The contents of disc one from this set are the result of such vault searches. “Unreleased Stereo Masters From The ‘50’s” gives us 20 two track binaural recordings that were originally recorded for experimental purposes, and presumed erased for many years.

The disc starts with the master take (9) of the gospel “Peace In The Valley”. The song was performed live during Elvis’ third appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show on January 6, 1957, and the positive reaction towards this performance was obviously a factor in Elvis’ decision to record the song at Radio Recorders, Hollywood seven days later on January 13. Whilst most fans will be familiar with this performance, this binaural recording with the Elvis in the left channel and the Jordanaires in the right makes for a great listening experience through headphones, and provides the listener with a fly on the wall insight into Elvis’ recording process back in 1957. 

The second track, alternate take 11 of “I Beg Of You”, was recorded on the same day as “Peace In The Valley”, and whilst this is a good performance, Elvis still seems a little unsure on the vocal phrasing. The master take (12) from this session was not issued until 1988 on the album “Stereo ’57 – Essential Elvis Volume Two”. Elvis obviously though he could improve on what had been taped on January 13, 1957, as he re-recorded the song the following month on February 23, 1957 during another session at Radio Recorders, running through thirty-four takes before he had a satisfactory master. This later version would be issued as the flip side to the single “Don’t” in early 1958.    

Four binaural master takes follow and these are “It Is No Secret” (take 13), “Blueberry Hill” (take 9),  “Have I Told You Lately That I Love You” (take 15), and “Is It So Strange” (take 12). These four selections represent Elvis’ complete Radio Recorders session from January 19, 1957. “It Is No Secret” was the fourth and final track to be recorded for what would become the 1957 EP album “Peace In The Valley”, whilst “Blueberry Hill”, “Have I Told You Lately That I Love You”, and Faron Young’s country ballad “Is It So Strange” were issued on the 1957 EP album “Just For You”, along with the additional 1957 cut “I Need You So”.  

In 1959 with Elvis serving in the US army and unable to record new material “Is It So Strange” was also included on the stop gap album release  “A Date With Elvis”, which was compiled from previously released tracks that hadn’t appeared on a album release before.      

Three of the songs from the January 19 session were also used as bonus cuts on Elvis’ first long playing soundtrack album “Loving You”, and we revisit the recording sessions for this soundtrack for the next batch of tracks on this disc. Here we have two takes of the fast (or main title) version of  “Loving You”, the early take 5, and the later take 15. Elvis is obviously still getting to grips with the song during the earlier take, but by take 15 the pace has speeded up somewhat, and Elvis’ delivery is much more confident, and has a more bluesy approach in places.

An alternate binaural mix of take 5 is also available on the FTD release, “Silver Screen Stereo”. Next is take 19 of the first movie version of “Treat Me Nice”. This is a good performance that features different backing vocals from the Jordanaires, that provide interesting listening, but don’t really work as well as what was achieved during the later versions of the song. Two takes of “Young And Beautiful” follow. Take 21 is incomplete, and features Elvis breaking up laughing after what sounds like some sort of private joke in the recording studio, whilst take 22 is the binaural version of the record master. 

The solo master take three follows with Elvis laughing, “how bad do you want me to get, Jack?” and this is followed by the short nightclub master (take 7) of the same song. Unlike most Presley movies, a number of songs were performed more than once during “Jailhouse Rock” and this is also true of the next track “I Want To Be Free”. Here we get the movie version (take 12), which is followed by the record master (take 11). The second movie version of “Treat Me Nice” (take 13) follows, and this is a stronger take than the first movie version, featuring revised backing vocals from the Jordanaires, that work much better than their attempts on the first movie version. This approach was also retained for the record master. 

Two versions of “Don’t Leave Me Now “ follow. One being Elvis’ piano version, whilst the other is the movie version.  The movie version features what in my opinion is a slightly better vocal from Elvis, and is also boosted by backing vocals from the Jordanaires. Elvis had first recorded this song before it was considered for the “Jailhouse Rock” movie during an earlier session at Radio Recorders on February 23, 1957. The master take from this session was issued as a bonus cut on the “Loving You” soundtrack album prior to release of the “Jailhouse Rock” soundtrack. The first disc closes with take one of “Baby I Don’t Care” which opens with Elvis commenting, “(you’re) just gonna be wasting tape, its too late in the day for all this shit”. Despite Elvis’ obvious tiredness this version starts surprisingly strong, with the early part of the take sounding similar to the master (take 6), but by the middle of the track it’s obvious that this is indeed an earlier take, with Elvis still finding his way around the middle section of the song. 

The “Jailhouse Rock” single topped the charts in both the US and the UK in late 1957 and 1958 respectively, and was the first ever song to enter the UK charts at the No.1 position based on advance sales only.  A soundtrack EP album released in 1957 featuring the title track, “Young And Beautiful”, “I Want To Be Free”, “Don’t Leave Me Now”, and “Baby I Don’t Care” proved to be one the most popular Presley EP titles ever released. A full soundtrack album was finally issued in 1997 on a CD release that complied all the original masters, some out takes, and the recordings from the “Love Me Tender” soundtrack as a bonus.   

Next