'Elvis Presley Greatest Hits Live - Broadcast Collection'

Recently released by the Czech ‘Live Icons’ public domain label this looked like an intriguing 40 track compilation described as Elvis Presley ‘Live 1970 to 1977’ 'His Greatest Hits Live Broadcast Collection'.

While I was 100% certain that I would already own every track on this release I couldn't quite understand why it had such a random track-listing. ‘Can't Help Falling In Love’ was in the middle of CD one while 'C.C Rider' was in the middle of disc 2. Also some of the tracks could not be genuinely described as Elvis’ Greatest Hits.

It did however appear to be an intriguing compilation of 40 live songs from various Elvis concerts and so I put my money down to discover what it was all about. 

The 2-CD set cost me AU$45 = US$29 = £22 and I guess the question is, did I waste my money?

The set has a 4-page insert with some rather average quality photos of Elvis while the back cover explains…

... Before the gold records, before the movie screens, before the legend was carved in stone, Elvis Presley was a young man with a guitar and a voice that could stop time. Live Icons gathers those electrifying moments when Elvis's music leapt from the radio to living rooms across America and set hearts- -and history- -on fire.
These live radio broadcasts are curated to show the King at his most spontaneous and unguarded.
That unmistakable voice bending country, blues, and gospel into something the world had never known, these broadcasts preserve the youthful energy that would soon conquer the globe. For long-time fans, this collection is a journey back to the days when a teenager from Tupelo was rewriting the rules of popular music. For new listeners, it's an invitation to experience the birth of rock 'n' roll exactly as the first fans did: live, immediate, and utterly unforgettable.

EIN NOTE: Of course none of these recordings were ‘live radio broadcasts’ but that is their excuse to pass the EU Public Domain law.

This set is probably aimed at the “General Public” as the title implies “Elvis’ Greatest Hits Live” - but also at the general Elvis collector.

Before playing the CD one has to consider that the following songs were not in any way ‘Greatest Hits’ released by The King.
Proud Mary, Long Tall Sally, Sweet Caroline, Early Morning Rain, Funny How Time Slips Away,  And I Love You So, You Gave Me A Mountain, Let It Be Me, I Can't Stop Loving You, Where No One Stands Alone and ‘Hail Hail Rock N' Roll’.

Even I Got A Woman, Fever and Johnny B. Goode were well-known album tracks and not hit singles.

Back in 2001 BMG did release an album called ‘The Live Greatest Hits’. It featured a neat combination of 21 of Elvis' big hits. It started with ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ and a selection from 1969, onto hits from the 1970 (TTWII) recordings, then Madison Square Garden and finishing with four from Aloha and the ending of ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love’. All the songs were RCA multitracks and were neatly edited to create one stunning performance.      You can pick up copies on Ebay for less than $10.

So let’s see what this new compilation offers in comparison 

DISC 1: 53 minutes 
Tracklist:  1. I Got A Woman, 2. Until It's Time For You To Go, 3. You Don't Have To Say You Love Me, 4. Blue Suede Shoes, 5. Johnny B. Goode, 6. Love Me Tender, 7. Hound Dog, 8. Suspicious Minds, 9. An American Trilogy, 10. I Can't Help Falling In Love With You, 11. All Shook Up, 12. Proud Mary, 13. Don't Be Cruel, 14. Long Tall Sally, 15. In The Ghetto, 16. Sweet Caroline, 17. Early Morning Rain, 18. Funny How Time Slips Away, 19. It's Now Or Never, 20. And I Love You So

The first track is listed as ‘I Got A Woman’ – a great start until you play it and realise it’s not a powerhouse 1969 or 1970 recording but a much later version and by 2 minutes in has changed to ‘Amen’ (not listed on the sleeve). In fact it’s the ‘Goodbye Memphis’ version from July 1976 and when it gets to Elvis comments “I’m having a fit and you people are laughing at me!” you must wonder what the hell the General Public would think. It even gets the annoying J.D double low-bass ending. 
A “Greatest Hit’ it is not! 

