The collector's edition of "Back In Memphis" was released by Follow That Dream Records in 2012. It's a set of two compact discs, housed in a 7" digipak and accompanied by a booklet with background information, pictures, etc. The recordings were mastered and mixed by Sebastian Jeansson and Vic Anesini and the result sounds nothing but great. The only thing that kind of annoyes me is the designation "unedited masters". A master is the final product, everything else is a master take in different stages of the post-production. However, this is complaining on a high comfort level.

I will only describe the tracks, that are not available on the original album or other RCA releases of the time. For a review of "Back In Memphis" tap HERE.

On January 16, 1969 Elvis was down with the flu and so the band recorded a music track. Five days later the recovered singer added his vocals. We hear short rehearsals of the band and a combination of take 4 (the master take of the music track) and take 1 (Elvis' first attempt to add his vocals).

The king and his crew discuss the song, then they start a first walkthrough. It's anything but perfect. The pianist doesn't get the intro right, Elvis sounds very hoarse, misses a lot of notes and has problems with the timing. The performance is so bad, that he has to laugh about the disaster in-between. However, the group continues despite all the mistakes to get a feeling for the song.

Before the first take begins, everybody rehearses the song. Take one is nothing but a false start, with the second attempt Elvis at least reaches the bridge. When he has to sing the line "Child, touch my soul..." with power, his voice cracks and he cancels the take. Chips Moman now asks the drummer to hold back a little and announces the next take. But he soon cancels it, because he misses the required feeling. Take number five is also incomplete, because Elvis looses his step during the "now, now, now, now, now"-part. But even up to that point his performance wasn't a great one, especially the bridge caused him problems. The 14th attempt is a complete performance of the Neil Diamond song.

The tempo is much higher and the instruments are arranged differently. The first take sounds a bit like a country ballad. Elvis has trouble with the timing and also misses several notes. After the song is finished Chips Moman wants to hear the recording. I assume that afterwards it was decided to change the arrangement.

The first two takes are false starts, on the second one Elvis sings "from a jack to a gin". The 3rd try is a complete performance, but Elvis sounds very hoarse and fools around a lot. It sounds more like a jam than a worked-out presentation.

The band rehearses the intro, especially the sitar is audible. The first take is canceled, because Elvis is out of tune at the word "soul". The second try doesn't get past the intro, during the 3rd attempt the king once again fails to sing the word "soul" right. The takes 4 and 5 are canceled by Chips Moman. First he doesn't like the intro, then Elvis again sings out of tune at "soul". Take number 6 finally is a complete walkthrough. The king obviously doesn't know how to sell the song yet, but it's ok for what it is.

The ballad works well right from the start. Of course it's not a perfect performance yet, but Elvis and his crew have the song by the short hairs.

Elvis comes in to late and has trouble with the phrasing and the timing. When he gets lost in the lyrics at the line "would I still see suspicion in your eyes" he turns it into "would I still see...see fuck you rider". Take number 2 is canceled, because the change of tempo doesn't work right, the 3rd attempt is buried because of a mistake of Reggie Young (the guitar player). The following tries are canceled because Elvis doesn't get the timing right at the line "would I still see suspicion in your eyes". Subsequently this part is rehearsed a few times.

After two false starts the king and his group finally manage a complete performance. It's a rocky one, but now everything is going in the right direction.

Elvis and Chips Moman's house band are jamming and fooling around with "Stranger In My Own Hometown". Later Elvis and Chips thought it was so good, that the recording was shortened, enhanced with additional instruments and released. It's great to hear the basis of this track. It would have been even greater, if FTD hadn't decided to fade it out.

The song is played much slower here and the boys are experimenting a bit. Al Pachucki used this rehearsal to allocate the tracks on his mixing desk.

Compared to the earlier takes Elvis sounds much more secure. Nevertheless he still has some trouble with the timing and at one point his voice cracks.

Still not perfect, but certainly an improvement.

By now Elvis has figured out how to sell the song. But he still has problems to control his voice, it's especially obvious at the line "...a love that's dying".

Elvis gets off the lyrics at "...someone else is in my place", but the take is continued until he goofs up the chorus. The third attempt is a complete performance. The band plays flawless, but the lead vocalist doens't get it right. That's why Chips Moman decided to use the music and replace Elvis' vocal part. After Chips had canceled the take Elvis sings "just a little bit of booze".

Here the king sings to a pre-produced music track. Because of his problems with the lyrics, missed notes and jokes this attempt to record "Inherit The Wind" is quite entertaining, but certainly not usable for an official release.

The takes number 2 and 3 are canceled after just a few seconds by Mr. Moman. The 4th try is a complete performance, but here and there the band sounds somewhat insecure.

There are just a few minor details to be ironed out. The 8th take would be selected for post-production.

Chips Moman cancels the take after Elvis had sung the first two words (listen easy). So he jokingly continues with "you can hear Chips calling" instead of "you can hear God calling". What follows is the master take, which later was improved with a vocal overdub and several vocal repairs. Here we get the undubbed version of the track.

First the musicians fail on the intro, then the attempt is canceled due to the slow tempo. After the group has found into the song the performance sounds already similar to the master. But Elvis doesn't hit every note and still has problems with the timing. At the end he tries to sing the chorus in bass-voice.

The first take is just a short false start, the second try is already the groundwork for the master. Elvis later recorded several vocal repairs, but I don't know which parts of the performance were corrected.

Here we get the master take without the later added harmony vocals and instruments. We also hear the little mistakes, that were corrected later as well as Elvis' sing-along during the sitar solo.

Elvis sang to a pre-recorded music track. During the intro the king clicks his toungue, at the end he fools around a bit and sings "a little bit of shit".

The 4th take is two false starts, the following attempt is the basis of the master. At one point Elvis imitates Ned Miller, who had released the original version of "From A Jack To A King". Chips Moman later removed the joke by replacing this part with the same line, which had appeared earlier in the song.

This is the master take without the elements, that were added in post-production.

Elvis asks Chips Moman to keep the previous take by singing "save the last take for me" (to the melody of "Save The Last Dance For Me"). Compared to the released version the harmony voice, the choir and the strings are missing. The performance is also a minute shorter, because the track was extended in post-production.

 Of course the overdubs are missing here, besides that the song runs a bit longer. This is the only version with vocal overdubs, that has survived.

Once again the overdubs are missing and Elvis' harmony vocals cannot be heared, too.

Just like in the case of "And The Grass Won't Pay No Mind" only the final version of Elvis' overdubed vocals can be found in the vaults.