Just a few hours before the curtains opened the very first time, Elvis and his crew met for a final rehearsal session. Because RCA wanted to capture the first six concerts of the "Elvis Summer Festival 1970" with the latest 16-track technology, they used this walkthrough for another testrun. So everything was captured in crystal clear stereo sound.

The first inconvenience is the fact, that the technicians didn't record the complete session and missed most of the intros. Annoyingly Vic Anesini not just fixed the problem by editing the intros of the accordant live performances, but also tried to improve the presentations by splicing two walkthroughs of the same tune and cutting out all of the king's rough language. The result is a great sounding, smooth album...that has not much to do with the actual rehearsal. Follow That Dream Records first released this "improved" session in 2011 on an album called "Stage Rehearsal" and rightfully earned a lot of harsh words from the fans. This boxed set should have been used to present the unedited walkthrough, but instead Roger Semon and Ernst Jorgensen (the guys behind the collector's label) opted for throwing in a copy of the much hated album. WTF?!?

While the original tape starts with "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling", Follow That Dream Records thought, it was much nicer to start with "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me". The performance is very good, it sounds more like a studio recording than a rehearsal.

The technicians waited fourty seconds before they started the recording, so Vic Anesini substituted the missing part with a live performance. The edit was done as smooth as it can be, but it's somewhat strange to hear applause during a rehearsal. The performance itself doesn't work as perfectly as it should, even on stage Elvis would have his problems with the song.

The intro of George Harrison's masterpiece is met with applause, because the first ten seconds are taken from a live rendition. Elvis repeats his "attracts me like no other mother"-joke, otherwise it's a smooth presentation.

Here the technicians caught the complete performance, for some reason Vic Anesini edited out Elvis saying "not me".

During this final rehearsal session the king sang "Polk Salad Annie" twice and fooled around with the tune quite a bit. The two separate renditions were turned into one and all the offensive lyric changes (like "...made the alligator turn queer" or "spiteful, overweight old woman") were eliminated by silencing Elvis' voice track. However, the variation "...cos her daddy didn't have no brain" was left in place. I guess for the FTD team it's ok to joke about man, but not about women or queer people. A strange world view.

This track is a vast improvement. The performance was recorded in its entirety and it's worth listening to. It has a nice rehearsal-feel, because in-between the king can be heared saying "Get me some lights".

The same applies here. In the background we hear people talking and laughing and Elvis isn't completely sure how to present the song. The original tape includes a second rendition, which is neither serious, nor complete. But it's missing and therefore the rehearsal session is not represented as it took place.

The first two minutes are taken from the opening performance of the "Elvis Summer Festival 1970", the king's remark "What you gonna do?" is hidden by silencing his vocal track. The king obviously tries to save his voice for the concert and doesn't use it to its full extend.

Elvis and his group cut loose and rock the (empty) house.

Even though the king ends each and every show with "Can't Help Falling In Love", he decides to give it a test run. Because the first part of the recording is taken from a live performance, he sounds out of breath. The rehearsal tape starts with the line "Like the river flows...".

Elvis rehearses his forthcoming single one more time, but now his presentation is more loose and he fools around with the lyrics.

To smooth out the performance, Vic Anesini again took out some of Elvis' comments by silencing his vocal track. Nevertheless his words as well as the reactions of the musicians can be heared in the background. The performance itself is very good and certainly would have appealed to a paying audience, too.