The undubbed masters on Our Memories Of Elvis weren't really the pure undubbed masters. They
were the fully overdubbed or regular masters but
with certain instruments and backing vocal channels
removed or stripped down.
The Japanese 24-Bit release of That's The Way
It Is runs slow all the way through at differing
speeds between tracks, as opposed to the same
tracks on the special edition box-set (BMG - 2000)
and FTD's That's The Way It Is classic album.
The differences between tracks on the 24-Bit CD
are as follows:-
I Just Can't Help Believin' (-1,3%)
Twenty Days And Twenty Nights (-1,6%)
How The Web Was Woven (-2,0%)
Patch It Up (-2,3%)
Mary In The Morning (-2,5%)
You Don't Have To Say You Love Me (-2,9%)
You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' (-0,9%)
I've Lost You (-1,2%)
Just Pretend (-1,7%)
Stranger In The Crowd (-1,5%)
The Next Step Is Love (-1,9%)
Bridge Over Troubled Water (-2,5%)
'When I'm Over You' and 'Make The World
Go Away' on the bootlegs Pure Diamonds Volume 2 and For
The Good Times are probably just the left channel
only (centred) of a stereo acetate of the fully
overdubbed masters. By eliminating the right channel
on the same tracks on Love Letters, Elvis Country and the 70s Box I was able to get the exact
same results. This is possible because backing
vocals (and occasionally strings) tend to be panned
100% right on the original mixes from these sessions,
so you can often eliminate them by cutting out
the right channel, with no discernable bleed.
'The Next Step Is Love' on the bootleg
You Know, It Don't Have To Be Strictly Country
- Volume 2 (track 21) does not appear to
be an original mix. It is possibly just one channel
only (centred to mono) of a stereo acetate of
the fully overdubbed master which sounds like
it has been processed to create a fake stereo
effect - electronically produced stereo!
The unedited undubbed master (Take 1) of 'When
I'm Over You' can be found on the bootleg Make
The World Go Away taken from acetate. Take
1 of 'When I'm Over You' that can be found
on the bootlegs Bilko's Gold Cuts and More
Pure Elvis is edited and is not the unedited
undubbed master - The verse from 2:07 to 2:51
is edited to the end and then faded!
The masters of 'When I'm Over You' and 'Faded
Love' were edited for original release.
The count-in for Take 3 of 'Faded Love'
can be found after Take 2 on CD2 of FTD's Elvis
Country classic album.
The first releases on CD of the song 'I Really Don't
Want To Know' were missing the drum-beat ending.
It can be heard on the original single release
and the 4-LP set The Other sides Wordwide Gold
Award Hits Volume 2 with drum beat ending.
On later releases RCA/BMG released the master
again with drum-beat ending.
The count-in for Take 4, the false start of Take
6 and the count-in for Take 7 of 'Tomorrow Never
Comes' can all be found on FTD's Elvis Country classic album, although they aren't listed.
There are strange goings on with 'Make The
World Go Away'. Take 2 is cut from the tape
reel, and all that is left is the count-in before,
and dialogue after Take 2. Take 1 is also on the
reel, along with the undubbed spliced master,
which is Take 3 spliced with the work part ending.
The actual unedited Take 3 (but with overdubs)
can be found on Welcome To My World and more
recently on the bootleg Unedited Masters
- Nashville 1970 along with the overdub
of work part - Take 1.
The master of 'Make The World Go Away' on
Elvis The Concert 1999 World Tour featured an
overdubbed applause.
An edited (2:23) version of 'Make The World
Go Away', with omitted musical intro, verse
and instrumental break, was released in 1987 on
the BMG Ariola release The Definitive Country
Album.
'I Washed My Hands In Muddy Water' is not
listed in Sessions III as having brass or strings
overdubbed, but the master contains brass and
strings overdubs.
