In the meantime, from late 1956, here's takes 1-4 of Elvis Presley in the RCA studios working on "Jailhouse Rock." Take 4 -- which starts about a minute into the clip -- is complete, although not the one ultimately used for the single.
And the whole shebang is in, as they used to say at RCA, Living Stereo. As nature intended.
There's still something rather startling to me about hearing 50s rock, especially the familiar mono radio classics, in multi-channel sound. It's like going from black-and-white to Technicolor, and the sense of immediacy is really palpable; the music no longer sounds like history, if you know what I mean.
In any case, I think we call agree that the band here -- I believe that's co-composer Mike Stoller on piano -- really kicks ass.
