Missing out the 40th anniversary of the movie Sony Music had issued a boxed set regarding "That's The Way It Is" in 2014. It included the original version of the motion picture as well as the re-make from 2001, the original album, recordings of all six concerts RCA had taped for the project and a bonus disc of rehearsals. Of course Sony had also included a booklet. In 2020 Follow That Dream Records came up with "That's The Way It Is - 50th Anniversary Collector's Edition". The massive set included two hardcover books as well as all available rehearsal material, spread on eight compact discs.

The first book is called "The Rehearsals" and includes 288 pages. In the introduction David English, the author of the books, tells us, how he and Pal Granlund worked on the project since 2014 and purchased over 2,000 negatives. Because many of them turned out to be out of focus and blurry, the men contacted Elvis Presley Enterprises and finally were given access to many great photographs, most of them unreleased. The first chapter is about the "That's The Way It Is" project and the resumption of the business relations between MGM and Elvis Presley. Chapter two deals with the recording sessions in Nashville, which produced many of the tracks on the "That's The Way It Is" album and most of the songs the king introduced during the "Elvis Summer Festival" in Las Vegas. The next eight chapters describe the rehearsal sessions on July 14th (MGM Soundstage), July 15th (MGM Soundstage), July 23rd (RCA Studio), July 29th (MGM Soundstage), July 30th (RCA Studio), August 4th (International Hotel), August 7th (International Hotel) and August 8th to 10th (International Hotel). The final chapter once again deals with the movie itself. All sessions, that were filmed by MGM, are documented with photos. Most of them are b/w, but there are also several color shots. The author often mentions, which song was rehearsed while the photo was taken. So the book can be used to accompany the listening sessions. Of course each of these sessions is documented with data as well. You can read, what was filmed and/or recorded and where the material was released. Fans stories of people like Sandy Miller and Donna Lewis as well as interviews with Dennis Sanders (director) or Joe Esposito (Elvis' personal assistant) add an emotional touch.

The second book, named "The Concerts" and offering 324 pages, is presented in the same style. By the way, the cover photo wasn't shot in Vegas but on September 9th in Phoenix/Arizona.The first chapter informs us about the procedure of filming the shows. In contrast to the present, each camera could only shoot 30 minutes, so it had to be coordinated in advance which song was to be filmed in its entirety from different angles. So before each concert the crew had to agree upon five or six songs and had to know when they would be performed. As a result many of the other tunes were not captured from start to finish or the performance was just available from one or two angles. The next chapters deal with the concerts between August 10th and 15th. RCA stopped the recordings after the dinner show on August 13th, but MGM used the following two days to shoot some additional material. This included totals of the showroom and positioning a camera behind Elvis to catch audience reactions. On September 9th Elvis performed in Phoenix/Arizona. It was his first concert tour since 1957 and Dennis Sanders (the director of the movie) filmed short sequences, because he thought the audience might be a bit wilder than in Vegas. The book ends with a chapter called "That's The Way It Was", in which Rick Smithlin gives us details about the 2001 re-make of the movie.

The eight compact discs are housed in an oversized digi-pak. The artwork is a mixture of the "That's The Way It Is" album and the cover of the single "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me" and looks very nice. However, the discs are put in little slits and are hard to get in and out of the packaging. Besides that they get scratchy if used on a regular basis. It looks good, but that's all. The audio quality is fluctuating. Some of the rehearsal sessions were poorly recorded, others can be enjoyed in perfect stereo sound. But I am pretty sure that Jan Eliasson mastered the material the best way possible. Contentually the rehearsals are very interesting, because Elvis and his group often tried out songs, that were never perfomed live on stage. Another aspect is, that one gets to know the man behind the image. Musically extremely gifted, often hard working, but also sometimes strangely slouchy. Mostly spontaneous, creative and funny, but also a bit too salacious at times. A man with  strengths and weaknesses, but a real man and not a larger than life image. As usual the audio recordings are not available through the streaming platforms.

To get to the reviews of the individual rehearsal sessions, just tap on the links:

July 14th (MGM Soundstage)    July 15th (MGM Soundstage)    July 24th (RCA Studio)    July 29th (MGM Soundstage)   

August 4th (International Hotel)    August 7th (International Hotel)    August 10th (International Hotel)