Cheap Elvis - Aloha from Hawaii (DVD) (Elvis Presley) (Marty Pasetta) Price

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Customer Reviews of Elvis - Aloha from Hawaii

1. See See Rider
2. Burning Love
3. Something (he did this better than the beatles!!!)
4. You Gave Me A Mountain
5. Steamroller Blues
6. My Way (I love the way he did this)
7. Love me
8. It's Over
9. Blue Suede Shoes
10. Hound Dog
11. What Now My Love
12. Fever (the way he preforms this song is so great! it's the one part in the video that I can't wait to see!)
13. Welcome To My World (he sung it beautifully)
14. Suspicious Minds
15. I'll Remember You
16. Long Tall Sally/Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On
17. An American Trilogy (whenever he sings this song, he gives me chills!)
18. A Big Hunk O' Love
19. Can't Help Falling In Love

If you're someone who wants to see this, but not sure weather you should buy it or not, get it!! it's great! as far as I know, you won't be sorry! I wasn't!

Take care,

A 14 year old die-hard Elvis fan from VA

Finally the definitive Aloha from Hawaii
2004 will go down into history as one of the years that Elvis fans were spoilt by a stream of remarkable releases. One of the highlights (along with the '68 Comeback DVDs) is definitely the "Elvis, Aloha from Hawaii" Deluxe Edition double DVD-set which assembles about everything connected to Elvis' historical television special in January 1973, at the time beamed throughout the world by satellite.

In fact, this new set brings 3 full length concerts: the rehearsal concert filmed on January 12, the actual concert from two days later, and that same concert as it was edited for the US television broadcast in April 1973. All are finally presented in their complete form and unlike previous home video issues none of the songs are missing.

Soundwise the set is a marvel. The remix is absolutely thrilling, with enhanced clarity and detail, and there is choice between Dolby stereo and Dolby 5.1 - why no DTS? Even though it surpasses all previous video efforts, the image quality is slightly less satisfying, especially in the rehearsal concert where the horizontal bands gliding over the screen bottom to top, are at times still quite visible. The completely re-edited January 14th concert fares a whole lot better, though, with superior lighting and more vibrant color. In matters of picture sharpness we have never seen better either.

As a bonus we get 17 minutes of the raw, uncut "Elvis arrives" sequence, part of which opened the TV broadcast, as well as the five post-concert insert songs, often in different takes. I wonder though if we needed to have disc 1 started with the "Elvis arrives" sequence, as this is material for die hard fans only. (There is an error in my disc as the image jumps after a few minutes to the beginning of the concert).

All in all, a fantastic set, nicely packaged in a three-fold digi-pack and including an informative booklet, which no Elvis aficionado can (or should) live without. Bound to give more than a few hours of listening and watching pleasure. Thanks BMG!

For Elvis diehards, fascinating scraps and a so-so concert
BMG continues to sweep out the Elvis vaults for any unused tidbits from The King's glorious career, some of the packagings more exploitive and demeaning than others. This DVD collection is one of the better efforts, though it's definitely for diehards and Elvis completeists only. The 1973 Aloha concert is certainly well-known, having been rebroadcast many times and long available on home video (along with the rehearsal show two days earlier). Here the two shows have been recut and remastered, discarding the outdated 1970s edits and block montages. This is the jumpsuited, gilded, self-parodying Elvis most imitated by the legion of Elvis impersonators. It's an Elvis a long way from The World's First Atomic-Powered Singer of the 1950s who was so coarse and unwieldy that he couldn't be kept in the TV frame. Here Elvis seems to be auditioning for The Lawrence Welk Show. He's more Liberace, Perry Como and Don Ho than The King Of Rock N Roll. It's Elvis the Commericial Artist, running through his standard Vegas lounge act without too much enthusiasm, the drug abuse beginning to take its toll.
Most fascinating in the DVD collection, I believe, is Chapter 1 of the first DVD, titled "Elvis Arrives and Greets Fans." It's over seventeen minutes of raw footage sloppily shot, without reflectors, by a single camera in the harsh midday Hawaiian sun. Bits of this footage would eventually be cobbled together for broadcast with travelogue shots of the islands and a soundtracked Elvis singing "Paradise, Hawaiian Style." The broadcast version creates an excitement--the screams were definitely overdubbed--totally absent from the clumsy raw footage.
A rather small, almost entirely Caucasian crowd was apparently goaded away from their beach blankets to witness The King's arrival by helicopter. It's a pop-music version of Der Fuhrer descending through the clouds to 1934 Nuremburg in "Triumph Of The Will." Only this was hardly a wild, out-of-control crowd panting to meet its demigod. This would be a far cry from The Beatles in New York or even Elvis' own frenzied past receptions. This was a stone-faced, bemused, disinterested bunch of people who seemed embarrassed to be standing there. The director has to exhort the crowd "You can do better than that" to get any kind of response. The camera pans about desperately seeking any usable footage. A few tourists liven up a bit when the camera dollies right in their faces; in fact, some these shots were falsely inserted AFTER Elvis arrives in the broadcast segment.
The helicopter finally sets down and the cabin door opens. Elvis gets out and gives a gyrating hula girl greeting him a cruel, mocking glance and briskly walks away. (This was edited out of the broadcast.) Elvis begins working the crowd, sticking out his hand, searching for the few excited middle-aged women who drape leis around his neck. In fact, the crowd looks about as excited as if the vice-chair of the Honolulu Beautification Committee had arrived to lecture on trash disposal. There's a lot of confusion with the video crew as well, who bark about commands and trip over wires.
While this hastily assembled photo op seems more a debacle than anything else, it does highlight something very fascinating. Elvis was a star, and became a legend, not only because of his glorious, one-of-a-kind voice. Elvis stuck out in a crowd, really stuck out, even outside of carefully controlled studio conditions. Director John Waters once remarked that a true star was a person you'd never run into in everyday life. Thus Elvis. Better-looking, more graceful, more original, more identifiable than the rest of the crowd on the beach combined. A man apart. Don't you wish he were still around??