The Albums of Elvis Presley in Order of Release: An Overview

In Search of Elvis

The Albums of Elvis Presley in Order of Release

I originally entitled this piece 'A Guide to the Music of Elvis Presley through a tour of my Elvis album collection.' I changed the title for a number of reasons. In the first place, the reference to my Elvis album collection is redundant because, of course, I have these albums. I write specifically about the enjoyment of putting together my Elvis collection elsewhere. In the second place, what follows is not really a guide, either, in that I shall be discussing the Elvis albums as they were released, their impact as well as importance with respect to Elvis' own musical profile. I have written a guide elsewhere, referring to the albums as they are now available. The albums I discuss here refer, in the first instance, to those that were released in Elvis' lifetime. These have since been reissued with added tracks. So I am really writing the musical autobiography of Elvis as a singing and recording artist.  

My mother was an Elvis fan, so the entire family was; or at least those members that weren’t didn’t dare let on. I spent most of my young years obsessing over which was the next Elvis album I needed to buy. As time goes by, and the fanaticism fades a little, you come to realize the brutality of the mercenary approach that was taken to Elvis, his ability, his music, and his fans. To the management, Elvis’ music was just product and his fans were just pockets to be emptied. I still have my vinyl collection and wouldn’t be parted from it. It is noticeable how many of Elvis’ albums contained promotions of other albums, often in multiple. Elvis is the desire that is never satisfied. You get one album, and there’s always another, or others, to go lusting after. It was fun collecting, anyhow. And an addiction. It soon became obvious how we fans were being taken for a ride. Buying Elvis albums was a treacherous experience for the unwary. Elvis was effectively competing against himself. Instead of issuing his best material in one definitive album, the management padded the music out, with the result that Elvis’ very best songs went on albums alongside his worst songs. It was a counter-productive strategy that destroyed Elvis' music and reputation in the long-run. Many must have been drawn in by the decent material only to hear some ghastly musical misconception alongside it, never to go near Elvis again. I was a fanatic, so I stuck with Elvis, album after album. I wanted the lot, Elvis addict as I was. I think I've earned a view on the music of Elvis Presley. So here is my very brief guide to the Elvis albums as they were issued.

The Albums:

1 Elvis Presley (1956)

01. Blue Suede Shoes

02. I'm Counting on You

03. I Got a Woman

04. One-Sided Love Affair

05. I Love You Because

06. Just Because

07. Tutti Frutti

08. Trying to Get to You

09. I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You)

10. I'll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin')

11. Blue Moon

12. Money Honey

Note well that this is the original release. I shall be taking the original releases in order. The reissues now include the hit records, B-sides and extra tracks recorded at the same sessions. I have reviewed these elsewhere. Here, I discuss the historical and musical importance of the original Elvis albums as they were issued. Take it as read that, if it comes to making a purchase, you will be buying the re-issues containing extra tracks.

This was the first Elvis RCA album, the one with the iconic front cover later mirrored by The Clash, and the album that is frequently cited in any ‘classic’ album list. The album hit number 1 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart in 1956, the first rock and roll album ever to do so. It stayed there for ten weeks, announcing not only that the rock’n’roll barbarians had entered the Temple of the pop establishment, but in Elvis had a leader with the force, the energy, and the talent to turn that world upside down. He did, too.

Elvis 1956, or Rock'n'Roll I, was the first million-selling album of the rock’n’roll genre. So what? Are we talking art or commerce? Both. That's fifties rock'n'roll. Chuck Berry knew it - maybe one day your name will be in lights. Elvis got there his name in the biggest of lights, and this album explains why. Musically, it represented a fashioning of country/blues/gospel into a pop form. To some, that blending is revolutionary; to purists who like to uphold strict divisions – enforcing the hierarchies in music, culture, and society that Elvis sought to dismantle – that represents a cultural dilution. Both sides have part of the truth. The pop music Elvis was fashioning here was not a folk music, even though it clearly drew on ‘indigenous’ sources (which themselves had been mixing and matching since ever, coming over to America from Europe. Such is the musical life). Elvis drew the strands together with a conscious pop sensibility and an explicitly commercial intent. He was brought up on country and gospel, developed a taste for the blues, but all the time listened to the pop hits on the radio. The result was a pop form that was without cultural implication, so much so that white kids from art school in the United Kingdom could come later to pick it up, try it on for size, and reshape it in their own unique ways. So we get The Beatles, The Stones, the Kinks, Led Zeppelin, the Zombies and very many more. If you don’t believe me, just ask Paul MacCartney, Keith Richards, Page and Plant, Rod Argent, Bowie. And while you are at it, ask Dylan – ‘hearing Elvis for the first time was like bustin’ out of jail’ – Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, Roger McGuinn, all of them, they say the same thing from an American perspective – Elvis was the inspiration. The same goes for those who burned and crashed even before Elvis – Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin – ‘Elvis is my man!’ – Jim Morrison. Which makes a second point, the rock’n’roll road is a treacherous one, not so much a long and lonely highway as in the old blues and country, as a very short burst down the road in which you are lonely in a crowd, live fast and die young. Such is the danger of substituting an obsession with fame and fortune for the music. 

