Charlie, Bring Me The Request Box!

 
Small cardboard box

Straight Arrow's 5-CD box release „CHARLIE, BRING ME THE REQUEST BOX!“ (SA/SB 2016-01-02), featuring the complete Elvis Presley August 1975 Summer Festival. It was shortest ever Elvis Las Vegas season – after just 5 concerts, the rest of the season was cancelled due to health issues.

Compared with the previous June/ July 1975 tours, Elvis was a bit heavier and regardless of the problems that were plaguing him at the time, he was in an amicable mood, and his playfulness and warmth resulted in many delightful moments during these shows. Not only that, but he also continued with the ‘request box’ idea which he’d started in Ashville, NC about a month earlier. Fans were able to write their requests on a piece of paper and put them in a request box (actually a champagne bucket). During the shows Elvis would sometimes grab a couple of pieces of paper and select a song from those. This resulted in various true live rarities being performed, such as “Crying In the Chapel”, “Loving You” and “Young And Beautiful”. Some songs were performed for the last time ever: “Green Green Grass Of Home”, “T.R.O.U.B.L.E.” and “Suspicious Minds”. After 2 days it was clear that Elvis was not well enough to fulfill the season. He appeared exhausted and prior to the August 20th, 1975 Midnight show, the decision was made to cancel the rest of the season.

Through the last 25 years, the August 18th-20th, 1975 shows were released on various bootleg CDs of variable quality and completeness. For the last couple of years, the Straight Arrow team has been looking for the best sounding audience recorded tapes available, to make this new release the ultimate August 1975 ‘Request Shows’ box. In nearly all cases we were able to work from the original cassettes, thus providing us with the best conditions to give you the best release possible. As you can expect from Straight Arrow, each single show was individually restored from scratch -- this was definitely no quick „copy & paste“ job, as by certain other labels! Every second was faithfully enhanced to achieve optimal listening pleasure. Ask your local dealer for samples to judge for yourself!

Presented with usual Straight Arrow's high standard, every disc is placed in an individual cardboard sleeve and there is a topnotch 16-page booklet too, with many on- and off-stage photos taken in Las Vegas between August 18th and 20th, 1975. To make this release even more definitive, various memorabilia items and historical concert reviews, as published by Rex Martin in „Worldwide Elvis Service News Weekly“ are reprinted as well as various newspaper articles, all related to this season, its cancellation and Elvis’ subsequent hospitalization.

Those five shows sound better than ever and for the first time as complete as possible! This new release is a labor of love, it is a gem of a release that you can’t afford to miss!