1970s

Review – ELVIS: THE GREAT PERFORMANCES (1992 CBS TV version) [The Elvis Beat newsletter]

/ TY

I was 17 when I wrote this review back in 1992 for The Elvis Beat #2, my official Elvis Presley Fan Club newsletter.

Elvis: The Great Performances (CBS), hosted by Priscilla Presley, directed by Andrew Solt, aired April 24, 1992.

The TV version of Elvis: The Great Performances is not as good as the two volume video versions from 1990 for several reasons.

First of all, the original narration of Elvis’ friend George Klein has been replaced by the phony-sounding narration of Elvis’ ex-wife, Priscilla Presley.

The other problem is that his version contains fewer songs due to the 30 minutes of boring commercials supplied by JC Penney.

The songs it does contain are “great performances,” but they are ruined by being edited and chopped up. However, this is a problem that exists on the videos, too, and all of Andrew Solt’s other Elvis productions. It should be a crime to cut Elvis songs. I would much rather see 10 complete performances instead of 25 bits and pieces.

My advice: See the original video versions of The Great Performances (Volume One: Center Stage and Volume Two: The Man And The Music), or, even better, see a real Elvis video like Elvis: That’s The Way It Is or Elvis: Aloha From Hawaii.

Songs include:

  • “Shake, Rattle, and Roll/Flip, Flop, and Fly”
  • “Heartbreak Hotel”
  • “Blue Suede Shoes”
  • “Hound Dog”
  • “I Want You, I Need You, I Love You”
  • “Ready Teddy”
  • “Love Me Tender”
  • “Don’t Be Cruel”
  • “Got A Lot Of Livin’ To Do”
  • “Teddy Bear”
  • “Jailhouse Rock”
  • “Trouble”
  • “Fame And Fortune”
  • “Return To Sender”
  • “All Shook Up”
  • “If I Can Dream”
  • “Suspicious Minds”
  • “Always On My Mind”
  • “An American Trilogy”
  • “Unchained Melody”
  • “Money Honey”

Rating: 6 out of 10

Elvis lives on in the 90s [The Elvis Beat newsletter]

/ TY

I was 17 when I wrote this article back in 1992 for The Elvis Beat #2, my official Elvis Presley Fan Club newsletter.

1992 is a revolutionary year for Elvis on CD. With the release of ELVIS: The King Of Rock ‘n’ Roll – The Complete 50s Masters, a 5-CD set containing 140 songs, and the new “Elvis In The 90s” series, RCA seems to have finally made a commitment to release quality Elvis recordings in the CD format.

The “Elvis In The 90s” series is dedicated to bringing back all of the key albums yet to be released on CD or which have been deleted from the RCA catalog completely. Also planned for the future are boxed sets for this 1960s and 1970s material. Work on this massive project is expected to be finished by 1996.

Below is an incomplete list of Elvis CDs released within the last year. Due to the large number of discs currently being released, the list is not up-to-date.

Elvis’ New CDs

  • ELVIS: The King Of Rock ‘n’ Roll – The Complete 50s Masters (5 CDs)
  • Collectors Gold (3 CDs)
  • The Lost Album
  • ELVIS – NBC TV Special
  • On Stage
  • He Touched Me
  • As Recorded At Madison Square Garden
  • Aloha From Hawaii via Satellite
  • Elvis Today
  • Elvis In Concert

New releases examine two phases of Elvis’ career [The Elvis Beat newsletter]

/ TY

I was 17 when I wrote this article back in 1992 for The Elvis Beat #2, my official Elvis Presley Fan Club newsletter.

Wednesday, June 24, was, perhaps, the best day for Elvis fans in the past 15 years. It marked the debut of two long-awaited releases.

The first new release is RCA’s ELVIS: The King Of Rock ‘n’ Roll – The Complete 50s Masters (List Price: $79.98), a five-CD set which contains every master studio take recorded in the 1950s, several alternate takes, live tracks, and previously unreleased material (140 songs in all). 500,000 units were pre-shipped to record stores.

