Elvis’s most sublime vocal performance ?

When i watch "My Way" from Rapid City 1977, i kind of get
that same feeling. Even in 1977, he still sang with so much conviction on songs that had a meaning to him and My Way from '77 is a great example.

Also, another superb perforance is "Bridge Over Troubled Water" from
April 14th 1972 Greensboro concert. Perhaps the greatest version of the song!

The version of "How great thou art" from the Just pretend CD is nothing less than a masterpice. IF he had done that in Memphis 74 they would have had to give him TWO grammy`s(one wouldn`t be enough)

The version of "How great thou art" from the Just pretend CD is nothing less than a masterpice.

I totally agree with that elvisa !!!

For sure a powerhouse performance.

The version of "How great thou art" from the Just pretend CD is nothing less than a masterpice.

I totally agree with that elvisa !!!

For sure a powerhouse performance.

My favorite version.

That`s one of those performances that makes me think even more about
how sad and what a pitty it was that he didn`t take care of himself, what a waist of the greatest talent ever.

This is the kind of thread where I could keep going.

But we do have to be careful in how we interpret the word "sublime", as Mr Morse said. For instance, I wouldn't call "New Orleans" a sublime vocal, but it is unique, if only for the part where Elvis goes, "Man, you ain't been NOWHERE!" Listen to how he says "nowhere". It's like nothing I've heard in any of his other songs.

I don't we think we do have to be careful in that regard. Sublime doesn't have to suggest a smooth vocal of great beauty. It may generally be considered in those terms, but it simply means outstanding quality and vocals like Jailhouse Rock, One Night etc do fall into that category.

*bump*

EL - TORO
MARGUERITA

Since I've been listening to some of the "Fun In Acapulco" cuts recently, I have to now agree with these answers. Elvis practically throws every trick in the book in for these numbers. "Marguerita" is a new personal favourite of mine -- so sensuous!

Thanks for bumping the thread, Cryo!

I am very tempted to nominate the whole period between March 1960 and January 1964 as "sublime" as far as his vocals go... The His Hand In Mine LP perhaps features his best singing ever ... but even on a pretty mediocre soundtrack like Girls Girls Girls there's some brilliant singing... Because Of Love, Where Do You Come From... and the already mentioned Fun In Acapulco... Marguerita is one of my favourite film songs.

Another vote for Any Day Now...outside of the 50s, his voice never sounded so alive and vibrant, sheer perfection.

The most Sublime would be "Trilogy" from Aloha IMO.

*bump*

EL - TORO
MARGUERITA

Since I've been listening to some of the "Fun In Acapulco" cuts recently, I have to now agree with these answers. Elvis practically throws every trick in the book in for these numbers. "Marguerita" is a new personal favourite of mine -- so sensuous!

And add exotic if you are not familiar with this type music. Jorgensen got it wrong here (just in case anyone went off running to get the otherwise "Bible" of EP's music recordings) with the soundtrack in general. An honest attempt by EP? I think so. suceed? Depends...if you don't care that EP makes no sense whatsover( more than 90% of time) to people fluent in the Spanish language and that the musical arrangements were just as wrong as [Guercio and many (Imo) of his generation messed up and confused the sounds from Mexico, South America (example Now Or Never Mexican horns in EPs live act)] the musical equivalent of drinking fine wine from a water glass with ice! Or imagine (if you can) Julio Iglesias singing Bluegrass? !..

*bump*

EL - TORO
MARGUERITA

Since I've been listening to some of the "Fun In Acapulco" cuts recently, I have to now agree with these answers. Elvis practically throws every trick in the book in for these numbers. "Marguerita" is a new personal favourite of mine -- so sensuous!

And add exotic if you are not familiar with this type music. Jorgensen got it wrong here (just in case anyone went off running to get the otherwise "Bible" of EP's music recordings) with the soundtrack in general. An honest attempt by EP? I think so. suceed? Depends...if you don't care that EP makes no sense whatsover( more than 90% of time) to people fluent in the Spanish language and that the musical arrangements were just as wrong as [Guercio and many (Imo) of his generation messed up and confused the sounds from Mexico, South America (example Now Or Never Mexican horns in EPs live act)] the musical equivalent of drinking fine wine from a water glass with ice! Or imagine (if you can) Julio Iglesias singing Bluegrass? !.. ...About the only thing left for me to do would be to ask you to get a sharpened pencil and stick it to your skin (lightly) and ask you if you got the/my point?! But I wont!!!!

