In 1971, RCA records assigned one of their producers, Joan Deary, to oversee the production of a live album compiled from recordings of songs performed by Elvis during his first Las Vegas engagement of 1972 beginning on 26 January. For eight shows over four days, from his dinner show on 14 February until his midnight show in 17 February, parts of those shows were recorded. Those multi-track recordings ranged in length from show to show, from a single song at one show, to a maximum of twelve at another but none were recorded in full.
As with many things, internal politics became an issue, as a conflict arose between Joan Deary and Elvis' own producer Felton Jarvis as to who should actually be in overall charge of the project. As a result, the proposed album, titled "Standing Room Only" was shelved and RCA decided instead to record and release one of Elvis' Madison Square Garden shows, using the album art initially intended for the "Standing Room Only" album, with a photograph taken at the 26 January 1972 opening show.
The multi-track recordings were then stored away in RCA's vaults, essentially forgotten about, and would forever be collectively known as "The Joan Deary Tapes". Many of the recordings would be drip fed to the public as the years wore on, although the single release of "An American trilogy" would be first to be heard as it was released soon after it was recorded. Of the forty one songs recorded over those eight shows, all but six have now been released officially, mainly through Sony's Elvis collectors label "Follow That Dream". The label resurrected the original project in 2009, and it included all the material intended for the original album.
It seems that in the next few months and additional eight unreleased tracks will be made available on a new three disc deluxe set on Sony’s Elvis collectors label Follow That Dream titled Elvis - Now In Person. In that instance these tracks will be added in an additional compilation in due course.
The first show to have any selections recorded was the 14 February Dinner Show, but only one complete songs was recorded including a rendition of An American Trilogy, and this will be included in the upcoming FTD release. This first volume in the series therefore is compiled from the recordings at the midnight show on the same date.
Thirteen songs were recorded in part or in full at this show and currently only these seven have been released although All Shook Up will be made available on the new FTD set. The other unreleased tracks from this show are, in chronological order :
Proud Mary (incomplete - ending only); You Gave Me A Mountain; Until It’s Time For You To Go (incomplete - start only); Polk Salad Annie (incomplete - ending only); Help Me Make It Through The Night (incomplete – start only) and The Band Introductions (incomplete - ending only).
Tracklisting
00:00 Never Been To Spain
03:27 Love Me
05:22 Little Sister / Get Back
07:16 Teddy Bear / Don’t Be Cruel
09:08 Hound Dog
10:15 A Big Hunk O' Love
12:19 An American Trilogy
This second volume is sourced from Elvis’ 15 February 1970 Dinner Show, the second show that RCA would record relatively substantial material for the eventually abandoned Standing Room Only project.
Six songs were recorded from this show and all but two remain unreleased and those tracks may appear on the possible upcoming Elvis Now 1972 set. The unreleased songs are Never Been to Spain and You Gave Me A Mountain, both of which were captured during the previous show.
The four released tracks, which are actually five songs in total, have a distinct fifties flavour, with Elvis having recorded all of these during that decade. However, despite them being largely sung at a faster tempo than the originals, they are not quite yet at the throwaway stage that would be habitual in the coming years.
The standout is undoubtedly A Big Hunk O’ Love, just introduced to Elvis’ set list on opening night but this was also the engagement where Elvis began singing the hybrid renditions of Hound Dog. Also of note, is the excellent on stage banter by Elvis and even in early 1972 he is telling the story of appearing on the Ed Sullivan show. It is still a variation of what we heard in previous years but somehow is still seems fresh.
Tracklisting
00:00 All Shook Up
01:02 Teddy Bear / Don’t Be Cruel (medley)
02:50 Banter / Hound Dog
05:00 A Big Hunk O’ Love
This show saw the most comprehensive amount of recordings thus far with the majority of the show captured by RCA. The first third and closing couple of songs are essentially what was recorded at this show.
Only An American Trilogy from this show saw any sort of release until relatively recently, released in 1980 on Elvis Aron Presley, also known as The Silver Box Set. This remains the only official album on which that particular rendition can be heard.
The remaining tracks were all released in April 2007 on the Follow That Dream album An American Trilogy. This album saw these song supplemented by songs from other songs to give the appearance of a complete show.
