Viva
Elvis (The Album)
Label: Music On Vinyl – MOVLP233, RCA – MOVLP233
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, 180 gram
Country: Netherlands
Released: 4 Nov 2010
Side
A:
Opening
Blue Suede Shoes
That's All Right
Heartbreak Hotel
Love Me Tender
King Creole
Side
B:
Bossa Nova Baby
Burning Love
Memories
Can't Help Falling In Love
You'll Never Walk Alone
(Piano Interlude)
Suspicious Minds
Arranged By – Erich Van Tourneau. [Asst] – Hugo Bombardier
Mixed By – Brendan O'Brien (tracks: A3,A4,B6), Erich Van
Tourneau (tracks: A1,A5,A6,B3,B5), Robert Meunier (tracks:
A1,A5,A6,B3,B5), Serban Ghenea (tracks: A2,B1,B2,B4)
Producer – Erich Van Tourneau. [Assistant] – Hugo Bombardier
Barcode: 8713748980887
New remixed versions of classic Elvis tracks for the
Cirque Du Soleil show in Las Vegas.
Brief History : During the '50s and '60s, there was no
bigger extravaganza in pop music than an Elvis Presley
concert, whether it was 1956 in Fort Wayne, IN or 1969
at the International Hotel in Las Vegas, where he eventually
appeared to more than two million paying fans. Forty years
after he debuted at the International, the Cirque du Soleil
show Viva Elvis presented a similar extravaganza, this
one complete with dance, acrobatics, live music, and video
clips -- that list prioritized, no doubt, in order of
importance.
After all, an extravaganza in 2010 terms is quite different
than 50 years earlier, especially when the star of your
show isn't around to ignite the fans. Still, musical producer
Erich van Tourneau displays a good working knowledge of
Elvis' career arc (thanks in part to preeminent Elvis
historian Ernst Jorgensen), and the chronology of Elvis'
life is preserved surprisingly well, complete with his
energetic rock & roll beginnings, zesty but insubstantial
pop for the film soundtracks, and his latter-day apotheosis
via rock music and stagecraft. The long-build opening
comes courtesy of "Also Sprach Zarathustra,"
Elvis' opening music for years, before the show launches
into "Blue Suede Shoes." Here comes the first
clear sign that this is a 2010 production.
Every element of the original that can be tweaked, or
laden with echo, or resampled, or gated, or scratched
by DJ Pocket, is given over to those effects. It sounds
like what it is: a musical production that is naturally
subservient to its visual accompaniment. Literally every
second of the song is devoted to its own moment, with
little in the way of build or release -- only peak. From
there, Viva Elvis: The Album rewinds Elvis' story to the
beginning, with his first major hit, "That's All
Right." (Iggy Pop fans may note that it's retro-fitted
to sound like a "Lust for Life" knock-off.)
"Heartbreak Hotel" is given some riotous, bluesy
harmonica and distorted vocals, then the show fittingly
uses "Love Me Tender" to portray his Army years,
with a female duet partner and photographs of him in uniform.
The soundtrack years include "King Creole" and
"Bossa Nova Baby," fair choices to feature the
frothy pop of Elvis' film-as-pay check years (although
the female vocalist shows up again on "King Creole,"
seemingly designed as a Miranda Lambert soundalike to
appeal to country fans).
Then, the last half of the disc focuses on his '70s performance
prime, when "Burning Love" and "Suspicious
Minds" signalled the advent of the full-throated,
body-suited Elvis giving it everything he had in front
of Vegas gamblers (and fans). These radical re-recordings
can hardly come as a big shock to Elvis fans, who have
seen a lot over the years -- and they're certainly less
of a shock than when Cirque du Soleil messed with the
Beatles for the production of 2006's Love.
