Elvis Costello: Don't Buy My New Boxed Set

Inflated price 'appears to be either a misprint or a satire,' he quips
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 29, 2011 2:26 AM CST
Elvis Costello: Don't Buy My New Boxed Set
It's a "beautifully designed compendium," but the price appears to be "an elaborate hoax," Costello says.   (Universal Music Enterprises)

Elvis Costello's new Return of the Spectacular Spinning Songbook boxed set is pretty good—but no way is it worth the current price Elvis Costello says. The special-edition set, which includes a CD and DVD of a concert from earlier this year, plus a coffee-table book, is selling for at least $225 in the US and more than $300 in the UK, a price which the singer says "appears to be either a misprint or a satire," the Telegraph reports.

"All our attempts to have this number revised have been fruitless," he writes at elviscostello.com. "But rather than detain you with tedious arguments about morality, panache and book-keeping," he writes, the singer recommends that Christmas shoppers instead seek out Louis Armstrong's Ambassador Of Jazz set, which contains no fewer than ten albums for a price lower than Costello's collection. "Frankly, the music is vastly superior," he quips. (More Elvis Costello stories.)

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