It always comes back to the music. Elvis was drawing on sources of real musical substance in fashioning this new pop form. Those drawing on Elvis used him as source and drew on their own talent. That works with the likes of The Beatles. But if we keep drawing further and further away from the source, turning the derivative into the substance, then we are just adding water and stirring. With creative inspiration ever diminishing in this manner, the pop world comes to consume itself until in the end it is nothing but the circulation of manufactured images and commodities. Elvis was such an image and commodity, purists may say, and his demise was entirely of his own doing. Elvis was the biggest victim of rock and pop inversion and inflation. The only debate is whether it had to end that way. His example, I would say, shows the possibility of other directions, directions which respect the music and reject pretensions of being ‘king’ of anything by staying true to the fundamentally democratic spirit that lies at the core of everything that is good and healthy and sane about Elvis’ example. But the strong potentials for corruption were there from the start, existing in the very nature of the beast. Chuck Berry wrote the rock’n’roll book, and in Johnny B Goode he gave us the promise and the seduction – ‘maybe one day you’re name will be in lights, saying Johnny B Goode tonight …’ It’s what they were all after. Elvis got what he and all the rest of them wanted, it’s just that in doing so he had to compromise and corrupt all that he had. He never lost the music, though. Only his life. He got his name in lights, it's just that it became less and less easy to say just who this "Elvis" really was. Elvis himself in an interview spoke of the difficulty of separating image and identity.

This album is iconic. It was ranked number 56 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time in 2003. It was also one of three Elvis albums to receive accolades in the reference book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. The cover is ranked number 40 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 greatest album covers, published in 1991.

So we may have confidence in proclaiming the album to represent Elvis at his very best, then? Not quite. The constantly high rankings this receives above other Elvis albums is entirely due to its cultural and historical importance in association with the impact Elvis made in 1956. The title ‘Elvis ‘56’ conjures up images of Elvis as he claimed the title of ‘King of Rock’n’Roll.’ The track selection here, however, is very far from definitive of that period. Indeed, it is decidedly patchy, lacking the key ’56 hits, and comprising five unreleased tracks from the Sun label. The best RCA tracks here are covers of the songs associated with others, Carl Perkins, Little Richard, The Drifters, Ray Charles. 

It’s a good start, though, in that it lets you know immediately that the search for the definitive Elvis album is like the search for the Holy Grail. Elvis is exceedingly good. It’s just that the marketing strategy from the first involved keeping the fans seeking to complete their collections rather than ensuring they were satisfied. The lesson is this – you need the entire Sun collection and RCA ’56 output. Keep buying! Of course, at the time, fans would have bought LP's, EP's, and the singles. That's where Elvis made his name. Great album, but a misleading guide to Elvis in '56.

2 Elvis (1956)

01. Rip It Up

02. Love Me

03. When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again

04. Long Tall Sally

05. First in Line

06. Paralyzed

07. So Glad You're Mine

08. Old Shep

09. Ready Teddy

10. Anyplace Is Paradise

11. How's the World Treating You

12. How Do You Think I Feel

This is all Elvis ’56, with no Sun tracks to pad out the album. It has none of the big breakthrough hits, either. It’s a very good document, though, indicating clearly as to what Elvis was all about: rock’n’roll, some excellent blues, country and country ballads. There’s a conscious attempt to recreate the spontaneous Sun sound, mixing rhythm and blues and country and western, combining again the blues of Arthur Crudup, (writer of "That's All Right (Mama)" and, here, ‘So Glad You’re Mine’) and the country of bluegrass founder Bill Monroe, (writer of ‘Blue Moon of Kentucky’ and, here, "When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again.") This was Elvis’ first blast as a professional recording artist on a big label, and he more than delivered. Remember that at Sun in 1954-1955, Elvis would enter the studio to record a couple of sides for single release; here, in much less time, he was recording a number of songs for single and album release. 

The album hit #1 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart that year, spending four weeks at the top, making Elvis the first recording artist to have two albums go straight to number one in the same year. That was quite some achievement. Elvis was just twenty one but was already big. When we start to discuss what went wrong, and scratch our heads as to how Elvis and his management could consistently mess up and lose musical direction, there is a need to bear in mind just how huge Elvis became so quickly and so young and keep in view the sheer overscale of his achievement. Pop stars have careers now, professional managers, legal teams, personal trainers, marketing experts the lot. Elvis had Tom Parker, a small time carny crook whose only concern was to leech on Elvis, isolate him from his peers, and keep turning a dollar the same old way. 

The reissue is essential.

3 Loving You (1957)

01. Mean Woman Blues

02. (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear

03. Loving You

04. Got a Lot O' Livin' to Do!

05. Lonesome Cowboy

06. Hot Dog

07. (Let's Have A) Party

08. Blueberry Hill

09. True Love

10. Don't Leave Me Now

11. Have I Told You Lately That I Love You

12. I Need You So

13. Tell Me Why

The first of the film soundtracks which we loved at the first, and then got tired of on account of their non-descript, formulaic, and utterly cynical approach to Elvis, his music, and his fans. This album is excellent though, and another chart topper, spending ten weeks in pole position. 

