Friday, August 27, 2010

ELVIS MONTH 2010: The King Has Complete Fun On Stage


I am sure you are all familiar with the 1974 album, "Having Fun with Elvis on Stage". It is considered a "live album" but it consists entirely of Elvis talking between numbers with no actual music being heard. Much of the album consists of Elvis making jokes, but the material is spliced in a manner that lacks continuity and is nearly devoid of comprehensibility, let alone humor. The album was concocted by Colonel Tom Parker so that he could release and album that RCA Records would own no rights on. Parker initially released the album on his own label, Box Car Records, and it was sold only at concerts. RCA would eventually get their just due by packaging their own version of the album which they sold as a legitimate concert album. Most consumers were duped into buying this without seeing the tiny "A Talking Album Only" in the upper right hand corner of the album cover. The album managed to make it up to #130 on the Billboard album charts and even as high as #9 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. Elvis was infuriated when RCA put this album into the general marketplace, considering it a tremendous embarrassment. As a result, the album was quietly taken off the market sometime in 1975 but reissued for a few years following his death. Since the late 1990s, fans have put together several pirate "sequel" discs. The four follow up volumes are actually far superior to the original "legal" release. As fans of the various bootlegs out there know, Elvis said some funny stuff on stage. Most of it unsuitable for a "legitimate" release. But that hasn't stopped the bootleggers from including that material on their versions. Here for you now are all known volumes of "Having Fun With Elvis On Stage". I was originally going to post them one at a time but due to the fact that between time constraints and internet trouble I haven't been posting daily, I give them to you in one lump sum. Here is "The Complete Having Fun With Elvis On Stage". Enjoy!

The Complete Having Fun With Elvis On Stage

1 comment:

Prof. Grewbeard said...

thanx so much, i love the orginal so this should be great! Elvis was hilarious! he was just a big ol' goof sometimes when he wasn't rockin' out!...

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