Great CD release....Great Cover on the British Release. Came across a very well written reivew of the CD that I thought was worth posting:

Reviewer: David Parker from Blackburn, Lancs United Kingdom
There's a popular misconception amongst many of Elvis' critics that he spent all of the 1960's making movies in Hollywood, whilst wasting his recording career on the substandard songs that were recorded for the respective soundtracks of the aforementioned movies. However, most Elvis fans will tell you that this opinion falls short on two counts. Firstly all of Elvis' 1960's soundtrack recordings were not substandard, and secondly Elvis had a separate secular recording career throughout the decade, with 1965 being the only year that he cut nothing but soundtrack recordings.

Elvis wasn't helped though, by the way his record company chose to release his music at the time, and despite recording decent secular material during 1963, and to a lesser extent 1964, Elvis' new album releases during these years, with the exception of the compilation "Elvis Golden Records Volume 3" were all movie soundtracks.

Elvis' last soundtrack release of 1963 "Fun In Acapulco" had a blurb on the cover advising the perspective buyer that the album included "two bonus songs", that hadn't featured in the movie, and the trend continued with the first soundtrack album of 1964, "Kissin' Cousins" and soon became common practice.

This meant that unless a new Presley studio recording was issued as a single release, it would most likely be buried on a soundtrack album at some point in the future, or issued on a stop gap release such as the 1965 album "Elvis For Everyone", and therefore, despite including some fine performances, Elvis' May 1963, and January 1964 Nashville recordings never got the showcase they deserved, and another opportunity was missed.
In 1990 someone at RCA decided to put this right and "For The Asking" (a.k.a. "The Lost Album") was released.

The album features an excellent retro style cover design, and the track listing (whilst not including any new material) provides the Elvis fan with a fascinating insight into what might have been. The album boasts 15 tracks, and features hit singles such as "You're The Devil In Disguise" and "It Hurts Me" alongside laid back rockers such as "Long and Lonely Highway" and "Witchcraft", and excellent ballad performances such as "Echoes Of Love" and "Love Me Tonight".

Collectively the material included here may not have been as strong as say Elvis' first post army studio album "Elvis Is Back", but it did showcase Elvis in fine voice, backed by the finest musicians Nashville could offer at the time, and was certainly of a much higher standard than Elvis' first soundtrack release of 1964, "Kissin' Cousins".

The release of the '60's box "From Nashville To Memphis" in 1993 finally placed Elvis' entire secular recorded output from the decade in its correct perspective, and this forced many critics to reconsider their position on Elvis' sixties recordings generally. However, this album still remains a valid addition to any Elvis collection, and provides a good cross section of secular sixties recordings for those that don't wish to pay out for an extensive box set release. File it next to "Pot Luck With Elvis" and enjoy the album that never was.

Great review from David
He is a good man

Yes you're right it is a great cd, when i bought this, it was a long time in my player, great album, and a great review.


TCB Jan

Yesterday I found it at our library.. great songs. i like it. It is a quite old CD that It might be difficult to find anywhere..

Did just that, on Barry's recommendation [always give Barry a shout for something he recommends - the big guy is always spot on!], and love it! With Elvis Is Back makes a fine collection and good focus of some great years when Elvis, as ever, sounded fantastic and the songs are lyrically wonderful.


I got mine on amazon.co.uk yadee in the market place. Still there for £19.99 new. And welcome to TKC!

or you can make you own version of this album by useing you 60 master box set.

the sound of the two is about the same.

this is a nice cover for the european LP & CD version and beats the US CD release far with a cover like a postal parcel.

colonel snow

Agee with the Colonel.....The British/European cover BLOWS the USA cover out of the water, IMO! Would like to see this CD get a DSD Remaster Re-Issue, but not likely to happen.

Here are pics of the U.S. and the British CD Covers for you to judge yourself:

I agree, it's not hard to choose the best of those two covers. The good looking one was designed by a fan (Ger Rijff) - I don't suppose the other one was...

I think I remember reading that Ger Rijff did this cover.......Very cool, IMO!!! This is still one of my all time favorite CD's! This and the compainion CD "Tomorrow Is A Long Time" are two post '77 releases that belong in every True Fan's collection!

Would rather see these DSD re-mastered and re-released than the same old Greatest Hits comps we see all the time!

the early sixties recording are two track and sometimes three track stereo recordings; a DSD upgrade doesn't have a great sounding due to restricting recordings at the time.

colonel snow

I would like to say i do have the vinyl version of this great album.
And i do love the cover on this better then the us cover version

Gotta say i love that album .... also enjoying the alternate version "ALTERNATE FOR THE ASKING" Nice sound and packaging

I have never seen this "alternate for the asking" CD; it's a nice addition for your collection when you don't have previous released CD's with the alternate takes.

colonel snow

was tihnking of buying the lost album and for the asking not sure how good they sound but the comments are slightly persuading me to buy them

The sound is JUST FINE on this.......The greatest thing about the CD is that is collects all of the 1963 Studio Masters on one CD, as RCA should have done 44 years ago!

You CANNOT go wrong with this release....It is truly one of THE BEST post 1977 releases that RCA ever assembled........This is becoming harder to find, so I wouldn't waste too much time tracking down a copy....You'll be GLAD you did!