Why is it so good? First of all, this is rock’n’roll as im/pure, (un)adulterated pop music: short, vibrant, exciting, no pretensions to great art, just a quick burst and thrill.  But great art it is, all the same. And Elvis did it better than anyone. That’s the film music from side one. Side two has a very interesting selection of songs, showing quite a musical range and maturity on Elvis’ part, tackling both Fats Domino and Bing Crosby! Was it a conscious attempt on Elvis’ part to expand his range as a singer, tackling the more mature forms of the pop establishment? Was it merely part of the job description, to bolster the album to acceptable lengths? "Blueberry Hill" had been a big hit for Fats Domino in 1956, but was also a swing-era favorite, and had been recorded by Louis Armstrong just a few years earlier. Elvis was taking his place in the musical mainstream. "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?" was another song associated with the pop establishment, having been recorded by Bing Crosby with The Andrews Sisters, as well as the Sons of the Pioneers.

And Elvis does a very creditable version of Cole Porter's "True Love", written for the 1956 musical film High Society. It isn’t rock’n’roll, of course, and those interested in rock revolution were already inclined to see Elvis as selling the musical revolution out in order to cash on his fame. Such is Donald Clarke’s view of Elvis after Love Me Tender, (see The Rise and Fall of Popular Music). I think such views are basically rubbish, and says more about the false expectations of rock’n’roll revolutionaries standing passively apart from the actual action. Elvis never bought into such views, he was neither consciously a musical pioneer nor a cultural revolutionary, but was aiming for fame and fortune and also a little critical respect for the way his vocal abilities embraced a genuine multiplicity in music. He was inclusive. He liked ballads and he saw himself as a ballad singer. It makes perfect sense that Elvis, the supposed ‘king of rock’n’roll’, would deliver a fine version of 'True Love,' a ballad from the older pop tradition. Elvis was never about pitching different musical traditions against each other, he was about blending them. And if it isn’t rock’n’roll, then so what? Lennon would later claim that Elvis died when he went into the army. Lennon's Elvis never really existed, in that he was recording ballads from the pop mainstream, like "Blue Moon," from the very first (1954). Lennon would also come to dismiss Elvis as a new Crosby in the early sixties. But here in 1957 is Elvis recording Crosby material. That is to his credit. Decades later I heard Elvis Costello in an interview explaining the substantial qualities of ‘True Love’ as a song. I think it is to the credit of Elvis’ musical sensibilities that he was from the first prepared to entertain good music whatever its origins and associations. That generosity of musical spirit, of course, was an open door to the dross he was served up by his management over the years, Elvis’ talent redeeming the irredeemable.

A highlight of this album for me is ‘I Need You So,’ an Ivory Joe Hunter classic which is one of Elvis’ best. He would return to Hunter in 1971, again with stellar results.

The album shows how Elvis’ music was becoming more commercial and more sophisticated. He wasn’t repeating himself but developing as an artist. He was now not merely a contender conquering, but the leader in command of the terrain, and this is the first album where Elvis sings as ‘Elvis,’ in that these are ‘Elvis songs,’ songs made to measure his new stature.

As to warning signs of danger ahead .. The album and film are wonderful, but there are clear indications as to how Elvis was totally misunderstood as to what he was from the first, and how his career was going to be badly misdirected as a result. The film Loving You pictures Elvis as a simple country boy with a guitar in hand, in blue denim, the familiar rags to riches tale etc. Elvis was a white working class southerner but that does not make him country. He loved country, but he made the impact he made by drawing on rhythm and blues. He did not dress in blue denim. he wore the fashions of Beale Street. Somehow, however, this film image of Elvis in blue jeans became an iconic image of fifties Elvis. This was a Hollywood view of what a white country boy singing rock’n’roll would look like, not Elvis' own view of how he saw himself. From the start, Elvis lost control of the narrative.

4 Elvis’ Christmas Album (1957)

01. Santa Claus Is Back In Town

02. White Christmas

03. Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane)

04. I'll Be Home for Christmas

05. Blue Christmas

06. Santa Bring My Baby Back (To Me)

07. O Little Town of Bethlehem

08. Silent Night

09. (There'll Be) Peace in the Valley (For Me)

10. I Believe

11. Take My Hand, Precious Lord

12. It Is No Secret (What God Can Do)

Heavens! What’s not to love about this?! My grandmother heard Elvis sing the carols and was most impressed; she didn’t realize that he sang so beautifully. All the same, I was incredibly pleased that she had missed ‘Santa Claus is Back in Town,’ a double entendre blues whose double meaning was so obvious as to be singular. Elvis’ full-throated treatment eschewed slyness for a statement of the obvious, positively asking for a storm of controversy and a ban. The controversy that did come, however, concerned something else entirely, and indicates precisely what Elvis was achieving with his musical synthesis, why he was dangerous to the establishment, and why he was a liberator for the rest of us. The centre of the storm was the perennial Bing Crosby Christmas standard "White Christmas," which had appeared on the chart at Christmas time ever since it was first issued in 1942. The writer, Irving Berlin, (oh, sorry, since we are dealing with high culture, let us identify the man appropriately as the ‘composer’) took objection to Elvis’ wonderful version of ‘White Christmas’ and issued a circular insisting radio stations ban it, and ban the entire album to boot. He considered it sacrilegious, a "profane parody" of his cherished yuletide standard, ordering his staff in New York to telephone radio stations across the United States to demand the song be discontinued from radio play. One disc jockey was fired for playing a song from the album, whilst most Canadian stations refused to play the album.

