Elvis Slips Into Austin”). Fortunately, the E.P. Collector producers were able to locate the very good sounding original audience recorded master cassette, taped with a recorder equipped with two microphones. The result is a rich and ambient sound - ask for samples! The CD is packaged in a nicely designed digipak filled with a positive concert review from the local press and a collection of cool images taken on March 28, 1977 in Austin, TX. Running time: 62:13 


Tracks: 

01. Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001 Theme) - 02. C. C. Rider - 03. medley: I Got A Woman / Amen - 04. Love Me - 05. If You Love Me (Let Me Know) - 06. You Gave Me A Mountain - 07. Jailhouse Rock - 08. medley: O Sole Mio (Sherrill Nielsen) / It's Now Or Never - 09. Little Sister - 10. medley: Teddy Bear / Don’t Be Cruel - 11. That's All Right (with false start and break) - 12. Steamroller Blues (performed for last time) - 13. Help Me - 14. Fever - 15. Band Introductions - 16. Early Mornin' Rain - 17. What'd I Say - 18. Johnny B. Goode - 19. Drum Solo (Ronnie Tutt) - 20. Bass Solo (Blues - Jerry Scheff) - 21. Piano Solo (Tony Brown) - 22. Electric Piano Solo (Bobby Ogdin) - 23. School Day - 24. Hurt - 25. Hound Dog - 26. Can't Help Falling In Love - 27. Closing Vamp / Announcements. 

Elvis' Golden Records 


Due for release on March 11, 2016 on the Vinyl Lovers label is the LP "Elvis' Golden Records". It comes on 180 Gr. vinyl with two additional bonus-tracks. 

Hound Dog - Loving You - All Shook Up - Heartbreak Hotel - Jailhouse Rock - Love Me - Too Much - Don’t Be Cruel - That’s When Your Heartaches Begin - Teddy Bear - Love Me Tender -Treat Me Nice - Any Way You Want Me - I Want You, I Need You, I Love You - 2x.

Most Successful Musicians Of All Time



With awards season in full swing, and the GRAMMYs taking place on Monday evening, we started wondering about just who are the most successful musicians of all time in terms of diamond, gold and platinum discs. The infographic below uses stats from The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) to determine which artist is the most successful and what the value of their discs would equate to if they were made purely from gold and platinum.


After delving deep, we found that by these standards Elvis Presley is the most successful musician of all time, with his total number of gold and platinum discs equating to a value of $777,605. In total, the artists featured below have been awarded 511 Gold, 383 Platinum and 222 Multi-Platinum albums weighing approximately 120 grams each, which would equate to a staggering $5,300,598 if they were made purely from those materials. We also wondered if there was a correlation between the number of these discs and the number of GRAMMY awards the artist has won – with some very interesting results! Take a look at our infographic below to find out more.

Additional from FECC Forum:

It only includes regular albums, double albums and boxes, leaving out extended plays and singles. GoldBullion has Elvis with a total of 3 Grammys and 167 RIAA awards, but that is wrong on two counts, first because his awards for SHORT FORM albums were not included. So we add those to the 167 and we have 195. Second, we need to add the 54 Gold, 27 Platinum and 7 Multiplatinum awards received for his standard and digital singles. And that comes to a total of 283. So Elvis real total RIAA tallies total is 283 awards and that doesnt include his videos.

(Source: FECC / Elvis Aktuell / Amazon / Grammy / Billion Vault for the infographic)