May 14 - The Airplanes and The King

Carlos Varrenti published the third, updated English edition of his book 'Elvis Presley: The Airplanes & The King'.

The 1st edition was in Spanish (200 pages) and the revised and expanded 2nd edition (400+ pages), in English. However, the book was not widely available. The 3rd edition (285 pages) focuses on the content and features new information, but also has information from the second edition removed to make the book affordable for more fans. 

This 285-page paperback edition is available through Amazon. 

Description: As an aeronautical engineer and lifelong Elvis Presley fan, I have always been fascinated by the King's connection to aviation. Since my first visit to Graceland in 2001, I have been compiling every detail I could find about Elvis and his planes - every short paragraph in a book, every video, every photograph, and every bit of information. Now, I am thrilled to share this wealth of knowledge and unique Elvis stories in the third edition of 'The Airplanes & the King'.

This book provides a detailed account of Elvis's aviation history, featuring photos and stories from 1955 through 1977. It offers a fascinating look at Elvis's life on tour from an original and compelling perspective. The book includes archival material, personal stories, and stunning imagery that will captivate aviation enthusiasts and Elvis fans alike. Whether you are a die-hard fan or simply curious about the King's connection to the skies, 'The Airplanes & the King' is a must-read for anyone interested in the intersection of aviation and popular culture.

I'm proud to add that I wrote the foreword for this new edition of this book. I can recommend it, in the reviews of the previous editions of this book you can read why.   

Review: "Los Aviones Y el Rey" (released July 2021)

Review: "The Airplanes and the King" (released August 2022).

Elvis’ Women On Amazon Prime

Elvis Presley’s relationship with the women closest to him is to be revealed in an Amazon Prime Video documentary series.

Premiering this week, Elvis’ Women aims to “uncover a man who was much more complex than the public perception of the titular American icon,” according to the show’s synopsis.

Elvis’ Women goes offstage to reveal more about the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll through the eyes of the women whose love for the man endures: his nurse, his fiancé, his live-in girlfriends, his many dalliances and fans.

Episode one sees his rise to fame in the 1950s recounted by the various women he dated at the time while revealing a mama’s boy who never recovered from his mother’s sudden death, while the second instalment follows the ups-and-downs of his relationship with Priscilla Beaulieu and Ann-Margret. Episode three charts his post-Priscilla search for true love in the 1970s, towards the end of his life.

Update June 2023: 

In case you missed it, Elvis’ stepbrother David Stanley alleged in the new documentary Elvis’ Women that the late legend died by suicide rather than a shocking cardiac arrest, saying, “He premeditated taking the medications that killed him. Love, hurt, pain, exposure - he just couldn’t take it anymore.”

However, Elvis’ former fiancée Ginger Alden is slamming Stanley’s claim that Elvis died by suicide to avoid his inappropriate relationships from coming to light.

“Unfortunately, Elvis’ step-brothers have changed stories and even fabricated some tales I know to be false over the years,” she said. “One brother [of the three] later created a complete garbage story about suicide years back and it looks like he resurfaced with it again.”

So since the documentary came out, Stanley has apologized for those comments.

He wrote to Instagram (and subsequently removed the comment section), “I am sorry for the derogatory comments I made in a documentary about Elvis that was filmed last year. There is no excuse for my comments and I can fully understand why you would be angered.”

He added, “I love and will always love Elvis and being part of his family. He is more than worthy of the love you have for him. He loved you. I love you, and all I can ask of you is for you to forgive me for my irresponsible actions.”

(Source: Carlos Varrenti / IMDB / Deadline)

May 14 - Vinyl for Everybody

Due for release from the Not Now recordlabel are re-issues of Elvis' original albums 'Something for Everybody' (on pink colored vinyl) and the 'Girls! Girls! Girls!' Soundtrack (on blue colored vinyl).