It may strike us as bizarre now, but it would be a mistake to laugh it off as merely a clash between the old and the new. There was a deeper division at work here, both racial and class. Elvis had received similar criticism when performing "Peace in the Valley" on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1957. How can such a vulgar and profane person perform such sacred material! Not only was Elvis raised on gospel, he sang it well. In fact he sang it very well indeed, with real passion and emotion, and not the earnest hollow solemnity of establishment hypocrites. Further, ‘Peace in the Valley’ itself was written by a man who went by the names of the Reverend Thomas A. Dorsey by day and Georgie Tom by night, a blues singer with the accent on the blue. The sacred and the profane went hand in hand in the real America from which Elvis emerged. The cultural standards insisted upon by the establishment were bound up with social hierarchies and class and racial divisions. Elvis’ music was pressing against these divisions, and the establishment pressed back hard.

The truth is, the members of the establishment didn’t know the country they lived in, or more likely didn’t want to know, and didn’t want the American public to know. They were acting as gatekeepers, and Elvis was breaking those gates down and sweeping the guardians to one side.

That this is the case is made clear by the nature of this particular controversy. Elvis's performance of ‘White Christmas’ was somewhere between the holy and profane in being a pared down version of the R&B version recorded by Clyde McPhatter and The Drifters. This had been a Top 10 hit on the R&B singles chart in 1954 and 1955. That version is far, far wilder than Elvis’ very respectful version but attracted no controversy and incited no apoplectic fits from Irving Berlin. The reason was simple, it was ‘black,’ and was therefore confined to the black charts, black radio, and the black audience, and therefore excluded from the mainstream. Elvis was not only breaking into the mainstream, he was bringing those artists and traditions and musical forms excluded from the mainstream in with him. He was breaking down the boundaries. Elvis was mixing black and white, exciting a huge public, and educating them at the same time as to where this music came from and where it still existed. He was bringing the hidden, marginalised, excluded America to public attention and making the claiming that not only he but they belonged in the mainstream. In the 1980s I had to suffer the accusations that Elvis was a racist and a cultural appropriator who made millions on the back of black artists who were infinitely more talented than he. Try living history in context instead of rewriting it to fit your dumb politics. Elvis was far more of a liberator than any of these critics.

As for ‘White Christmas,’ Elvis does a beautifully light and respectful version, raising it well above the dreary solemnity of the Bing Crosby version. I always loved Christmas, always loved the shows, with the Christmas songs. And I always dreaded the obligatory appearance of Bing Crosby around the piano singing ‘White Christmas.’ I knew it was the end of the show, but I also knew it was a dreary song that put an end to the fun. I already remember it in black and white. Of course the film from Holiday Inn is in black and white. And we only had a black and white television. The odd thing is that whilst I remember all the other songs as colourful, as if they had been in colour when I saw them performed, I always remember Crosby’s ‘White Christmas’ as black and white. I always try to avoid false either/or’s, and I do like Bing singing Christmas songs (he’s on my list of top 100 Christmas songs with ‘Can you hear what I hear?’) But I do think Elvis’ version is miles better.

Classic carols, rocking around the Christmas tree, a bit of blues, and some stunning gospel. Classic! I do, of course, love Christmas. It goes without saying that it was another chart topper. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the album, including its reissues, has sold more than 17 million copies in the United States alone, and millions more that I cannot be bothered to count all over the world, making it the best-selling Christmas album of all time in both the United States and the world.

5 Elvis' Golden Records (1958)

01. Hound Dog

02. Loving You

03. All Shook Up

04. Heartbreak Hotel

05. Jailhouse Rock

06. Love Me

07. Too Much

08. Don't Be Cruel

09. That's When Your Heartaches Begin

10. (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear

11. Love Me Tender

12. Treat Me Nice

13. Any Way You Want Me (That's How I Will Be)

14. I Want You, I Need You, I Love You

And now you hear what all the fuss was about. Of course, had you been there you would already have known. These are the hits. In fact, these are the million selling gold records. This is not merely the first greatest hits album in rock and roll history, it is a document which shows you why they crowned Elvis the King. I won’t say ‘the greatest rock’n’roll’ album ever. There are ballads and examples of clear, clean pop on here, and rock should be about a raucous rebellion, a spirit that always evades capture, and which doesn’t seek to conquer either, merely to enjoy itself in the moment. Elvis is there somewhere in that, too, but he was always about more than that. 

