well, it's that time coming up. that time, look you see - Christmas. i know this because, well, it looks rather close on the calendar, when i consult it. but, also, because Poundland have got their new (exciting) range of Christmas CDs out on the shelves.
quite surprisingly they do not have the classic, celebrated Chas & Dave Greatest Christmas on the shelf, at least not at the branch i went to. i would have thought that with the passing of Chas out of Chas and Dave they would have made this particularly fine album their flagship for the season, but no.
they do, however, but of course have a Christmas related recording by The King, Elvis Presley available for sale. yes, of course i bought a copy of such, otherwise this post would not exist in the way what it does.
yes, there you go, Christmas With Elvis by The King, Elvis Presley, presented in the greater glory of Commodore 64 mode. indeed, behind it is one of those holy grails of music - the mythological Nilsson demos for the Popeye soundtrack. but, perhaps a post on that some other day.
indeed, the cover for this 2018 edition of Christmas With Elvis features an image of Him in a classic pose from a still from the motion picture Jailhouse Rock. some clever person, or perhaps the works experience kid foisted on the office, has done one of them "photoshop" things to make it seem like The King, Elvis Presley is wearing a Christmas hat.
the defining feature of the artwork - the main, dominating characteristic - is that it is one which is predominantly free of the burden of copyright and licencing costs. we shall return to this subject soon.
should the above look like a coaster or beermat to you, that is because it is one. no, of little relevance to this post, but there it is. Spiros sent me that image, from a recent jolly adventure to an unspecified location in the Caribbean. he has recently learned of the legend of where the band 10cc got their name off of, and so has been playing Dreadlock Holiday on repeat ever since. as is his will, and his finances, he has headed off in the general direction of the song, just to see if it is all true.
but, back to The King, Elvis Presley. a general rule, as true of art as it is business processes and production, is that you do not waste. so, satisfied with how the image of Him looks on the cover, them what produced the CD Christmas With Elvis elected to use the very same image on the CD face and the inner cover artwork.
and why not, you have to say, and why not. sure, well, no, you don't have to say that, but if you do then it's quite fine to have done so.
i have several CDs which are named along the lines of variations of Christmas With Elvis. why, then, did i purchase another? mostly because it is The King, Elvis Presley, but also to help enable me to get into the mystical, so-called festive mood. sometimes it feels like we have let slip just how magical and wonderful a time it really is, and so i will take any action i can to make it feel special. this is particularly true when such an action, or course of direction, costs just £1.
do you wish to see what is on the disc this year? of course you do. here you go, then, a look at the track listing, with only some of it obscured by the reflection off of the flash.
with the exception of the ten "bonus" tracks, the 12 Christmas songs on Christmas With Elvis are the exact same ones that i bought on a similar offering off of Poundland by The King, Elvis Presley last year. and the year before. they are just presented in a slightly different order here.
in respect of how these songs are selected, or if you like curated, the answer is quite carefully. should you ask the question. each and every song on Christmas With Elvis is chosen with focus and attention to detail being on the fact that they are not protected by copyright, and so are royalty free. once production and distribution costs are nailed, this CD is all profit for Poundland. as we, the people, are able to access the important Christmas messages of The King, Elvis Presley for a reasonable, affordable cost, this is all win for absolutely everyone.
my understanding is that someone called John Lewis have hired (Sir) Elton John to advertise Christmas for them, for a fee reported to be around £5 million. how wasteful. i mean, sure, Sir Elton is kind of OK as far as i am aware, but for that money they could have bought five million copies of this CD. when you put it like that - what would you have, thirty seconds of Elton John or five million recordings of The King, Elvis Presley - it's not much of a contest, is it?
anyway, if you celebrate it and all that, i do trust and hope that your Christmas preparations are well and truly all your own.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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