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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