Personally Juan I'd take the "Fun In Acapulco" soundtrack over anything that Julio ever did and thats saying something because he has made some good music. One could argue that Iglesias was no nearer to authentic Latin sounds than Elvis because he sure did bastardise it. That begs the question "what is authentic Latin?

At the time of "Fun In Acapulco" Latin was still developing and even with the benefit of hindsight, to critisise Elvis' sound because it didn't fall into a particular category or rely on the same arrangements seems as harsh as critisizing Harry Belafonte for making a mint from the commercial wizzardry of Calypso.; almost like all the critics who jumped on the bandwagon when Elvis first started out. In reality, it was just as pertinent as as any of the evolving rythms of the era. Did the Africans critisise the Cubans for injecting their Rumba rythms with Spanish music?

The idea was just to make music. In Elvis' case it was to do so whilst selling as many records as possible to an audience who were at the time still largely ignorant to it. One mans difusion is anothers infusion.

Most sublime performance both visually and vocally:
IF I CAN DREAM

*bump*

EL - TORO
MARGUERITA

Since I've been listening to some of the "Fun In Acapulco" cuts recently, I have to now agree with these answers. Elvis practically throws every trick in the book in for these numbers. "Marguerita" is a new personal favourite of mine -- so sensuous!

And add exotic if you are not familiar with this type music. Jorgensen got it wrong here (just in case anyone went off running to get the otherwise "Bible" of EP's music recordings) with the soundtrack in general. An honest attempt by EP? I think so. suceed? Depends...if you don't care that EP makes no sense whatsover( more than 90% of time) to people fluent in the Spanish language and that the musical arrangements were just as wrong as [Guercio and many (Imo) of his generation messed up and confused the sounds from Mexico, South America (example Now Or Never Mexican horns in EPs live act)] the musical equivalent of drinking fine wine from a water glass with ice! Or imagine (if you can) Julio Iglesias singing Bluegrass? !.. ...About the only thing left for me to do would be to ask you to get a sharpened pencil and stick it to your skin (lightly) and ask you if you got the/my point?! But I wont!!!!

Personally Juan I'd take the "Fun In Acapulco" soundtrack over anything that Julio ever did and thats saying something because he has made some good music. One could argue that Iglesias was no nearer to authentic Latin sounds than Elvis because he sure did bastardise it. That begs the question "what is authentic Latin?

At the time of "Fun In Acapulco" Latin was still developing and even with the benefit of hindsight, to critisise Elvis' sound because it didn't fall into a particular category or rely on the same arrangements seems as harsh as critisizing Harry Belafonte for making a mint from the commercial wizzardry of Calypso.; almost like all the critics who jumped on the bandwagon when Elvis first started out. In reality, it was just as pertinent as as any of the evolving rythms of the era. Did the Africans critisise the Cubans for injecting their Rumba rythms with Spanish music?

The idea was just to make music. In Elvis' case it was to do so whilst selling as many records as possible to an audience who were at the time still largely ignorant to it. One mans difusion is anothers infusion.

Word.

Music constantly bleeds into itself -- sometimes on purpose, sometimes by accident.

Does it REALLY matter if mistakes were made? Fur authentic Mexican / Latin sounds, I wouldn't get my education from a two-bit soundtrack like "Fun In Acapulco".

But FIA does have a life and feel all of its own. I think the original complaints would be more serious if Elvis set about attacking the subject in a long-term, serious manner, but since he was just cooking up another soundtrack with a different feel, I think it works perfectly well under its own limited pretensions / stylings, and it *still* has authentic Mexican features, even if it doesn't conform to every last detail.

