'Elvis Christmas'

After the massive two recent chart successes of "Elvis with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra" - along with the worldwide tour - it was inevitable that the follow-up would be 'Elvis Christmas with the RPO'. But can the concept be applied to everything? Shane Brown, author of the new book 'Reconsider Baby', and Elvis music expert has written a fascinating and thought-provoking review. The REAL ISSUE could be that the desperation to earn a quick "Christmas" buck may lead to Elvis' musical legacy being diluted by overdubbed tacky M-O-R versions that have nothing to do with Elvis' original recordings. Read Shane Brown's incisive review below and send us YOUR feedback.

Last week EIN's Piers Beagley and Brittany Edwards provided a "Double-trouble" review of the new "Elvis with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra" Christmas album. There was an immediate reaction from EIN readers the majority of which also rated the new album very poorly.

Shane Brown, author of the new book 'Reconsider Baby' and Elvis music expert, has also written a fascinating and thought-provoking review. He raises the issue that fans should be genuinely concerned what these "Re-Imagined" versions are doing to Elvis great musical legacy.

They say that all good things must come to an end.  Thankfully, all bad things must come to an end, too – and the new Christmas release should prove to be the end of the road of the RPO albums with Elvis.  And these formula albums are spluttering to a conclusion with about as much energy and imagination as the albums for the final formula films back in the 1960s. 

It all starts off amicably enough, I guess, with Santa Claus is Back in Town, although the very idea of playing around with one of Elvis’s greatest triumphs in the studio should automatically result in the harshest of penalties – at the very least, six back to back screenings of Stay Away Joe. 

While the new arrangement of Santa Claus is Back in Town is unambitious, it does at least give us a rough idea of what it might have sounded like had it been recorded a few months later for King Creole. The brass arrangement is predictable, but does its job well enough, but that leaves us with the strings, and so we get the same kind of repetitive figures that were used on Steamroller Blues for one of the earlier RPO outings. In other words, while basically harmless, the exercise is still basically pointless.

And then it seems to all go downhill from there. 

White Christmas opens with a string introduction that sounds more Mantovani than Elvis, which means that when Elvis does appear there is a jarring effect because the two styles do not join together well.  There is a nice moment, though, in the repeat section where the strings play the original tune over Elvis’s vocal variation on it.  But that moment lasts all of ten seconds. 

Here Comes Santa Claus has always been under-rated in my opinion.  What appears to be a straightforward arrangement on the original is actually remarkably intricate.  Just listen to how the timing between Elvis and the Jordanaires gets more and more complex with each verse (most notable when listening through headphones).  It is very effective and made to look so easy even though it’s not.  And as if to purposefully prove that, the RPO version whisks away the Jordanaires and, instead, brings on a group of singers who do not have the same sense of timing, even when they are replicating what has come before.  Therefore, the whole thing comes over as awkward and clumsy. Meanwhile the poor string players were probably on autopilot and dreaming of when they can return to playing Mahler, saddled as they are with yet more of the same figures they play in every other song in the Elvis records.

What does Merry Christmas Baby really need?  That’s right, some nice bluesy cellos, and some brass figures that make Joe Guercio’s arrangements sound like masterpieces.  This is so damned predictable that a moderately gifted 16-year-old music student could have written it.  There is nothing remotely original in the arrangements here, and that is the main problem.  They are tedious and dull – and sometimes ludicrous.  While the strings play elongated notes over the top of the faux-blues brass, Elvis chung-chung-chungs away in the background.  Then he tells James to “play it”, but it appears that James is now playing a violin instead of a guitar.  The whole thing is just downright bonkers, and lazy.  They could have at least edited out the ad-libs that no longer made sense. 

Except for some relatively banal strings, virtually nothing has been done to the arrangement of Blue Christmas.  And then, just when you think things are going well, a soprano with constipation is brought in to replace Millie Kirkham during the instrumental. 

I’ll Be Home for Christmas on the 1957 Christmas release was the nearest Elvis got to doing his best Crosby/Sinatra impression, and so the strings aren’t so overpowering here and at least fit in with the general style of the performance.  I always thought the original was too short, but the extension here is so awkward that they should have left it well alone.  And who is that sax player?  He’s bloody awful.  One thing that is at least impressive with some of the RPO takes on Elvis is the way the mix doesn’t sound technically like a melding of old and new – but here it does with the sax solo, which sounds more like some background music from Cagney and Lacey. 

