As part of the 75th anniversary Sony announced the release of Elvis Presley's 1970 "On Stage" live album in their RCA/Legacy series. This classic album will be reissued in an expanded format on March 23, 2010. The original album's 10-track playlist will also include three rarely performed songs from the same Las Vegas engagement that produced the album: "Don't Cry Daddy," "Kentucky Rain" and "Long Tall Sally." The double-disc set will also feature audio recordings of an afternoon rehearsal prior to the concert taping.
Elvis Presley - On Stage: Legacy Edition 2CD (RCA/Legacy)
Our 75th birthday celebration continues with this 2CD set celebrating Elvis' platinum-selling 1970 live album On Stage. Home to the hit single "The Wonder of You," On Stage has now been upgraded with new liner notes by Presley biographer Ken Sharp and rare photos from the peak of the artist's latter-day career. The original album's 10-song tracklist is now expanded with three rarely performed songs from the same Las Vegas engagement that produced the album: "Don't Cry Daddy", "Kentucky Rain" and "Long Tall Sally." The disc's final addition is a unique glimpse of Elvis working on his repertoire, as he runs through "The Wonder Of You" at an afternoon rehearsal, only hours before the original album recordings were done later that night.
The second disc in the On Stage: Legacy Edition package is a newly-remastered version of Elvis' first live album, In Person (originally released as one half of the From Memphis To Vegas - From Vegas to Memphis double album in November 1969). Six bonus tracks from the same August 1969 engagement during which the original album was recorded, are included. Like its partner On Stage, the album In Person has also been certified platinum by the RIAA.
This 2-CD set is a potent reminder that Elvis was enjoying one of many career peaks during these engagements in Las Vegas. During the August 1969 shows that yielded In Person, the artist prowled the stage like a panther and shocked audiences with his full-throttle intensity. Conceived similarly to his '68 Comeback Special, these tracks capture Elvis doing what he did best, but now with a full stage band and an hour-long setlist.
By the 1970 gigs that comprise On Stage, the artist now included songs of contemporary writers like John Fogerty ("Proud Mary"), Dion ("Runaway"), Joe South ("Walk a Mile In My Shoes"), Tony Joe White ("Polk Salad Annie") and even The Beatles ("Yesterday"). His choice in covers, alongside his own new material, signalled that Elvis no longer had to rely on his past, and that he was now as much a part of the contempary scene as anybody.
