In March 2024 the Memphis Recording Service continued to use the European copyright law to their favor (the copyright runs out after 50 years) and released two soundboard recordings from 1973. Both have been issued before by Sony's official collector's label Follow That Dream Records (one in the early 2020s on a tripple disc called "From Vegas To Tahoe", the other one in the 2000s on an album named "Takin' Tahoe Tonight"), but as usual the Memphis Recording Service did the job better and vastly improved the old mono recordings. Besides that, their release also can be found on the streaming platforms, so the ones without a good ole' compact disc player can enjoy the concerts, too.

The physical product is a hardcover book of twenty pages with liner notes, photos and pictures of accordant memorabilia. The two compact discs can be found in cardboard sleeves at the front and the end of the book. Visually "Elvis At 3:AM" gives a decent impression.

But what about the shows and the recordings? Back in May 1973 the hotel management had overbooked the shows, expecting a certain percentage of people not to show up and collect their tickets. Unfortunately each and everyone did, besides that several tickets had been given to high-rollers, rich people, who left a lot of money in the casinos and were to be kept happy. As a result many fans were not allowed to see the shows they had ordered tickets for. At one point the situation got so bad, that the hotel management had to call the police. Elvis reacted to the chaos by offering not just to do the usual two shows on May 12th, but to add a third one in the early morning hours of the following day. His only demand was to be paid for this show, but the money was to be donated to the local hospital. To safe face the hotel billed this additional concert as "Special Mother's Day Concert". With "Elvis At 3:AM" we get soundboard recordings of the midnight show and the special concert of this eventful period.

When Follow That Dream Records released the shows, both sounded very good. In contrast to many other soundboard recordings the mix was fine and there was no tape hiss worth mentioning. But what the people behind the Memphis Recording Service have done with the mono recordings is nothing but stunning. Once again they have not just cleaned them up, but also created an artificial stereo sound. Of course the result cannot match a bona fide multitrack recording, but it certainly comes close. In contrast to many other soundboard recordings the ones here can be played through a decent hi fi system without damaging your ears. I'm pretty sure that not much more can be done to improve these old mono tape recordings.

To read more about the concerts, just tap on the links:

CD 1: May 12th (Midnight Show)        CD 2: May 13th (Special 3:AM Show)