American Trilogy 3 LP Boxset cut by Bob Jones

[LesterB]

Just picked this up from ebay - cut by Bob Jones. It sounds phenomenally good! Just playing High Heel Sneakers - not overly sure how it could sound any better.

7EE14E63-C22C-45AA-B9A6-AAFAAA765944.jpeg

Tracklist
Position Title/Credits Duration
1955-1958
A1 Heartbreak Hotel
A2 Blue Suede Shoes
A3 I Want You I Need You I Love You
A4 My Baby Left Me
A5 Hound Dog
A6 Don't Be Cruel
A7 Love Me Tender
A8 All Shook Up
A9 That's When Your Heartaches Begin
B1 Paralysed
B2 Lawdy, Miss Clawdy
B3 I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone
B4 I Forgot To Remember To Forget
B5 Just Because
B6 Jailhouse Rock
B7 Teddy Bear
B8 Party
B9 Got A Lot O' Livin' To Do
1960-1968
C1 Wild In The Country
C2 His Latest Flame
C3 Rock-A-Hula Baby
C4 Good Luck Charm
C5 She's Not You
C6 (You're The) Devil In Disguise
C7 Crying In The Chapel
C8 Ain't That Lovin' You Baby
D1 Indescribably Blue
D2 Love Letters
D3 Long Legged Girl
D4 There's Always Me
D5 You Gotta Stop
D6 You'll Never Walk Alone
D7 Your Time Hasn't Come Yet Baby
D8 Almost In Love
1968-1974
E1 Guitar Man
E2 High Heel Sneakers
E3 U.S. Male
E4 Memories
E5 In The Ghetto
E6 Suspicious Minds
E7 Kentucky Rain
E8 I've Lost You
F1 I Just Can't Help Believing
F2 Until It's Time For You To Go
F3 The Wonder Of You
F4 I'm Leavin'
F5 Burning Love
F6 The Next Step In Love
F7 My Way
F8 American Trilogy

[londonflash]

I shall be keeping an eye out for this now.

Recently bought a Bob Jones Kissin' Cousins and Elvis Country off ebay.

[drjohncarpenter]

Just picked this up from ebay - cut by Bob Jones. It sounds phenomenally good! Just playing High Heel Sneakers - not overly sure how it could sound any better.



Tracklist
Position Title/Credits Duration
1955-1958
A1 Heartbreak Hotel
A2 Blue Suede Shoes
A3 I Want You I Need You I Love You
A4 My Baby Left Me
A5 Hound Dog
A6 Don't Be Cruel
A7 Love Me Tender
A8 All Shook Up
A9 That's When Your Heartaches Begin
B1 Paralysed
B2 Lawdy, Miss Clawdy
B3 I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone
B4 I Forgot To Remember To Forget
B5 Just Because
B6 Jailhouse Rock
B7 Teddy Bear
B8 Party
B9 Got A Lot O' Livin' To Do
1960-1968
C1 Wild In The Country
C2 His Latest Flame
C3 Rock-A-Hula Baby
C4 Good Luck Charm
C5 She's Not You
C6 (You're The) Devil In Disguise
C7 Crying In The Chapel
C8 Ain't That Lovin' You Baby
D1 Indescribably Blue
D2 Love Letters
D3 Long Legged Girl
D4 There's Always Me
D5 You Gotta Stop
D6 You'll Never Walk Alone
D7 Your Time Hasn't Come Yet Baby
D8 Almost In Love
1968-1974
E1 Guitar Man
E2 High Heel Sneakers
E3 U.S. Male
E4 Memories
E5 In The Ghetto
E6 Suspicious Minds
E7 Kentucky Rain
E8 I've Lost You
F1 I Just Can't Help Believing
F2 Until It's Time For You To Go
F3 The Wonder Of You
F4 I'm Leavin'
F5 Burning Love
F6 The Next Step In Love
F7 My Way
F8 American Trilogy

BOPPIN' BOB and DE LANE LEA etched in the vinyl run-out.

Engineer and studio. He was terrific.

However, this set is over 40 years old. Surely some of the work on this same material in the last decade, issued on RCA and FTD, merits attention as well.

[LesterB]

BF34C0E0-63D6-4ED3-AD25-8B0C01AFE37F.jpeg

Certainly, the digital FTD sounds superb and in many cases has more detail as they are using original master tapes. The FTD vinyl for the most part has not been mastered properly and sounds worse than their CD counterparts when they should sound identical.

However, there are many outstanding analogue Elvis pressings (prior to 1984) that have the detail the FTDs have as they are taken from first generation tapes but also have greater dynamics than the FTDs. What I mean by this is that the guitar strings and drums have more of a thwack than the digital versions. This has nothing to do with mastering incompetence but more of a mastering decision whereby the edge of the guitar and drum sounds have been rolled off. As I write this I’m playing From Elvis in Memphis 1969 Indianapolis press which clearly sounds better than the FTD remasters and blows the FTD vinyl trilogy pressings away.

