Title: A Legendary Performer Volume 5 (released in 2005)

Label: Madison

Date: Different dates (see below)

Sound Quality: from * * * + to * * * * + / * * * * * +

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

Tracks: 1.Elvis Presley "Victrola" Special Offer (October 1956) 2.I Beg Of You (binaural, takes 9-10 - January 13, 1957) 3.One Night Of Sin (with sax overdub - January 18, 1957) 4.Have I Told You Lately That I Love You (binaural, take 14 - January 19, 1957) 5.Loving You ("main title 2", take 16 - February 14, 1957) 6.I Need Your Love Tonight (take 14 - June 10, 1958) 7.No More (take 9 - March 21, 1961) 8.For The Millionth And The Last Time (take 7 - October 15, 1961) 9.I Met Her Today (take 14 - October 15, 1961) 10.Please Don't Drag That String Around (takes 3, 5 - May 26, 1963) 11.Home Is Where The Heart Is (take 12 - October 26, 1961) 12.Night Life (unedited master, no added echo, take 14 - July 9, 1963) 13.Yellow Rose Of Texas / The Eyes Of Texas (unedited master, take 9 - July 11, 1963) 14.The Climb (previously unreleased, take 3 - July 11, 1963) 15.Do The Vega (unedited master, no added echo, take 7 - July 10, 1963) 16.Wisdom Of The Ages (takes 1-2 - February 25, 1965) 17.Easy Come, Easy Go (take 9 - September 28, 1966) 18.500 Miles (stereo home demo - 1966) 19.Heartbreak Hotel (soundboard - August 24, 1969 MS) 20.I Can't Stop Loving You (soundboard - August 24, 1969 MS) 21.Blueberry Hill / Lawdy Miss Clawdy (soundboard - February 23, 1970 CS) 22.I've Lost You (previously unreleased rehearsal - August 7, 1970) 23.I've Lost You (rehearsal - August 10, 1970) 24.I've Got Confidence (previously unreleased, take 1 - May 18, 1971) 25.It's A Matter Of Time (undubbed master, take 5 - March 29, 1972) 26.Conversation With Elvis (excerpt - March 1972) 27."Elvis On Tour" radio ad (November 1972) 28.Trying To Get To You (soundboard - March 3, 1974 AS) 29.Woman Without Love (undubbed master, take 1 - March 12, 1975) 30.My Boy (previously unreleased soundboard - March 1975) 31.Big Boss Man (previously unreleased soundboard - March 1975) 32.And I Love You So (previously unreleased binaural - March 21, 1976) (Duration: 77 min. 06 sec.)

Package: The Madison label continues it's tradition of making good packages - we get many memorabilia scans and photographs from the time of the recordings plus fine liner notes about the selections.

Highlights: The selection of songs leaves a feeling of "tutti frutti" as it covers almost 20 years of Elvis' career - something we'd appreciate if it was a three or four CD set with essential material but are skeptical about when it comes on one CD filled mostly with released songs.

Review: The first of the A Legendary Performer albums came out in early 1974 and was a huge success selling over 700 000 copies (much better than the then new Raised On Rock album). Three volumes saw the light of the day in the following 9 years but we had to wait for another 20 years to get the fifth compilation of different pieces of Elvis' career. Was it worth waiting?

We have to conclude it was not. This is a yet another way for the bootleggers to get the poor fans' money from their pockets. We were used to this kind of attitude even from BMG in the past, but it seems that most of the CD producers now understand that this kind of mixed material is not too much of a listening pleasure. Don't spend your money on this release unless you are a "I want to have it all" collector. If the "unreleased" material (from the March 1975 or the better sounding tape from February 23, 1970) is available it will find it's way into single CDs in a more or less complete form in the near future, and then it might be a must have.

For a detailed track-by-track review see below:

As most of the material is very familiar to the collectors, we won't bother you with the details of when or where these recordings were previously released and will concentrate on the performance. Starting with a radio commercial from October 1956 this CD begins a yet another page in our Elvis Presley's life-story book. Here we are treated with two takes of I Beg Of You (one of which is only a false start and the other ends right before the second refrain) which of course can not match the sound quality of BMG's Essential Elvis Volume 2, but contrary to the official label's release has the phrase "This thing ain't full enough..." in the right place. One Night Of Sin features a sax and some trumpets' overdubs resulting a rather jazzy sound, different from what we are used to, but the song looses an Elvis feeling. Elvis still experiences trouble leading the band to have the last line repeated closer to the end of take 14 of Have I Told You Lately while take 16 of the "main title 2" version of Loving You is flawless. We go to year 1958 and Elvis' recording of I Need Your Love Tonight just two takes prior the master, a very fine rendition but still missing some of the classic-sounding elements.

Take 7 of No More is a great attempt on this old translated Neapolitan song La Paloma, and the fact that Elvis continued with the recording process once again shows a perfectionist at work. Take 7 of For The Millionth And The Last Time is yet to be polished to become the master, but is a fine attempt. I Met Her Today take 14 sounds slower than it should have been. Please Don't Drag That String Around features three false starts and a complete inspired take 5. A very slow rendition of Home Is Where The Heart Is is next - Elvis' voice is very good, but we almost fall asleep on this number.

Next in line are the weakest numbers of the Viva Las Vegas movie and without the echo used on the original versions they sound even worse. Two takes of Wisdom Of The Ages (one of which is a false start) are fine followed by one of the weakest numbers in Elvis' movie career - Easy Come Easy Go - and it's a big question why on earth the producers have added the master take to this compilation. A stereo version of 500 Miles takes our attention but this is the only nuance this song can boast.

The following two selections from the Midnight show of August 24 are very good, Heartbreak Hotel is a real gem as is I Can't Stop Loving You, but the sound quality is not of high class, and since we know for sure that BMG has it recorded on professional tape the addition of only two selections is pretty strange, especially knowing that it has been released in better sound quality before! (See Here I Go Again). The Blueberry Hill / Lawdy Miss Clawdy segment does sound better than the previous releases of this concert, but here we'd prefer the complete better sounding CD instead of this 2 minutes segment. Two rehearsal versions of I've Lost You (one of which is previously unreleased, but only 51 seconds short and in bad sound quality) follow.

What sounds to be an acetate recording of take 1 of I've Got Confidence follows, the performance is fine but the sound quality not on top. The undubbed master of It's A Matter Of Time taken from acetate too is next, nothing we could not live without is here. A 30 seconds "conversation" with Elvis for the On Tour Movie is here as is a radio commercial ad for the movie. Trying To Get To You from the afternoon performance at the Houston Astrodome is a fine rendition. Next is an acetate of the undubbed recording of Woman Without Love, the sound is of pretty low quality on this number, the performance sounds a little "naked".

Two previously unreleased performances from Elvis' March 1975 found their way into this CD, this only encourages us to make a hypothesis that a complete concert might well be released pretty soon. The CD ends with a binaural recording of And I Love You So from March 21, 1976, but the sound quality of this pseudo-stereo recording is much worse than on the old release Holding Back The Years.

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