"No imagination these people!"

On ElvisNews.com I read that the October FTD release from the August 1974 Las Vegas engagement will be called Down In The Alley. Reactions from some of the readers are that "Big Boss Man would have been my preferred title after the new opening song for this Vegas season, but of course that name has already been used by FTD" and "No imagination these people!"

This got me thinking and after taking a quick look at my FTD collection it seems to me the titles were a bit more imaginative during the earlier FTD years (1999-2003). Examples of this are Out In Hollywood, In A Private Moment, The Jungle Room Sessions and Dixieland Rocks. They all sound like classic bootlegs, don’t they?

Of course there are exceptions. New Year's Eve is hardly as exciting sounding as its bootleg companion Rockin' With Elvis New Years' Eve, but on the other hand I Sing All Kinds, released last year, has a nice ring to it.

Still, the fact is, 9 out of the 16 (I don't count the The Way It Was re-release) FTD titles in the 5" series released between 2004 and 2008 are named after a song, such as Big Boss Man, Unchained Melody and An American Trilogy. On comparison, only four of the first 23 releases (1999-2003) have a song as a title.

So, is it true that "these people" (Jorgensen & co) have no imagination? Well, when one look at the titles that certainly seems to be the case.

But maybe I can be of assistance. How about using a line from a song instead and naming the new FTD Just Rockin' And Reelin' (from Down In The Alley) or I Work Hard In The Evenin' (from Big Boss Man). Those sound just like classic bootlegs, don't they?