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Elvis Heard Them Here First / Various
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Album: Elvis Heard Them Here First / Various
# Song Title   Time
1)    I WANT YOU WITH ME - Bobby Darin More Info...
2)    THE GIRL OF MY BEST FRIEND - Charlie Blackwell More Info...
3)    BOSSA NOVA BABY - Tippie & The Clovers More Info...
4)    I'M COMING HOME - Carl Mann More Info...
5)    THE WONDER OF YOU - Ray Peterson More Info...
6)    GIRL NEXT DOOR - Thomas Wayne More Info...
7)    FIND OUT WHAT'S HAPPENING - The Spidells featuring Billy Lockridge More Info...
8)    NEVER ENDING - Roger Douglass More Info...
9)    GIRLS! GIRLS! GIRLS! (PART TWO) - The Coasters More Info...
10)    LONG BLACK LIMOUSINE - Vern Stovall More Info...
11)    IF I'M A FOOL FOR LOVING YOU - Bobby Wood More Info...
12)    STOP, LOOK AND LISTEN - Rick Nelson More Info...
13)    TOMORROW IS A LONG TIME - Bob Dylan More Info...
14)    GUITAR MAN - Jerry Reed More Info...
15)    ALWAYS ON MY MIND - Brenda Lee More Info...
16)    ONLY THE STRONG SURVIVE - Jerry Butler More Info...
17)    GOOD TIME CHARLIE'S GOT THE BLUES - The Bards More Info...
18)    TRUE LOVE TRAVELS ON A GRAVEL ROAD - Duane Dee More Info...
19)    I'VE LOST YOU - Matthews' Southern Comfort More Info...
20)    THREE CORN PATCHES - T-Bone Walker More Info...
21)    PIECES OF MY LIFE - Charlie Rich More Info...
22)    FOR OL' TIMES SAKE - Tony Joe White More Info...
23)    FAIRYTALE - The Pointer Sisters More Info...
24)    AN AMERICAN TRILOGY - Mickey Newbury More Info...
 
Album: Elvis Heard Them Here First / Various
# Song Title   Time
1)    I WANT YOU WITH ME - Bobby Darin More Info...
2)    THE GIRL OF MY BEST FRIEND - Charlie Blackwell More Info...
3)    BOSSA NOVA BABY - Tippie & The Clovers More Info...
4)    I'M COMING HOME - Carl Mann More Info...
5)    THE WONDER OF YOU - Ray Peterson More Info...
6)    GIRL NEXT DOOR - Thomas Wayne More Info...
7)    FIND OUT WHAT'S HAPPENING - The Spidells featuring Billy Lockridge More Info...
8)    NEVER ENDING - Roger Douglass More Info...
9)    GIRLS! GIRLS! GIRLS! (PART TWO) - The Coasters More Info...
10)    LONG BLACK LIMOUSINE - Vern Stovall More Info...
11)    IF I'M A FOOL FOR LOVING YOU - Bobby Wood More Info...
12)    STOP, LOOK AND LISTEN - Rick Nelson More Info...
13)    TOMORROW IS A LONG TIME - Bob Dylan More Info...
14)    GUITAR MAN - Jerry Reed More Info...
15)    ALWAYS ON MY MIND - Brenda Lee More Info...
16)    ONLY THE STRONG SURVIVE - Jerry Butler More Info...
17)    GOOD TIME CHARLIE'S GOT THE BLUES - The Bards More Info...
18)    TRUE LOVE TRAVELS ON A GRAVEL ROAD - Duane Dee More Info...
19)    I'VE LOST YOU - Matthews' Southern Comfort More Info...
20)    THREE CORN PATCHES - T-Bone Walker More Info...
21)    PIECES OF MY LIFE - Charlie Rich More Info...
22)    FOR OL' TIMES SAKE - Tony Joe White More Info...
23)    FAIRYTALE - The Pointer Sisters More Info...
24)    AN AMERICAN TRILOGY - Mickey Newbury More Info...
 
Product Description
Product Details
Performer Notes
  • Liner Note Author: Tony Rounce.
  • It's doubtful that many Elvis Presley fans, even very serious ones, have heard his covers of all of the 24 songs on this CD, let alone the original versions collected for this unusual, imaginative anthology. These were all done by Elvis between his return from the army in 1960 and his death in 1977, but even though that takes many classics he covered in the '50s out of consideration, it still leaves a very large pool from which to draw. Though a few of these were hits for Presley ("Bossa Nova Baby," "Guitar Man," "The Wonder of You"), the emphasis is on original versions of what might be called "deep" Elvis cuts, found on his LPs, low-charting/foreign-charting 45s, and B-sides. While the liner notes are careful to point out that it's not certain these were the versions Elvis heard first or modeled his interpretations upon in all cases, certainly in many instances they must have been. The benefit of an impressively cross-licensed compilation like this is that it brings together a lot of rarities that even dedicated collectors would have a hard time assembling on their own. The drawback is that these aren't always among the better tunes that Elvis decided to cover, and that the original versions aren't always that good, even when Presley did a good job with them.
  • However, a few tracks are genuine standouts on their own merits. Those include Jerry Reed's boastful "Guitar Man"; the Coasters' reliably fun "Girls Girls Girls, Pt. 2"; the early Bob Dylan romantic song "Tomorrow Is a Long Time" (Presley's version being Dylan's favorite cover of one of his songs); Jerry Butler's late-'60s soul hit "Only the Strong Survive," cut by Elvis in the studio just two days after it was released; and Vern Stovall's country classic "Long Black Limousine." More obscure highlights are Carl Mann's respectable Charlie Rich-penned 1960 rockabilly outing "I'm Comin' Home"; Matthews' Southern Comfort's gently country-rocking "I've Lost You," a modest 1970 hit for Elvis; and Brenda Lee's 1972 country-pop single "Always on My Mind." Yet some of the selections clearly don't measure up to Presley's reworkings, like Charlie Blackwell's "The Girl of My Best Friend" (also well known via Ral Donner's hit cover) and Tippie & the Clovers' "Bossa Nova Baby," penned by frequent early Elvis suppliers Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. The Bards' 1969 original of "Goodtime Charlie's Got the Blues" predates both Presley's version and the hit by its composer Danny O'Keefe, and sounds pretty rudimentary in its original reincarnation.
  • Still, as usual, Ace comes through with interesting and thorough (and thoroughly illustrated) liner notes detailing the origins of these songs, which sometimes weren't well-known even when they were first done by stars like Bobby Darin ("I Want You with Me"), Rick Nelson ("Stop, Look and Listen"), Charlie Rich ("Pieces of My Life"), or Tony Joe White ("For Ol' Times Sake"). And though the Pointer Sisters' surprisingly country-oriented "Fairytale" and Mickey Newbury's "An American Trilogy" weren't highlights of Presley's repertoire in his final years, they testify to his willingness to try an extremely eclectic range of material. As a minor side note, the liners speculate Elvis learned "Tomorrow Is a Long Time" from Ian & Sylvia's 1963 cover version, but according to other sources, he learned it from Odetta's rendition on her Odetta Sings Dylan album. It also doesn't seem impossible that if he heard a Dylan recording of the song, it could have been on a publishing demo done by Dylan himself (as heard on Dylan's Witmark Demos collection), rather than the 1963 live recording (first issued on Dylan's 1971 Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 compilation) licensed for this CD. ~ Richie Unterberger
Professional Reviews
Mojo (Publisher) (p.105) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Evergreen rock'n'roll, blues, country and soul..."
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