Pribek

Elvis Presley has a new album of Christmas duets coming out. Collaborators are the likes of Martina McBride, Carrie Underwood, Amy Grant and Olivia Newton-John. Get the full scoop and see video of McBride and Elvis performing “Blue Christmas” over at Uncle Rupe’s place.

In the original footage — the only existing video of Elvis performing a Christmas song — a leather-clad Presley appears with his band on a small stage at the center of a studio audience. In the video, McBride walks out of the audience and sits next to him.

“There’s a spot between (guitarist) Scotty Moore and Elvis that’s open, like somebody should have been sitting there,” says Flanigen. “We’re like, ‘We could probably figure a way to put her with Elvis.’

“We scoured the footage and picked shots of Elvis throughout the whole special to be able to put them together. There are shots where he and Martina share the frame, where he looks over at her, where she looks back at him and sings and smiles.”

McBride filmed her parts in front of a green screen. “It took four weeks” to piece together, Flanigen says.

I’m guessing that the original production/editing process for the actual “comeback special” didn’t take an entire month. I might be off base there but, you get the point. See, these superimposed performances have never sat well with me. When I was a kid, collecting baseball cards, I would feel gypped when I got one where they airbrushed in the new hat of a traded player, like this one of Oscar Gamble.

Great gallery of airbrushed cards here by the way.