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Can’t Help Falling In Love: Elvis Goes Orchestral On “If I Can Dream”

August 10, 2015 By Joe Marchese 11 Comments

Elvis - If I Can DreamIn advance of this Friday’s Legacy Edition reissue of Elvis Presley’s 1975 studio album Today, RCA and Legacy have announced another project to celebrate The King’s 80th birthday.  If I Can Dream: Elvis Presley with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is a new, 14-song collection due on October 30 featuring the artist’s iconic vocal performances accompanied by newly-created orchestral backings.

Presley performances between 1956 and 1973 have been melded with new orchestral tracks recorded at Abbey Road in London for ballads (“Bridge Over Troubled Water,” “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling,” “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” “If I Can Dream”), gospel (“How Great Thou Art”), and rock and roll (“Burning Love,” James Taylor’s satirical “Steamroller Blues”).  Favorites from songwriters Mac Davis (the hit “In the Ghetto”) and Neil Diamond (“And the Grass Won’t Pay No Mind”) also appear in these new orchestral renditions.  Michael Bublé joins Presley, and Italian crossover opera/pop group Il Volo adds vocals to “It’s Now or Never,” reflecting the song’s origins.   Duane Eddy adds his trademark guitar licks to “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and Mickey Newbury’s epic “An American Trilogy.”

“This would be a dream come true for Elvis,” Priscilla Presley asserts of this release. “He would have loved to play with such a prestigious symphony orchestra. The music…the force that you feel with his voice and the orchestra is exactly what he would have done.”

If I Can Dream will be available on October 30 in single CD or double-LP configurations with the track listing below!

Elvis Presley, Elvis Presley with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RCA/Legacy, 2015) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

  1. Burning Love
  2. It’s Now Or Never
  3. Love Me Tender
  4. Fever (feat. Michael Bublé)
  5. Bridge Over Troubled Water
  6. And The Grass Won’t Pay No Mind
  7. You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling
  8. There’s Always Me
  9. Can’t Help Falling In Love
  10. In The Ghetto
  11. How Great Thou Art
  12. Steamroller Blues
  13. An American Trilogy
  14. If I Can Dream

Categories: News Formats: CD, Vinyl Genre: Pop Tags: Duane Eddy, Elvis Presley, Michael Bublé

Joe Marchese

Joe Marchese

JOE MARCHESE (Editor) joined The Second Disc shortly after its launch in early 2010, and has since penned daily news and reviews about classic music of all genres. He has contributed liner notes to reissues from a diverse array of artists, among them Paul Williams, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield, B.J. Thomas, The 5th Dimension, Burt Bacharach, The Mamas and the Papas, Carpenters, Perry Como, Peggy Lipton, Doris Day, and Andy Williams, and has compiled releases for talents including Robert Goulet and Keith Allison of Paul Revere and the Raiders. In 2009, Joe began contributing theatre and music reviews to the print publication The Sondheim Review, and his work still appears with frequency in the magazine. In 2012, he joined the staff of The Digital Bits as a regular contributor writing about film and television on DVD and Blu-ray. Over the past two decades, Joe has also worked in a variety of capacities on and off Broadway as well as at some of the premier theatres in the U.S., including Lincoln Center Theater, George Street Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, and the York Theatre Company. He has felt privileged to work on productions alongside artists such as the late Jack Klugman, Eli Wallach, Arthur Laurents, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. In 2015, Joe formed the Second Disc Records label. Celebrating the great songwriters, producers and artists who created the sound of American popular song, Second Disc Records, in conjunction with Real Gone Music, has released newly-curated collections produced by Joe from iconic artists such as The Supremes, Melissa Manchester, Laura Nyro, Bobby Darin and Johnny Mathis, legendary producer Bob Crewe, soul legend Wilson Pickett, and many others. Joe currently resides in the suburbs of New York City.

