January 19 - First In Line

The MxF import-label announced the release of "First In Line" featuring both the Dinner and Midnight show performed Elvis-Presley on February 01, 1974 at the Las Vegas NV, Hilton Hotel. Both the previously unreleased shows are taken directly from a first generation tape according to the press-release.

From the press-release:

After the deserved rest of 5 months, Elvis is back in Las Vegas Hilton. A new contract has been signed by Elvis, he wants to perform twice a year, but only two weeks at a time rather than the previous four. Starting from January 12th Elvis starts the rehearsal of his 10th Las Vegas Season, on Saturday 26th He opened the season dressed in a white jumpsuit in good spirit and in good shape too. The repertoire was reduced compared to the previous season to 15/20 songs with three new additions: "Help Me", "Spanish Eyes" and the popular "Let Me Be There". The choice of songs in the different shows varied little, in particular in the two shows here presented the only variation is the song "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" that replaces the now classic "Let Me Be There" in the Midnight Show.

Speaking about the two unreleased shows, they are very similar, the track list is minimized and the shows are practically identical, but we are talking about of two concerts of very good quality and well performed with the audience very pleased by the shows. Elvis is bringing back the rocker "Polk Salad Annie" and his performing of the classic "Trying To get To You" never sounded better, searching the best song is very hard because all the songs are very well performed, but for sure Elvis’ joy while performing the popular "Let Me Be There" is undeniable, often singing also the reprise.

The sound is very good for ambient recordings, we have on our hands the original mono tapes of extremely good quality enabling us to carry out a simple re-mastering work, concentrating on the reduction of noise, hiss, and clicks, but we always give priority to the integrity of the original recording, trying to achieve a clearer sound in spite of the background noise. The result is a pretty dynamic tape with a great definition of the background music and you definitely can live the atmosphere of an Elvis’ concert in the seventies. This new release will be housed in a deluxe long digipack, containing 8 pages of a foldout booklet that in one side opening gives life to a great poster, while the backside is full of backstage photos of the season with classic memorabilia and newspaper clippings plus a high glossy paper bonus art card of 25x13 cm of size.

To have a special collector’s item, the 400 copies will be presented with four different hand-numbered sleeve variations with additional content and posters. 

CD 1 Las Vegas NV. Hilton Hotel February 01, 1974 DS:
01. 2001 Theme 02. See See Rider 03. I Got A Woman/Amen 04. Love Me 05. Trying To Get To You 06. Sweet Caroline 07. Love Me Tender 08. Rock Medley 09. Fever 10. Polk Salad Annie 11. Killing Me Softly (Voice) 12. Spanish Eyes 13. Why Me Lord? ( Stamps) 14. Suspicious Minds 15. Band Introduction 16. I Can’t Stop Loving You 17. Help Me 18. An American Trilogy 19. Let Me Be There ( with reprise) 20. Can’t Help Falling Love 21. Closing Vamp

CD 2 Las Vegas NV. Hilton Hotel February 01, 1974 MS:
01. 2001 Theme 02. See See Rider 03. I Got A Woman/Amen 04. Love Me 05. Trying To Get To You 06. Sweet Caroline 07. Love Me Tender 08. Rock Medley 09. Fever 10. Polk Salad Annie 11. Intro 12. Killing Me Softly (Voice) 13. Spanish Eyes 14. Why Me Lord? ( Stamps) 15. Suspicious Minds 16. Band Introduction 17. I Can’t Stop Loving You 18. Help Me 19. An American Trilogy 20. The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face 21. Can’t Help Falling Love 22. Closing Vamp

(Source: FECC)