Posted by Shevanthi Perera on January 31, 2015, 10:21 am
Excellent Job Larry - and now hopefully you have a new fan added to the fan base!! I never thought you would overdub an album on Elvis, Ha, Ha - glad you did and for someone like me who only have three CDs in my collection on Elvis and never really a fan of this famous artist, this sparkle was just the one I needed to listen to him in a different vein.
Loved all the songs, some of them heard for the first time. A few of my favorites were, "She's Not You", "Judy", "Love me Tender", "Can't Help Falling in Love", "Good Luck Charm", "The Girl of My Best Friend", "Mansion Over the Hilltop", etc. Thanks to your team of talented and dedicated group of musicians who worked on this album, incorporating exquisite musical backings so rich, that resulted in a taste that you can never forget.
I know that Elvis recorded more gospel songs that Jim did and I understand he was recognized multiple times for his religious music. He also never lost his early love of spiritual songs and it shows in the commitment and passion he poured into his gospel recordings. He does sing them with a lot of devotion and feeling. I love his gospel renditions. Wish Jim were able to record some of them.!
Thanks Larry for another splendid job of remastering these tracks with the new tools of the day thus bringing out his voice so clear and rich. A definite Voice that mirrored in the 60's and early 70's.
Listening to these overdubs of Jim, and now Elvis on a new stereo system with powerful Bose speakers which delivers the deep rich sound and crispy clear vocals of these stars is - - just out of this world. And you go Wow.
First of all, welcome to the world of Bose speakers! I have used them on ALL my overdub projects and they are known for faithfully reproducing sound.
So many people these days shortchange themselves by only hearing their music on their smart phones or little earplugs inserted into their ears (iPods, etc.) They don't seem to grasp that these are NOT capable of reproducing the full range of sound. Unless one is investing in some high-end headphones (like some of my engineers wear), you simply are not going to hear the full audio spectrum or detail in the music.
I really regret that, because we put a lot of detail into these overdubs.
Secondly, I'm glad you enjoyed the CD. For people who think Elvis was overrated, or only sang rock 'n' roll, this new CD, "ELVIS: THE NEW RECORDINGS," is surely a revelation. Because this guy could actually sing! He was a serious vocalist and also played guitar and organ or piano on a lot of his own recordings.
When he was in the Army, stationed in Germany, he had the good fortune of having a buddy named Charlie Hodge, who had sung professionally in a gospel guartet. Charlie was a tenor, but he taught Elvis how to breathe correctly and worked with him, such that when Presley got out of the Army in early 1960, he had expanded his vocal range by an octave.
You may know the story that due to the mania surrounding Elvis's return stateside, and RCA's eagerness to get him back into the studio without a riot erupting, they booked a session under Jim Reeves' name. The musicians were surprised when the time arrived and Reeves never showed up -- since he was always so punctual (at least for his sessions, if not in his day to day life!). Then suddenly Elvis walked in the door. Later, he wrote Jim and thanked him and said he was deeply honored that an artist of Reeves' stature would help him in this way. They remained friends and in the next edition of my book I will tell you what plans Jim Reeves had that related to Elvis Presley in the future.
As for the CD itself, there are of course some up tempo songs, but also some beautiful ballads that are mellow and sweet. I used current members of the Grand Ole Opry band, Nashville strings, a top orchestrator based in Florida, and Arne Benoni in Norway got in on the act too.
For the past two weekends, two well known deejays have been playing these songs and raving about them. They report on this week's show that they only received ONE person who trashed the new overdubs and they read his letter on the air. He said the originals were best and proceeded to request they play a certain song from the past, which he held up as a shining example of what in his mind was a vastly superior recording. The sly main show host played this guy's request, and after the song was over he pointed out it was a Chet Atkins OVERDUB, with the Nashville A-team, that ELVIS HATED. He felt too often the record company covered up his voice with background vocals (even though he personally liked the Jordanaires, he didn't want them overwhelming him).
The show host concluded that the original tracks are NOT sacrosanct, and since we now have the technical means to improve them and bring Elvis' fine baritone voice forward so you can hear him better (like I have done on all my overdubs of various artists), then why not do it?
I'm still waiting for the Good Music Store to post some of the excerpts from these deejays and then I'll post a link here so you can hear some songs and how these real Elvis experts react to the new music.
One final note: they said this week that people would be smart to buy the CD NOW, since it's only priced at $16.95, because -- they predicted, to my surprise -- various Elvis stores would no doubt be buying them up and then pricing them at $30 or $40 per CD to make a killing on them. Interesting, huh?
Thanks again for your kind remarks. To hear excerpts from "ELVIS: THE NEW RECORDINGS," and order, click the link below. Note that this takes you to the main Good Music page. If you want to use PayPal, then just click the photo of the Elvis CD. If you want to use your credit card, click the yellow link on the opening Good Music store page that takes you to the Good Music Facebook page, where credit cards are accepted.