Publicity stated: Set in Hawaii, Presley’s eleventh film Girls! Girls! Girls! featured the usual combination of exotic locations, plenty of songs and Elvis in fightin’ mood. Released in 1962, it features the notable Return To Sender, Earth Boy, Because of Love and the title track Girls! Girls! Girls! which was originally penned by Leiber & Stoller for The Coasters in 1961. Side One includes Where Do You Come From, which was not in the film but is included on the soundtrack album. In 1993, the U.S. Mail issued its Elvis Stamp and noticed that there was an increase in the number of letters it was obliged to return… zealous fans of the ‘King’ had marked the correspondence ‘Return to sender – address unknown’.

Tracks 'Girls! Girls! Girls!': Girls! Girls! Girls / I Don’t Wanna Be Tied / Where Do You Come From / I Don’t Want To / We’ll Be Together / A Boy Like Me, A Girl Like You / Earth Boy / Return To Sender / Because Of Love / Thanks To The Rolling Sea / Song Of The Shrimp / The Walls Have Ears / We’re Coming In Loaded.  

With the release of the Gospel album, His Hand In Mine during December 1960, Something For Everybody was the first non-religious Presley album to be released since Elvis Is Back! and the contrast couldn’t have been greater. None of the songs had ever been previously released in any form and were divided equally into ‘the ballad side’ and ‘the rhythm side’. With all of the tracks recorded at RCA Studios, Nashville, in March 1961, except for I Slipped, I Stumbled, I fell, which was recorded at 20th Century Fox Studios in Hollywood six months earlier in October 1960.

Tracks 'Elvis for Everyone': There’s Always Me / Give Me The Right / It’s A Sin / Sentimental Me / Starting Today / Gently /I’m Comin’ Home / In Your Arms / Put The Blame On Me / Judy / I Want You With Me / I Slipped, I Stumbled, I Fell. 

(Source: Pascal Matteo / Not Now Music)

May 13 - Charts May 2023 - Week 2 (Updated)

The weekly global Elvis Presley chart update. In the United Kingdom Elvis' chart presence is declining with 'ELV1S 30 #1 Hits' and 'Las Vegas Summer Festival 1972' dropping off the charts. The latter album dropped off the Irish and Scottish charts too.

In the United States the 'ELV1S 30 #1 Hits' compilation made a re-entry on the main Billboard Top 200 chart after dropping off that chart just last week. 

The 'Burning Love' LP dropped off the chart after entering it last week.

U.S. Billboard charts:

• Billboard Top 200 Album chart: 'ELV1S 30 #1 Hits' makes a re-entry at #172.
• Billboard Soundtrack Album chart: 'ELVIS' Soundtrack' climbed from #21 to #20. 
• Billboard Top Country Album chart: 'ELV1S 30 #1 Hits' climbed from #26 to #25.
• Billboard Top Rock and Alternative Albums chart: 'ELV1S 30 #1 Hits' makes a re-entry at #35.

Official U.K. charts:

• Official Album chart: 'ELV1S 30 #1 Hits' climbed from #42 to #34. 
• Official Streaming Album chart: 'ELV1S 30 #1 Hits' dropped from #30 to #31. 
• Official Soundtrack Album chart: 'ELVIS' Soundtrack dropped from #23 to #30. 
• Official Country Compilations chart: 'From Elvis in Nashville' dropped from #11 to #12.
• Official Film chart: 'ELVIS' dropped from #10 to #14. 
• Official Video Chart Top 100: 'ELVIS' dropped from #5 to #6. 
• Official DVD chart: 'ELVIS' remained steady at #5.  
• Official Blu-ray chart: 'ELVIS' dropped from #14 to #18. 
• Official Films On Disc chart: 'ELVIS' remained steady at #5.  
• Official Music DVD chart: 'Elvis The Searcher' remained steady at #25.  

Irish IRMA charts:

• Official Irish Album chart: 'ELV1S 30#1 Hits' dropped from #64 to #77.
• Official Irish Video chart: 'ELVIS' dropped from #5 to #8. 