1E25112E-6292-4CCD-A7FC-85230041A4D6.jpeg

BF34C0E0-63D6-4ED3-AD25-8B0C01AFE37F.jpeg

[elvis-fan]

Your sound room looks great, Lester!! I have the very same Tupelo poster hanging in my home office!!

[hli]

Certainly, the digital FTD sounds superb and in many cases has more detail as they are using original master tapes. The FTD vinyl for the most part has not been mastered properly and sounds worse than their CD counterparts when they should sound identical.

However, there are many outstanding analogue Elvis pressings (prior to 1984) that have the detail the FTDs have as they are taken from first generation tapes but also have greater dynamics than the FTDs. What I mean by this is that the guitar strings and drums have more of a thwack than the digital versions. This has nothing to do with mastering incompetence but more of a mastering decision whereby the edge of the guitar and drum sounds have been rolled off. As I write this I’m playing From Elvis in Memphis 1969 Indianapolis press which clearly sounds better than the FTD remasters and blows the FTD vinyl trilogy pressings away.

That's a nice looking audio setup.

Judging by photo it's not the standard everyday audio set up with which people listen music to.

Due to costs or the need to keeping it simple most people have a standard or below standard audio set up. The difference in audio quality and dynamics
are the most audible when playing on high quality audio equipment.

Ik know people playing records on those terrible but nice looking suitcase turntables or playing music over those lightweighted bluetooth speakers.

The difference in audio quality as you discribe will be practically not noticeable to those.

I once had recommended an LP to someone because of the audiophile pressing. Later i found out he was not impressed at all. Back then i didn't quite understand why, but now i know his light weighted record player screamed plastic all over the place. Nothing adjustable and the cheapest cartridge/ stylus possible.

I think that's worth mentioning in understanding audio quality before people start running to stores and record fairs in search of those records.

[LesterB]

I think that's worth mentioning in understanding audio quality before people start running to stores and record fairs in search of those records.

Yes - a good point; in part, I posted the set-up to put my earlier comments in context. Having a high end system really brings alive a good pressing but it still does nothing for many of the lifeless sounding FTD vinyls of which I only have 5 or so titles left now.

[Johnny 99]

that was one of my first albums (box sets) as a kid- it was mail order and advertised extensively on TV in the UK at the time. Good to see it again after all these years.

[LesterB]

I’m wondering if the track listing was sent to RCA USA and they made up a copy tape for pressing in the UK? It is worth noting that the 50s tracks are significantly better sound quality than these UK pressings:

[frus75]

Lester , my friend in this journey of finding the best sounding vinyl records, has a wonderful setup. His gear is top notch. But there are elements of the sound signature perfectly audible on lesser hardware.

Currently I have a very humble couple of sonos five with sub, and my turntable is a technics 1500 and a 720ml audio technica capsule.

Well, I swear to God that Bob Jones had a way of doing amazing mastering. Sometimes he reused the British tapes, sometimes USA sent new copies of certain songs, sometimes he even had the privilege of handling the session tapes (like essential 2).

His work blows MOST albums , even current masterings, away. Loving you and king creole are definite versions. Loving you sounds better than the great Kevin Gray mastering from Friday music.

Elvis is back is superb. I happened to buy speedway last week: on the movie masters, distortion is almost gone and the bonus track as are amazing .

On Girls Girls he insisted on balancing tracks per side . Originally, RCA put a lot of playing time on side A (compared to B side) as the songs were featured in the order they appeared on the movie and RCA wanted return to sender to open side 2.

So the 7 songs on side A clocked at around 16:30 and the 6 on side B at around 13:30. So Jones put earth boy on side B track 1, in order to have a similar playing time on each side, in order to master it better. Anyway, it’s also the best vinyl version of the soundtrack.

The thing is that his work sounds excellent but, more important, it is very noticeable, your hear it immediately. And it’s kind of weird, because most of his work ended on cheap albums, I mean either budget Camden releases or simple pressings of Elvis catalogue for the regular market at affordable prices. No
180 gr., no high virgin vinyl or other things. No 100€ per record. No. Simply music sounding at its best.

[LesterB]

Iván, is Speedway definitely Bob Jones? I have the RCA International green label but cannot see his initials or name in the deadwax?

[frus75]

Iván, is Speedway definitely Bob Jones? I have the RCA International green label but cannot see his initials or name in the deadwax?

My friend, I’m not at home. As long as I remember this one didn’t have Bob Jones on the dead was, but more and more I think that either he did more uncredited work either (I’m leaning to that) he kindly enlightened other engineer with his work and they applied similar proceedings. Because this Speedway sure sounds like Bob Jones … of course it’s just a theory,

[elvis-fan]

Do either of you have a copy of The Sun Collection (1979 - blue or orange label) that Bob worked on. I'm curious how the sound is on any of those releases.