It’s a very odd 6 ½ minute start before the second track of ‘Until It's Time For You To Go’.  

There is a fade between every track, so it doesn’t pretend to be a real concert broadcast or continuous performance. The audio is mono.  

‘Until It's Time For You To Go’ is a rather low-key 1973 version. Checking the CD sleeve it states that the concert was recorded in "Las Vegas February 5 1973" – and broadcast on PBS TV (as if!)

‘Love Me Tender’ from the same date is a very average kiss-the-girls version.  And at the start when Elvis says “There’s a guy backstage who make these for me” I realise that the concert is in fact Feb 3 1973 Dinner Show as previously released on the ‘It’s A Matter Of Time’ bootleg and not Feb 5 as listed. The tracks are mono and have indeed been taken from the original 1993 Fort Baxter bootleg. 

The following tracks also come from the same date ‘You Don't Have To Say You Love Me, Blue Suede Shoes, Johnny B. Goode, Love Me Tender, Hound Dog, Suspicious Minds, An American Trilogy, I Can't Help Falling In Love With You’.
(EIN NOTE: This Feb 3, 1973 concert was released recently in “stereo” by the MRS label) 

And this is where one realises how the ‘Live Icons’ label has created this CD. They have chosen four bootlegs from various years, changed the set-list order and assembled some kind of “Greatest Hits” concept.

It’s always enjoyable listening to Elvis live but why on earth have the run of ‘Suspicious Minds’, ‘An American Trilogy’, ‘I Can't Help Falling In Love With You’ in the middle of Disc 1 – and yes there is a fade between each track.

In fact from the glorious end-of-concert ‘Can't Help Falling In Love’ (they even get the song title incorrect!) it jumps to a TOTALLY different audio sound (still mono) and the unforgettable blasting intro of ‘All Shook Up’ from Elvis’ Opening Night January 26 1970.

It’s also memorable because the original tape was driven into bad peak-overload and similar to the earlier bootlegs of this show (i.e. ‘Rock In Black’) the distortion here is very annoying at times. 

In fact compared to the earlier nine tracks from Feb 3 1973 it’s pretty unlistenable.  
Note: The best “cleaned up” release so far is the MRS version (also stereo), while FTD also released their version on “The On-Stage season” 

In 1970 Elvis was doing a medley of ‘Walk A Mile In My Shoes / In The Ghetto’ and here ‘Live Icons’ do a very poor job of editing straight into the fade-in of ‘In The Ghetto’.

‘Sweet Caroline’ is the version where Elvis stuffs up the middle section and has to get the band to restart the song noting "Hold It Man, we blew that wide open!" What’s this silly mistake doing on a “Greatest Hits” compile?

With a huge audio jump from loud distortion it’s back to the better quality ‘Goodbye Memphis’ 1976 for the last 4 tracks. FTD have also released their fine-sounding version of this show on 'Elvis: From Louisiana and Memphis'

On ‘Early Morning Rain’ the soundboard tape ran out, so here in the middle there is a sudden edit to a different tempo version in poorer audio quality for the last half of the song! Why didn’t they use a different version?

‘Funny How Time Slips Away’ is back to better audio quality and an obvious clue it was Memphis with Elvis singing “Never know when I’ll be back in town… I am back in town, hallelujah!”

‘It's Now Or Never’ and ‘And I Love You So’, pretty fine versions for 1976, wrap up the first CD.

DISC 2 - 55 minutes
Tracklist: 1. That's All Right,  2. Blue Christmas, 3. Are You Lonesome Tonight?, 4. Moody Blue, 5. My Way, 6. Polk Salad Annie, 7. Unchained Melody, 8. C.C. Rider,  9. You Gave Me A Mountain, 10. Hurt, 11. Little Sister, 12. Jailhouse Rock, 13. Kentucky Rain, 14. Let It Be Me, 15. Fever, 16. I Can't Stop Loving You, 17. Love Me, 18. Where No One Stands Alone, 19. Hail Hail Rock N' Roll, 20. Help Me

More Memphis 1976 kick off the second side, a fine later seventies ‘That’s All Right’ and an OK ‘Blue Christmas’.

