Have you heard the news?

Yesterday evening I finally got around to pre-order the three July releases from the FTD label. Today the tracklistings and the cover art was made public. Here's some early thoughts:

Apparently the Lost Album is to be titled Elvis sings Memphis Tennessee. My spontaneous reaction is that the cover does remind me of an Elvis album from the 60's, with a headshot of Elvis filling a lot of the space. Now if only the title was Elvis sings Memphis Tennessee (And 14 Other Great Songs) the illusion would be perfect.

The tracklisting looks promising enough, in the order we've come to expect, with the masters followed by the first takes and then the rest. I especially look forward to hearing Elvis work with "(You're The) Devil In Disguise" and the songs from the January 1964 session.

Moving on to Love Letters From Elvis it confuses me to see "Something" among the bonus songs. True, this track was considered for the Love Letters album, as I wrote some time ago. But as it was recently included on That's The Way It Is it's intriguing to see it listed here.

Nice though, that "The Sound of Your Cry" and "Sylvia" are included, as they were originally indented for the album but then removed. "Rags To Riches" is another surprise, this one I thought would be a bonus song on the Elvis Country album later on, as it is from September 1970.

But maybe it's a way to help fill two CD's, as is the inclusion of a radio commercial. I for one can only hope that "Got My Mojo Working" is the unedited version, complete with bad language. "If I Were You," takes 1-12 I can probably live without.

As for the soundboard concert from April 22, 1976, titled "America," this is a release that would have thrilled me to death maybe 15 years ago. Not so anymore. By this time in the game Elvis repertoire lacked both renewal and variety.

Still, I always enjoy listening to Elvis perform "How Great Thou Art," "Hurt" and "America (The Beautiful)." It's like Stein Erik Skar writes in his excellent book The Concert Years 1969-1977 about this particular tour: "It is solely in such songs that Elvis lives."