The date of this recording session
is unknown, but it was held sometime between August
15 and 19 1954.
RCA received tapes from Sam Phillips
in December 1955, and where no tapes existed they
used dubs from Sun singles for their masters (see
below).
With 'Blue Moon', one of the
first true discographical dilemmas arrives. The
sticker on the label reads "8/19 Wednesday
Nite", but August 19 1954 was a Thursday. Perhaps
Sam Phillips was simply re-using tape and the sticker
refers to another session by a totally different
performer from 1953, when August 19 was a Wendesday.
Some argue that 'Blue Moon' could
be from the first session (July 5) as whoever wrote
on the box didn't know Elvis' first name, and couldn't
spell his surname. Another credible source notes
a session held on August 15, which could be for 'Blue Moon'.
It has also been thought that it is
possible that 'Blue Moon' was recorded at the
next session (September - Its sound would be consistent
with that theory), since it seems more than odd
that Elvis' second full Sun session should have
focused on a single song with virtually no commercial
potential.
With the release by Follow That Dream
of the ultimate Sun collection - A Boy From Tupelo,
we get the complete 'Blue Moon' session for
the first time.
According to the tape box notes the
master should be Take 4 (or 'Track 4' of the tape),
but since the tapes were re-analysed, each false
start has now been associated a separate take, which
now makes the master Take 9. This also means that
the other released takes (50s Box, Platinum, Sunrise etc...) are listed wrong on their respective
release.
Example of above - In the Outtakes
section of Ernst Jørgensen's book, A Life
in Music, the 50s Box version of 'Blue Moon'
is listed as Take 2 and the Platinum version as
Take 3. The 50's Box booklet says Take 1.
On the '50s box-set The King Of Rock 'N' Roll strange noises can be heard on the master of 'Blue Moon' - at 1:16 a "squeak" can be heard, at 1:38 a "bleep", and at 2:18 and 2:41 a "rattle" can be heard!
It is possible that Elvis could have
recorded 'Tiger Man (King Of The Jungle)' around
this time too, as this session and the September
sessions were arranged to prepare for a follow-up
to Sun 209, the first single. While Elvis performed
in Las Vegas in August 1970 he mysteriously introduces
stand-alone renditions of 'Tiger Man' as his "Second Record" and that "Not too
many people heard it".
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. These 2007 remasters were not used
on FTD's A Boy From Tupelo, the masters were all
remastered again from scratch on that set.
Elvis At Sun - Restoration (Courtesy
of 'Master & Session')
As could be heard on the outtake as
released on Sunrise back in 1999, the original
Sun 'Blue Moon' tape appears to be very worn.
It was recorded at lower level as well and this
does result in a lot of tape hiss that has been
left intact on Elvis At Sun in order to preserve
the signal and ambience. On the other hand, the
dropouts have been repaired. The result is a big
improvement over the Sunrise outtake and of course
an even bigger improvement over the previous BMG
master. |