Just when you thought things had at least levelled out in quality, we jump from 1957 to 1971 and one of Elvis’s worst vocals outside of a soundtrack. 

Yes, folks, Winter Wonderland.  Elvis sounds SO bored.  In fact, he sounds as bored as I feel listening to the RPO albums.  And just when Elvis’s vocal is bad and you hope the RPO might at least try to drown him out, the arrangement does nothing.  It’s barely a new arrangement at all.  At least the last album had one moment of inspiration when transforming I Got a Thing About You Baby into something new and fun, but that doesn’t happen on these thirteen tracks. 

Santa Bring My Baby Back to Me comes out of the whole thing rather unscathed, thankfully.  It’s just the original arrangement with a few overdubs. 

It seems that the producers were intent on using some of the worst songs from the 1971 Christmas album.  “It’s what Elvis would have wanted,” I guess. On Silver Bells the opening introduction is rather nice, but, for once, the join between the old and new is appallingly obvious. There is even a pause between the old introduction and Elvis’s rather wobbly entrance.  Do I need to mention the obvious and predictable string motifs that we have here?  You probably have the idea already.  But somehow it all seems to just highlight Elvis’s half-hearted, rather ragged vocal even more than the original. 

Much the same can be said about the arrangement of Oh Little Town of Bethlehem, although Elvis’s vocal is obvious much better.  On the plus side, there is a nice solo violin in the second verse providing a counterpoint to the vocal.  It’s almost as if someone actually had a spark of an idea when putting this one together.  The only downside, though, is that the song now seems to lumber along thanks to the more emphasised rhythm section.  It sounds awkward in a way the original did not. 

O Come All Ye Faithful had a truly inspired love-or-loathe it arrangement on the original album.  Now, however, that is obliterated.  Remember that powerful percussion that drives the second verse?  Forget it.   They’re now replaced by sleigh bells.  Very loud sleigh bells.  Annoying sleigh bells.  Who in heaven’s name had the idea of obliterating one of the most unique arrangements of any song in the Elvis legacy?  Some loved it, some hated it, but at least it made you sit up and take notice.  Now it’s like we’re on a sleigh ride with an eighty piece orchestra.  Even Donald Trump would struggle to screw up something this badly. 

And then yet another awful vocal with The First Noel.  Actually, the arrangement is rather decent (yes, I just said that), although it doesn’t completely hide the fact that Elvis’s vibrato is so wide that he sounds like he’s sitting on a pneumatic drill. But, yes, I admit it, this is probably more listenable than the original. 

And finally, we come to Silent Night, the last track on this mercifully short album.  Not much is played with here, just a few overdubs added, but the new introduction once again sounds very much tacked on rather than an integral part of the song. 

I have previous referred to these albums as being made for the "Christmas Gift to Granny market", and this one is no exception.  However, Granny is like to get very unhappy if you keep buying her Elvis albums every year, especially when they’re not very good ones. 

The real concern that these "Re-Imagined" versions will affect Elvis' musical legacy in the future ...
It is, like the others in the series, harmless but pointless when it comes to hearing it. And yet, these RPO monstrosities are slowly becoming the versions that people hear instead of the originals. Try playing an Elvis playlist on Spotify or Amazon music. What do you hear most of? These albums. And that is genuinely worrying.

Santa Claus is Back in Town in its original form is one of the most visceral, sexy, mould-breaking Christmas songs ever recorded.  It is a masterwork.  But if future generations, mostly relying on streaming, are going to get this bastardised version to hear instead (as they will through playlists, try it yourself) then we need to start getting very worried indeed. 

Elvis is rarely treated seriously as it is for various reasons, and much of that is to do with how his career was spurred on by making a fast buck.  Forty years after his death, nothing seems to have changed.  Ignoring any notion of what this is doing to his legacy, this is nothing more than yet another cash-grab. 
Perhaps even worse is the fact that other Estates are seeing money in the same format, and this year Elvis has to compete with Ella Fitzgerald and Roy Orbison albums that pair them up with  orchestras too.  For Ella, this is not new.  It was done about ten years ago but, even worse than with Elvis, some of the tracks used were totally unreleased, meaning we will never hear them how they were originally intended.  At least they haven’t done that with Elvis, yet.  But don’t bet against it if the powers that be find that elusive Tiger Man acetate sometime in the future, and think it’s lacking some cellos and a tuba. 

