Apparently after some years of spoiling us with releases running 70-75 minutes, 45-50 minutes now seems to be the standard.
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This is especially true when you consider how much more material of this kind that exists and makes it even stranger why 'Dark Moon' was shortened. The playing time of the CD is 49.14, which is once again quite a bit shorter than it could have been. In the long version you can really hear how Elvis nosedives into the song, wraps it around him and slowly but surely makes it an Elvis Presley-song rather than a cover version. The others are easily available on the mentioned releases, though it should be noted that 'Dark Moon' has been cut short by almost four minutes from 6.15 to 2.16, which in my opinion is too bad. The last two have not been legitimately released since the first time around, and as they are a pair of fine performances, it's great to have them available again. So just for your information the following tracks are the previously released ones: 'When The Saints Go Marching In' ('Platinum'), 'Write To Me From Naples', 'My Heart Cries For You', 'Dark Moon' (all on 'A Golden Celebration'), 'Indescribably Blue' (an original single a-side reaching number thirty-three in 1966), 'I'm Beginning To Forget You' and 'Mona Lisa' (both on 'A Legendary Performer Vol. Usually they're marked with an * in the tracklisting, but this is not the case here. Strangely, though, it doesn't say anywhere in the cover or in the booklet which tracks are the unreleased ones. All the tracks have been digitally remastered. Of these 22 tracks, 15 are previously unreleased as stated on a sticker on the cd-cover (which, by the way, like my copy of 'Sunrise' doesn't have the 'artist of the Century'-label on it - what happened to that campaign?), and of these 15 tracks as far as I'm concerned only one has been bootlegged: 'I Understand Just How You Feel' from the old Eddie Fadal-tape. Most of them were recorded at Elvis' various homes in Los Angeles and Memphis, some were recorded in Germany and a few in other places. To put the formula straight, this release contains 22 tracks all home recordings of one form or the other.
![one pair of hands elvis presley cd one pair of hands elvis presley cd](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/5c/ca/6b/5cca6b6c1f373f012abffb790d9102eb.jpg)
However, let there be no doubt about it: For me it is musically no less than a small revelation and RCA certainly deserves applause for releasing it, as it is the most daring official release in many years, taking for the first time a systematically approach to Elvis' non-studio, non-live recordings. The reason for this is that in order to give it as fair and objective a criticism as it deserves (and it defiantly does) you have to look upon it with two different pair of eyes: The eyes of the devoted Elvis-fan and the eyes of the casual rockfan and cd-buyer. This latest release from RCA is a very difficult one to review.