Legacy of the King

Press, 10 November 1977, Page 20

Legacy of the King

ELVIS PRESLEY “The Sun Years’* (Sun MALPSBI2): On August 16, 1977, at the age of 42, Elvis Aaron Presley, nicknamed “The Hillbilly Cat,” “The King of Western Bop,” “The Pelvis” and “The Tupelo Mississippi Flash,” died in Memphis, Tennessee.

Sun, Elvis’s first recording company, is cashing in on his recent death by releasing an l.p. consisting of “never before heard” interviews from his early years and snippets from his early, well-known songs — mainly Sun tapes never released by RCA.

The first side contains parts from actual recording sessions with the voice of Sam Phillips, the voice of Elvis, plus excerpts of his Sun recordings, issued and unissued. The second side has many of those early interviews, plus “rare” talking intros on stage and television, such as the Ed Sullivan, Dorsey Brothers, and Jackie Gleason shows. These include a few intro bars of the songs. Unfortunately, the producers of this record have chosen to dub in the screams of crazy fans,

which make it difficult to hear what is actually being said or sung. Of special interest is the introduction to a version of “I’m Left, You’re Right, She’s Gone,” which is so different to the known version as to make it almost unrecognisable as the same song. Most important is that Sun still has many of those supposedly long-lost songs. This record is only a teaser and could mean that we eventually will get full versions of this early material. — Hans Petrovic

ELVIS PRESLEY “Elvis Tn Demand” (RCAVPLI 7141) “Elvis C’mon Everybody” (RCAVPLI 7142): The spate of previously unreleased Elvis Presley records has started with two new albums “Elvis In Demand” and “Elvis C’mon Everybody.” The latter can be dealt with briefly. It is a collection of tracks from the films, “Love Me Tender” and “Viva Las Vegas.” Most of the songs, unfortunately, do not have much to offer off the movie screen, except for “Poor Boy” the title song “C’mon Everybody,”

and the snappy number “What’d I Say.”

The inevitable “Viva Las Vegas” is there, and it also appears on the “Elvis In Demand” album. This album is a collection of 16 songs, some from the flip-side of wellknown records, some recorded live, and others made later in Elvis’s career — as late as 1972. Elvis is in fine form from the smooth sound and heavy breathing he was known for on the first track “Suspicion,” to the rock-and-roll number “Got A Lot Of Livin’ To Do,” and the sad, beautiful love song, “Summer Kisses, Winter Tears.”

Apart from a couple of the tracks nothing is mentioned on the record cover about the backing group, which is a pity as some interesting, twangy guitar work appears on two or three tracks. Two of the tracks worthy of mention are “Let It Be Me,” a live recording made in Las Vegas in 1970, and “It Hurts Me” a powerful song that was previously released in Italy, after being recorded at Nashville in 1964 — Sandy Southon