Unlike most other 1960s soundtrack, there is no subjective decision to make whether the Viva Las Vegas masters should be remastered from 3-Track for release or not, simply because there were no (final) original stereo masters produced for Viva Las Vegas in the first place. It is not an easy task because of dry sound and irrational use of the 3 tracks available. How a mix should be done is usually too subjective to even argue about, but perhaps not in this case.

'The Lady Loves Me' and 'You're The Boss' were recorded with backup vocals only on the third, "empty" channel.

No effort at creating a stereo or even mono image can improve this situation and it is considered necessary to keep the instruments on one stereo channel, the vocals centered, and the backup vocals on the other 2-Track stereo channel. This will leave an almost empty right channel, and a certain amount of leakage from the instrumental channel may be necessary. It is exactly this approach has been taken on the 2003 FTD Viva Las Vegas soundtrack, which is an ambitious attempt at remastering the entire Viva Las Vegas soundtrack. 

MGM soundtracks were recorded dry and the typical 60s approach would be to apply dynamic processing for record release, especially utilizing dynamic compression and only light reverb of the vocal channel. Using just a little compression and hardly any reverb makes this modern attempt a success overall and so much better than previous efforts. The result does not sound alien beside the original Girl Happy LP masters, which were recorded in the same manner as Viva Las Vegas and also by George Stoll and David Wiechman.

Sadly, the amplitude level has been pushed up about 3-4 dB over the 0 dB limit on the FTD Viva Las Vegas extended soundtrack and this detracts from what otherwise would have been an excellent release all the way. The title song 'Viva Las Vegas' (master) is for instance first clipped from amplitude overload and then limited to -3 dB, just to make sure that all reasons for the initial compromise were eliminated as well - and leaving us with "the worst of both worlds".

Take 2 of 'The Lady Loves Me' which appeared on the vinyl only edition of Viva Las Vegas by Follow That Dream, had dialogue from before Take 3 edited in before Take 2.

It had been rumoured that 'You're The Boss' was originally intended to be used on RCA's A Golden Celebration box-set in 1985, but the tape was lost (or stolen) while the set was being compiled. The master (OPA5 8210) intended for A Golden Celebration was finally issued in 1991 on the CD Elvis Sings Leiber & Stoller and Collectors Gold set, and it was spliced from Take 16 and the ending of Take 3, although the listing notice for Collectors Gold indicates wrongly that it was just Take 16 (WPA5 2511). The "original" master, as cut on acetate during the sessions, is just Take 16 alone, and was first released on Double Features. Take 3, alone, was also issued on FTD's Silver Screen Stereo but has added echo.

The duet version of 'Today, Tomorrow And Forever' (2011) was also intended to be issued on A Golden Celebration in 1984 but the tape was lost (or stolen) while the set was being compiled. It was finally issued on BMG's Today, Tomorrow And Forever box-set in 2002.

'Today, Tomorrow And Forever' (2012) is an unused medium tempo instrumental track that includes backing vocals. The arrangement is similar to the duet version, and was probably considered to be used for the movie vocal overdub.

The unused Take 4 of 'Today, Tomorrow And Forever' (2014) is a dubdown to instrumental track of 2013 Take 4, and was probably considered to be used for the movie version of 'Today, Tomorrow And Forever' (2016). Take 6 of 'Today, Tomorrow And Forever' (2014) is a dubdown to instrumental track of 2013 Take 6 but has the second bridge and third verse edited out, and was used for the movie version of 'Today, Tomorrow And Forever' (2016).

It is unknown when production numbers 2017, 2018 and 2019 were recorded but they are listed to show the progress of recording between this session and the recording session for Ann-Margret on August 28 1963.

All timings in the 'Musical Breakdown' below are taken from the DVD release of the movie.

What should have been the definitive release of these sessions on Follow That Dream's limited edition The Viva Las Vegas Sessions 3xCD set, sadly wasn't the case. Although everything has been restored, remixed and remastered from scratch, some outakes are missing dialogue and take slates which were present on previous releases, and where takes were presented with dry vocals on previous releases, they now contain added reverb, as does the complete set.

In March of 2007, Sony decided to go through all of Elvis' masters. They retransferred everything and remastered all tracks including repairing as many clicks, pops, bad edits and dropouts as they could. They have used these newly mastered recordings on their new releases since 2007 including budget soundtracks, Legacy releases, the 30 disc Complete Elvis Presley Masters collection and the Franklin Mint package.

Thanks to Juan Luis Gonzales Brugal for identifying the different mix of Take 9 of 'The Lady Loves Me' on the Ann-Margret CD The Very Best Of Ann-Margret.