So, what was Elvis doing January 3, 1956? How about July 16, or August 18, 1956? Those answers and many more are found in the new Elvis Presley five-disc, CD box set, Young Man With The Big Beat: The Complete \u201956 Masters.<\/i><\/p>\n
Elvis Presley\u2019s material has been released in every configuration and way possible and plausible, or so I had thought. This latest set, scheduled for release September 27, concentrates on just 1956. The five hours of music and interviews, plus the accompanying literature, present an exhaustive and complete look at a year in the life of Elvis Presley.<\/p>\n
The first disc comprises the first part of the 1956 studio recordings. Included are all the tracks from his debut album, plus non LP singles such as \u201cHeartbreak Hotel\u201d and \u201cI Was The One.\u201d The disc concludes with a number of EP tracks featuring \u201cBlue Suede Shoes,\u201d\u201d My Baby Left Me,\u201d and \u201cShake, Rattle And Roll.\u201d These songs are some of the most influential in rock \u2018n\u2019 roll history and always welcome, but they have been reissued consistently during the past 50 years.<\/p>\n
The second disc picks up where the first left off with Elvis\u2019 complete second album. Elvis consistently released singles that were not a part of his studio albums. The biggest hit single of his career, \u201cHound Dog\/Don\u2019t Be Cruel,\u201d topped the Billboard Magazine <\/i>Pop Singles Chart for 11 weeks and is included here. One of his other classic singles, \u201cLove Me Tender,\u201d is also found here. Again, the material has been available for decades, and while the sound is crystal clear due to the remastering process, it is more enjoyable than essential.<\/p>\n
On the third disc, we are taken into Elvis\u2019 live act during 1956. He performed a hundred or so shows during the year, so who knows what is lurking on some shelf somewhere. The first four tracks are taken from a performance at the Venus Room, Frontier Hotel, Las Vegas, May 6, 1956, and tracks 5-11 was recorded live at Robinson Memorial Auditorium, Little Rock, Arkansas, May 16, 1956. The real gem is the previously unreleased show of December 15, 1956, at the Louisiana Fairgrounds, Shreveport, Louisiana. The ten tracks present an accurate look at his early stage act. The material combines the famous, \u201cHeartbreak Hotel,\u201d \u201cLove Me Tender,\u201d \u201cDon\u2019t Be Cruel,\u201d and \u201cHound Dog\u201d with the somewhat forgotten, \u201cParalyzed\u201d and \u201cWhen My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again.\u201d The sound is raw and limited by the technology of the day, but that\u2019s the way it was back in 1956. This one is a must for Elvis fans and music historians.<\/p>\n
The next disc, the fourth in the set, contains outtakes. It is always difficult to rate outtakes, especially those of Elvis Presley, as many were similar and some were very short. There are four tracks from his first RCA session, January 10-11, 1956, followed by the complete February 3, 1956 sessions, which give an excellent look at one of his early recording sessions. The final track is the complete Warwick Hotel Interview from March 24, which had never been issued by the RCA Label. This disc is for Elvis completists, only but there are a lot of those out there and at 77 minutes, it gives the listener a lot of material.<\/p>\n
Disc five contains the Interviews. There are four more interviews, all of which have never been released by the RCA label, including the complete TV Guide Presents Elvis <\/i>interview. The set finishes with a couple of rare Victrola Radio ads. It is one of the few times over an hour of Elvis interviews has been issued in one place.<\/p>\n
The set comes with a variety of goodies, including an 80 page book complete with an assortment of photographs, complete information about each track, a timeline that chronicles what Elvis was doing virtually every day of 1956, five 8X10 photographs suitable for framing, five replica posters, and a replica concert stub.<\/p>\n