the million dollar quartet

I've never heard this album and am pondering picking it up. I see its about to be released in a 50th anniversary edition on Charly with a second disc of sun studio tracks by all 4 participants.

anyone have an opinion on any Charly/Sun previous releases? Does this seem like one to get, or should i go for one of the RCA issues?

here is the link to the forthcoming 50th anniversary issue...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000ECXTHK/026-2978226-3300437?_encoding=UTF8

 

Well, I have the old RCA disc from the early 90s, and I have no complaints about it. It seems to have been compressed somewhat to bring up the volume when they speak (all releases might be this way, I don't know) but it's not bothersome. It's not a great recording because of the way it transpired, though - the fidelity is okay, but the balances are generally weird. Just my opinion.

 

Firstly - Charly have a pretty bad reputation. Not sure how they are these days but in the past they have used whatever tapes they could get their hands on and were fairly liberal with their use of CEDAR . They also like not paying any royalties.....allegedly......

Now, onto the RCA releases!

I've never understood why the main bulk of the material has always sounded fairly bad while the little extra material that finally surfaced on the "Complete 50's Masters" box sounds sooooo much better. It's as if RCA used copies of "gray market" issues (which were sourced from faily poor tape copies of the original reels in the first place) for the official CD release.

Don't RCA have the original master(s?) from the original session(s?) - apart from the snippet on the 50's box??

 

Much as I like the music of that era, the Million-Dollar Quartet tracks were a bit of a disappointment to me.

 

From what I understand, BMG/RCA acquired a better source tape between the release of the original CD and the extra outtakes that have been released.

 

You guys do know that there is a brilliant LP version of this? Most everything released has been dubbed from it. The Bear Family put it out in the 80s. It's gray market, not quite a full boot. Hearing it is a revelation. The copy I have has a graphic of a dollar bill. It says "The One Million Dollar Quartet" and "For the First Time Elvis Presley Jerry Lee Lewis Carl Perkins Studio Quality Previously Unissued Recordings."

It is on S-Records, #S 5001. It is a double LP set with a glossy gate fold and lots of pictures inside. Apparently, the Charley is dubbed from this LP.

The sound is terrific. It is transfered with dropouts in tact. It is light years beyond the RCA CD and any Charley releases.

 

In that case they've been sitting on the tape for 15 years!

Given the large number of Elvis releases and re-releases over the last 15 years it seems odd to me that they haven't re-released the "Million Dollar Quartet" material in upgraded form if they do indeed have better source tapes for everything the "quartet" recorded.

If this was EMI and it was Beatles recording it wouldn't surprise me at all. But RCA (BMG) normally seem to be only too keen to put out as much Elvis material as the market can bear (and then some!). I don't get it .

 

The story I was told is that it is a relatively recent acquisition for RCA. They bought the tape from the Bear Family guy, who bought it from Sam Phillips. The tape was in a legal gray area because it was recorded after SP was required to hand over Elvis material to them. I heard this from a fellow who used to stock Bear Family records when the first (non digitized) releases were coming out.

 

Supposedly this upgraded tape is to be used for the three or four cd box set of Elvis' complete Sun recordings that is to be issued on the FTD label sometime in the future.

 

Maybe - but it doesn't explain the much better source RCA had for the previously unreleased snippets on the 50s box in 1992......

 

I think that's when they might have aquired the tape. I wonder why better material has yet to come out on CD. The LP I have is definately the be all and end all thus far. I think it has the most material too, but I'm not sure.

 

Ah, when you said "recent" I thought you meant less than 15 years ago

So, we are back to the same question - why have RCA (BMG) been sitting on these better tapes for 15 years (assuming they do indeed exist)?.......

 

Who knows, the better sounding tracs might even be dubbed from the lp. If that is not the case, then it is a really interesting question as to why this recording has sat in the vaults for so long.

 

From what I have read, Shelby Singleton has the master tape (or a low generation copy)
in the Sun Records vaults.

In 1977 after Elvis Presley died, Sun released a "tribute" album on Elvis that RCA
quickly had pulled from the market.

In an interview at the time Singleton said he was planning to release
The "MDQ" material (of which he said he had two reels) and another
Lp to be called "Sun Daze" with outtakes and studio chatter from the 1950's
of Sun Artists. These never saw the light of day after RCA sic'ed Nipper after him.

 

Interesting. Maybe the source of my LP?

 

On the back of my disc it states: "Every effort has been made to present "The Million Dollar Quartet" in the best possible sound quality. However, priority has been given to historical content. This is a mono recording."

I wonder what "Sonic Research and Annotation" that Colin Escott did means?