To Whom It May Concern

By Can Balkan,

July 17, 2014

An open letter to the people at Sony and/or EPE.

I am writing to today to express my concern about the recent promotional activities (or lack of) with regards to Elvis Presley and his products released.

Neither the official website and Facebook page seems to be promoting many of the new mainstream Elvis releases, such as ‘Bossa Nova Baby – party album’ or ‘Elvis Sings’; these two albums had/have a strong commercial success opportunity if promoted well.
My next issue: Quality control. The idea for the album ‘Elvis sings’ is a great one, but what a poor/average effort made in the quality control of the album. Wrong masters were used on the cd compared to the booklet information, for example; ‘Proud Mary’ is detailed in the booklet to me the 1970 master version, when in fact the 1972 MSG version is used on the cd…..a poorly mastered version at that. Also, in the booklet, the 1976 master version of ‘Danny Boy’ is detailed as being used, when in fact the 1959 home recording version has been used. How has this been missed? This is the most popular artist of the 20th century. An artist that has broken all records and continues to do so. An artist who is loved and adored around the globe by millions.

Maybe it’s time Sony concentrated their efforts into the legacy and artistic creativity Elvis left us. Instead of releasing half hearted albums with little effort, maybe use some of the creative force that inspired the recent Michael Jackson album and follow on success. A strategy that worked well in 2002 for BMG when they released ‘Elv1s 30 No.1 Hits ‘ and ‘A Little Less Conversion’. This really bought Elvis back into the public’s eye and gave Elvis the music chart reign he deserves as ‘The King’. The more recent ‘Nations Favourite Elvis Songs’ proved Elvis is still very popular today and can still have strong sales, even when it’s a basic hits compilation.
Elvis deserves the best and so do his loyal fans. Weak and poorly compiled compilations do absolutely nothing for Elvis’ name and embarrassing products like ‘Elvis potato head’ do even less!

Hardcore fans are treated to fantastic releases through the efforts of Ernst and the ‘Follow That Dream’ label team, for this we are all eternally grateful – but – on a commercial level, we fear Elvis is simply not getting the treatment that the ‘greatest recording artist of all time’ deserves. Maybe it is time for EPE, Sony and all those related to reassess and act now and change strategies in order to get ‘The King’ back on this thrown….where he belongs.

Sirbalkan wrote on July 17, 2014

Elvis.com is has not been updated since June 05 2014... Shame.

TheMemphisFan wrote on July 17, 2014

Can Balkan, I agree with what you're saying, but posting "an open letter" here on this forum won't do a bit of good. Perhaps you should write a couple of formal letters and mail them to RCA/SONY Music in New York. Good luck & best wishes!

Sirbalkan wrote on July 17, 2014

Dear TheMemphisfan... I did to many places but had no repond and even I contacted with Jack Soden maybe he could reach it to the responsible department. But the only repl I got that since the media group had been changed, they'd had no idea of social media issues for facebook and other social powers (???). He mentioned about how good graceland.com going well, instead of elvis.com. This is another big big mistake.People know the name "Elvis" NOT "Graceland" at all.

Jamie wrote on July 22, 2014

Hello, some of the points you make are spot on. "Elvis Sings..." is, in my view, the digital-era equivalent of a Camden release. It's a terrible - chronological gaffs make it almost unlistenable, and the use of the amateur recording of 'Danny Boy' and the pre-remix version of 1972's 'Proud Mary' are a joke. The CD's theme - all the songwriters are extremely famous - is ludicrous. Why would anyone think such an arbitrary premise would make for a cohesive collection? Some people will like it because it's The King, but I'm not having it for a second. I think one can read too much into the success of the 'A Little Less Conversation' remix and the 'Elv1s' compilation in 2002. The latter was a hit album because the former was a great reimagining of a hidden gem and made Elvis hot property again. The problem is the more you look for such lost nuggets in Elvis's catalogue, the more you realise there are none. The best way forward is Legacy releases - historic albums that are beautifully remastered, twinned intelligently and adorned with some tasty extras. I don't see a sea change happening until such time a paradigm shift allows component elements of mono recordings to be separated and recompiled in stereo. In other words, there's not a lot that can be done in the here and now nearly 40 years after Elvis's death. Best not to get so caught up in what is or isn't to come, that we undervalue the treasures we have now.