Have you listened to Christmas with Elvis and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra yet? What did you think of it? EIN wants to know YOUR THOUGHTS. - Click here

New Review by Shane Brown.
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Click to comment on this review- Should we concerned about messing with Elvis' legacy? - AND PLEASE send us YOUR opinion.

CLICK HERE 'ELVIS Christmas with the RPO' CD Review to read EIN's original review of this Xmas CD.

Book Review "Reconsider Baby: Elvis: A Listener's Guide": Elvis Presley made over 700 recordings during his life. This book by author Shane Brown examines all of them. Session by session, song by song, Reconsider Baby takes the reader on a journey from Elvis’s first recordings in 1953 through to his last performances in 1977. This significantly expanded and revised edition of 2014’s Elvis Presley: A Listener’s Guide provides a commentary on Elvis’s vast and varied body of work, while also examining in detail how Elvis and his recordings and performances were discussed in newspapers, magazines, and trade publications from the 1950s through to the 1970s. The text draws on over 500 contemporary articles and reviews, telling for the first time the story of how Elvis and his career played out in the printed media, and often forcing us to question our understanding of how Elvis’s work was received at the time of release. Can another detailed examination into Elvis' musical legacy really be worth buying? (Hint, the answer is a big YES!) Go here as EIN's Piers Beagley reviews the newly expanded look into Elvis' musical legacy, including some choice book extracts... (Book Reviews, Source,ElvisInformationNetwork)

'ELVIS Christmas with the RPO' CD Review: The new Christmas album supposedly brings together the legend’s yuletide performances from his 1957 Christmas Album and Elvis Sings the Wonderful World of Christmas from 1971, re-imagined with new arrangements performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It's the third album of orchestral re-workings of tracks performed by Elvis, following 2016's The Wonder Of You and 2015's If I Can Dream both reached Number 1 on the Official UK Albums Chart. But can producers Nick Patrick, Don Reedman and Priscilla Presley really keeping milking the money-making Elvis cow or will they turn out an overdone Christmas turkey? Do the "new" Producers even care about Elvis' fabulous musical legacy? Go here as EIN's Piers Beagley and Brittany Edwards go into the Listening Booth to cause "Double-trouble" and try and discover what's good and bad... NOW UPDATED WITH YOUR FEEDBACK - do you think this was a good idea- do you agree with our review?- .CLICK HERE. (CD Reviews, Source;ElvisInformationNetwork)

'The Wonder Of You' Elvis with the RPO - In-depth CD Review: It is forty years since Elvis Presley entered a recording studio and he seems very reluctant to record anything new. So in terms of releasing a "new" album of Elvis material the topic has always been a tricky one. After the massive 2015 success of "Elvis with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra" and ‘If I Can Dream’ the follow-up was inevitable and 'The Wonder Of You' recently achieved Number One in the UK album charts. But can a follow-up really be as impressive - and do the true Elvis fans have to approve of these on-going fake "Revisions"? Click here as EIN's Piers Beagley and Bryan Gruszka are back again to cause "Double-trouble" and supply a very detailed review, discovering what's good and bad... And HAVE YOUR SAY - what do you think of the new album? Are we wrong in our opinions? (CD Reviews, Source;ElvisInfoNet)

'If I Can Dream' new Elvis album - EIN Readers Respond: The publicity for the "new" Elvis album is ramping up, which is good to see. EIN asked its readers what were their opinions so far about the new album to be released at the end of this week. Of all the sneak previews EIN suggested that the new version of "Burning Love" sounded GHASTLY! Nor can we possibly believe that these songs with new overdubs are, "What Elvis would have loved to have had" as Priscilla tells everyone on her publicity trail. EIN reader's comments are a very mixed bunch such as.. ... I've listened to every track that's available from this CD, and I hate them all! They've ruined Elvis' songs. Why can't they leave his music alone? The original tracks are perfect, just the way they are! ....The new arrangements are terrific and exciting as well as creative - especially Burning Love!! ... I’ve really liked most of what I’ve heard so far but must agree that 'Burning Love' is a bit odd… it doesn’t offend but it won’t be the track I use to sell the concept to family and friends."

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