According to his contract with RCA, signed in early 1973, Elvis had to deliver 24 new masters per anno - enough material for two longplayers plus two separate singles. In the first year he barely met the agreement with his recording of 18 tracks in December. In 1974 the king didn't set a foot in a recording studio and the management of RCA had to show a lot of goodwill by considering the live concert, taped in March, to be the expected output. The next year Elvis just found time to record ten new masters, in 1976 he delivered 16 tracks. However, this was only due to the fact, that RCA installed recording equipment in the den of his Graceland mansion. To make it short: Elvis constantly had broken his contract with the label and the situation got even worse, when he didn't even manage to show up at a recording session in Nashville in early 1977.

Because there were not enough tracks to fill the long awaited album, Felton Jarvis decided to accompany the next concert tour with a mobile recording unit. At the time RCA wasn't willing to invest much money in the unreliable diva anymore and just gave him an old 4-track-machine. The studio recordings also were not enhanced with a string section anymore. Instead of booking various hornists and violin players, they had David Briggs overdubbing the stuff with a Moog Synthesizer. Felton Jarvis accompanied Elvis between March 26th and 29th and between April 23rd and May 3rd. Three of the songs were released on the "Moody Blue" album, everything else went straight into the vaults.

In 2002 Ernst M. Jorgensen and Roger Semon decided to issue some of the recordings through Sony's collector's label Follow That Dream Records. The sampler was called "Spring Tours 77" and was the typical release of a single compact disc, housed in a 5" digipak. The picture on the front cover appears to have been streched a bit to make Elvis look thinner. Under the cd tray there's a concert review from 1977, which is astonishingly positive.

After having opened his show with "See See Rider" and "I Got A Woman" Elvis kept his instrument and staged a little guitar session. The performance of "That's All Right" is quite close to what he would deliver a few months later during the "Elvis In Concert" television special.

This is the typical "comedy" version of these days. Elvis and Charlie Hodge are fooling around with Mr. Hodge pretending to be gay. The whole thing is dumb and childish, but the audience has as much fun as the two blokes on stage.

Maybe March is not the correct time of the year for a Xmas song, but at least Elvis is focused again and delivers a nice rendition of the classic. However, the king sounds tired and his voice appears to be somewhat fragile at times. 

Back in 1977 "Trying To Get To You" was one of the few oldies, on which Elvis hadn't lost interest yet. For a second he stumbles upon the words, but otherwise it's a fine and powerful performance.

For me this is the highlight of this album! In contrast to most of his recent concerts Elvis strays from his usual repertoire and spontaneously segues into "Lawdy Miss Clawdy". The song is driven by the piano, but unfortunately Glen D. Hardin had been replaced by Tony Brown, who obviously dosn't know the tune too well. And here comes the interesting part: James Burton jumps in and plays the piano stuff on his guitar. The whole thing has the character of a jam session and everybody obviously has fun. It's so good to hear the "later" Elvis being his old self again.

Even though he dosn't look the way he used to, the king still is able to get the ladies going simply by moving his legs. The reactions still seem to amuse him. It's also nice to hear "Fever", because Elvis didn't include it in many of his 1977 concerts.

The same applies to his first number one hit. Jokingly Elvis pretends not to know the first note and his performance also isn't too serious. But it's certainly entertaining.

This is the performance we know from the "Moody Blue" album, but without the overdubs. It's a far cry from what Elvis had done with the song in 1975, even when he tries to inject some energy, he sounds tired.

First Sherrill Nielsen phonetically yelps the first verse of "O Sole Mio", then Elvis takes over with "It's Now Or Never". When Mr. Nielsen sings "Sta 'nfronte a te" the king misheares it on purpose and promises "OK, I'll stand from temtane". I still love this joke! The performance itself is comparable to the on on the "Elvis In Concert" album, albeit this time he sounds a bit tired.

When a fan asks for "Blue Hawaii" Elvis starts to sing the song, but cancels it after a few words and laughs "watch the musicians panic". Then he segues into the usual "Little Sister", which is sung with zest.

The medley is performed much better than on the album "Elvis In Concert", but still it's far from being done well. Elvis focuses on throwing scarfs into the audience. It's enough to keep the devotees happy.

By 1977 "Help Me" had left the repertoire of the king, so it's nice to get one of his rare performances of the religious country ballad. It's a solid rendition, albeit not as good as the one on the album "Elvis Recorded Live On Stage In Memphis".

The rock'n'roll classic also was rarely done in 1977. Elvis tells the crowd, that he wants to do something fast, but his performance soon disproves his claim. The band is rockin', but the king sounds rather tired. 

As usual "Hound Dog" is trashed by a singer, who mumbles the same four lines over and over again without investing any energy.

Compared to "Hound Dog" this is a powerhouse performance, but of course Elvis still sounds tired and barely is able to keep up with the tempo. However, as a quick reminder of the good ole' days, it's ok.

Obviously in good mood Elvis suggests "Let's do Polk Salad or something dirty like that!" Without doubt the king still likes the song very much, but his voice lacks the necessary power and it sounds as if the band is pushing Elvis instead the other way round. He's simply out of shape and not in the condition to present "Polk Salad Annie" the way it should be done. 

Here we have another concert highlight of the early 1970s, which ceased to be one along the way. By now he has to read the words, he has trouble to hit and hold the notes and sings very low at times.  Of course one has to give Elvis credit for not having sung "Bridge Over Troubled Water" for a few months, but still it's very obvious, that he's lost some of the abilities he used to have.

The same applies here. The king is in good mood and he wants to do something out of the ordinary. But his voice has a tired subtone and when the brass section joins in, it simply drowns him out. Thinking about the great performances of 1974/75, it's just sad to hear him this way.

In contrast to most of the other tracks on this disc Elvis appears to be rested and fit. He performs "Fairytale" a tad too fast, but with quite some zest. Unfortunately his microphone fails at the end of the song, but otherwise it's a solid effort.

After his tour in December 1976 Elvis hadn't included the medley of "Mystery Train" and "Tiger Man" in any of his concerts. But here in Saginaw he pulled it out of the box once more. Felton Jarvis must have been surprised, because he needed the first few bars of the song to start his recording equipment. The song is played slower than in 1975/76, which is an improvement. As expected Elvis cannot compete with most of his earlier renditions of the medley, but in general his performance is ok and he obviously has fun.

A heavily overdubbed version of this recording was released on the "Moody Blue" album. Without all the fancy stuff the whole thing doesn't sound as grandiose, but it's still quite impressive.

Elvis had started to sing "Little Darlin'" in 1975 and also performed it a few times in 1976. In the final year of his life he just did it once. The king has fun with this silly song and laughs a lot. Because Felton was desperate for unreleased material, he included an overdubed version on the "Moody Blue" album. But to be honest, it doesn't belong on an official longplayer. However, during a live show a musical joke like this is acceptable.

The compilation ends with a solid rendition of "My Way". It's comparable to the performance on the album "Elvis In Concert".