Elvis Burning Love and other Hits CD-WOW!

For all of my record-buying life, I ignored this cynically put together 1972 Camden LP as the exploitation vehicle it was. Putting a new hit single on a Camden album and grouping it with random soundtrack songs was a new low for RCA, although it did bring in the moola.

Yet, with all the great things I've been hearing about the Vic Anesini-remastered reissues of the Camdens, I've been very tempted to get one. I found Burning Love yesterday used for $3.99 in Vermont.

What great sound, and Vic even salvages some of the more poorly recorded soundtrack material to a degree. The title track sounds funkier and smokier than I've ever heard it. The B-side of BL, It's A Matter of Time, is a song that always seemed to me like paint-by-the-numbers '70s Nashville fomula, but the great sound quality on this track like I've never heard before is forcing a reassessment on my part.
Tender Feeling from Kissin' Cousins, one of my favorite Elvis '60s soundtrack tunes, has plenty of hiss, but is nice and warm. And the songs from Fun in Acapulco, triple WOW! They sound like they were recorded yesterday, especially Guadalajara. Tonight's All Right For Love sounds very good as well. Am I Ready from Spinout was also not recorded or mixed well in the first place, but sounds nice here. Unfortunately, Santa Lucia still sounds a bit harsh.

A good investment. We need Vic to do everything, please! (Except for the already well done '50s CDs).

 

I chose this album over the single due to it being $1.98 new then. Excellent sounding on the old Blue RCA Camden label. This was one of the better executed bargain compilation albums then.

 

a) I think the Pair label also got audiophile acclaim for an early Association CD compilation.

b) Re: Peace in the Valley. And this was at a time (1971, IIRC) when most releases of Elvis '50s material was in horrid fake stereo. Thankfully, somebody cared.

c) Goes to show, in terms of Pair, that less than spectacular packaging can nevertheless yield a treasure.

 

"Am I Ready" is one of my favorite "sleeper" soundtrack songs. There's an alternate take on the long-OOP 3-disc Collector's Gold that sounds better, and is a better performance to boot (IMHO)

 

What are "Dash 1" tapes?

 

On a related not, I wrote the other day of my impressions of Vic's mastering of the Camden I GOT LUCKY CD in the Elvis Album by Album thread... the sound quality of this CD is nothing short of amazing! Like Joel1963's re-evaluation of BURNING LOVE AND OTHER HITS, it's completely changed my impression not only of the album but of the songs themselves.

Forum member thenexte posted an Amazon link where on can get a box set of three Camden CDs (BURNING LOVE, SEPARATE WAYS and YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE) for $8.99 - that's $3 a piece! That is an absolute steal!!!

http://www.amazon.com/TRIPLE-FEATURE-Elvis-Presley/dp/B002BCRXBY

 

I've got "Pair" cds by the Association and Iron Butterfly. They sound great, better than any other versions I've heard. There is a naturalness to the sound that I've heard on few other cds.

 

I have a question regarding PAIR CDs. Are these old discs easily found in the used bins? Is there some type of distinction (logo, packaging) that will tell me if it's a PAIR? Was it a stateside label?

 

I can't find this on CDwow? ???

 

The Pair cds I've seen have the word "Pair" clearly seen right below an orange circle containing two yellow pears on both the front and back of the cd paperwork. I can't scan my cover or I would show you. These were American cds and Pair Records address is given as 87 Essex Street, Hackensack, N.J. I always saw them as budget priced items. They have simple kinda ugly covers.

 

Thank you very much Reader!

Why is it that some of the best sounding CDs have ugly covers?

I'll note this in my list of CD wants.

 

As cheesy as those Camden albums are, they have reawakened an interest in Elvis for me and I have picked up all the ones they have re-released so far. It seems like they'll put out 2 a year. The Christmas one is out under a different title and cover (has been for a few years) but I wonder if they'll do it as part of this series too. That leaves:

C'mon Everybody
Frankie & Johnny
Mahalo From Elvis

...the latter two were originally on "Pickwick/Camden" so I don't know if they "count." Also, "Mahalo" was actually released after Elvis's death. Back in the 1980s some of the Camden albums were released on CD, including "Mahalo." I remember seeing these CDs around back then, but I never bought any of them (except maybe I might have picked up "You'll Never Walk Alone" for my mother, because it was one of her favorite albums). There are a couple copies of the "Mahalo" CD on ebaY at what I would deem ridiculous prices...I wonder if these will all eventually come out. That would be cool.

And previously having very little Elvis on CD, I also picked up his first two albums, so I do have some "good" Elvis too.

 

The Pair CDs are somewhat desireable amongst Elvis CD collectors (for their scarcity) and are not easy to find. They typically range anywhere from $25 to $75 so if you see one cheaper, it's a good deal.

There's another Elvis two-fer that IMO sounds great; it's called AN ELVIS DOUBLE FEATURE: SPEEDWAY & CLAMBAKE. This was released sometime around 1988 (?) and is tough to find. Note that it is not part of the Elvis "double feature" series that BMG put out a few years later. It was one of those budget releases, once again with a terrible cover (a pic of Elvis from the Aloha special, I think, adornes the cover) but IMO contains the best-sounding versions of most of these songs digitally. Here's the track list:

1. Speedway
2. There Ain't Nothing Like a Song
3. Who Are You? (Who Am I?)
4. Let Yourself Go
5. Your Groovy Self (With Nancy Sinatra)
6. Western Union
7. Goin' Home
8. Suppose
9. Guitar Man
10. Clambake
11. House That Has Everything, A
12. Hey, Hey, Hey
13. Girl I Never Loved, The
14. How Can You Lose What You Never Had
15. Big Boss Man
16. Just Call Me Lonesome

Steve, if you're familiar with this two-fer, I'd love to hear your thoughts as to whether they're a flat transfer (I suspect they are but I have no way of knowing for certain).

 

I got 2 Pair CD's (I guess that does not translate to 2 pairs of CD's). A nice pair anyhow. One is a Bobby Darin title, the other an Elvis title:

http://www.amazon.com/Classic-Darin...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1247741333&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Elvis-Aron-Pr...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1247741365&sr=1-1

The Bobby Darin CD sounds very nice, but the songs were hardly his repertoire - Fly Me To The Moon and stuff like that. Somehow I expected Beyond the Sea and more...

The Elvis CD is killer though. Mostly excellent sound and some nice songs I never heard him sing. Will do more listening, but so far it's a gem.

Thanks for recommending Pair!

Goran

 

I just picked this up and it does sound pretty nice indeed. The truncated tracklists on the Pair CDs are frustrating though. Their "twofers" feature just 8 songs apiece from each original album, meaning several songs are omitted. And the choices for omission seem pretty random. I'm bummed that they left off "You Don't Know Me" from Clambake since it's one of my all-time favorite Elvis performances, certainly more worthy of inclusion than "Hey Hey Hey" or "A House that Has Everything." Even more bizarrely, they included the non-Elvis-sung "Your Groovy Self" from Speedway in favor of any one of several songs actually sung by Elvis. Still, it sounds nice.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Youll-Never-A...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1248332176&sr=1-1