Sessions III lists July 18 as being the date
when brass & strings were overdubbed to
'I Really Don't Want To Know', 'Faded Love',
'Tomorrow Never Comes' and 'The Next Step
Is Love' but I doubt this date is correct for
these overdubs. In the session logs there is a
listing dated July 7 that lists all musicians
used for these overdubs (as listed in Sessions
III). At the bottom right hand corner of the
session log there is a date of what looks to be
"06/30" indicating a date of June 30
1970 for this overdub session. The book Day By Day by Ernst Jørgensen
and Peter Guralnick, as well as RCA's own single listing notice lists July 14 as the date
when the single 'I've Lost You' / 'The Next Step
Is Love' was shipped to suppliers, so these two
songs couldn't have had overdubs done on July
18!
Sessions III also lists the date as being October
28 when brass & strings were overdubbed to
'When I'm Over You', 'Make The World Go
Away', 'Funny How Time Slips Away' and
'Love Letters' but this is the date of the listing
of the session log. At the bottom right hand corner
of the session log there is a hand written date
"10/27/70" indicating a date of October
27 1970 for this overdub session.
'Funny How Time Slips Away'
is listed in the session log as "remake"
because there was already alive master of the
song (XPA5 2382) recorded at the dinner show in Las Vegas on August 25 1969, although it wasn't released
until 1991 on Collectors Gold.
An edited (3:11) version of 'Funny How Time
Slips Away', with omitted musical intro and
second verse ("How's your new love, I hope
that he's doing fine..." to "Mmm, ain't
it funny how time slips away..."), was released
in 1987 on the BMG Ariola release The Definitive
Country Album.
Although there is no paper work confirming it, there appears to be an overdubbed piano, by David Briggs, on the final master of 'Funny How Time Slips Away'. Here is a breakdown of each of the 16 channels as they are marked on the tape log for 'Funny How Time Slips Away'.
1 - Drums
2 - Vocal
3 - Bass Chip's Guit
4 - Piano James Charlie
5 - Kicker Mult
6 - James Guit Mult
7 - Piano Bottom Mult
8 - Piano Top Mult
9 - Charlie Mult
10 - Chip Guit Mult
11 - Voices Girls O.D.
12 - Voices Boys O.D.
13 - Piano O.D.
14 - Hi Strings
15 - Voices O.D. Boys Imp
16 - Violas & Cellos
The only overdub session where 'Funny How Time Slips Away' is listed and there could have been a piano player would be September 21 1970 at RCA Studio A.
The first set of String overdubs for 'Love Letters' may have been done on June 30 instead of July 20.
The re-recording of 'Love Letters' can found on the 2016 album The Wonder Of You, 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.
The original title of the Love Letters From
Elvis album was entitled Festival, and was going
to include the following songs - Hence the inclusion
of 'The Sound Of Your Cry' and 'Sylvia'
on FTD's Love Letters From Elvis classic album:-
The Sound Of Your Cry
Cindy, Cindy
Got My Mojo Working / Keep Your Hands Off Of It
I'll Never Know
It Ain't No Big Thing (But It's Growing)
This Is Our Dance
Heart Of Rome
When I'm Over You
If I Were You
Sylvia
Love Letters
By taking out two of the four channels from the rare Japanese Quadraphonic LP of Elvis - That's The Way It Is is how the "previously unreleased versions" were created on the bootleg The Other Side Of Memphis (Bilko).
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.
All outtakes and undubbed masters used on the Sony 4xCD
set From Elvis In Nashville have been completely remixed
and remastered from scratch.
Thanks to Ray Reeves for pointing out the differences
on Take 1 of 'When I'm Over You'.
Thanks to Adrian V Stokes regarding the edited
versions of songs on the BMG Ariola set of Definitive albums, and Christian Beiden for detailed analysis
of the two You Know, It Don't Have To Be
Strictly Country bootleg sets.
Thanks to Daryl Restly for information on the piano overdub for 'Funny How Time Slips Away' and the breakdown of the 16-track tape.
Thanks to Erik Rasmussen.