The Straight Arrow importlabel released the double CD-set "Amore Elvis" in their Special Products series. The set contains the Saturday, March 29, 1975 Dinner and Midnight Shows as recorded from the audience at the Las Vegas Hilton, Las Vegas, NV
From the pressrelease:
Straight Arrow is continuing their collector's series of 2 shows from one evening, released in a single package. This time the producers have chosen two excellent performances from Saturday, March 29, 1975 at the Las Vegas Hilton.
Elvis returned to Nevada in very good form when compared to his final shows of 1974. He included several cuts from soon-to-be-released "TODAY" album rather than some of his usual oldies. Presley's shows were shorter than his previous Vegas visit in August and September because he kept banter to a minimum.
On this collection there are worthy performances of "And I Love You So", "It's Midnight", "Big Boss Man", "Burning Love" and the powerful "My Boy". There are also some rarities, like a one-liner of "Rip It Up", "Tiger Man" not performed as a medley with "Mystery Train," and "Hawaiian Wedding Song" sung exclusively by Sherrill Nielsen.
As fans have come to expect, the tapes are of very good quality, sourced from early generation copies of original cassettes recorded by the same fan. The double digipak contains liner notes and is filled with photos from the March-April 1975 engagement. As usual, these recordings have been carefully engineered to be presented in the best possible sound.
Tracklisting:
CD 1 / Saturday, March 29, 1975 Dinner Show:
01. Introduction: Also Sprach Zarathustra - 02. C. C. Rider - 03. I Got A Woman / Amen - 04. Love Me - 05. If You Love Me (Let Me Know) - 06. And I Love You So - 07. Big Boss Man - 08. It's Midnight - 09. Burning Love / That's Amore (excerpt) - 10. Introduction of vocalists, musicians - 11. What'd I Say (James Burton) - 12. Drum Solo (Ronnie Tutt) - 13. Bass Solo (Duke Bardwell) - 14. Piano Solo (Glen D. Hardin) - 15. Electric Piano Solo (David Briggs) - 16. School Day - 17. My Boy (with break) - 18. I'll Remember You - 19. When It's My Time (J.D. Sumner & the Stamps) - 20. Let Me Be There (with reprise) - 21. Hawaiian Wedding Song (Sherrill Nielsen) - 22. Hound Dog - 23. Can't Help Falling In Love - 24. Closing Vamp.
CD 2 / Saturday, March 29, 1975 Midnight Show:
01. Introduction: Also Sprach Zarathustra - 02. C. C. Rider - 03. Rip It Up (one-liner) - 04. I Got A Woman / Amen / Promised Land (one liner) - 05. Love Me - 06. If You Love Me (Let Me Know) - 07. And I Love You So - 08. Big Boss Man (with false start) - 09. It's Midnight - 10. Burning Love - 11. Introduction of vocalists, musicians - 12. What'd I Say (James Burton) - 13. Drum Solo (Ronnie Tutt) - 14. Bass Solo (Duke Bardwell) - 15. Piano Solo (Glen D. Hardin) - 16. Electric Piano Solo (David Briggs) - 17. School Day - 18. Introduction of Billy Swan / I Can Help (one-liner) - 19. My Boy - 20. I'll Remember You - 21. My Heavenly Father Watches Over Me (Kathy Westmoreland) - 22. Let Me Be There (with reprise) - 23. The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face - 24. Tiger Man - 25. Can't Help Falling In Love - 26. Closing Vamp / Announcements / Fan comments.
One line of Rip It Up, Promised Land, I Can Help....how sad. Only an excerpt of That's Amore, *sigh*. Elvis is only 10 songs into the show before the band intros and "band highlights" begin. Ugh! The Kathy Westmoreland solo is bad enough, but giving up Hawaiian Wedding Song to Sherill Nielsen is just wrong. Where are the show stoppers? No Trilogy, Bridge, or How Great Thou Art? Elvis must have been bored, tired, or both on this day.
For collectors a must-have..! Excellent shows ...decent sound..!
"Hawaiian Wedding Song" sung exclusively by Sherrill Nielsen!? Recorded from the audience using a 1975-era cassette tape recorder!? Introductions that take up a third of each concert!? People will be lining up for this one! LOL. If I had unlimited money, I'd still buy it because I compulsively want everything with Elvis' name, voice or face on it. BUT, I have to say these shows, judging from the tracklists and the year, do not look like very good...
The M/S on this day was surely the better of the 2 shows and also has the best sound here.
It is quite an odd thing to have Billy Swan in the audience and then do an excerpt of his song instead of getting him on stage and do that thing together. Never understood, why Elvis wasn't to do some duets. Johnny Cash and many of the stars in the 70s did. I kind of dislike the isolation of Elvis from dueting with other artists. Imagine a duet on What'd I Say with Brother Ray! Was it Elvis' attitude or did it come from Parker? Locking Elvis away from participating added to his decline, I guess.
I am not sure whether the audience would have loved that SItdown, at least I would not. There was alreday enough attention to others on the stage! Duetting as such is another thing. It might have been interesting to say the least! I think Parker was the one to stop that all together.
I couldn't agree more about Elvis singing duets. Elvis was always ready to introduce stars in the audience, and he was very complimentary of them, even of the ones that weren't so great (Telly Savalas and Jack Lord come to mind). With that type of rapport, I'm sure Elvis would've shared the mic with Billy Swan if the Colonel hadn't established a stronghold against it. And I'm just curious with this next question....Other than it's an Elvis concert, what makes this release a "must have" for collectors?