Tracklistng
00:00 Also Sprach Zarathustra
01:13 See See Rider
04:00 Proud Mary
06:36 Never Been To Spain
One of the finest versions of this song by Elvis featuring some great close harmony with Charlie Hodge and excellent guitar work by the incomparable James Burton.
10:05 You Gave Me A Mountain
These early renditions are all quite superb and contain an intimacy sometimes lacking in subsequent future renditions.
13:17 Love Me
15:00 All Shook Up
16:00 (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear / Don’t Be Cruel
17:54 Hound Dog
19:54 An American Trilogy
24:29 Can’t Help Falling In Love
26:08 Closing Vamp
This show saw just four songs recorded by RCA, and it is perhaps understandable that they concentrated almost exclusively on new additions to the set list. The songs had been included for the first time at the opening show on 26 January and had been ever present in the interim.
However, this was the fifth show that RCA had been recording and the trio of Never Been To Spain, You Gave Me A Mountain and An American Trilogy were captured for the fourth consecutive show. Curiously, Can’t Help Falling In Love, the closing show was also recorded.
These recordings lay in RCA’s vaults for over forty years, until March 2014, when they finally found an official release on Follow That Dream’s two disc set Destination USA.
Tracklisting
00:00 Never Been To Spain
03:33 You Gave Me A Mountain
06:48 An American Trilogy
11:32 Can’t Help Falling In Love
This was the show from which all of the masters were collected, but due to the shelving of the original album concept in favour of the live Madison Square Garden, the recordings were released sporadically in the coming years. Only six songs were recorded, half of which were the usual for this project, Never Been to Spain, You Gave Me A Mountain and An American Trilogy.
Each of the other three all had a significance in their inclusion either in the show or engagement itself. A Big Hunk O’ Love had been introduced into the set list for the very first time on opening night, unusual for a fifties song, but each rendition was superb. Both It’s Impossible and The Impossible Dream had been introduced to the show the previous year but had subsequently been dropped. The former was performed here for the very last time and the latter would be heard just once more, at Madison Square Garden on 10 June.
It was not unusual during live recordings for Elvis to either introduce or reintroduce a song for one night so that it could be captured. In August 1969 for example, Elvis introduced three songs from the Memphis recording session for their solo live renditions as RCA were present. A year later, Elvis did the same with both Stranger In The Crowd, Make The World Go Away, Don’t Cry Daddy and In The Ghetto, none of which would be heard again during that engagement. Of those four, only Make The World Go Away and In The Ghetto would be performed live again, albeit fleetingly.
Returning to the songs from this show, only It’s Impossible would appear on a regular album, released on Elvis in 1972 with An American Trilogy chosen for release as a single. The remainder had to wait until September 1995 when they were released en masse on disc 4 of Walk A Mile In My Shoes – The Essential 70’s Masters.
Tracklisting
00:00 Never Been To Spain
03:23 You Gave Me A Mountain
06:35 A Big Hunk O’ Love
08:35 It’s Impossible
12:50 The Impossible Dream
15:23 An American Trilogy
This was the penultimate show at which RCA recorded selections, but the final show which saw public releases of performances. There were songs recorded at the midnight show but those selections all remain unreleased. However, the imminent release of the new Sony/Follow That Dream Elvis Now In Person 1972 set, will see any newly released tracks included in a final volume in due course.
This 17 February dinner show saw Elvis once more include a song specifically for the benefit of the live tapings, It’s Over, introduced to the set list in Lake Tahoe the previous July. This version, the RCA
live master, receives a superb reading by Elvis and like quite a few songs in his live repertoire, benefits from the intimate setting if the Hilton’s main showroom. In all there are only nineteen confirmed live renditions by Elvis and with three of those professionally recorded by RCA on multi track, there is something disproportionate in that statistic!
RCA actually recorded a total of five songs at this show, although An American Trilogy and You Gave Me A Mountain are as yet unreleased. Of the other two, Never Been to Spain has only been released unofficially and is therefore included in this compilation. The other, A Big Hunk O’ Love was released in 1981 on the albums Greatest Hits Volume One and The Sound of Your Cry. These two albums are almost identical both in cover art and track listing, the former being for North American distribution and the latter for Europe, as it coincided with the unedited master of title track being issued as a single.
Track Listing
00:00 Never Been To Spain
03:40 It’s Over
06:04 A Big Hunk O’ Love