[.ca] Elvis' Gold Records, Volume 5

Volume 5 is the best of Elvis' later singing career!:
"Suspicious Minds" kicks this one off. The best on the whole album and the longest. 4 and a half minutes, thank you! "Burning Love" is high-energetic, and so is "Way Down", "Moody Blue", "Kentucky Rain", and that touching "In The Ghetto". Fantastic that this went from 10 songs to 16. But why stop at 16? The second volume originally had 10 and now it has 20. This one could have had 20. Either way you want to look at it, it's still an absolute must! My hopes are with that music fan from Rome, NY that maybe someday there'll be a Volume 6. That's a great idea because "Promised Land", "T-R-O-U-B-LE", and "Always On My Mind" are missing. Maybe there'll be Volume 6. RCA has got to do that. Anyway, the fifth volume is superb, and Elvis can still rock the house!

This cd is just AWESOME:
This cd has some of the most soulful music I've ever heard ANYbody sing ANYwhere at ANYtime. Someone earlier said Elvis had lost his soul, WHAT? What do you consider soulful, G.I. Blues? I'm sorry, but for me soul means just that - COMING FROM THE SOUL. And these are songs Elvis sang because they meant something to him, they moved him, or just plained rocked him. It's got 'If You Talk In Your Sleep', now I don't know what some of you know about singing, but that is pure soul and r & b. It's got the funky horns, the clavinette keyboard, the bassline, every thing that makes a great early seventies soul recording. 'Clean Up Your Own Backyard' has always been one of my favorites, this is where Elvis tells people who are all up in his business to take care of their own affairs and leave him be. It too is very soulful. 'For The Heart' is like a mixture of rock and soul, which is always great. But I suppose for the fan who only wants to hear songs like "Hound Dog" and "Stuck On You" you won't find that teeny-bopper stuff here. This is a true soul singer doing what he does best and don't let anyone tell you any differently. I'd say get a strobe light, a black light, and some candles, put this CD on and watch the magic begin.

Elvis Resurrected:
Glad they picked some pre-68 comeback special songs for this package, "US Male", "Guitar Man", "Clean Up..." are excellent and could have easily been overlooked. Could have used a little more Memphis-session songs, like "Don't Cry Daddy" and "Rubberneckin'". For a "B" side to be included, "AnyDay Now" or "You'll Think Of Me" would have been much better choices than the throwaway "Edge of Reality". For the "Fat Elvis on Stage" era, "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" is pretty typical lounge act stuff, "The Wonder of You" would have made a better selection. Otherwise, the last burst of good Elvis material is well represented (and cherry-picked) with "Way Down", "Moody Blue", and "For the Heart". Would have loved to have seen "I've Lost You", "I'm Leavin'", "I Really Don't Want to Know", "Promised Land", and "T-R-O-U-B-L-E". You can, of course, get these elsewhere, but I like the Volume 1-5 Gold Record series cause they are much easier to digest. Enough good songs left out for Volume 6, but I'm afraid the "30 #1's" and "2nd to None" series will overwhelm the market. At least until the Presley estate wants to make some more money.

Elvis Gold Volume 5:Slightly Incomplete But Still Fabulous!:
This CD is a very good collection of songs by Elvis from 1967 till the latter part of 1976 and it is another one of my favorite CDs that I own. Although, I believe the Elvis Golden Records Volume 3 version is better from the first song to the last song, this Volume 5 version has plenty of high quality songs on it also, as does all of his gold records volumes. Heck, this Volume 5 version even has four songs that the king sang on his 68 Comeback Special and they are "Guitar Man", "Big Boss Man", "Memories", and "If I Can Dream". I won't give you a breakdown of each and every song on this CD because other reviewers have done a great job of that but I will list my favorites and they are "Suspicious Minds", "Burning Love", "Way Down", "Kentucky Rain", "U S Male" (that's M-A-L-E son). In other words, I love the song "U S Male" and for all of you people that have heard the song you already know that the phrase that I put in parenthesis is in the song and nobody can do it like Elvis did it but the three songs that are the most heartfelt to me on this CD are "In The Ghetto", "Memories", and "If I Can Dream". Folks: the song "If I Can Dream" is a beautiful late 60s Vietnam era song with powerful lyrics that is so touching it will leave you in awe and with goose bumps but then Elvis had many beautiful songs that would do that to people. The lyrics to that song were so relevant for the times back then and even for today's times and again I remind you that Elvis sang this fabulous song on his famous 68 Comeback TV special and it was the grand finale on that spectacular TV show. Like The Beatles: Elvis was another one of my all time favorite artists from the 60s. I know when it comes to "Greatest hits" collections we can't always get every song that we want on that particular CD but around 68-69 Elvis sang a very good version of "Any Day Now"$ and the highly popular beautiful version of "Don't Cry Daddy" that I simply loved and I wished both of these songs could have been on this Volume 5 CD. I eventually found the beautiful song "Don't Cry Daddy" on another Elvis CD that I bought and the CD is called "Elvis Always On My Mind" and to this day I still don't have "Any Day Now" on CD yet but the bottom line is this is a gorgeous CD anyway. Buy it. It is great! Final Note:I am not 100% positive but the best i can remember i believe the version of "Any Day Now"was on the B side and "In The Ghetto" was on the A side of my 45.....As Elvis said on his 68 Comeback TV Special......It's Been A Long Time Baby!!!

A Good If Incomplete Retrospective Of Elvis' Later Years:
The fifth volume in the "Golden Records" series does a very good job of compiling the best material from his later years, where he was able to rack up an impressive 20 top 40 singles, as well as some earlier work. Songs like "Suspicious Minds", "Burning Love", "Kentucky Rain", "Guitar Man" and "For The Heart" are some of the best singles Elvis ever released. Still, if you're a hardcore Elvis fan, you will realize that the following top 40 hits from this period are missing: "The Wonder Of You" (# 9 in 1970) "I've Lost You" (# 32 in 1970) "I Really Don't Want To Know" (# 21 in 1970) "Rags To Riches" (# 33 in 1971) "I'm Leavin'" (# 36 in 1971) "Until It's Time For You To Go" (# 40 in 1972) "Separate Ways" (# 20 in 1972) "Steamroller Blues" (# 17 in 1973) "I've Got A Thing About You Baby" (# 39 in 1974) "Promised Land" (# 14 in 1974) "My Boy" (# 20 in 1975) "Trouble" (# 35 in 1975) "Hurt" (# 28 in 1976) "My Way" (# 22 in 1977) Still, this is an excellent cd of Elvis' later years and is good for all fans.

• Suspicious Minds
• Kentucky Rain
• In the Ghetto
• Clean up Your Own Backyard
• Burning Love
• If You Talk in Your Sleep
• For the Heart
• Moody Blue
• Way Down
• Big Boss Man
• Guitar Man
• U.S. Male
• You Don't Have to Say You Love Me
• Edge of Reality
• Memories
• If I Can Dream