But if you were compiling a 'Greatest Hits Live’ collection for the general public would you choose 1977 as a good year for your selection? Well Live Icons use Elvis’ 1977 performances for most of the second CD! And most of these tracks have been taken from the ‘Moody Blue and Other Great Performances’ bootleg.  

‘Are You Lonesome Tonight?’ is the usual laughing with Charlie Hodge attempt, ‘Moody Blue’ was Elvis' only full attempt, then follow ‘My Way’, ‘Polk Salad Annie’ and ‘Unchained Melody’ - All these tracks are noted as being from the "WBXT-FM radio broadcast" of Elvis’ Charlotte Feb 21 1977 concert.

Except of course Elvis didn’t perform ‘Polk Salad Annie’ and ‘Unchained Melody’ in Charlotte and just like ‘Moody Blue and Other Great Performances’ they are from Montgomery, Feb 16 - as is ‘Where No One Stands Alone’ later on in the disc! (FTD recently released these on Last Tours Volume 1)

Straight out of a wavering ‘Unchained Melody’ Live Icons then jump into the start of ‘Goodbye Memphis’ and ‘C.C Rider’! It’s a mess.

The compilation then jumps to a more muffled sounding Charlotte 1977 ‘You Gave Me A Mountain' before jumping back to the very different audio sounding ‘Hurt’ from Goodbye Memphis 1976 where Elvis reprises the whole song! This "Greatest Hit" is so good that Live Icons give you two versions!

Perhaps the most enjoyment real fans will get is the “guess which concert?” game you can play with every track. 

The low key ‘Little Sister’ and ‘Jailhouse Rock’ are back to Charlotte 1977 before a wild jump-back to 1970 and the annoying distortion of Opening Night Jan 26 1970 for 'Kentucky Rain' and 'Let It Be Me'.

The audio suddenly improves as we go to ‘Fever’ and ‘I Can't Stop Loving You’ from Feb 3 1973!

The ending is fascinatingly strange with Elvis’ fabulous 1977 ‘Where No One Stands Alone’ followed by the 45 seconds of introductions-throwaway ‘Hail Hail Rock N' Roll’ (along with some annoying digital clicks) and finally the delightful ‘Help Me’ from ’Goodbye Memphis’.

These concerts were not broadcast on the radio and with so many other great sounding bootlegs from the past that they could have used for their selections (i.e. Opening Night 1969, Lean, Mean And Kickin' Butt or the Hampton Roads concert 1972) the decision to use sub-standard bootlegs and material from 1977 is a very strange one.

Overall Verdict: So, did I waste my money? - Well, Elvis collectors will already own all of these tracks and probably in better audio quality from MRS or FTD. There was nothing new here for my collection, so I guess “I was a fool, a crazy fool.”

The audio quality changes from track to track and the chosen order of the tracklist also makes no sense whatsoever.
Using the distorted audio from Elvis' January Opening Night 1970 bootleg also made me skip tracks.

Having said all of that, there were two things that I found rather enjoyable.
The first was that the random order helped make me realise that no matter what year Elvis' concerts were from, in general he still managed to put on an enjoyable performance. 
The second was that I truly enjoyed playing “Guess the Elvis concert” for every random track!

Will I ever play it again? - Probably not, but in the end I did get a few hours of enjoyment for my AU$45.   
I have no idea however what a member of the ‘General  Public’ would make of this mess and I only hope that in the future another label, such as MRS, will put out a quality CD of Elvis’ “Live Greatest Hits” that does justice to our man.

CD Review by Piers Beagley. -Copyright EIN December 2025 EIN Website content © Copyright the Elvis Information Network. Click here to comment on this CD Review

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