What Are You Listening To?

[CRAZY-HORSE]

ELVIS PRESLEY WITH THE ROYAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA "if I can dream" cd, 2015

album stats...........#21 US...#24 CAN...#1 UK...#1 AU...#3 NZ

no I did not buy this one, I wouldn't,
im an Elvis purist, this is a money grabber IMO.
it was an Xmas gift!
a collection of Presley songs stripped back to the bare essentials
ie: his vocals, and one or two prominent instruments from the original master tapes
and overdubbed with the lush orchestrations of the RPO...
this one is not about whether I like it or not, because personally, no one should be allowed
to do this sort of thing...
its about whether the orchestrations compliment the original song....
some work exceptionally well, others so-so, and a few are WTF moments!
my avourite Elvis song of all time (if I can dream) should have worked like this IMO,
but it fails miserably as does another one I thought would sound okay in "love me tender",
then theres Presely songs I don't like, like S&G's "bridge over troubled water" and "an old
"B-side" "theres always me" both of which I dislike and they work well with the orchestrations...
the album has sold over one million copies (physical copies) in the UK and is still in the album charts...
it is his biggest selling album in the UK and also in Australia and New Zealand...
I get where Priscilla is coming from...to open up the music of Elvis to yet another generation
of music lovers, but it still feels like a money grab to me...
that said though, the album in its own right is fairly respectful to the Presley image.
I am not posting links to these tracks on here because I don't want to promote it any further

I DO NOT LIKE THIS ALBUM
(but im scoring the tracks on if the RPO works well with the songs)

tracks:

1...burning love *
2...its now or never **
3...love me tender *
4...fever *
5...bridge over troubled water ***
6...and the grass wont pay no mind **
7...you've lost that lovin' feelin' **
8...theres always me ***
9...cant help falling in love ***
10.in the ghetto ***
11.how great thou art *
12.steamroller blues *
13.an American trilogy ***
14.i I can dream *

3s=5
2s=3
1s=6

rating as to whether it works or not: 1.8

so, it works on some levels but not on others from a technical point of view...
lots of people love the album that I know but they were only casual Presley fans anyway...
to me, no serious Presley fan would like these takes on his songs, but at least its
done respectfully to the image and memory of Elvis Presley.
BTW,
i'll probably never play this cd ever again.