An honest attempt by EP? I think so. suceed? Depends...if you don't care that EP makes no sense whatsover( more than 90% of time) to people fluent in the Spanish language

Here you're only talking about "Guadalajara", surely? I agree that it was not a very successful attempt at Spanish!

and that the musical arrangements were just as wrong as [Guercio and many (Imo) of his generation messed up and confused the sounds from Mexico, South America (example Now Or Never Mexican horns in EPs live act)] the musical equivalent of drinking fine wine from a water glass with ice! Or imagine (if you can) Julio Iglesias singing Bluegrass? !..

The 76-77 version of "It's Now Or Never" was pretty horrible with those over-the-top trumpets. But apart from those two songs, I agree with Stuart and Cryo here; Elvis was making music, Elvis music... didn't matter to him what "genre" or from what country the music came. And that's one of the reasons why he was the greatest.

The idea was just to make music. In Elvis' case it was to do so whilst selling as many records as possible to an audience who were at the time still largely ignorant to it. One mans difusion is anothers infusion.

I like some Julio Iglesias.. but not a fan or anything..Just in case.But one thing is for certain. Julio Iglesias for me because of his accent sounds like crap in English! And Nat King Cole sounded funny in Spanish.. But one thing these two had over Elvis is that you can understand the real words sung!! If you don't know the language Elvis is great! But if you do he might as well be making animal sounds to the tune of the songs that were that mess of an album sans Bossa Nova... which surely ain't Bossa or Nova!

Just been listening to Stand By Me, now thats sublime.

And Folks! This FIA album was not Elvis exploring world music!! It was one more friggin contract that he had to honor . BTW Rancho Grande rehearsal is pretty good! Surprised me when I heard it. That should say something about material from his head instead of the songs picked out for him for that soundtrack.

Just been listening to Stand By Me, now thats sublime.

That happens to be one of my picks of all time as well.

And Folks! This FIA album was not Elvis exploring world music!! It was one more friggin contract that he had to honor . BTW Rancho Grande rehearsal is pretty good! Surprised me when I heard it. That should say something about material from his head instead of the songs picked out for him for that soundtrack.

Even though I have enjoyed this tangent and engaging you in it, JL ... don't you think it's time you gave it a rest? You not only brought it up, but now have made two extra posts -- right after the other -- on the same subject. For the record: no one has said that Elvis was "exploring world music"; in fact, people like myself and LTB have acknowledged that the movies themselves put Elvis through more stuff than he might otherwise have bothered with. And like it or lump it, "Fun In Acapulco" gave Elvis an extra musical / cultural facet, as an article like the following explains: http://screened.blogspot.com/2005/10/fu ... pulco.html

(EDIT: Made this without seeing your very last post.)

Did the Africans critisise the Cubans for injecting their Rumba rythms with Spanish music?

No. As slaves Africans brought their music and rhythms etc.. to the Island of Cuba when it was a Colony.

This entire topic is both insane and meaningless. It’s impossible to pinpoint Elvis’s most sublime vocal performance without going completely mad. I can list at least a hundred songs that each qualify fully to that honor. To then have to choose among them is madness. I rest my case.

Per

This entire topic is both insane and meaningless. It’s impossible to pinpoint Elvis’s most sublime vocal performance without going completely mad. I can list at least a hundred songs that each qualify fully to that honor. To then have to choose among them is madness. I rest my case.

Nope. That's a damn good point.

I enjoy threads like these because they always end up spotlighting some gems -- gems that then inevitably get dusted off .... or .... in the case of me (rarely these days, since I almost know 'em all) ... PLAYED FOR THE FIRST TIME!!! Fancy that, eh? The time is rapidly approaching when I will have listened to every master that Elvis laid down. And when that happens, I will truly be a complete nutcase, obsessed with every new audience recording, outtake and minute variation I can lay my hands on -- just like the rest of you.

Tomorrow Never Comes! Could have been a show stopper.

Did the Africans critisise the Cubans for injecting their Rumba rythms with Spanish music?

No. As slaves Africans brought their music and rhythms etc.. to the Island of Cuba when it was a Colony.

And the rest is history Juan! I'll rumba to that.