Review The Follow That Dream Sessions (Updated and Corrected)

Hot on the heels of their ‘King Creole’ LP, the Miracle Surface import label has released another alternate take soundtrack set, ‘Follow That Dream - The Complete Sessions’. More importantly, the label claims this CD contains the Master Takes in real stereo. Until now, the stereo versions of these Masters were thought to be lost, Ernst Jorgensen only recovered the empty tape-box.

 
Are we in for a unique listening experience, or is it too good to be true (stereo)?

Note: thanks to knowledgable fans the truth behind these recordings was discovered, the original review has been corrected. 

Design

The design of this golden CD is appealing, thanks to the classic look and typography on the front and the film-reel design on the back. 

The 8-page booklet is filled with illustrations and liner notes detailing the movie and the songs from the soundtrack. However, next to the very small font size, one thing is missing: the details of the DAT tape the label found and used for this album. 

Content
 
The main reason to buy this CD should be the "Real Stereo" versions of the Master recordings, which are supposed to make their debut here. We already had the Outtakes in Stereo, but unfortunately, these mixes are not the missing Stereo Masters. Sorry for the spoiler.
 
Listening to the CD, which presents the songs as a session, complete with chatter and count-ins, we immediately hear that the material comes from various sources. There’s simply too much variation in audio quality between the various takes and songs. The audio presentation isn’t consistent either, you can hear that it has been "reworked". Here are some examples to illustrate this:
 
On ‘Follow That Dream’, the piano moves from the left in the Outtakes to the center in the Master. In the Extended Version of the song, which is included as a bonus, the backing vocals shift to the left. On ‘I'm Not the Marrying Kind’, you can hear digital artifacts or an echo on Elvis' voice, something that can happen when using Digitally Extracted Stereo technology (DES). Just like in the title song, the piano moves from the left to the center in the Master after the Alternate takes.

From the ‘Angel’ session, Take 3 seems to be missing, but that’s not an error here; it simply wasn’t announced during the original recording session. However, some songs do contain errors, such as brief skips. For example, listen to take 3 of ‘Follow That Dream’ or take 6 of ‘What a Wonderful Life’.

The sound of the Alternate and Master Takes differs too much for them to come from the same tape. It’s possible that the DAT tape the producers found contained only the Outtakes, and they added the Masters to create a complete session. However, the information provided doesn’t clarify this. 

Apparently the announcement of Take 7 before 'What A Wonderful Life' comes from a wave-source but the rest of what is listed as being Take 7 is from an MP3-source. 

Audio-enthusiast checked out the CD using spectral analysis tools. These tools show a waveform by its frequency components, where the x‑axis (horizontal ruler) measures time and the y‑axis (vertical ruler) measures frequency. This view lets you analyze audio data to see which frequencies are most prevalent. Brighter colors represent greater amplitude components.

The conclusion was that all of the take announcements before the Masters are fake, along with the false starts of 'I'm Not The Marrying Kind' and 'Sound Advice' before the Masters. The graphs show where the tracks changed from wave to MP3, proving the tape was put together and the content was altered. Info thanks to user Skabillyrebels on the >>> Phoenix Elvis forum.

What's worse is that the Take 7 on this CD is actually the repaired Take 6 from the 2004 Extended Soundtrack release of this soundtrack on the Follow That Dream label. They play perfectly together, in time, same speed, exact match, words, phrasing and everything. So all in all, a completely fake release!

It is also possible that the producers used the recently created Stereo Masters by the Memphis Recording Service ‘Follow That Dream’ CD / vinyl EP (2024) for this release, as we hear a knocking sound in the intro that only appears there. 

 
Conclusion
 
So yes, the publicity was too good to be “Real Stereo”, unfortunately. And although is looks good and actually sounds OK, this is one CD to avoid, you'd better stick to the previous bootleg and Follow That Dream releases of this material.

Thanks to Rogier van Luyken for the input and investigative work for this review. For detailed and correct track information please visit Keith Flynn's >>> Elvis Presley pages.

The CD can be ordered by mail from the >>> Miracle Surface.