The overdub CD I produced, "ELVIS: THE NEW RECORDINGS," has apparently stirred up Sony as they have announced THEY are doing an overdub CD, featuring the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the UK, for release in Sept. Already fans on various Elvis sites are drawing a connection between my CD and the new Sony product because it is so out of character for them (though years ago his label did overdubs).
Except they must not be confident about their ability to recoup their investment with "just" Elvis so they are dragging in other stars like Michael Buble to sing on it too, though they claim they are not doing Elvis "duets." Priscilla Presley has even jumped on board to promote this, raving about how "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" now sounds so great with the big orchestra. They brag Elvis will be up in the mix. (Where have you heard that before? It's one of our talking points about our CD. Geez. Can't these people be original?)
This is not the first time this sort of thing has happened. They hadn't released any Reeves product for several years until Steve Brink of H&H Music Ltd. in London released a 2 CD set I produced called "I'm A Hit Again," which saw two songs make the Top Ten and one reach #1. Then Sony scurried to issue a rehash CD on Jim.
Their pending release on Elvis must be why they are fighting so hard to keep a video off YouTube that promotes our Elvis CD. They LOST their attempt to get it taken down, and although under the DMCA they are NOT allowed to re-file, they did anyway, this time claiming it contains two songs — “Down In the Willow Garden” by the Everly Brothers and “Just Married” by Marty Robbins — which constitute copyright infringement. This is laughably absurd because neither of those songs are even in the Elvis video or on the Elvis CD and they know it!
They only did this to trigger the copyright process that will keep the video offline for another 30 days. They apparently are that DESPERATE to prevent fans from knowing about the CD. But Elvis fan clubs around the world have ordered huge quantities of this product to re-sell to their members, and are even selling it for double the retail price. It's made the Amazon best seller list several times, and has been featured in various magazine spreads around the world.
The YouTube legal dept. has been warned about Sony's latest ruse because that corporation is not too big to be targeted for legal retaliation. Stay tuned.
Sony has repeatedly attempted this sort of thing and YouTube has repeatedly reinstated our videos. SME even tried to keep one offline that contains an interview with me about my book on Jim. Can you believe it? But they lost that one too, and it is online.
How pathetic these people are.
Incidentally, it is well known, and has been for many years, that it's a lot less expensive to record a big orchestra in the UK than it is in the U.S. That's why cheapskates SME went that route, I'm sure. None other than MARY REEVES herself told me this years ago, as she was considering using British musicians on a Jim LP overdub project but then decided against it because she didn't think they'd be able to capture "the right feel." (Her words).
Labels have a tendency to over-produce when they do overdubs, and I predict the Sony release will be full of melodrama. In the case of "ELVIS: THE NEW RECORDINGS," less is more. We took a very restrained approach to augmenting his remastered vocals to add a little embellishment here and there, allowing his voice to remain the prominent feature of each track.
To hear samples of the CD Sony doesn't want you to know about, click the link below the photo...
Posted by Mike Slater on July 10, 2015, 10:00 pm, in reply to "Poor, pathetic Sony"
Sony will not be happy until they've changed the sound of Elvis' recordings completely - just to rake in more money! When they first released overdubs of the songs "A Little Less Conversation" and "Rubberneckin' as singles, they claimed that the sound was being updated to sound more contemporary in order to get younger fans to appreciate Elvis' music. This didn't make any sense at all because the finished product in both cases didn't sound anything like an Elvis record by the time they were done with them! These songs ended up sounding like most of the crap that kids are listening to today, but they ended up being big sellers, which in this case, is a complete shame! In my opinion, the record company is lying to the public if the kids that buy these records think this is what an Elvis record sounds like! Elvis' records had a unique sound all their own, and now the record companies are going to de-face these recordings just to make more money, which I think is an insult to the artist. If the kids today don't appreciate Elvis' music the way it was originally recorded, then let them listen to the crap that they always listen to. There's nothing wrong with overdubbing a recording, as long as it stays true to the sound the artist and engineers originally intended. On "Elvis-The New Recordings", the overdubs were not overdone, and the recordings remain true to Elvis' original sound.
Re: Poor, pathetic Sony
Posted by Mike Slater on July 10, 2015, 10:57 pm, in reply to "Poor, pathetic Sony"
How could they keep the video off line if the copyright infringement claim they filed was completely false?! Not only were the songs "Down In The Willow Garden" and "Just Married" not in the video or on the "Elvis-The New Recordings" CD, but Elvis never recorded either of these songs at all! I have no intention, or desire, to purchase this new overdub CD with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. I also think the never ending CD's of fake duets that are being released today were a bad idea from the start. There are a few that I thought were wonderful, like the "Unforgettable" duet of Nat "King" Cole and his daughter Natalie--but after that, this idea was used to the point of overkill. When singers or actors were brought together in the past, it was with the intention of good chemistry between them. Now, with all these fake duets, we have artists like Sinatra singing with a lot of contemporary artists, just for the sake of pairing their voices and making more money. And again, these duets seem to appeal to the general public because most of them are big sellers- but in my opinon, there is no chemistry between the artists and most of the other singers they are paired with digitally. It's simply done to make money with no artistic value at all.
The YouTube process is slow moving and even though they could quickly review the video themselves and see that those two songs are not even in the video, they allow the complaining party -- in this case SME -- 30 days to respond to the counterclaim, which we filed. In the meantime they keep the video offline.
But unlike the little Dutch boy who stuck his finger into a hole in the dyke, and thus stemmed the flow of water while others went to get help, SME will spring a leak...and not just one. Censorship never works; it just makes people want it more. And word has already traveled all around the world about this company's silly fixation on the Elvis video that contains only EXCERPTS of songs. Meanwhile, for years they have allowed amateurs to post the ENTIRE SONGS (albeit in original form, which don't sound as good as ours) on YouTube and garner millions of views.
So they can't make any claim for damages whatsoever. It's all a silly game these supposed adults are playing. We take it as a high compliment, as we do their decision to do their own overdubs of Elvis.
That just shows you how much SME cares! They don't even try to hind the fact that they're filing a complaint just to hold things up! They could have at least said that there was an infringement on two songs that Elvis actually recorded, but they just went ahead and named two titles that Elvis never had anything to do with. They have absolutely no shame at all, and don't even care how much comtempt they show to artists like Elvis and Jim, who have made them millions of dollars throughout the years!