RCA Records and Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment, will release ‘MEMPHIS,’ the definitive and first fully comprehensive collection of Elvis Presley’s hometown recordings, on Friday August 9. Over 111 tracks, ‘MEMPHIS’ captures Presley from his earliest sessions at Sun Studio – which occurred 70 years ago this Summer – to his final recordings in Graceland’s Jungle Room.
Along the way, the Bluff City serves as both home and muse to Presley, playing a pivotal role in the dramatic arc of his artistry as he finds creative rebirth at American Sound in 1969, overcomes personal struggles at Stax in 1973, and brings his most extravagant and spellbinding live show to the Mid-South Coliseum in 1974. Produced by noted Elvis authority Ernst Jørgensen, with rare archival material and new liner notes by GRAMMY-winning music historian Robert Gordon, ‘MEMPHIS’ will be released in 5CD, 2LP and digital configurations, giving fresh insight into the bond between Elvis and his eternal home.
With the exception of the Sun recordings, all tracks on ‘MEMPHIS’ were newly mixed by four-time GRAMMY-winner Matt Ross-Spang at Southern Grooves in Memphis, with overdubs stripped away – leaving the listener with only what Elvis heard live in the studio. With this intimacy, new revelations abound – from Elvis’ intuitive chemistry with “The Memphis Boys” at American, to the subtle way he builds his vocal phrasing around his backing singers in the Stax sessions, or the palpable joy he brings to his final sessions in the Jungle Room. Through it all, the listener is standing next to Elvis – hearing exactly what he is hearing.
Matt Ross-Spang, Robert Gordon and Ernst Jørgensen discuss ‘MEMPHIS’ and its significance here: https://elvis.lnk.to/BehindTheBoxset
Listen to Ross-Spang’s mix of “Polk Salad Annie,” live from Memphis’ Mid-South Coliseum, here: https://Elvis.lnk.to/PSAMEMPHIS
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