Elvis Live 1969

In August 2019 Sony Music Entertainment/RCA Legacy honored the 50th anniversary of the king's stage comeback in Las Vegas with a boxed set called "Elvis Live 1969". On Billboard's "Rock Album Sales Chart" it peaked at number 30 and on the "Country Album Sales Chart" at number 10. However, "Elvis Live 1969" never made it on the more important "Top 200 Album Chart". In Germany the boxed set peaked at number 19, in Great Britain it was listed at number 21 (UK Album Sales Chart) and 17 (UK Physical Album Chart).

"Elvis Live 1969" included eleven compact discs with just as many consecutive concert recordings. Back in 1969 RCA started with the recording of the midnight show on August 21st and closed with taping the midnight show on August 26th. The goal was to capture enough material to fill Elvis' first live album, which in fact turned out to be a hybrid of studio recordings and live tracks called "From Memphis To Vegas / From Vegas To Memphis". The sound carriers are housed in two multi-panel digipaks, which are accompanied by a booklet of 52 pages. The set is designed very well and gives a high-quality impression. At the time of the release only four of the eleven concerts were unreleased, most of them had been issued in the 2000s by Sony's own collector's label Follow That Dream Records. But for this project all recordings were newly mastered and mixed right from the scratch and the result is nothing but amazing. Vic Anesini (mastering) and Matt Ross-Spang (mixing) have done a marvellous job, everything sounds as bright and clear as if it was recorded yesterday.

Nowadays the physical set is no longer available, but on the various streaming platforms "Elvis Live 1969" is available in Hi-Res and MQA.

Verdict

The physical set is a stunner, but one doesn't need the packaging to be impressed by this collection of live recordings. Of course the concerts are repetitive, but Elvis works his ass off and the audio quality is amazing. Make sure to play it loud!