Original Album Classics: Today, From Elvis Presley...

...Boulevard, Moody Blue.

Does anyone have this 3 CD set? You get all three albums for about a tenner. Good value in anyone's book. What is interesting though is that the Moody Blue version is the reissue that includes the Boulevard album. So you get From Elvis Presley Boulevard twice! Whichever label produced this clearly doesn't have a Quality Control department as they've manufactured an unnecessary CD.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Elvis-Presley ... 46094e9fc9

...Boulevard, Moody Blue.

Does anyone have this 3 CD set? You get all three albums for about a tenner. Good value in anyone's book. What is interesting though is that the Moody Blue version is the reissue that includes the Boulevard album. So you get From Elvis Presley Boulevard twice! Whichever label produced this clearly doesn't have a Quality Control department as they've manufactured an unnecessary CD.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Elvis-Presley ... 46094e9fc9

It's called SONY. And they did exactly the same again in the 20CD set from a few months back.

Yeah it's nuts. I had a look at one in HMV a while ago, there's the duplicated tracklist on the back for all to see. What a joke of a product!

Why did they drop Let Me Be There from the track listing when they reissued MOODY BLUE combined with the BLVD album? Never understood this.

Why did they drop Let Me Be There from the track listing when they reissued MOODY BLUE combined with the BLVD album? Never understood this.

I think at the time or in the booklet it stated that 'Let Me Be There' was readily available on the 'Live in Memphis' CD. Which frankly is/was a poor excuse; there was plenty of space there and it was on the original album...

Why did they drop Let Me Be There from the track listing when they reissued MOODY BLUE combined with the BLVD album? Never understood this.

I think at the time or in the booklet it stated that 'Let Me Be There' was readily available on the 'Live in Memphis' CD. Which frankly is/was a poor excuse; there was plenty of space there and it was on the original album...

Not even an excuse then. Since when did they bother about lifting tracks from an album because they were 'readily available' on untold other releases?

Why Let Me Be There was ever included on the original album in the first place is a mystery... and although from the current year, Little Darlin' was another poor choice. Not that there was a mountain of material to choose from but as far as live tracks to consider, they could have looked at including possibly Help Me and/or Fairytale from the spring tours.

Why Let Me Be There was ever included on the original album in the first place is a mystery... and although from the current year, Little Darlin' was another poor choice. Not that there was a mountain of material to choose from but as far as live tracks to consider, they could have looked at including possibly Help Me and/or Fairytale from the spring tours.

The new album for the most part had to include new songs. How would a new live version of Help Me be any better when a live version from 1974 had already been issued, as had the studio version on the Promised Land album? While Let Me Be There was not a new song, it at least was from a live album that had sold relatively poorly and yet fitted the feel of Moody Blue rather well.

Moody Blue may have been the only regular Elvis album that transposed a previous album track from another release, but there was a precedent for this. Bobby Darin, Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr (and no doubt others) had done the same thing during the 1960s, and I see little wrong with it. Ironically, most people who bought Moody Blue had no idea that it was on the live Memphis album, since they simply bought Presley's latest album in the wake of his death. The fact that the track comes from another release really doesn't stop my enjoyment of Moody Blue at all, and I find it a far more enjoyable listen than FEPB.

.... it at least was from a live album that had sold relatively poorly....

That's hardly surprising considering it was the third live album to be released in two years. It was then closely followed by the 'Having Fun' debacle. Could you imagine any other artist getting away with that? They'd obviously given up on Elvis at that point, particularly after the Nashville no show.

Another point is whether the 1973 buyout deal ran to live performances? I assume so. If it did then it was in Elvis' interests to release live recordings of current material.

.... it at least was from a live album that had sold relatively poorly....

That's hardly surprising considering it was the third live album to be released in two years. It was then closely followed by the 'Having Fun' debacle. Could you imagine any other artist getting away with that? They'd obviously given up on Elvis at that point, particularly after the Nashville no show.

Another point is whether the 1973 buyout deal ran to live performances? I assume so. If it did then it was in Elvis' interests to release live recordings of current material.

The sad thing about the 1974 album is that it was one of the most enjoyable live albums since On Stage. Aloha was pedestrian when taken away from the "event" scenario, and MSG feels rushed and has virtually no chat at all from Elvis, which means the all-important charisma is sadly at a low level despite the professional performance. I feel the Memphis album benefits from Elvis being in what appears to be very good spirits and very good voice and, while some people criticise the original mix, it at least felt like stadium concert for the first time on an Elvis record.

I think the edited version works better than the complete concert because it erases many of the throwaway performances. On the original LP, virtually all the oldies get a decent workout. I Got A Woman is cleverly edited (if the in-concert version from 1977 was edited in the same way it would have made Elvis sound considerably more coherent), and there are nice versions of My Baby Left Me, Lawdy Miss Clawdy and Trying To get To You. Some don't like the rock n roll medley, but I think it works well, and at least shows Elvis trying to work in the classic songs in a new way. Robert Matthew Walker suggests that it is Presley's worst album, and his most redundant. But, aside from On Tour which included some of the songs, this was an enjoyable recording of concert staples that had previously not made an actual release (Lawdy Miss Clawdy, How Great Thou Art, Trying To Get To You, I Got A Woman), plus there are new live songs Why me Lord, Let Me Be There and My Baby Left Me. Yes, some of the oldies were on the 68 comeback album, but these are vastly different arrangements.

If RCA had any sense, they probably would have withheld the release of the album for a year or two so as to not make 3 live albums in 3 years. But, despite that, it's a refreshing live album which is upbeat for the vast majority of its running time, with the lack of the big ballads and the vastly different sound making it a welcome change from what had gone before.

Agree. Good post.

Why Let Me Be There was ever included on the original album in the first place is a mystery... and although from the current year, Little Darlin' was another poor choice. Not that there was a mountain of material to choose from but as far as live tracks to consider, they could have looked at including possibly Help Me and/or Fairytale from the spring tours.

The new album for the most part had to include new songs. How would a new live version of Help Me be any better when a live version from 1974 had already been issued, as had the studio version on the Promised Land album? While Let Me Be There was not a new song, it at least was from a live album that had sold relatively poorly and yet fitted the feel of Moody Blue rather well.

I'm not sure that I follow how Let Me Be There fit the feel of the Moody Blue album but regardless, choosing a current live release (Help Me was just an example) vs. one previously released track from 3 years prior seems a logical choice. At the time of the album's release I'm sure it went relatively unnoticed by most people as just another live track along with Unchained Melody, Little Darlin' and If You Love Me...