Throughout Elvis Presley's long career his record company had never, intentionally, released any previously unreleased material. However, an alternate version of Old Shep had been issued in error on some early import pressings of his second album, Elvis, released in October 1956. A second mistake occurred in 1973 when, after releasing the studio recording of Stay Away, Joe in 1970 on the budget release Let's Be Friends, the movie version was included in error on the budget album Almost In Love. This was soon corrected on later pressings.
All this would change in 1974, long before the advent of the Follow That Dream label which has given fans a wealth of unreleased material over the past twenty-plus years.
In the mid-1970s RCA Records created a new series of albums with the generic title A Legendary Performer. Artists that were featured in the series included Jim Reeves, Perry Como, Glenn Miller, Henry Mancini, Bing Crosby, Jimmie Rodgers and Elvis Presley.
Although I haven't seen every release in the series I do believe that the four Elvis Presley albums were the only ones to include previously unreleased material. Elvis was also one of only two artists to have more than one volume released, the other being Glenn Miller who had three albums issued.
The packaging, for the time, was impressive with a circular cut-out on the front through which the inner sleeve could be seen. Each album included a booklet with colour front, back, inside front and inside back covers with the remaining pages in black and white. The booklets featured a wealth of photos and memorabilia including session paperwork, tape boxes and much more.
It was Joan Deary who was responsible for the Elvis - A Legendary Performer series. She had been Steve Sholes secretary at RCA, and later was administrator of Elvis releases and had a good working relationship with The Colonel. However, a fall-out with Elvis' producer Felton Jarvis, over the track selection on the Elvis (Fool) album had caused a rift which would not be healed.
In 1973 Elvis and The Colonel had signed a new contract with RCA Records worth over $5 million by selling the rights to all his back-catalogue. They both needed money and this seemed a good option. However, in hindsight it was one of the worst managerial decisions ever made.
Following the sell-out to RCA Records the way was open for them to release Elvis' early recordings and they wasted no time. Deary compiled a new deluxe compilation to include a selection of old recordings and previously unreleased material, all owned by RCA under the new contract.
On it's release, the commercial failure of the Raised On Rock album would lead to more attempts by RCA to get rid of producer Felton Jarvis. They hadn't counted on Elvis' loyalty to Jarvis and when they approached him about the subject he told them in no uncertain terms that there would be no sacking.
As if RCA didn't have enough problems, further complications arose at the time when The Colonel found out that the forthcoming Joan Deary compilation would be released at the same time as Raised On Rock. He was furious and made attempts to stop the release of the album. All he achieved was delaying the album until January 1974.
While Joan Deary may not have been popular within the Elvis circle there can be no debate as to how successful the albums would become. The first release in the series would sell over 700,00 copies, outsell and peak higher than Elvis' current release, Raised On Rock, and the previous album, Elvis (Fool). The RIAA (Record Industry Association of America) would eventually award the album 'Gold' status. It would appear that by the mid-seventies Elvis' back-catalogue was more popular than his current recordings.
Future releases would also perform well with Volumes 2 and 3 both charting at 46 and 112 respectively with both gaining Gold awards from the RIAA. Volume 4 could not repeat the success and no further volumes were released.
Having looked back at the history of how the Legendary Performer series came about we will now look in detail at each of the four Elvis releases in the series.
In January 1974 RCA released Elvis - A Legendary Performer Volume 1, and I still remember to this day waiting for my mother to return from town with my copy that I had asked her to pick up for me.
In January 1974 RCA released Elvis - A Legendary Performer Volume 1, and I still remember to this day waiting for my mother to return from town with my copy that I had asked her to pick up for me.
'RCA Records proudly presents the Legendary Performer collection... a series of recordings by the world's finest musical artists. Glowing with energy that transcends time, these are performances which will recall fond memories for collectors, and bring the joy of new discovery to young audiences.'
Volume 1 featured fourteen tracks with five previously unreleased or hard to find along with two interview excerpts. The seven previously released tracks dated from the 1950s and early-1960s and included That's All Right, Heartbreak Hotel, Don't Be Cruel, Love Me Tender, Peace In The Valley, A Fool Such As I and Can't Help Falling In Love.