Included are “My Happiness” and “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin,” the songs an 18-year-old Elvis paid to record for his mother in 1953.

The other release is even more monumental. The Turner Entertainment video Elvis: The Lost Performances (List Price: $19.98) contains an hour’s worth of never-before-seen outtakes from the 1970s concert movies Elvis: That’s The Way It Is and Elvis On Tour. 25 songs are performed on this video. See review on page 6.

[The Elvis Beat newsletter] And the winner is. . .

/ TY

I was 17 when I wrote this article back in 1992 for The Elvis Beat #2, my official Elvis Presley Fan Club newsletter.

“Here are the results. . . . It is the ‘young Elvis’ by a mile,” former US Postmaster General Anthony Frank announced on June 4 at Graceland in front of a huge crowd of Elvis fans.

In the month of April, over one million people voted for their “favorite” Elvis. The 50s Elvis defeated the 70s version by a wide 3-to-1 margin. The winning artwork was painted by Mark Stutzman of Maryland.

Also present at the ceremony was Priscilla Presley, who said, “I think that of all the awards and honors that he has received, and he has received many during his lifetime, I’m confident to say this would probably be the most special award for him. Elvis loved his fans very, very much, and I think that he would have just been totally overwhelmed by all of your support. And I think that having you celebrate here at Graceland would have been very special for him, too.”

The “Elvis Presley Postage Stamp Campaign” began in 1983 and was spearheaded by Ms. Pat Geiger of Vermont. She says that she voted for the 70s Elvis. “As Elvis grew older he got better looking and became a more polished performer. That’s the way I remember him,” she said. Nevertheless, she said she was “delirious” over the Elvis stamp anyway.

She also defended Elvis against critics who feel he doesn’t deserve a stamp. “They don’t honor people for their private lives,” she said. “If they did, a lot of them would never have gotten stamps – Ernest Hemingway and WC Fields are two examples. You honor these people for their accomplishments and the impact they made on the world. Elvis known by his first name all over the world. Only the name ‘Elvis’ appears on the stamp. It doesn’t say ‘Elvis Presley.'”

The stamp’s first day of issue will be January 8, the 58th anniversary of his birth. It will be available in single sheets of 40 stampes each for $11.60.

(Quotes obtained from ABC, CBS, CNN, and NBC news.)

Election Results

50s Elvis: 851,200 (75.4%)

70s Elvis: 277,723 (24.6%)

The winner is: ELVIS (100%)

Elvis stamps unveiled [The Elvis Beat newsletter]

/ TY

I was 16 when I wrote this article back in 1992 for The Elvis Beat #1, the first issue of my official Elvis Presley Fan Club newsletter.

On February 24, at the Las Vegas Hilton in Nevada, the dream of millions of Elvis fans finally became reality. United States Postmaster General Anthony Frank, along with Milton Berle and Barbara Eden, officially unveiled two possible versions of an Elvis Presley stamp, one of which will become an official U.S. postage stamp.

The two stamp finalists were chosen from more than 50 entries, according to Frank. One is a circa-1950’s Elvis and the other is circa-1970’s. The public will be given the opportunity to select their favorite through the use of five million ballot cards which will be available at post offices in the month of April. The ballot cards must be mailed with the appropriate postage.

The winning stamp is expected to be announced in May at Graceland, and will be issued in 1993 as the first in a series of American music legends expected to be issued over several years. “He broke new ground,” said Frank, who went on to say that Elvis was the obvious choice to begin the series.

Elvis fans have been lobbying for this recognition for years. Pat Geiger of Vermont began the “Elvis Presley Postage Stamp Campaign” in 1983, and thought that having the stamp passed would be a “simple thing.” In 1987, the first year Elvis became eligible, she quickly found that it wouldn’t be that easy. But after the initial rejections, Elvis is finally to be honored six years later than she had planned.

The Elvis fans have won, and now it is up to the general public to pick their favorite Elvis.