One of the first collector's editions of classic albums was "Fun In Acapulco". Back in 2003 Follow That Dream Records included just one compact disc, but already packaged the edition in 7" digipaks. The original tracks of the album were mastered by Lene Reidel, who also mixed the previously unreleased outtakes. At the time the FTD version was the best sounding source of the songs, later the audio quality was improved on "The Complete Elvis Presley Masters" (2010) and "The RCA Album Collection" (2016). Follow That Dream Records finally released a boxed set of the complete "Fun In Acapulco" sessions in 2019, which I regard the best source at present. Unfortunately FTD refuses to release their products on the streaming platforms and sticks to compact discs and vinyl.

In this review I will focus on the material not included on the original album. To read about RCA Victor's 1963 "Fun In Acapulco" release tap HERE.

The seventh take works very well and also could have been released.

The Amigos are more involved than on the master and Elvis emphasizes some words differently.

The movie version is a splice of the takes 19 and 18. The intro was taken from the 19th attempt, the rest of the performance is from take 18.

The first take is nothing but the opening. Elvis asks "Is there something wrong with the intro?". The second take is taken at a slower pace, which gives the song a very different feeling. Besides that the king jokes a bit and sings "...drink, you fink".

Elvis rehearses the finale, then the producer announces take number 4. But the musicians fail on the intro and so it is canceled. The king jokes "I can't hear it because of the ol' lay. Someone get the ol' lay out of the way. I can't make it, I had her years ago". Take 6 is a complete performance.

Take number 6 is played slower and Elvis doesn't sing as powerful as on the master. At the end he remarks that the finale is to tame for his taste.

The first walkthrough still sounds quite raw. At one point Elvis looses track and simply sings "I don't know".

On the first take Elvis forgets the lyrics and cuts it off by saying "hold it". The second attempt isn't perfect at all, but the group performs the song in its entirety.

Elvis sings "You can't say no" and the first take is canceled. On the second attempt the king doesn't get any further, the third take is nothing but coordination and another failed intro. Finally the group manages to perform the song. The tempo is slower and Elvis obviously has problems to get the lyrics right.

Here the king adds his voice to a pre-produced music track. On his second try he doesn't sing with as much zest as on the master, which is no surprise because the song is in Spanish language.

After the producer has announced the take including the matrix number (which starts with "BO") Elvis turns it into a joke and sings "BO" to the melody of "IO". At the time the Italian song was quite popular and would later be covered by the king himself. He would sing English lyrics and the title would be changed to "Ask Me". By take number 3 the arrangement of "Bossa Nova Baby" is fix and Elvis knows how to handle the song. Once again he changes the words to "...drink, you fink".

In general the performance works well, but at one point Elvis gets lost in the lyrics. Even though everyone knows that the recording is unusable, the performance is continued.

On take 11 Elvis doesn't know when to come in and asks for a cue. The next attempt fails nevertheless. Take number 14 is a complete performance, but lacks the looseness of the master.

By mistake the engineer runs the tape with the music track much too fast, which Elvis comments with "It'll never happen, never happen". But in the end it happens and a complete performance of "Guadalajara" is recorded.