Parker should not be blamed about the duets. It´s a fact that Elvis didn´t like to socialize with other stars. He just didn´t want to do it. I´m not unhappy that he didn´t do a lot of duets. Yes, he gave bandmembers and the other singers a lot of attention, but they were a part of his show. I´ve always liked that. But apart from that, I don´t think he wanted to include other people in his music. Certainly not lead singers and/or solo artists.
Parker was very possessive, so let's say he had a big say in this. I dare say that his influence over Elvis was paramount. If he did not like it Elvis followed his advice. Let's be fair, his business plan was integral part of Elvis' succes! I for one am happy that ELVIS did not get into this duet thing, because most of the time it would have been rubbish. Also for me, ELVIS loved The Voice. In my opinion horrible. Sherril Nielson, yuk. Kathy Westmoreland, nice as a backgroup singer, but that's about it. Yes, The Million Dollar Quartet was nice as it was playful. Maybe he should have taken up playing with them again. But their ways were quite different and JLLewis had/has too big an ego to do that anyway.
Natha, I suppose you meant the group "Voice". "The Voice" refers to Frank Sinatra if I'm not mistaken. Agreed about Elvis not doing the duet thing, not my cup of tea either! JLpResLey, I don't think Elvis didn't like to socialize with other stars in general. His Vegas concerts were attended by many movie stars and singers. Inviting them all (the singers) to join him on the stage and sing together was in practice an impossible thing. As far as I know he was good friends with Tom Jones, invited The Beatles , got along well with Sammy Davis and Frank Sintra, to name a few. Always El.
Indeed, Benny, I meant to write the group Voice. I fully agree with you about his friendships and the impossibility to have a duet on stage. I for one would not have liked it if I had been there. Spending so much money (in those days) to go to the USA and attend a show. Unfortunately I was financially not strong enough to go, but if I had been there I would definitely not be happy. About this release I am still not sure whether or not to buy it. CiscoKing stated it is a must, but refrained from answering the question WHY. Also, these days finances are not allowing me to buy easily.
I always loved these Vegas seasons from 1975..as I love the whole concert year..Elvis is very committed..and we have very appealing set lists..just have a look..his voice was strong and the Karate dialogue and excercises were gone....the joking with the audience was shortened to a minimum..focus was the music..don`t be fooled by the intros..it wasn`t 1976 yet..lol..the sound is decent on both shows..
I seriously doubt that Elvis would have made a duet album. Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, and Tony Bennett did, just to name a few big stars that went that route, but I can't see Elvis being into that sort of thing by 1975. His interest in going to the studio to record was already waning by then. That being said, I do think Elvis may have shared the stage for a song or two if it weren't for the Colonel. I know that wouldn't have appealed to some fans, but I think it would have been neat. Imagine if Elvis called Roy Orbison up to the stage to sing a duet of Crying. That would have been phenomenal in my opinion. Unfortunately, Elvis was "caught in a trap" by 1975. His fate was endless repetition of the same Vegas show. He couldn't even break out to do "A Star Is Born" with Streisand because of the Colonel's unrelenting stranglehold.
Snowplow Floater, I always longed for a LP like the Million Dollar Quartet. Having ELVIS, JLLewis and Carl Perkins. Can you imagine ELVIS' voice combined with The Killer's piano (#2 on my musical list!) and Carl on the guitar! On the side Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash. No gospel things, just Rockin'and Rollin'. JLLewis did do that too in his later days and so did Chuck Berry. I think that would have been great and would have given RnR an enormous boost. Helas, as you rightly refer to the strangling hold of Parker. ELVIS didn't have the strength to go against that. Unlike JLLewis he was in his own shyway too humble.
Elvis in 1975 was really great. These shows are in very good sound. I will buy thi CD and I'll skip "I am an Elvis fan"... This is my opinion.
Contrary to the statement below that Elvis didn't like to socialise with other stars: there are lots of pictures with him and other artists, including BB King and Liberary in the fifties, he hung out with Sammy Davis, he and Priscilla went on a Hawaiian vacation with Tom Jones - and today I saw a posting by Engelbert Humperdinck on his Facebook page (which also has a great photo of him and Elvis). Humperdinck writes: "Last week I told you of my friendship with Sammy Davis Jr. This week I would like to talk about Elvis Presley. Elvis was quite possibly the warmest and most generous man that I have ever met. When we first met he embraced me and made me ( a young lad from Leicester) feel completely welcome. I treasured our friendship. usically there was no one better than EP. I miss you Elvis."
I'm not so sure a duets album would have been a great idea. The few attempts that were made in the movies (Ann-Margret, Nancy Sinatra) were mostly forgettable. They would have to be serious duets with serious musicians/singers like when he dueted with Frank on his show. Or if he had lived, make a Travelin Wilburys type of album that Orbison did. Part of an ensemble like that or The Million Dollar Quartet would have been wonderful. Also an instrumental album showing off his musical chops would have been great critically (maybe not commercially). Remember the Col shot that idea down in 1957 when Elvis agreed with Scotty, Bill & DJ to do one. He was never allowed to grow either as an artist or a person because of that man.
Steve V, your last sentence is the proverbial nail. ELVIS was basically a shy boy and later on a shy man, who might never have realised how great he actually was! If he had been allowed (by Parker) to grasp and live that fully I am sure his life would have been longer and outstanding till this very moment!
Elvis reasons for his early death,colonel,doctors,bi polar,lack of confidence,trusting wrong people,lost focus.