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Comments

  1. Mark B. Hanson says

    August 10, 2015 at 9:01 pm

    Elvis being dead hasn’t hurt his career any…

    Reply
    • Ken says

      August 11, 2015 at 6:06 am

      As Col.Tom Parker said on hearing of the death of Elvis “This changes nothing”
      It’s seems that RCA have forgotten their pledge to treat Presley’s memory with the respect it deserves. Michael Buble indeed!!!
      Barrels are really being scraped now!

      Reply
  2. zubb says

    August 10, 2015 at 10:25 pm

    I like this idea. I loved the Felton Jarvis produced Guitar Man album in the 80s where they laid down new instrumental and back ground vocal tracks to Elvis’ original vocals.

    Reply
  3. Magnus Hägermyr says

    August 11, 2015 at 6:15 am

    Releases like this should have their own genre: “Manipulated music”. I agree with zubb that “Guitar Man” worked splendid and I even think that JXL:s “modernization” of “A Little Less Conversation” was great fun but can they be regarded as real Elvis records when the artist himself can’t have his own say? No, but I belive it’s OK if it’s done with care and you take it for what it is – manipulated music. If the result is good or bad is a question of taste I guess.

    Reply
  4. Ramble Tamble says

    August 11, 2015 at 8:06 am

    The Legacy re-releases of the original albums, which have benefitted from the top-notch Vic Anesini remastering of the whole catalogue and the archival work of Follow That Dream label, are terrific (I just picked up Today, yet another excellent reissue). The big box-set projects like Prince From Another Planet, Elvis At Stax, and last year’s That’s The Way It Is have been outstanding. It’s clear that there are people at Elvis Presley Enterprises and Sony Legacy who genuinely care about presenting Elvis and his music properly.

    …On the other hand, they occasionally see fit to approve and release a baffling project like this. Michael Bublé? I suppose if it sustains public interest in Elvis and makes more interesting releases possible it has some merit, but it just seems a little inappropriate.

    Reply
    • Mark I. says

      August 11, 2015 at 3:49 pm

      I fully agree. Elvis was a rock & roll singer, and if he had desired an orchestral backing on his recordings, he would have arranged for that. Some recordings already have orchestras, so why add them to those that don’t. I won’t be listening.

      Reply
  5. Scott says

    August 11, 2015 at 11:39 am

    Speaking of that version of “Guitar Man” from the ’80s, has it ever appeared on CD? It’s one of his only Top 40 singles that I still don’t own on CD.

    Reply
    • zubb says

      August 11, 2015 at 8:21 pm

      Right now there is a 2 CD Australian bootleg of Guitar Man paired with another 80s compilation “I Was The One”. At least I think it is a bootleg. It looks very professional even has a replica of the old RCA / BMG Best Buy budget line sticker on the shrink wrap.

      Reply
    • DayVee Bee says

      August 12, 2015 at 7:02 pm

      Guitar Man (1980 Remake) is on a CD called “Great Country Songs” from 1996, remastered in DSD around 2003. The “Guitar Man” album was officially re-released with extra tracks as “Too Much Monkey Business” on FTD (2001) but is quite expensive… 😉

      Reply
    • Troy Y. says

      August 15, 2015 at 9:15 am

      The Follow That Dream label re-released the entire Guitar Man overdub album as part of the Too Much Monkey Business CD – which also contained several other tracks prepared for Guitar Man but not used.

      Though the album is a mixed bag, I particularly love “Clean Up Your Own Backyard” from Guitar Man. The best of the previously unreleased tracks on Too Much Monkey Business was “Burning Love,” which added a driving electric guitar.

      I’m looking forward to If I Can Dream, though a sample I heard of the overdubbed “What Now My Love” was slightly jarring at times. Like playing two different versions of a song at the same time.

      Reply
  6. Steve Bruun says

    August 11, 2015 at 4:58 pm

    Elvis was almost featured, posthumously, as “Aaron Wilbury,” with his isolated vocals to be dubbed onto a new track with his traveling “brothers.” The idea never came to fruition, but the concept remained in George Harrison’s head when he spoke to Yoko about involving John in new Beatles recordings.

    Reply

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