With "Devil In Disguise - The Lost Album
Sessions" we get to hear all the stuff, Elvis
recorded in May 1963 / January 1964 for the
successor of "Pot Luck With Elvis". Soon after
these sessions it was decided to release a third
installment of the "Golden Records" series
instead and some of the newly recorded material
was used to beef up the "Fun In Acapulco"
soundtrack album. Because this lead to having
not enough material for a new studio album,
Elvis taped another few songs in early 1964.
However, because he was doing three movies per
year and the accordant soundtrack albums outsold
his regular longplayers, the idea of a new
studio album was scrapped and the songs were
used to to fill the b-sides of singles or to
extend the running time of soundtracks.
Because the fans were speculating about what
this album might have been like, BMG released a
compilation called "For The Asking - The Lost
Album" in late 1991. Twenty years later Follow
That Dream Records also imagined such an album
and issued "Elvis Sings Memphis Tennessee". It
was given the same treatment as the collector's
editions of real albums, so the masters were
spiced up with a truckload of outtakes. The
covers of these releases can be seen below.
Of course the sessions
box, released by FTD in July 2022, also includes
all the masters. But it also features all the
outtakes, so we get to hear everything Elvis put
on tape on May 26/27, 1963 and January 12, 1964.
Everything was newly mixed and mastered and
sounds clear as a bell. The packaging was done
the usual way, the compact discs are housed in a
digipak (designed in the style of old tape
boxes) and there's also a booklet with lots of
background information and photos. The whole
thing looks as stunning as it sounds.
Unfortunately Ernst M. Jorgensen and Roger
Semon, the producers of this boxed set, are
living in the past and don't distribute their
stuff through the streaming platforms. So once
again you need to own one of these good, ole'
cd-players to be able to listen to the tracks.
To check out the details,
just tap on the links below:
CD 1 (The Masters)
CD 2 (The Sessions)
CD 3 (The
Sessions...Continued)
Verdict
In most cases the arrangements were set
right from the start, so the outtakes don't
offer too much variation. But the songs
themselves are great, Elvis is in fine voice
and the presentation couldn't be any better.
(C) Follow That
Dream Records / Sony Music Entertainment