I never cared for that title ‘king of rock’n’roll.’ First of all, Elvis’ talent embraced a genuine multiplicity in music, he sang all styles to the very highest standard; secondly, rock’n’roll was a black musical form going back decades, it’s never going to look good to see a white kid on top (although it took Elvis to break this music through to the wider public, hence the legitimacy of his claim – we owe Elvis a lot, a debt that is too often overlooked); thirdly, white artists had been swinging country for a long while; fourthly, music doesn’t need hierarchies and rivalries, setting fans arguing over whose dad is bigger than whose; fifthly, there were plenty of others such as Little Richard and Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis and all of the rest of them, frankly, who were 'kings'; sixthly and most of all, all such royal titles and hierarchies are a complete and utter betrayal of the democratic spirit that Elvis in his core being encapsulated. That said, hit after hit here fall like hammer blows, giving us the message that here is where the action is. Essential Elvis.

6 King Creole (1958)

01. King Creole

02. As Long as I Have You

03. Hard Headed Woman

04. Trouble

05. Dixieland Rock

06. Don't Ask Me Why

07. Lover Doll

08. Crawfish

09. Young Dreams

10. Steadfast, Loyal and True

11. New Orleans

12. Danny (added in reissue)

My dad’s a jazz fan, trad jazz, Dixieland, Louis Armstrong and all that. He liked this one. Dixieland Rock! Great film, too. And lest it get overlooked, Elvis does have a way with the ballads. There are many standouts here. But the one I always return to is ‘Crawfish,’ one cool song. Try to find the version with the extended duet with Kitty White. Essential.

7 For LP Fans Only (1959)

01. That's All Right

02. Lawdy, Miss Clawdy

03. Mystery Train

04. Playing for Keeps

05. Poor Boy

06. My Baby Left Me

07. I Was the One

08. Shake, Rattle and Roll

09. I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone

10. You're a Heartbreaker

11. I Don't Care If the Sun Don't Shine

12. Let Me

This is a compilation, mirroring the very first Elvis 1956 album. By now, the pattern is forming. Elvis’ songs were destined for haphazard release. This may not have mattered so much when Elvis was very much in demand, but it could not but confuse the public and harm Elvis’ profile when the going later got tough. Elvis’ albums sold well in the market, with each of his first LPs hitting at least number three, most hitting one and staying there for weeks. RCA were interested in keeping the albums coming, even though Elvis was now away in the army. Many of the songs here came from singles and EP’s, then there were four from Sun Records which were difficult to find. It’s not that the music or the album is bad - the music is mainly excellent - but that it indicates a certain randomness in presenting Elvis’ music, dominated by an overriding concern to keep the product coming out to be consumed.

There’s real stellar quality on here, material that frankly one would associate with a truly definitive Elvis ’56 album. Five Sun recordings, a couple of leftovers from films, and classic tracks from the RCA ’56 recording sessions. ‘My Baby Left Me’ must be one of the best of the very best Elvis recordings. The album is a classic. It’s just that it indicates a pretty random approach to Elvis albums which would prove disastrous in later years.

8 A Date With Elvis (1959)

01. Blue Moon of Kentucky

02. Young and Beautiful

03. (You're so Square) Baby I Don't Care

04. Milk Cow Blues Boogie

05. Baby, Let's Play House

06. Good Rockin' Tonight

07. Is It so Strange

08. We're Gonna Move

09. I Want to Be Free

10. I Forgot to Remember to Forget

11. Don't Leave Me Now

12. Harbor Lights

Again, another compilation … six Sun recordings, (stunning, by the way) alongside four tracks from Jailhouse Rock and one left over (and totally out of place) from Love me Tender. Essential recordings, mind. It’s just that the random collections do not allow us to see how Elvis developed his music as he went on. ‘Is it so strange’ is an unheralded gem, a classic awaiting popular discovery. But, at twenty-three minutes, this is an incredibly short album. The company is sacrificing music to marketing and money and, in doing so, are embarked on a strategy that could only be self-defeating in the end. Elvis had succeeded beyond all of the wildest dreams, and was riding high. But this approach risked dividing Elvis up between an adoring public and a discerning public. This was the lowest charting Elvis LP of the decade, as the previous one had been. RCA Victor would still squeeze previously issued material out into another album in 1959, another hit singles collection, and it, too, would prove a low seller by Elvis’ previous standards. You can exhaust the patience and the pockets of the public. Keep short-changing people, and they become shy, and maybe even go away.

9 Elvis' Gold Records Volume 2- 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong (1959)

01. I Need Your Love Tonight

02. Don't

03. Wear My Ring Around Your Neck

04. My Wish Came True

05. I Got Stung

06. One Night

07. A Big Hunk O' Love

08. I Beg of You

09. (Now and Then There's) A Fool Such as I

10. Doncha' Think It's Time

There are some absolute Elvis classics here, number one smash hits, such high quality as to make us regret that he was no longer involved in those mammoth recording sessions as with the first RCA sessions in ’56. Those damned films were already in the way.