The most interesting previously unreleased track was the version of I Love You Because recorded at Sun Records in 1954. When released by RCA on his debut album Elvis Presley the version of I Love You Because was a splice of takes 2 and 4 while here we get the complete take 2 including the spoken part.
Three previously unreleased live recordings from the 1968 TV Special 'sit-down shows' were included, Love Me, Trying To Get To You and Are You Lonesome Tonight?
The movie G. I. Blues and soundtrack album featured the song Tonight Is So Right For Love but here the listener was treated to an alternate version, Tonight's All Right For Love, previously unavailable in the UK and USA. Due to copyright issues the version featured in the movie and soundtrack album in the United States, Tonight Is So Right For Love, was replaced with Tonight's All Right For Love in the European version of the film and soundtrack.
The two interview excerpts were lifted from the hard-to-find Elvis Sails Extended Play, recorded on 22 September 1958 and originally released the following November.
As we read earlier this release was well-received and sold better than Elvis' current product and would set the scene for future releases in the series.
Between 1974 and 1976 Elvis released three studio and one live album, Good Times, As Recorded Live On Stage In Memphis, Promised Land and Elvis Today, all a major improvement on his Raised On Rock album. Following the success of the first volume it seemed time for a second volume of the Legendary Performer series and this was released in 1976.
'For collectors everywhere, RCA Records proudly presents Elvis-A Legendary Performer-Volume 2... fascinating musical insights into the fabled Presley saga.'
Once again this release featured a mix of previously released and unreleased material. However, the listener was treated to more unreleased material on this second volume.
Of the fourteen tracks included, Blue Christmas, Jailhouse Rock, It's Now Or Never, Such A Night, How Great Thou Art and If I Can Dream were all previously released leaving a further eight tracks previously unavailable.
Two more live recordings from the 1968 TV Special 'sit down shows' were featured, Blue Suede Shoes and Baby What You Want Me To Do. Another track, Blue Hawaii, is listed as a live recording but was actually recorded after the taping of the Aloha From Hawaii special in 1973, once the audience had left the auditorium, so classing it as a 'live' recording is not totally accurate.
From his days at Sun Records comes Harbor Lights, recorded at the same July 1954 session as I Love You Because, That's All Right and Blue Moon Of Kentucky.
An alternate take of I Want You, I Need You, I Love You, Elvis second RCA single originally released in 1956, is included. The original was a splice of takes 14 and 17 and it was originally thought that the version included here was the complete take 14. Further research has confirmed it is actually take 15.
A Cane And A High Starch Collar comes from the 1960 movie Flaming Star and although shown in the movie the song was never released at the time. It is making it's first appearance on the album along with a false start.
Although not mentioned on the sleeve there are two false starts preceding the song Such A Night, both previously unreleased.
Like Volume 1 there were two interviews. However, unlike the earlier release, where the interviews had been previously issued on a hard to find 1958 extended play release, these were both previously unavailable. One dated back to 1956 and was taped in Wichita Falls, Texas during one of Elvis' tours. The second dated from 25 March 1961, and was an excerpt from a press conference and presentation of an award to Elvis on the same day he played his charity concert at The Bloch Arena, Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
'For collectors everywhere, RCA records presents another chapter in the career-and life-and above all, in the music of the man who became the greatest legend of the modern entertainment world... ELVIS-A LEGENDARY PERFORMER, VOLUME 3.'
The Legendary Performer albums had become a popular and profitable series for RCA Records and, as we saw earlier, Elvis was only one of two artists to have more than two volumes in the series released.
Elvis tragically passed away in August 1977 and there was a renewed interest in his music. In 1978 RCA issued A Legendary Performer Volume 3, which followed the successful pattern of previous releases.
This time the listener would be treated to eight previously unreleased tracks which sat alongside the previously released material, Hound Dog, Crying In The Chapel, Surrender and In The Ghetto.
Once again they turned to the 1968 TV Special but rather than including more live recordings they turned their attention to the staged sections of the show. Both Let Yourself Go and It Hurts Me were filmed for the Guitar Man/Road sequence but were not included in the original broadcast.
The only live recording that made it to the album was a February 1970 recording of Let It Be Me, originally recorded in French back in 1955 as Je t'appartiens and a 1960 hit for The Everly Brothers.
