Almost to the day 25 years after the original airplay of "Aloha From Hawaii" in the United States (which was delayed to the live broadcast), a remixed and remastered version of the concert event has been issued by BMG. It has to rank as one of the all-time best sounding releases so far of concert tour material made available by BMG. Apart from getting the complete show (now clocking in at 63,5 minutes) we also get the five bonus songs cut immediately after the show. And all of that in stunning and simply unmatched sound quality. Some of Elvis’ comments (e.g. after “Hound dog”) have not even been included in the video release of the show, so they should be new to most fans.

It was 10 years ago that BMG first released "The Alternate Aloha", which covered the rehearsal concert of the same show. It was next to the release of the “Always On My Mind” CD in 1985 one of the early attempts of BMG to provide Elvis' studio and live material from the 70’s with much improved sound quality. Despite of the improved sound, the “Alternate Aloha” release unfortunately suffered from too much tampering. The loudness levels varied as much as 6 dB between songs, and Elvis’ voice as well as the audience reaction was heavily subjected to added echo and delay effects.

What a difference good mastering (and the engineer) makes can be heard in new "Aloha From Hawaii" release. The sound is crystal clear, no tape hiss and no experimental mixing of instruments or voices. Especially clear are the piano and drums, with the orchestra instruments (e.g. flute during “American trilogy”) being very present. A quite distinctive (and unprecedented for BMG) feature of this release is the bass line (featuring Jerry Scheff), which is clearly audible throughout the whole concert. Typically BMG concert mixes do not emphasize the bass part, which - at least in the LP age - could be attributed to the EQ'ing of the LP mastertape.

However, with the frequency range of the CD, the mix has now been fully restored. A clear difference to the LP master previously released on CD. In my opinion the sound quality of this release even surpasses the BMG release “An Afternoon In The Garden" from the previous year. Presumably the original multi-track tapes for the satellite special must have been in better condition. The only BMG concert recordings on an equal sonic footing to the Aloha show are probably the remastered February 1972 songs as featured on Disc 5 of the "Essential 70's Masters" set. These are outstanding in their own right and quite well transport the atmosphere of the Las Vegas Hilton showroom.

The artwork of the new release is well though out. The only snag is probably the picture on the back side of the booklet. It shows a concert Elvis (ca. 1972) inserted into a scene from the movie "Blue Hawaii". One wishes, BMG had used a picture from the Aloha show for that matter (a mistake already made with the cover of the original release). The one used so prominently in the very successful German "Elvis Forever" series would have been a great choice (a standing Elvis without the Aloha belt, singing to the camera during the bonus song sessions).

Let's hope that BMG will continue the remastering of its live archives. The 25th anniversary of the original "Live On Stage In Memphis" release from 1974 comes up next year. One also wishes that “Elvis in concert" were to undergo the same treatment. Despite of the excellent recording technology available at the time the release was tampered by heavy overdubbing and a distorted running order.

Well done, BMG, keep up the good work...

Reviewed by Wolfgang Pesch