10 Elvis Is Back! (1960)

01. Make Me Know It

02. Fever

03. The Girl of My Best Friend

04. I Will Be Home Again

05. Dirty, Dirty Feeling

06. Thrill of Your Love

07. Soldier Boy

08. Such a Night

09. It Feels So Right

10. The Girl Next Door Went A'Walking

11. Like a Baby

12. Reconsider Baby

Bizarrely, I read that this album received a fairly mixed critical reception. The New York Times called the record "drab and lacklustre.” Oh really? This sounds like Sinatra’s fanboys doing their best to deny the obvious. High Fidelity magazine said: "Presley obviously finds it hard to record his old gusto ... Perhaps [the recordings] are the first attempts to master new styles.” Well, the style is more mature, the material is substantial and varied, and the singing is exceptional. Blues, ballads, pop, rock, country gospel – it’s all here, in high quality. This is Elvis redeeming every promise he made when he stepped into RCA in ’56 and made clear his determination to tackle the widest range of material. Essential Elvis. Unfortunately the album sold relatively poorly, just 300,000 copies in the US. Does it matter? Music is music. But a management obsessed with money and numbers took note and concluded that Elvis fans don’t much like quality music on the albums. What they did seem to like was films …

11 G.I. Blues (1960)

01. Tonight Is So Right for Love

02. What's She Really Like

03. Frankfort Special

04. Wooden Heart

05. G.I. Blues

06. Pocketful of Rainbows

07. Shoppin' Around

08. Big Boots

09. Didja' Ever

10. Blue Suede Shoes

11. Doin' the Best I Can

12. Tonight's All Right for Love (added in reissue)

OK, I have a soft spot for this album. My mother bought me this one some time in 1974, and I remember her pulling it out of the drawer carefully, as a surprise. My brother received Blue Hawaii at the same time. Two choices which represent the middle of the road in Elvis fandom. Where's the rock'n'roll?! The album is jaunty enough. And I did have my mother embroider a “US Army” badge on my coat, for no other reason that Elvis had one. In retrospect … the meeting of the blues and the army, putting something vital to a military marching beat, is something of a car crash. It's still far better than the pop of 1960. Elvis was miles ahead of the competition. 

I loved the film and the album in my younger days. It’s for fans only, I’d now say. That said, I have a very soft spot for ‘Wooden Heart,’ that German theme, puppets, and lederhosen, wonderful. And I will also admit to an alarming taste for the way the Elvis machine would adapt/pinch tunes from European classical music and opera and turn them into rhythmic pop.  I like a waltz, although Elvis steps it up a bit. Added to this album is "Tonight's All Right for Love," which I had to buy on another later album. This is the melody from Johann Strauss II, Tales from the Vienna Woods. "Tonight Is So Right for Love"  was taken from a barcarolle composed by Jacques Offenbach. We sang this in the school choir. ‘Shed oh moon they beauteous rays upon thy something or other gleaming.’ There you go, you never knew I could sing did you. ‘The main voice of the choir,’ the choirmaster said. I was good. When I remembered the words. Elvis does it much quicker.

GI Blues is for fans only. But ‘Pocketful of Rainbows’ and ‘Doin’ the Best I Can’ deserve a much wider audience.

The album took Elvis back to the Billboard Top Pop Album chart and confirmed Elvis as a pop star. The blend of blues/country/gospel on Elvis is Back! was very much a pop blend. And it is evident that a distinctively pop-inclined Elvis public was emerging, commanding much greater numbers than those who wanted a rootsier Elvis.

12 His Hand In Mine (1960)

01. His Hand in Mine

02. I'm Gonna Walk Dem Golden Stairs

03. In My Father's House

04. Milky White Way

05. Known Only to Him

06. I Believe in the Man in the Sky

07. Joshua Fit the Battle

08. He Knows Just What I Need

09. Swing Down Sweet Chariot

10. Mansion over the Hilltop

11. If We Never Meet Again

12. Working on the Building

Elvis sang gospel beautifully. His diction and intonation on these songs are perfect and nail the myth of Elvis as a rock'n'roll 'mumbler' as the lie it is. The music here is very formal and restrained, and perfectly enunciated. We had ‘Known only to Him’ at my mother’s funeral.

Whether you like gospel or not doesn’t matter. This is Elvis’ pure, high voice at its peak. Elvis is often parodied for slurring his words. He wasn’t slurring. It was gospel melisma. But he doesn’t do it on these gospel songs. The diction is crisp and clear and perfect.

13 Something For Everybody (1961)

01. There's Always Me

02. Give Me the Right

03. It's a Sin

04. Sentimental Me

05. Starting Today

06. Gently

07. I'm Coming Home

08. In Your Arms

09. Put the Blame on Me

10. Judy

11. I Want You with Me

12. I Slipped, I Stumbled, I Fell

Another number one. But beware the ‘all things to all people’ marketing approach. Lose the definition and the profile, and the audience gets confused, loses track, and loses interest. This is actually a proper album, not a random collection that tries to cover all bases. It’s a quality product, Elvis perfecting a certain style of pop sophistication. Perhaps too sophisticated and too sedate. There are songs here which sound like he has perfected the ‘One Night’ and ‘Stuck on You’ sound, but without the edginess and the swing. Many critics point to the influence of Chet Atkins on the production here, steering Elvis in the direction of the sixties Nashville sound. The alternates reveal Elvis in livelier mood, swinging the music much more. There is a point when smooth and clean becomes a little soporific. The edge has gone missing on the music. It’s Elvis moving into maturity. Elvis is echoing his past best. It’s quality, just not particularly exciting. Frankly, the kids are gonna get bored. ‘There’s always me’ is a classic ballad, though. And I swear ‘I’m Comin’ Home’ is remarkably similar to Dire Straits’ ‘80s classic ‘Twistin’ by the Pool,’ a single I loved and bought in Sheffield, much to the disgust of my punk friends.