[minkahed]

Lester , my friend in this journey of finding the best sounding vinyl records, has a wonderful setup. His gear is top notch. But there are elements of the sound signature perfectly audible on lesser hardware.

Currently I have a very humble couple of sonos five with sub, and my turntable is a technics 1500 and a 720ml audio technica capsule.

Well, I swear to God that Bob Jones had a way of doing amazing mastering. Sometimes he reused the British tapes, sometimes USA sent new copies of certain songs, sometimes he even had the privilege of handling the session tapes (like essential 2).

His work blows MOST albums , even current masterings, away. Loving you and king creole are definite versions. Loving you sounds better than the great Kevin Gray mastering from Friday music.

Elvis is back is superb. I happened to buy speedway last week: on the movie masters, distortion is almost gone and the bonus track as are amazing .

On Girls Girls he insisted on balancing tracks per side . Originally, RCA put a lot of playing time on side A (compared to B side) as the songs were featured in the order they appeared on the movie and RCA wanted return to sender to open side 2.

So the 7 songs on side A clocked at around 16:30 and the 6 on side B at around 13:30. So Jones put earth boy on side B track 1, in order to have a similar playing time on each side, in order to master it better. Anyway, it’s also the best vinyl version of the soundtrack.

The thing is that his work sounds excellent but, more important, it is very noticeable, your hear it immediately. And it’s kind of weird, because most of his work ended on cheap albums, I mean either budget Camden releases or simple pressings of Elvis catalogue for the regular market at affordable prices. No
180 gr., no high virgin vinyl or other things. No 100€ per record. No. Simply music sounding at its best.

Truly amazing post here and I appreciate the effort and depth you put in to the reply.

So the albums you are speaking of are from the early 80’s RCA International?

Looks like I’m going to have to seek out a few more for the collection. Thanks again.

[LesterB]

Minkahed

Ivan is the person who first pointed me in the direction of excellent sounding analogue Elvis - namely Indianapolis pressings from 1976 and 1977.

Back to your question above about RCA International from the 80s - not all RCA International pressings are cut by Bob Jones but many are - see my list of LPs (not exhaustive) in the dedicated Bob Jones thread. This RCA International cut by Jack (?) is the most affordable for nr mint best sounding analogue pressing of Elvis’ Christmas album https://www.discogs.com/release/2479473-Elvis-Presley-Elvis-Christmas-Album.

There are also some amazing sounding analogue Elvis pressing that are not Bob Jones.

[LesterB]

Minkahed

Iván is the person who first pointed me in the direction of excellent sounding analogue Elvis - namely Indianapolis pressings from 1976 and 1977.

Back to your question above about RCA International from the 80s - not all RCA International pressings are cut by Bob Jones but many are - see my list of LPs (not exhaustive) in the dedicated Bob Jones thread. This RCA International cut by Jack (?) is the most affordable for nr mint best sounding analogue pressing of Elvis’ Christmas album https://www.discogs.com/release/2479473-Elvis-Presley-Elvis-Christmas-Album.

There are also some amazing sounding analogue Elvis pressing that are not Bob Jones.

IMO it is essential to have both the FTD remasters and the historical analogue Elvis. FTD digital Elvis is consistent, reliable and excellent. Analogue Elvis is hit and miss (even tracks from the same album) but the hit pressings which are full of both detail and dynamics sound the best. Bear in mind that if you do a vinyl drop using a high end turntable then the digital copy sounds identical to the vinyl.

[Alexander]

Is it an idea to start a list over here of all the records with Bobin' Bob in the dead was, so people can track these releases? I surely would be interested since I really appreciate Bob Jones' mastering. Will not be in the occasion for a few days, but will check my vinyl collection to see which LPs are included that were mastered by him.

[LesterB]

Is it an idea to start a list over here of all the records with Bobin' Bob in the dead was, so people can track these releases? I surely would be interested since I really appreciate Bob Jones' mastering. Will not be in the occasion for a few days, but will check my vinyl collection to see which LPs are included that were mastered by him.

https://www.elvis-collectors.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=116890

[Alexander]

Is it an idea to start a list over here of all the records with Bobin' Bob in the dead was, so people can track these releases? I surely would be interested since I really appreciate Bob Jones' mastering. Will not be in the occasion for a few days, but will check my vinyl collection to see which LPs are included that were mastered by him.

https://www.elvis-collectors.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=116890

Great work!

[LSP-4445]

I remember having this box set as a kid but I didnt play it much.
And cant comment on the sound as they all sounded the same to me back then,I probably didnt think about mono vs stereo either.
But I do remember that the last side on last record had a very long playing time compared to all other records that I had.