When It Rains, It Really Pours

Not only was my concern for the future of FTD a month ago unwarranted, last week the label announced that it will end the year with no less than six new releases. An impressive figure, although a closer look at the list reveals that two of the planned albums are recycled.

I will definitely buy the 5 inch digipack 2 CD set titled From Sunset To Vegas which features the rehearsal recorded at RCA's studio on Sunset Boulevard on August 16, 1974, as well as a couple of live recordings from Elvis' Las Vegas engagement in August/September that same year. This release is the perfect companion to the double CD Nevada Nights that FTD offered us last autumn.

I know I nag about it now and then here on Elvis Today, but I've never been able to figure out why FTD doesn't put together a CD box. The two above mentioned titles would've been perfect candidates, don't you think? So would the recordings from Jailhouse Rock, apparently, as the second FTD album in September will be a 2 CD in the classic albums format, followed by a second volume next year.

The most exciting of the bunch is Good Times that will see the light of day around November 1. This one has always been high on my wish list for getting the classic album treatment, and finally it does. Ernst Jorgensen promises "many great outtakes" and I for one hope for an alternate version of "My Boy."

FTD also promises us a new soundboard, but no further details are given. As the label more and more turns to concerts already issued on bootleg, maybe we can look forward to Elvis' concert in Dallas, December 28, 1976? This incredible show was released as A Hot Winter Night In Dallas by Fort Baxter back in 1998.

As for the recycled albums, one of them will be Rockin' Across Texas, released as a 2 CD set without the book that is now deleted. The Way It Was got the same treatment a while back, so I guess it was just a matter of time.

One of the first FTD albums and also one of the best is The Jungle Room Sessions. Nearly ten years after its original appearance it returns in the shape of a 2 disc vinyl set, making up the final release of the year.

I really can't make up my mind about it. On the one hand I don't understand the decision to manufacture vinyl records featuring material already released on CD, but on the other hand an edition of The Jungle Room Sessions pressed on 180-gram vinyl and "supplied in a new gatefold sleeve featuring additional Graceland images" sounds pretty cool.