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August 15 - 19 1954
(+ means you need both    ~ means same material    °° means stereo or binaural    ° means mono)
(SFS = Short False Start | FS = False Start | LFS or BD (Breakdown) = Long False Start | PB (Playback) or Complete = Complete Take)

SUN Studio - Memphis, Tennessee
Engineer : Sam Phillips

Musicians:    
Guitar: Elvis Presley  
Guitar: Scotty Moore  
Bass: Bill Black  

Blue Moon
  August 15 - 19 1954 (Sun - Thur)
Take 1 FS 0:12   A Boy From Tupelo 2°~The Complete Works 1953-1955 (MRS)°
(Tape Box #8)
Take 2 FS 0:07   A Boy From Tupelo 2°~The Complete Works 1953-1955 (MRS)°
Take 3 FS 0:17   A Boy From Tupelo 2°~The Complete Works 1953-1955 (MRS)°
Take 4 Complete 2:58 "1." A Boy From Tupelo 2°~The Complete Works 1953-1955 (MRS)°
~50's Box 5° (listed as Take 1)~Elvis Presley / Elvis (Sony)°
Take 5 Complete 3:24 "2." A Boy From Tupelo 2°~The Complete Works 1953-1955 (MRS)°
~Platinum 1° (3:14)
Take 6 FS 0:22 "3. 2-False Start. 2:20" A Boy From Tupelo 2°~The Complete Works 1953-1955 (MRS)°
~Sunrise° (0:15)
Take 7 FS 0:30   A Boy From Tupelo 2°~The Complete Works 1953-1955 (MRS)°
~Sunrise° (0:23)
Take 8 Complete 3:00   A Boy From Tupelo 2°~The Complete Works 1953-1955 (MRS)°
~Sunrise° (2:26)
Take 9 M 2:44 "4. Master W.P. 2:39"
(F2WB 8117)
A Boy From Tupelo 1°~A Boy From Tupelo 2°~Young Man With The Big
Beat (Legacy)°~Elvis At Sun°~Elvis Presley (FTD)°~(DSD)°
~The Complete Elvis Presley Masters 1 (Sony)°~The Early Years
(Franklin Mint Complete Masters Collection 28)°~Elvis 75 CD1°
~Memphis Recording Service Volume 2°~Complete Single Collection 2°
~Sunrise°~50's Box 1°~The Complete Works 1953-1955 (MRS)°

Tiger Man (King Of The Jungle)
August 15 - 19 1954 (Sun - Thur) (?)
Take NA

Notes

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.


Session Logs
Tape Box
Blue Moon
Blue Moon
Recording Information
RCA SUN Transfers - December 1955
SUN Transfers - November 1955
Sun Tapes
Tape Boxes 1 - 15
Sun Tapes

 
Steve Sholes' Written Notes
Blue Moon
Blue Moon
 


Music Sheets
 
Music Sheet
Blue Moon
Blue Moon
 


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