Elvis the professional, the sophisticated pop artist expanding into light country inflected ballads. Jim Reeves and Eddy Arnold and Marty Robbins were good at this kind of thing, and hugely popular. Elvis was better, and also better than this. Production was curtailing his sound. 

14 Blue Hawaii (1961)

01. Blue Hawaii

02. Almost Always True

03. Aloha Oe

04. No More

05. Can't Help Falling in Love

06. Rock-A-Hula Baby

07. Moonlight Swim

08. Ku-U-I-Po

09. Ito Eats

10. Slicin' Sand

11. Hawaiian Sunset

12. Beach Boy Blues

13. Island of Love

14. Hawaiian Wedding Song

Elvis as a beach boy. ‘Beach Boy Blues’ is about as far away from Mississippi gut-bucket blues as I was in the wet and cold north of England. Songs which appealed when I was very young now strike me as an affront to Elvis’ talent, not to mention his dignity. The ballads were nice, mind, and Elvis is in beautiful voice. Again, there is the borrowing from European classical/opera with ‘No More,’ and again I find it irresistible. The eternal Elvis paradox, with classic tracks like ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’ and ‘Blue Hawaii’ rubbing shoulders with material so execrable it could have been designed to put people off Elvis for life. The album spent 20 weeks at the number one slot and 39 weeks in the Top 10 on Billboard's Top Pop LPs chart. Blue Hawaii is second only to West Side Story as the most successful album in the US in the 1960s. Can so many millions of Elvis fans be wrong? Yes, they can, and the problem is not so much here as with the template it set for later films and soundtracks.

15 Pot Luck (1962)

01. Kiss Me Quick

02. Just for Old Time Sake

03. Gonna Get Back Home Somehow

04. (Such An) Easy Question

05. Steppin' out of Line

06. I'm Yours

07. Something Blue

08. Suspicion

09. I Feel That I've Known You Forever

10. Night Rider

11. Fountain of Love

12. That's Someone You Never Forget

Elvis carries on perfecting that brand of sophisticated high quality pop that blends rhythm, country, and ballads. He has a crack studio band; he draws on the material of excellent writers, too – Pomus and Schuman, Otis Blackwell, Don Robertson, Paul Evans. The up-tempo tracks are lively enough, it’s just that they lack fire and danger. Elvis is way better on the ballads. ‘That's Someone You Never Forget’ is sublime. There’s a Latin flavour throughout. And ‘Suspicion’ is one of Elvis’ very best, giving him ample scope to exhibit the range of his voice, and how effortlessly he moves up and down the scales. As tracks like ‘Little Sister’ and ‘I Feel So Bad’ proved, Elvis could still produce potent rock/blues/pop of real force. He just needed to have done much more of this. Or, he needed to have included the singles material into the albums to strengthen their quality and impact.

Whilst Pot Luck, like its predecessors Elvis Is Back! and Something For Everybody charted high, they were all vastly outsold by the soundtrack albums G.I. Blues and Blue Hawaii. That fitted manager Tom Parker’s strategy, effectively turning Elvis into a hack for conveyor belt songs from hacks with publishing deals with Parker. Parker went against standard practice in the American record industry by keeping hit singles from the albums. The addition of this material would have strengthened the profile of the albums and boosted their sales, and tipped the balance back in their favour against the easy film money. The die, however, was cast and Elvis would now be diverted into the movies. He was destined not to make another non-soundtrack, non-gospel studio album until 1969 with From Elvis in Memphis. Elvis went absent without leave just as a certain bunch of young Elvis fans from Liverpool turned up and revolutionized the pop world. Elvis went backwards as the world went forwards. It may not have been apparent in 1962, since Elvis was sitting pretty. But there were signs of stagnation. The seeds of a later decadence had been sown.

16 Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962)