(Source: Official Chart Company / UK Mix Forum / Billboard / IRMA)

May 13 - Really Blue Hawaii

Due for release from the Memphis Mansion recordlabel on 180 Gr. blue colored vinyl is a remastered re-issue of the 'Blue Hawaii'. The album is limited to 300 copies. 

The audio for the 15 tracks was reworked by Anthony Stuchbury. He stated: this mix, never heard before, has been created using the same skills developed to realize the ‘Mono II Stereo’ releases. Isolation of particular instruments enabled new stereo placements to be made to create this brand new mix.

The original RCA movie soundtrack included versions (takes) of some songs that were not the ones used in the actual movie, those versions have now been used to better illustrate the original movie soundtrack experience, along with a couple of surprises that will only be revealed when listening to the album.

A note for the collectors: When first released by RCA the backing vocals were placed to the left as opposed to them being in their correct position on the right, that was a confirmed mistake and is now corrected.

Tracks: Blue Hawaii / Almost Always True / Aloha Oe / No More / Can’t Help Falling In Love (Movie Version) / Rock A Hula Baby / Moonlight Swim / Ku-u-i-Po (Movie Version) / Ito Eats / Slicin’ Sand / Hawaiian Sunset / Stepping Out Of Line / Beach Boy Blues (Movie Version) / Island Of Love / Hawaiian Wedding Song.

Single Re-Issues

The French LMLR / V.P.I. record label released colored vinyl re-issues of the 7-inch singles ‘Any Way You Want Me’ (South Africa) and ‘Kid Galahad’ (Peru). All singles are limited to a one-time-run of 200 copies.

‘Any Way You Want Me’ will be available on off white, silver, red and black colored vinyl. ‘Kid Galahad’ comes on clear, red, off-white, gold and blue colored vinyl.

(Source: Anthony Stuchbury / Sounds)

Review Come What May

What if … Elvis had released more contemporary albums during the mid-sixties, showing he took his recording career seriously? Unfortunately he didn’t, with the exception of his award winning gospel albums. The REEL-Trax import label stepped in, and filled a void in the Elvis catalog with this compilation. Let’s pretend we’re listening to an original album.  

Design

The design of this set is top notch, with a smashing picture from ‘Spinout’ in great quality. It can compete with some of Jimmy Carpenter’s Follow That Dream LP designs e.g. the ‘Roustabout’ and ‘Spinout’ albums. And look at that hair! But he gets away with it, even sixty years later. The booklet mentions a vinyl release of this set, I’m sure this cover will look even better on a 12-inch sized LP. 

Inside the six-panel digipack, the liner notes detail the “what if RCA had released a contemporary album in between all the soundtrack albums” theory, giving this album a theme. Added to that are the covers of several hits and advertisements.

Content

The double set contains a selection of Alternate Takes. On the first disc we get 27 tracks, presented as an album. On the second disc 21 songs by our man, presented with some studio banter. Added to that are 4 demo’s, sung by Red West. 

The latter learns us two things, firstly that Elvis follows the lead-vocal presented on the demo’s pretty close, and secondly, that Elvis is a better singer than Red, even if he is singing his own compositions. 

According to the booklet, the first 12 tracks are taken from the forthcoming vinyl edition of 'Come What May'. And I must say that tracks like the titles song ‘Come What May’, ‘Tomorrow Is A Long Time’, ‘Love Letters’, ‘Fools Fall In Love’ and ‘Tell Me Why ‘ (an unreleased Stereo Master), ‘God's Gonna Cut 'Em Down’ (aka ‘Run On’), ‘Indescribably Blue’, ‘Joshua Fit The Battle’ and several others make a nice compilation album from today's perspective. 'Ill Remember You' is a bit of an odd choice, compared to the other songs, but was perhaps chosen since Hawaiian music was popular in the mid-sixties. The question remains if this selection would have been a success when this selection of songs had been released in 1966.  

