Occasionally the timings of events in one's life are very serendipitous.
This month I happened to buy myself a new Ortofon stylus for my record player ($80 jeez!) and lo-and-behold this week I received three preview copies of the new MRS deluxe double albums that are being released for this year's Record Store Day.

When it comes to vinyl I am not a super-keen collector but I do feel lucky that I was alive to appreciate the joys of vinyl. I know the delight and excitement of buying a 7-inch single release, or the joy of holding a 12 inch album with a full-size cover and the genuine pleasure of that solid piece of plastic that contains newly recorded material to listen to. So while I am not a major vinyl purchaser nowadays it is no wonder to me that vinyl purchases have been increasing in recent years as a new generation gets to understand the joy of owning music in a contextual manner rather than just as an ipod file.

The last vinyl I purchased was in fact the Public Domain Veetone stylish 10-inch Elvis Presley album 'Such A Night - Rockin' In The Early 60s', while I noted in my recent EIN review of the new "If I Can Dream" CD that I considered that the 45-rpm vinyl single as being the best part of the release. (see 'If I Can Dream' review here)

But having checked out these new MRS deluxe double-albums there can be no doubt at all that if you are an Elvis vinyl collector then these three new MRS Elvis Presley releases are absolutely sensational.

Even having read the pre-publicity promotional material I truly had no idea about how well presented these double-albums would be.

All three releases come with beautiful full-size deluxe 24-page booklets - which are glued to the inside of the stylish gate-fold album sleeve.  
To be honest the last album that I bought which had the similar excitement of containing some great Elvis music along with a large size booklet was my 'A Legendary Performer' Volume 4' back in 1983 - and that booklet was only a poorly printed 12-pages!

These three albums will not be officially released until Record Store Day - April 16 2016 - but to whet vinyl collector's appetites below are some photographs (my personal snaps so nothing special!) so as to show the fabulous impact and size of these beautiful presentations.

The three volumes are
- Such A Night In Pearl Harbor
- Live In The 50s - The Complete Tour Recordings
- The Complete Louisiana Hayride Archives 1954 – 1956

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- Such A Night In Pearl Harbor
The 24 page booklet features over 35 photos, fourteen of them full-page images and while the text of the Pearl Harbor booklet is similar to the earlier MRS CD release, the full album sized photographs have so much more impact here .

In fact the excitement of playing this Hawaii Benefit release reminded me of the old days when the original bootleg vinyl album first came out – my original copy sadly stolen long time ago - but what a sensational improvement in the sound now.
The audio on all these releases has been re-mastered by 'Studio D' in the same glorious quality as the MRS CD version - but now with the added excitement and warmth of playing off vinyl.  

All these personal photos include a standard CD cover purely to help demonstrate the marvelous giant size images.

And let me point out that while some critics of the MRS label may say that the huge, beautiful photographs in this new MRS release were perhaps copied from the excellent, recent FTD book 'Rock Around The Bloch' this is obviously not the case since the images here are of better quality and full-sized - unlike their cropped versions contained in the FTD book.

 

- Live In The 50s - The Complete Tour Recordings
The use of the two Alfred Wertheimer's colour photos here are particularly impressive - again there are fourteen full-size images amongst the fifty photographs used.

This time the booklet includes only the listings of Elvis's 1950s concerts with no text - but the huge photographs of Elvis certainly capture the feel of Elvis rockin out in the fifties - as does the five major performances on vinyl.
Eagles Hall 1955, Las Vegas 1956, Little Rock May 56, plus the two 56 Tupelo shows are all a treat being on the one double-vinyl set.

 

- The Complete Louisiana Hayride Archives 1954 – 1956
The complete Louisiana Hayride Archives again uses the text found in the booklet to the earlier MRS CD release but again showcases Elvis' earlier concerts with some fantastic live shots.

These early concerts are all basically before Elvis' record-breaking success and so most of the photos are of the candid nature and not worthy of full-size enlargement however in compensation there are over ninety great photos here, all of which help show Elvis' incredible drive and excitement on-stage. There was no doubt that this Southern-boy would become a star.

 Audio Quality 
The 180gram heavy vinyl sounds beautiful with no background rumble or static and with the audio presented as the best as possible considering the poor original quality of the original tapes or acetates.
The audio quality is as good as on the recent MRS fifties CD/book combo but now with the added delight of the warmth of final.

So while I'm not sure that I will even play the Pearl Harbor Press Conference again any time soon, the actual Bloch Arena concert is surely one of Elvis' best all-time performances and there is something magical about it playing off vinyl and sounding so good.
Watching Elvis in the fifties play off vinyl feels just like the "old days" when there was real excitement in discovering those hard-to-find bootleg discs.


Selling for a similar price to the FTD double vinyl releases - UK£35 - but with the added bonus of the 24-page full-size booklets in each release, any one of these three Record Store Day MRS double-vinyl releases will be a sensational addition to any vinyl collectors set.

Note that these three albums will not be released until Record Store Day - April 16 - but can be pre-ordered from the London Elvis Shop - >> CLICK HERE - - - - - - - - - - - (Please note that EIN has no sneaky financial deals with The Elvis London Shop! - this is only a guide and your local Elvis dealer may sell them cheaper! EIN is not selling these releases.)

 

Preview by Piers Beagley.
-Copyright EIN March 2016
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