Title: Las Vegas Fever, Volume 2 (released in 1993)

Label: Golden Stars (Red Line)

Date: Tracks 1-5 - August 1969, tracks 6-7 - February 15, 1972, tracks 8-9 - February 16, 1972. All tracks recorded in Las Vegas, Nevada

Sound Quality: * * * / * * * * * +

Content Rating: * * * * / * * * * * +

Tracks: 1.Medley: Yesterday / Hey Jude 2.Intro / In The Ghetto 3.Suspicious Minds 4.What Did I Say 5.I Can't Help Falling In Love With You 6.It's Over 7.A Big Hunk O' Love 8.It's Impossible 9.The Impossible Dream (Duration: 34 min. 51 sec.)

Package: This CD was produced in the beginning of the bootleg era, thus leading to many mistakes and inaccurate design job. For example, the band members list on CD includes Howard Roberts and Tiny Timbrell on guitars, Myer Rubin on bass, Bernie Mattison on drums, Duddley Brooks on piano, Jimmie Haskell on accordion and finally, The Jordanaires as backgorund vocalists. As we know, none of this musicians have ever played with Elvis in Vegas. The inside and back covers have dollars printed on a strange background. We could have expected better job, had this CD been released these days, but it was normal at the time.

Elvis: Even though the sound quality is not as good as we wanted it is still obvious that Elvis is having real fun onstage, especially on the first few numbers.

Highlights: The selection of songs is strange to our eyes, it's hard to say why they have been put together and so worth. This tracks have been taken from a vinyl release, and the sound quality makes us understand this.

Review: This really old CD is something that the fans would have banned these days since we are really very spoiled - most fans do not want to hear bad sounding, amateurishly designed CDs, and this release is surely falling under this category. However, the material itself (or being more concrete the 69' songs) is out of sight, and you'll see why.

We have argued for a while about the date of this August performance, and came to an agreement that this is August 21, Midnight Show, as the Intros have been used on BMG's Collectors Gold. This compilation begins with a soundboard recording (taken from vinyl) of Yesterday / Hey Jude medley. Elvis' voice is way up in front of all the musicians, and the vinyl hum is apparent. However the performance is good, with Elvis singing the first few lines as "I'm not half the stud I used to be," clearly enjoying the performance. He then takes the time to introduce the band members and goes into a very good rendition of In The Ghetto, his voice may be a bit rough at places, but that's fine. The following Suspicious Minds appears to be sung in the right tempo, closer to the master, Elvis' voice is a little hoarse but the rhythm section (and Elvis himself) deliver a fantastic, very tight performance. A very energetic version of What'd I Say follows, with some interesting and different from what we are used to guitar licks of James Burton. We come to a close for this 1969 recordings with a nice attempt on I Can't Help Falling In Love.

Though said to be from February 15, 1972 both It's Over and A Big Hunk O' Love are the officially released versions (they are actually from February 17 and 16 respectively). It's Impossible and The Impossible Dream are the original versions too, which the fans know by heart, the first of them begins with an unreleased comment by Elvis who announces that "we are recording tonight, ladies and gentlemen, so if we make a mistake just bare with us a couple of times, please." Both renditions are great, but we have both in better sound quality.

Even though the first few songs (to our knowledge) are still unavailable on CD in other forms (neither is the complete show from August 21, 1969) this release is for those who collect everything that has "Elvis Presley" on it, because the sound quality is not good at all and there is too little essential stuff. However, this CD is very hard to get these days, so happy hunting!

L bootleg index