‘If Every Day Was Like Christmas’ in the middle does not work for me, nice as it is, it should have been placed at the end. But overall, this LP could have been a ‘Something for Everybody’ Volume 2. The other songs selected for this compilation were released outside the U.S. and U.K. in countries like India and the Philippines (on the RCA record label). Funny to see those songs being released as singles and charting in various countries worldwide. It shows we all love different parts of the wide Elvis catalog.  

The second disc features pretty much the same titles, but as different (spliced) takes with some additional chatter, just like we know from the Follow That Dream label. Playing the discs in a row, you get a different listening experience. 

It opens with a new splice of ‘God's Gonna Cut 'Em Down’ (Takes 1 and 6). It is presented as an unreleased version, but that goes for every newly created splice. Again, an entertaining presentation where the movie songs find their place in between the gospel, pop and country style songs. There is a bit much ‘Hawaiian-themed’ music on this set, but that music was popular at the time, so a logical choice by the producers. 

The audio was remastered for this release and it sounds solid, with the exception of the demo’s - especially ‘Sleepless Nights Endless Days’ - but that is kind-off to be expected with material like that. 

The recent release 'Presley Style - Lost Elvis Songwriter Demos 1961-1963' by P.J. Proby "suffers" from the same problem. Interesting to hear none the less. 

Conclusion

The album is well-designed and entertaining. Sixties fans will certainly enjoy this compilation.  

Listening to the variety of music and the quality of his vocals, it is a pity most that Elvis wasted his talents on mediocre material. Fortunately this ‘Something for Everybody” type album shows it wasn’t all bad. 

Had compilations like this been released by RCA during those “wasted years”, we probably would have thought differently of Elvis’ musical legacy as the soundtrack albums could have been separated from the real album releases for what they really are.

May 10 - Elvis Summer Festival Vinyl

The latest Memphis Recording Service vinyl release 'Elvis Summer festival 1972' arrived at the dealers, over a week early for the original release-date of May 19, 2023. 

The 2-LP set, as usual available on black and on clear vinyl, features The August 11th and August 12th Evening Show performances, as recorded a the Las Vegas Hilton during Elvis' 1972 Summer Festival. The audio has been restored and remixed to stereo. 

(Source: UEPS)

May 09 - Greatest Vinyl

The Dynamic record label announced the July 7, 2023 release of the 16-track compilation LP 'Greatest Hits'. 

Description: Elvis Greatest Hits on 180-gram vinyl is the ultimate collection for any fan of the biggest star of the 20th century. With 16 of his biggest and most loved songs, this LP showcases the evolution of Elvis's career, from mono hits before his army days to crystal-clear stereo hits after his service. 

Plus, the stunning new sleeve design perfectly captures the essence of the King of Rock n' Roll.

(Source: Pascal Matteo / Amazon)

May 07 - IFTA Awards

Actor Austin Butler has won the award for 'Best International Actor' at the 2023 Irish Film and Television Awards. 

The awards were handed out to the winners at Dublin’s Royal Convention Centre in Dublin, Ireland. 

The IFTA Film & Drama Awards are awards given by the Irish Film & Television Academy for Irish television and film, the awards began in 1999. The ceremonies recognize Irish creative talent working in film, drama, and television, and winners receive a cast bronze statuette. 

Rethinking Release Dates

The academic book, 'Rethinking Elvis', edited by Dr. Mark Duffett, originally announced for release last year, has been rescheduled by Oxford University Press for publication on November 1, 2023.

Mark Duffett is the author of 'Counting Down Elvis: His 100 Finest Songs' and 'Elvis: Roots, Image, Comeback, Phenomenon'. 

(Source: Facebook / IFTA / Elvis Information Network)

May 06 - Australian Cinematographer of the Year

The Australian Cinematographers Society named Mandy Walker cinematographer of the year at its national awards in Sydney, marking the first time the society’s Milli Award - presented since 1968 - has ever been won by a woman.

