Elvis By the Presleys (Bonus CD)
This 32-track, double CD set--a companion to atelevision special--is marketed as the King's "most emotionally affecting tunes," songs he connected to his real-life romance with his wife and daughter. Well, that's a novel repackaging ploy, especially as this collection contains "Heartbreak Hotel," a song Elvis recorded in 1956, well before he met Priscilla. However, the second disc, a collection of rarities, is far more interesting, beginning with "It Wouldn't Be the Same Without You," one of the four known demos Presley recorded before winning his Sun contract. His tone here--pure and almost girlish--is the sweet sound of a boy who would beDean Martin, not a revolution in the making. Private recordings of "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" and "Baby What You Want Me to Do" are so "living room" as to seem deliciously voyeuristic. But the most fascinating glimpse here comes as an alternate take of "You'll Be Gone," a song Presley wrote in 1962 with friends Red West and Charlie Hodge. Utterly awful, it finds him meandering into the squishy no man's land that characterized much of the period. He played it for the visiting Priscilla, who said she liked his rock 'n' roll stuff better, and, crushed, he supposedly never tried to write a song again. That was history's loss, but Priscilla ended up being a better A&R; director than anybody else Elvis had around him at the time. And not a bad album packager it turns out, though the "rare, never-before-seen family photos" promised in the booklet don't quite cut the mustard.--Alanna Nash