In late March 2024, somewhat coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the engagement, Follow That Dream Records released a set of three compact discs called "Stateline Sahara 1974".  It offers soundboard recordings of the dinner show from May 19th as well as the midnight shows Elvis gave on May 20th and 25th. The sound carriers are housed in a 5" fold-out digipak, nicely designed with reprints of memorabilia and photos from this season. However, why they put a picture from the 1974 fall tour on the cover remains as misterious as the reason of sticking to the cd format.

While all three shows are good ones, they are getting better with every disc. At least in my view. Each of them features songs, that were not part of the king's regular program of the period, so FTD managed to come up with something interesting. The rarer titles include "Spanish Eyes" (performed just a few times after Elvis' Vegas stint in January/February 1974), "The Wonder Of You" (rarely done after 1971) as well as "I'm Leavin'" and "You Gave Me A Mountain" (both omitted since the "Elvis Summer Festival 1973"). None of the shows was recorded in its entirety, the instrumental introduction "Also Sprach Zarathustra" was always left out. On May 25th the tape ran out during "Funny, How Time Slips Away", so half of the performance as well as the following "Can't Help Falling In Love" is missing. But I guess nobody needs to loose sleep over these things.

For reviews of the individual shows, just tap on the links.

May 19, 1974 (Dinner Show)    May 20, 1974 (Midnight Show)    May 25th (Midnight Show)