March 11 - Sam Philips Off The Record

The Tennessee Radio Hall of Fame announced that one of the most influential figures in 20th century popular music, Sam Phillips, will be inducted into the hall as part of the Legacy Class of 2023.  

The induction ceremony will be on July 29, 2023 at the Mulehouse in Columbia, TN. 

Publicity stated: Phillips began his RADIO career in Alabama, but later worked for WLAC/Nashville before landing at WREC/Memphis, where he engineered big band remotes from the roof of Memphis’ Peabody Hotel and hosted Songs of the West and the Saturday Afternoon Tea Dance. In 1950, Phillips used his music and engineering background to open a small studio, Memphis Recording Service, which later became Sun Records. At Sun, Phillips discovered some of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, including Elvis Presley, Howlin’ Wolf, Johnny Cash, B.B. King, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Charlie Rich.

In 1955, Phillips became a station owner with WHER/Memphis, the nation’s first “All-Girl” radio station; Phillips’ wife Becky was its lead voice. Even after his success with Sun Records, Phillips maintained a close connection to radio as a multi-station owner.

Razzies for Tom Hanks

Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks received two prizes for his supporting role as Elvis Presley's manager in the biopic 'ELVIS' as the Razzies crowned him for 'Worst Supporting Actor' and 'Worst Screen Combo' awards. 

Off The Record, We're The Greatest

The new Elevated Stage Sound Records import record label announced the release of the 'Off The Record, We're The Greatest' volume 1 and 2 featuring 2 completely unknown Las Vegas shows, the August 28 1972 Dinner Show and the August 29 1972 Evening Show.

Publicity stated: Elvis is bringing the house down, audience singing along and fans get crazy. And best of all, it’s never been available in any form until now!

We will kick-off with these two unreleased shows simultaneously. It’s the start of our series with rare, exceptional or unreleased recordings and it is housed in mini gatefold LP format CD with inner sleeve to distinguish our releases from others with once a while something extra. This will be our house style. So, you know you’ll have the real one.

We cannot release it under our regular label since people might expect the same kind of audio sound which would give a false impression. But we assure you these releases will have the same attention as we normally do.

That’s why we started the brand-new Elevated Stage Sound Records label so anyone can recognize it instantly by its name and our adapted house style the mini gatefold LP CDs

We focus on two-mike-, ambiance-, booth- and audience recorded concerts or shows. The selection criteria for us are, never released before, totally unknown or very good sound, ideally would be all three combined into one release! We have to able to enjoy the recording otherwise it has no use releasing it. Our goal is offering high quality, value for money releases at affordable prices. 

Well, now we introduced ourselves let’s get on with the two shows.

We hope it brings you joy that we bring new material and not neglecting rare and beautiful audience recordings. These often capture the essence of an Elvis Show better than a soundboard or Multi track and might surprise you with crazy and funny facts and impressive performances and more banter. The title for these two CDs are literally taken from an advertisement from the seventies by RCA Magnetic Tape and somehow this suits Elvis in a cheeky way!

At Better Sound Studio they restored the audio, the recording itself was damaged although a good base. The rarity and the high-quality of the performances made us proceed to achieve a good result. For the purists, we did not remove all noise since it would also remove music detail and loses dynamic of the performance. In overall we tried to get the audio balanced, cleaning up where possible, in some cases it was impossible without degrading the audio, so we left it as it is. We raised the spoken parts to hear Elvis talking which was a challenge at some parts, his banter is fun at times and makes the whole show even better. We consider this a better-quality audience recording despite the limitations of the source tape.

Both CDs are presented in a beautiful mini gate-fold LP CD package with inner sleeve and an inside poster. Wrapped in classic Vegas promotion style of 1972. No liner notes since the performances and songs speak for themselves.  We hope you will enjoy it as much as we do.

Volume 1: August 28 1972 Dinner Show in Las Vegas

1.  Opening 2.  See See Rider 3.  Johnny B. Goode 4.  Until It’s Time For You To Go.  5.  You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me 6.  You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling.  7.   Polk Salad Annie 8.  What Now My Love 9. Fever. 10.  Love Me 11.  Blue Suede Shoes 12.  Heartbreak Hotel. 13.  All Shook Up 14.  Love Me Tender. 15.  Hound Dog. 16.  I’ll Remember You (Walk that lonesome road* by JD Sumner) Not recorded* 17.  Suspicious Minds. 18.  Introductions. 19.  For The Good Times. 20.  A Big Hunk O’ Love. 21.  You Gave Me A Mountain. 22.  Mystery Train - Tiger Man. 23.  Can’t Help Falling In Love / Closing Vamp

Volume 2: August 29 1972 Evening Show in Las Vegas

1.  Opening. 2.  See See Rider 3.  Johnny B. Goode 4.  Until It’s Time For You To Go 5.  You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me. 6.  You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling 7.  Polk Salad Annie – Intermezzo.  8.  What Now My Love 9.  Fever. 10. Love Me. 11. Blue Suede Shoes. 12. Heartbreak Hotel 13. All Shook Up. 14. Love Me Tender. 15. Hound Dog. 16. I’ll Remember You. 17. I Walk That Lonesome Road by JD Sumner.  18. Suspicious Minds 19. Band Introductions (introducing Sammy Davis jr.). 20. My Way 21. A Big Hunk O’ Love. 22. You Gave Me A Mountain. 23. Mystery Train - Tiger Man. 24. Can’t Help Falling In Love / Closing Vamp.

Note from the Elvis Information network / FECC: We now find that these tapes have been taken without permission from "ED” from 'The King’s Court'. He writes, "The reason I’m open about my mother recording the Elvis Concerts back in the day is because it’s been over, or just about 50 years since she did it. I figure she’s due the recognition as she never sold, or profited from the tapes in any way since recording them. My intention is to get them out to whoever is interested. Someone took advantage of that and now they are being bootlegged for about $50 US each?

See YouTube here 'Elvis Presley “The Angela Tapes” Concerts':

From the producer of the set: The 'Elevated Stage Sound Records' label has contacted EIN to explain to us that these tapes were "Not taken without permission from Ed Hess" as we previously thought. They explained... 

1. They bought various new unreleased shows from a collector, including these 2 shows. He confirmed that he had owned them for a long time.
2. Because of the On Tour release they wanted to start with these 1972 shows. Unknown and unreleased a good start for a new label.
3. After production had begun they then found the story of Ed Hess on youtube telling the story in response to their announcement. But already being in production what could they do?  
4. They have since been in contact with Ed Hess to try and arrange an appropriate deal.

(Source: Tennessee Radio Hall of Fame / FECC / Elvis Information Network)