The definitive release of these sessions can be found on Follow That Dream's limited edition The Making Of G.I. Blues book & 5xCD set, where everything has been restored, remixed and remastered from scratch, and all masters and outtakes are presented in the best possible sound.
The instrumental of 'Shoppin' Around' (AO)
was recorded on one channel of the 3-Track tape
(mono) for soundtrack purposes only, and the master
(Take 3) was removed from the session
tapes.
Take 3 of 'Shoppin' Around' (BO) on Elvis Aron
Presley also contains a few seconds from Take
2 as follows:
0:00-0:15 = Take 3
0:15-0:22 = Take 2
0:23-0:55 = Take 3
Takes 12, 13 and 14 of BO - 'Shoppin' Around
(finale)' must also have been removed (or erased)
from the session tapes as all that now exists
of the master of this version (BO Take 14) is
an acetate which first appeared on FTD's Cafe Europa
- G.I. Blues Vol. 2.
The original LP master of 'Didja Ever' from
1960 is Take 2 only (with prominent "tuba"
intro) and this is the same as the movie version.
International versions (such as UK, Germany, etc.)
also had Take 2.
At some point however in October 1960, RCA replaced the album master with
a spliced version, which had the intro from Take
1 (with less "tuba") and the rest from
Take 2.
A strange scenario exists however, where some 1960 US pressings of the G.I. Blues album contain the spliced master and some contain just the complete Take 2 as the master. The same scenario exists where some 1964 US pressings also contain the two different masters. So it appears that some US pressing plants in 1964 were still using the original pre-October 1960 LP master tape with the complete Take 2 on it, and some were using the spliced master. I personally think the different pressing plants were just using what they had, not even realising there was a difference.
The original master as such is lost -
or can’t be located, so all non-remixed US
sourced re-releases since the mid-sixties are using the spliced replacement.
International re-pressings kept using the only
master tape copy they had, with Take 2 of 'Didja
Ever', however, in the US the replaced master
was used instead.
Masters on FTD's G.I. Blues (Volume 1) are from
the stereo album master tape and has the spliced 'Didja Ever'. The same goes for earlier RCA/BMG/Sony
CD releases that weren’t remixed (Complete
Masters, Sony, first BMG CD etc...). The 1997
BMG CD had Take 2, since it didn’t use the
master tape, but a remixed version from the original
tapes.
The master of 'G.I. Blues' was spliced at
2:23 instead of at 2:18 on the 1997 BMG GI Blues CD and the 24-Bit Japanese Paper Sleeve CD.
Take 2 of 'Frankfort Special' from the May
6 session was listed on Elvis - A Legendary Performer
Volume 3 when it was actually Take 13 from this
session that was used. Sessions III also incorrectly
lists Take 2 as being released on Elvis - A Legendary Performer
Volume 3.
'Frankfort Special' (Version 1, Take 12)
is listed on FTD's first classic album volume
of G.I. Blues but it is Take 13 that actually
appears.
The verse of 'What's She Really Like' heard
in the movie was recorded on the movie set.
Most of these sessions are available on the UK
based Memphis Recording Service official release G.I. Blues - The Cafe Europa Sessions. Due to
public domain copyright issues, this set does
not contain tracks officially released by RCA
in the last 50 years, although take 7 of 'G.I.
Blues' was released on RCA's Rare Elvis Volume
3 and take 13 of 'Frankfort Special' was
released on FTD's Silver Screen Stereo.
In March of 2007, Sony decided to go through all of Elvis' masters. They retransferred everything and remastered all tracks including repairing as many clicks, pops, bad edits and dropouts as they could. They have used these newly mastered recordings on their new releases since 2007 including budget soundtracks, Legacy releases, the 30 disc Complete Elvis Presley Masters collection and the Franklin Mint package.
Thanks to Cayetano Chaves Prian for comparison samples on the different pressings of the G.I. Blues albums and which version of 'Didja Ever' appeared on them.
