Viva Elvis (album)

Viva Elvis is the soundtrack remix album of the Cirque du Soleil show Viva Elvis, which focuses on the life and music of Elvis Presley. The album, though produced initially as a soundtrack to the show, does not include all of the songs featured in the show. However, the CD versions are rearranged and extended versions of those seen in the show, and in fact the album includes two instrumental versions of the songs "Memories" and "You'll Never Walk Alone," neither of which is in the Cirque show.

This album marks the first official posthumous album by Elvis Presley created from scratch, where previous albums were compilations of previously released or unreleased material. Similar to Cirque's soundtrack to the Beatles-themed Love (Cirque du Soleil), "Viva Elvis" contains samples from throughout the entire span of Elvis Presley's career, including interview clips, home recordings, studio outtakes and snippets of dialogue from Elvis's feature films.

Unlike "Love," however, "Viva Elvis" features new backing instrumentation on each track in an attempt to "modernize" the arrangements. This has been controversial in the Elvis fan world, and has met with mixed response critically, with some reviewers praising the production quality and others opining that Elvis's music is best left untampered with.

Track listing

 * 1) Opening (Theme From 2001: A Space Odyssey
 * 2) That's All Right (Arthur Crudup)
 * 3) Heartbreak Hotel (Mae Boren Axton/Tommy Durden/Elvis Presley)
 * 4) Love Me Tender (Vera Matson/Elvis Presley)
 * 5) King Creole (Jerry Leiber/Mike Stoller)
 * 6) Bossa Nova Baby (Jerry Leiber/Mike Stoller)
 * 7) Burning Love (Dennis Linde)
 * 8) Memories (Mac Davis /Billy Strange)
 * 9) Can't Help Falling In Love (Hugo Peretti/Luigi Creatore/George Weiss)
 * 10) You'll Never Walk Alone (Piano Interlude) (Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein)
 * 11) Suspicious Minds (Mark James)

Bonus Tracks
In each country, a bonus version of "Love Me Tender" was included featuring a local singer in place of the singer from the Cirque show.


 * Finland - Anna Puu
 * Netherlands - Lisa Lois
 * France - Amel Bent
 * Spain - Russian Red
 * Latin America and Wal-Mart Exclusive in United States - THALIA
 * Australia - Jessica Mauboy
 * Belgium - Dani Klein
 * Canada - Marie-Mai
 * Portugal - Aurea
 * Japan - Miho Fukuhara

Personnel

 * Vocals - Elvis Presley
 * Guest Singers - Dea Norberg (Love Me Tender), Jennlee Shallow (King Creole), Sherry St-Germain (Can't Help Falling In Love), Stacie Tabb (Suspicious Minds)
 * Drums - Ben Clement
 * Bass - Patrick Levergne
 * Electric Guitars - JS "The Flash" Chouinard, Mike Plant, Steve Nadeau, Martin Bachand, Paul Deslauriers, Erich van Tourneau
 * Acoustic Guitars - Olivier Goulet, Erich van Tourneau
 * Piano and Keys: Erich van Tourneau
 * Harmonica - Guy Belanger
 * Scratch - DJ Pocket
 * Brass Section - Jean-Francois Thibeault (T-Bone), Brune Dumont (Sax), David Perrico (Trumpet), Jean-Francois Gagnon (Flugel)

Production

 * Producer and Arranger: Eric van Tourneau
 * Assistant Producer & Assistant Arranger: Hugo "Wedge Montecristo" Bombardier
 * Executive Producers: Steve Berkowitz, Adam Block, Stephanie Mongeau, Jacques Methe, Stephane Bergevin, Gary Hovey & Priscilla Presley.