In August 2014 Sony Legacy released a collector's edition of "That's The Way It Is". The boxed set included eight compact discs as well as two digital versatile discs and a softcover book of 80 pages. The audio material includes the RCA album, the first six live shows of the Vegas stint as well as rehearsals. The video discs contained the original movie and the re-make from 2001.

Today the audio recordings are available on the various streaming platforms in Hi-Res. On Spotify the compilation clocks in at over 150 million streams.

For this project the original magnetic tapes were scanned with hi-res equipment by Mike Piacentini and mastered by Vic Anesini. The mixing was done by Steve Rosenthal and Kabir Hernon. The men didn't try to match the sound of the original RCA release and used a modern approach instead. In the process they decided to remove the harmony vocals of Charlie Hodge. I don't like this decision, because Charlie was a part of the group and Elvis wanted him to be there. Nevertheless it's pure joy to hear the recordings, because everything sounds crystal clear and punchy.

However, I cannot understand why Sony included dvds instead of blu rays. By 2014 the dvd was a dying format and the quality was comparatively low. Notwithstanding, we get the original movie and the remake and I guess it's nothing but a bonus anyway.

The book offers an introduction by Ernst Jorgensen and Roger Semon as well as an interview with Dennis Sanders, the director of "That's The Way It Is". Of course we also get background information regarding the studio sessions in Nashville, the rehearsals in Los Angeles and Las Vegas as well as the concerts. There are also quite a few photos to admire.

For reviews of the particular discs just tap here:

CD 1 (Original Album plus bonus tracks)    CD 2 (August 10th: Opening Show)    CD 3 (August 11th: Dinner Show)    CD 4 (August 11th: Midnight Show)

CD 5 (August 12th: Dinner Show)    CD 6 (August 12th: Midnight Show)    CD 7 (August 13th: Dinner Show)    Disc 8 (Rehearsals)