The TV Special album masters from the June 20-24
sessions on BMG's remastered 2-CD set Memories from 1998 are interesting, as the bass is a bit
boosted, a little midrange is perhaps missing
in the equalization and the pitch is about 1.5%
too slow, but these are minor, reversible details.
With the release of Memories - The '68 Comeback
Special in 1998 we finally got the full version
of the Road Medley, however, different edited
releases of the Road Medley are as follows:-
Elvis - NBC-TV Special Original Release
(1968) (edited - 6 minutes 40 seconds)
'Nothingville' - (Guitar Man's Evil -section
1)
'Calliope Carnival (instrumental)' (with overdubbed
announcer) - (Escape - section 2)
'Big Boss Man' - (Escape - section 3)
'Guitar Man (part 3) / Little Egypt' - (After
Karate - section 2)
'Trouble / Guitar Man (part 4)' - (After Karate -
section 3)
Elvis - NBC-TV Special CD Release (1991)
(edited - 11 minutes 47 seconds)
'Nothingville' - (Guitar Man's Evil - Section
1)
'Calliope Carnival (instrumental)' (with overdubbed
announcer) - (Escape - section 2)
'Big Boss Man' - (Escape section 3)
'Let Yourself Go' (spliced - part 1-07 & part
2-07)
'It Hurts Me' (spliced - part 1-07 & part
2-11)
'Guitar Man (part 3) / Little Egypt' - (After
Karate - section 2)
'Trouble / Guitar Man (part 4)' - (After Karate - section 3)
Memories - The '68 Comeback Special (1998)
(complete - 15 minutes 40 seconds)
'Nothingville / Guitar Man (part 1)' - (Guitar
Man's Evil - section 1)
'Let Yourself Go (part 1)' - (Guitar Man's Evil - section 2)
'Flicker Routine / Let Yourself Go (part 2) /
Alley Pickup' - (Guitar Man's Evil - section 3)
'Guitar Man (part 2 - Slow) - (Escape - section
1 - remake)
'Calliope Carnival (Instrumental)' (with no announcer)
- (Escape - section 2)
'Big Boss Man' - (Escape - section 3)
'It Hurts Me (part 1) - (Escape - section 4)
'Electronic Karate' (instrumental)
'It Hurts Me (part 2)' - (After Karate - section
1)
'Guitar Man (part 3) / Little Egypt' - (After
Karate - section 2)
'Trouble / Guitar Man (part 4)' - (After Karate - section 3)
The Road Medley on the Venus release Singer
Presents Elvis is the original master of
the Road Medley (without 'It Hurts Me' and
'Let Yourself Go' etc...) but has the full
unfaded ending.
Take 1 of 'If I Can Dream' on Platinum - A Life In Music has left and right channels reversed.
The re-recording of 'If I Can Dream' was first released on the US Postal Service special products release
Elvis Forever, and can also be found on the 2015 album
If I Can Dream, which contained Elvis' original vocals but with new backings by The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and which actually went to number one in the UK album charts.
Take 2 of 'A Little Less Conversation', when first discovered on acetate and released on the BMG CD Memories in 1998, was originally thought to have been recorded in June 1968 as part of the recordings for the NBC-TV Special. When the March 7 1968 session tapes were eventually rediscovered, this mistake was realised.
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.