Walker also took home the Gold Tripod in the Feature Films - budget AUS$2 million category - for her work on 'ELVIS'. Again she is the first woman to win this award.

The Milli Award is yet another glass ceiling smashed by Walker in the last 12 months, having also been the first woman to ever win the AACTA Award for Best Cinematography and the American Society of Cinematographers feature film award for Elvis. Walker was also just the third woman to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography. She was also nominated for a BAFTA.

Walker told the audience at the ACS Awards that she was proud to be the first woman to win the Milli and that she hoped many more will follow. “It’s an honor and privilege to have won the Milli and to have worked on Elvis with so many Australian filmmakers who are undeniably at the top of their game. As a team we created an incredibly special piece of cinema,” said Walker.

“Australian cinematographers continue to create some of the best work across the globe and thus, again, I am truly humbled to win this award.”

(Source: Australian Cinematographers Society / IF Magazine)

May 06 - Charts May 2023 - Week 1 (Updated)

The weekly global Elvis Presley chart update. In the United Kingdom, Ireland,  Scotland and The Netherlands the 'Burning Love' Record Store Day release dropped off the charts after just one week. But the latest Memphis Recording Service 4-CD-set 'Las Vegas Summer Festival 1972' made up for that. 

Elvis Presley did score his 7th British Phonographic Award for 2023 with a Gold Single Award for 'Hound Dog', so our man still sells in England. 

In the United States the 'ELV1S 30 #1 Hits' compilation dropped off the main Billboard 200 Album chart and various other charts. The 'Burning Love' LP made up for that loss a little.

U.S. Billboard charts:

• Billboard Top Album Sales chart: 'Burning Love: The RCA Rehearsals' is a new entry at #63.
• Billboard Soundtrack Album chart: 'ELVIS' Soundtrack' dropped from #18 to #20. 
• Billboard Top Country Album chart: 'ELV1S 30 #1 Hits' dropped from #22 to #26.
• Billboard Top Current Album Sales chart: 'Burning Love: The RCA Rehearsals' is a new entry at #40.

Official U.K. charts:

• Official Album chart: 'ELV1S 30 #1 Hits' dropped from #40 to #42. 
• Official Download Album chart: 'ELV1S 30 #1 Hits' makes a re-entry at #96.  
• Official Album Sales chart: 'Las Vegas Summer Festival 1972' is a new entry at #61.
• Official Independent Album chart: 'Las Vegas Summer Festival 1972' is a new entry at #23.
• Official Streaming Album chart: 'ELV1S 30 #1 Hits' dropped from #27 to #30. 
• Official Physical Sales chart: 'Las Vegas Summer Festival 1972' is a new entry at #55.
• Official Soundtrack Album chart: 'ELVIS' Soundtrack dropped from #21 to #23. 
• Official Country Compilations chart: 'From Elvis in Nashville' dropped from #8 to #11. 
• Official Film chart: 'ELVIS' dropped from #7 to #10. 
• Official Video Chart Top 100: 'ELVIS' climbed from #6 to #5.  
• Official DVD chart: 'ELVIS' climbed from #6 to #5.  
• Official Blu-ray chart: 'ELVIS' climbed from #19 to #14. 
• Official Films On Disc chart: 'ELVIS' remained steady at #5.  
• Official Music DVD chart: 'Elvis The Searcher' dropped from #16 to #25.  
• Official Music DVD chart: 'The Complete Story' is a re-entry at #41.  

Irish IRMA charts:

• Official Irish Album chart: 'ELV1S 30#1 Hits' dropped from #63 to #64.
• Official Irish Video chart: 'ELVIS' remained steady at #6.

Scottish charts:

• Official Scottish Album chart: 'Las Vegas Summer Festival 1972' new entry at #76.
• Official Scottish Album chart: 'ELV1S 30 #1 Hits' is a new entry at #93. 

(Source: Official Chart Company / UK Mix Forum / Billboard / IRMA)