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Elvis Presley’s ‘Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite’ 50th Anniversary Edition

June 12, 2023

RCA Records and Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment, will release the definitive 50th anniversary edition of Elvis Presley’s monumental Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite record-setting global concert telecast/double live album on Friday, August 11.

The 50th anniversary edition of Elvis Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite — newly remixed and remastered for the occasion — will be available in a 3CD + Blu-ray combined package as well as in 2LP and digital configurations and may be pre-ordered HERE.

Recorded live on January 12 and 14, 1973 at the Honolulu International Center Arena (capacity approximately 6000) and beamed into an estimated billion-plus television sets around the world, Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite made a new kind of broadcast history as Elvis and emerging global satellite technology instantaneously connected a major artist with his audience in previously unprecedented numbers. Initially, Elvis’ January 14th concert was telecast live via satellite to viewers in Asia and Oceania and presented with a delay in January in Europe. Needing to avoid a programming conflict with Super Bowl VII while also acknowledging that the film “Elvis on Tour” was enjoying an actively successful run in US movie theaters, NBC decided to air their ninety-minute version of Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite (featuring bonus performances recorded for the stateside broadcast) on April 4, 1973. Aloha from Hawaii became NBC’s highest-rated program of the year.

Feeling the heat from the Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite global telecast, RCA Records fast-tracked a companion double album soundtrack into production with first pressings hitting US stores on February 4, 1973. The album was Elvis’ first #1 in years, peaking at #1 on the Billboard pop and country charts, becoming the fastest-selling chart-topping album of Elvis’ career.

The 50th anniversary edition of Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite is produced by Ernst Jørgensen and newly mixed by Grammy® Award-winning recording engineer Matt-Ross Spang. The set includes the original concert, rehearsal show and unique after-show recordings and rehearsals including “Blue Hawaii,” “Hawaiian Wedding Song,” “No More” and “Early Morning Rain.” The deluxe set includes a 28-page booklet featuring in-depth liner notes penned by lifelong Elvis fan/respected music critic Randy Lewis, rare photos and memorabilia from the event, and the first-ever visual release of Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite on Blu-ray.

Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite is the apogee of an astounding career trajectory that began with Elvis’ return to live performance in 1968 with an electrifying “comeback” television special that restored him to pop dominance after a seven year hiatus from the concert stage. By 1973, Elvis was a living legend whose status as the world’s first atomic-powered singer in the 1950s had evolved into movie stardom before his return to live performance generated a new iconography of Elvis. His watershed global telecast was the first full-length concert by any musician to be beamed around the world over communications satellites newly orbiting the earth in ever increasing numbers. A half century later, the live album and concert film from that performance are perhaps the most revelatory documents of the live shows that Elvis poured so much of his heart and soul into during the 1970s.

The 50th anniversary edition of Elvis Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite presents, for the first time in one authorized package, the entirety of the original January 14, 1973 performance, the previous night’s dress rehearsal with a live audience (recorded in case of technical mishaps during the satellite transmission), several bonus tracks inserted into the US broadcast of the event and a Blu-ray transfer of the concert film.

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Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley’s ‘Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite’ 50th Anniversary Edition

Elvis Presley’s ‘Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite’ 50th Anniversary Edition

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