Elvis' movie career was well represented on this release with four previously unreleased/alternate tracks featured. Frankfort Special and Guadalajara came from G.I. Blues and Fun In Acapulco respectively. The former was a faster version of the song than the one that featured in the movie and on the soundtrack. The latter was an earlier take of the song that featured on the Fun In Acapulco soundtrack.
Like Cane And A High Starch Collar that was included on Volume 2 the song Britches was another intended for the film Flaming Star. Unlike Cane And A... this song never appeared in the movie and was never released at the time. It makes its first appearance on this compilation.
Danny, a song also recorded by Marty Wilde back in 1959, was recorded during the sessions for King Creole but never used. It was considered as the title song to the movie but King Creole, a better choice, was picked instead.
The only studio track included was an alternate take of the 1960 hit Fame And Fortune, the b-side to his first post-army release Stuck On You.
Excerpts from an August 1956 interview with Elvis and The Colonel taped in Lakeland, Florida and intended for TV Guide, continued the theme of including interview material on the Legendary Performer releases.
One difference between this volume and earlier releases was the fact that the actual album was a picture disc, possibly the first time in the history of Elvis releases.
It would be a few years before the final volume in the series would be released and in the intervening years RCA issued the 8-LP box set Elvis Aaron Presley (more often referred to as The Silver Box). The first serious attempt at a career overview it contained a wealth of unreleased material... concerts from his early years, movie outtakes, live recordings from the 1970s, rare singles and much more.
'For collectors everywhere, RCA Records proudly presents ELVIS-A LEGENDARY PERFORMER-VOLUME 4... newly discovered performances by the man whose music swept the world and made his name both a household word and a synonym for superstar.'
Possibly based on the success of the Elvis Aaron Presley set, RCA released a fourth, and final, album in the Legendary Performer series in 1983.
Unlike the previous three volumes this last release featured all previously unreleased material, with one exception.
It was another mix of live recordings, studio outtakes and rare recordings this album offered a much better selection than previous releases and a number of highlights.
The first highlight comes from Elvis' Sun days and is an early version of When It Rains, It Really Pours, a song he would return to later in his career.
Both Mona Lisa and I'm Beginning To Forget You are 'home' recordings which were actually taped during Elvis' time in Germany in 1959.
The best track on the album, and a recording that was never known to exist, is an alternate version of One Night, actually recorded as One Night Of Sin and taped a month before the single version. With it's risque lyrics it is obvious why this version was overlooked at the time.
From the movies comes an alternate of Wooden Heart, from G.I. Blues, Plantation Rock, a song recorded but not featured on the Girls! Girls! Girls! soundtrack, a new version of Swing Down Sweet Chariot recorded specially for the film The Trouble With Girls (And How To Get In To It) and finally an unreleased duet from Viva Las Vegas, The Lady Loves Me, recorded with his co-star Ann Margaret.
The 1968 TV Special had been mined for several tracks on previous releases and for this final album they turned to a live recording of Elvis' first record, That's All Right. Two live performances from the Madison Square Garden afternoon show also make an appearance, Reconsider Baby and I'll Remember You.
Yet another interview excerpt is include, this time from Tampa, Florida in 1956.
The only previously released track was the 'laughing version' of Are You Lonesome Tonight? which had been included on the Elvis Aaron Presley (Silver) box a few years earlier.
It is unbelievable that this release offered the most unreleased material and yet was the only one of the four not to chart.
I bought all four volumes on the day of release and in the weeks that followed they were rarely off the turntable. I was fascinated by the amount of memorabilia included in the booklets and while recent releases offer much more there was something special about seeing the paperwork, session information, tape boxes, rare photographs and other items... it certainly made a change from the effort that RCA, The Colonel and Elvis put into their current product.... the never ending stream of live photos on studio albums, the poorly designed covers, especially on the back which often was just used to advertise other Elvis releases and the lack of information about the contents (studios, musicians etc etc).
Although they would not offer anything new I would love to see these four albums issued on the Follow That Dream label. While they couldn't recreate the original packaging, with the cutout on the sleeve, they could still use the original images and keep the same design. The booklets could also be reproduced, maybe in black and white as the originals.
