Album Reviews

With most artists, by the time you get to the third greatest hits album you're scraping the bottom of the barrel but not with Elvis Presley. In fact, it could easily be argued that Volume 3 was the "sweet spot" among the original RCA Elvis's greatest hits releases. It's also the first from Elvis's stereo era.

This one includes EP classics like "It's Now or Never", "Stuck on You", "Fame and Fortune", "Are You Lonesome Tonight?", "Little Sister" and "(Marie's the Name) His Latest Flame". The tunes you may not know are pretty good too.

The big issue with greatest hits collections from the analog tape era is that most are compiled from master tape copies (at best but sometimes from even later generation sources) and so the tunes often don't sound as good as on the original release but sometimes the hits packages sound better—as in the case of Tommy James and the Shondells Greatest Hits on Roulette. That one is also pressed on thin Dynaflex vinyl but wow does it sound great!

So this double 45 from ORG is sourced from the original master tape of the LSP-2765 but cut from a copy of that because Sony/BMG does not ship masters stored at Iron Mountain in PA off the East Coast.

Nonetheless, despite the generations down, this double 45 from ORG sounds sensational—mostly because the original recordings were so great and because Bernie Grundman handled them with TLC and being from that era, knows what these tunes are supposed to sound like, which can't be said for whoever cut the Speakers Corner reissue of this at 33 1/3. That label does some incredibly good work but their reissue of this title lacks the required warmth and depth. The ORG reissue has it.

However, either BG or whoever did the tape copy sent to him, lopped off the ultra-low frequency information on "Are You Lonesome Tonight" that you can hear on the original (if your system goes very low). As told to me by Bill Porter, Elvis was having trouble with that tune. He recorded in the dark and at the end of another good take of another song, with the echo chamber "send" knob up all of the way (as would often be the case on the fade-out), Elvis spontaneously said "Let's do 'Are You Lonesome Tonight'".

Porter said "But El, we're not set up for it. Not everyone is at the right microphone!" "I don't care!" Elvis said, "roll the tape"!

So the tape rolls and Elvis was correct: he was ready for a great take but in the background you can hear bumping and banging and some really nasty low frequency "womps" as musicians move around the studio in the dark.

These ultra-low frequency sounds can be heard on the original vinyl but not on the CD box set, where the producers chose to filter them out as "mistakes". My feeling is that they belong on the track because they are part of the history and were on the original release. You can really hear it towards the end of Elvis's spoken word break where he says "the stage is bare". The ULF sounds are MIA on this reissue—not that such an omission is a "deal breaker".

So how does this compare to an original? I have two clean copies but apparently this was a more popular item in both Japan and the U.K. because I couldn't find one currently on Ebay and even Popsike's history shows none for sale.

The bottom line is that the original has greater bottom end punch and immediacy but it's also brighter on top with some sibilant smear and edginess. It also is obviously compressed somewhat but the overall sound is damn exciting.

This reissue is of course quieter and the cut has far less distortion and far greater overall clarity and natural warmth. You can really hear the greater groove etching accuracy in the clarity and placement of the Studio B reverb placed behind and around Presley's voice.

If you've got the original you will not be in need of this reissue but if you are an Elvis fan these 12 tracks provide concentrated Elvis bliss. Non-Elvis fans are now wondering what is the fascination with this old dinosaur. Of course the 180g RTI pressing quality for this limited edition was superb.

Please read all three parts of the Bill Porter Interview and Listening Session

Part 2

Bill Porter Listening Session