In 2004 Follow That Dream Records finally released a special edition of the record that gave the collector's label its name. The cd was housed in a 5" digi-pak and accompanied by a bookled with background information and photos. Besides the tracks of the original release the special editon also included "Sound Advice" (released by RCA Victor in 1965 on the album "Elvis For Everyone!") and "A Whistling Tune" (re-recorded for "Kid Galahad").

Because the stereo masters were lost in the vaults, FTD presents the tracks of the original release in mono. These recordings were simply remastered, which means interfering noises were removed. The outtakes were recorded with multi track equipment, so they had to be mixed before they could be released. All this work was done by Lene Reidel. With the releases of "The Complete Elvis Presley Masters" (2010) and "The RCA Album Collection" (2016) the sound could be improved. However, back in 2004 FTD's special edition of "Follow That Dream" was the best sounding source of these tracks.

As usual I just deal with the bonus songs and outtakes. For a review of RCA Victor's original release tap HERE.

It's a children's song in which the singer warns his listeners that not every advice is a good one. The lyrics play with the ambiguous word "sound". Elvis needed six takes for the song written by Bill Giant, Bernie Baum and Florence Kaye.

This happy song was penned by Edwards/David and recorded within four takes. The whistling was overdubbed later by Ray Walker, the bass singer of The Jordanaires. Finally the song was rejected, but later used in the movie "Kid Galahad". For this project Elvis re-recorded the it on October 26, 1961.

After the take was announced Elvis and his musicians coordinate themselves. On the first take there is a stronger emphasize on the rhythm. After 1.5 minutes Elvis gets lost in the lyrics, stops and askes to hear what he has recorded so far. The second take is complete, the rhythm is not emphasized as much and the arrangement of the harmony voices has been changed.

On the first attempt Elvis misses his cue. Take 2 works well and already sounds close to the master. Here and there the king still needs to work on his phrasing and he also doesn't sound as enthusiastic as on the master take.

Obviously FTD wanted to present a failed attempt to record followed by a complete performance. So they simply switched the chronological order of the takes. On take 2 Elvis has a lump in the throat and has to harrumph. The first take works well, even though the king sings certain parts different compared to the master.  

The second attempt is nothing more than the words "did you ever notice". The next try fails because the pianist goofs up the intro. Take 3 is a complete performance, but Elvis has troubles with the melody and his timing. There's still a lot of work to do.

The take is announced, in the background someone clears his/her throat. Because this also happens while the intro is played, the recording is stopped. The sound engineer doesn't regard these failed attempts a separate take and keeps the tape rolling. By now Elvis has warmed up to the tune and delivers a strong performance.

In funny voice Elvis derides the line "So I say YOU KNOW WHAT?, she says WHAT?, I say WHAT" which leads to a cancellation of take 2. The next attempt fails because Elvis stumbles upon the first words. He apologizes and the song is started again. Now the king makes it through the "what"-part, but fails a few seconds later. Take 4 also doesn't work because Elvis gets out of step. The sixth try works quite well, at least until the last few bars.

The pianist plays a few cords, we also hear some studio talk. The performance itself works very well, there are just a few minor things that have to be ironed out.

The tempo is much slower than on the master, so the song drags a bit. In general "Sound Advice" doesn't seem to challenge anyone.

Take 5 is a beautiful performance that could easily have been chosen for release.

The drummer misses his cue, the second attempt fails at the bridge. On take 4 the musicians goof up the start and when the song finally gets going there are so many timing mistakes that it's cancelled in mid-song. Take 5 runs much longer, but at some point Elvis gets out of step and kills the attempt to record the song. The track ends with a splice of take 6 and take 7. The old magnetic tape was damaged, so FTD edited take 6 and used the finale of take 7.

Another great performance that could have been chosen for release.

Because the stereo master was lost, BMG used take 4 on the album "Command Performances". At the time it was wrongly labeled as "take 2". It's a great performance with minimal differences to the master.

Here we get to hear take 7, which Elvis finally selected as master take. Unfortunately something went wrong with the digital transfer of the old analogue tape, so the recording runs too slow. Maybe a check of the product before release would have helped.

Elvis not just recorded "Angel" with his band and the harmony singers, he also put a separate vocal overdub on tape. The first take is stopped in mid-song with the king calling for Bill Porter (the sound engineer).

This is the tune without the whistling. We get to hear take 4 as recorded live in the studio, though FTD has cut the parts that were later overdubbed by Ray Walker. I don't like this kind of editing, because I think a collector's label should present the recordings in their original form.

Elvis sings the song for just a few seconds. This wasn't done in a recording studio, but directly on the movie set.