01. Girls! Girls! Girls!

02. I Don't Wanna Be Tied

03. Where Do You Come From

04. I Don't Want To

05. We'll Be Together - Elvis Presley with The Amigos

06. A Boy Like Me, A Girl Like You

07. Earth Boy

08. Return to Sender

09. Because of Love

10. Thanks to the Rolling Sea

11. Song of the Shrimp

12. The Walls Have Ears

13. We're Coming In Loaded

Where once the film soundtracks were actually packed with exceedingly good material, now we were down to songs which moved the plot in the film on. I have no idea as to why Elvis could have got so excited about ‘The walls have ears.’ ‘Return to Sender,’ of course, is a genuine Elvis classic, written by Otis Blackwell, of ‘All Shook Up’ and ‘Don’t be Cruel’ fame. Of interest to me is that my favourite Liverpool singer Billy Fury visited Elvis on set, and later recorded a very good version of ‘Because of Love.’ Also of interest to me is the fact that a certain Francoise Hardy was paying close attention to these new soft Elvis ballads, incorporating them into her own distinctive style. She has cited ‘Where do you come from,’ a track many may have overlooked, as a song she drew on for ‘Dans le Monde Entier/All over the world.’ I can’t picture Francoise as getting all excited about ‘Girls! Girls! Girls!,’ either the film or the soundtrack (although Elvis must have been the greatest singing Tuna fisherman in history). She may have picked it up as the B-side of ‘Return to Sender.’ Or maybe, like many other fans, she did indeed buy the soundtracks and see the films. It was the only place to find Elvis in the sixties. He never did another live concert after 1961 until 1969, and never recorded another studio album after 1962 until 1969. So fans had to go to the movies. I’m just very grateful she never recorded ‘Song of the Shrimp.’ At some point, even Elvis fanatics will lose interest. Or go on and make music of their own, which is what the sixties were all about. The album is actually very good and contains a rich diversity of material, rhythmic dancers, ballads, and the odd bit of exotica. I like the album, but have to say it very much defines a pre-Beatles pop that would soon be seen as antiquated.

17 It Happened At The World's Fair (1963)

01. Beyond the Bend

02. Relax

03. Take Me to the Fair

04. They Remind Me Too Much of You

05. One Broken Heart for Sale

06. I'm Falling in Love Tonight

07. Cotton Candy Land

08. A World of Our Own

09. How Would You Like to Be

10. Happy Ending

Of this, Eugene Archer of The New York Times wrote, "Elvis Presley's budding dramatic talents have been neatly nipped in the Seattle story, which emerges as a dismal parody of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musicals of old. Burdened with a dozen tuneless songs and a plot requiring him to play guardian to a mercilessly cute Chinese waif, the crooner merely swivels ingenuously through a morass of clichés."

Whilst the album hit number four on the charts, you have to wonder how many who made the purchase this time would turn up for more of the same next time, let alone the next time, and next time. Elvis was not only repeating himself, he was diluting himself. The warning signs that interest was waning and that people had twigged that they were being served a formula were there. "One Broken Heart for Sale" and "They Remind Me Too Much of You" were paired as a single to promote the film and the album. It was the first Elvis single not to make the top five. In fact, it didn’t make the top ten. That may hardly be alarming by anyone else’s standards, but it represents a remarkable drop in Elvis’ popularity. 

So sure were the management that they had the market to themselves that this meagre effort, with barely twenty minutes of decidedly average music on it, was intended for launch as a deluxe - priced gatefold sleeve album. With the flop of the single containing the two main songs in the film the idea was abandoned. Frankly, the whole strategy organizing the production and consumption of Elvis’ music around the films ought to have been abandoned.

Elvis was faltering long before The Beatles showed up. Elvis is repeating himself. The problem is, the more you add water and stir, the more the music loses content and flavour. I just wouldn’t want to sit through this with a non-Elvis fan, having claimed Elvis to be the greatest singer who ever breathed. Granted, ‘They Remind Me Too Much of You’ is another brilliant Elvis ballad and ‘One Broken Heart for Sale’ is another Otis Blackwell song, in the vein of ‘Return to Sender.’ 'I'm Falling in Love Tonight' is a beautiful ballad from Don Robertson, too. 'A World of Our Own' has a certain infectious joy, too. The rest is idle and harmless fare, with the breezy - Happy Ending - set alongside cod sophistication - Relax. I’m an Elvis fanatic, but I was never too concerned to get my hands on this album. With unlimited pockets, fans would buy it all. But that’s not the way of the world. Most people are selective with their choices. A record has to earn its keep in anyone's collection. The Elvis management were spreading Elvis’ talent across material and films that were not worthy of him, and not worth the fans’ money let alone anyone else's. And they returned to hit the till three or four times a year with the same racket. My infinite love of Elvis exceeded my almost infinite disgust of 'brand Elvis.' It nearly killed my interest. It killed the interest of millions. And it killed Elvis in the end. He was paid handsomely for it, at $1 million up front for a film and a substantial share of the profits. So when people shake there heads and wonder why he didn't pursue more substantial artistic directions, just think of the numbers. Not many who have known poverty would be inclined to turn numbers like that down.

18 Elvis' Golden Records Volume 3 (1963)

01. It's Now or Never

02. Stuck on You

03. Fame and Fortune

04. I Gotta Know

05. Surrender

06. I Feel so Bad

07. Are You Lonesome Tonight?

08. (Marie's the Name Of) His Latest Flame

09. Little Sister

10. Good Luck Charm

11. Anything That's Part of You

12. She's Not You

This is a compilation of Elvis’ huge hit singles from 1960, 1961, and 1962. The quality is simply stunning. This is pre-Beatles pop at its best. Alongside the fairly sedate studio albums and the very repetitive film soundtracks, Elvis was still recording stellar singles. He belts out the blues and croons the ballads. Actually, he belts out the ballads too here. Essential. If I have been critical above, it is only fair to point out the sheer quantity of material that Elvis was putting out. Too much, frankly, with little or no regard for quality control. The quality is still there, and high too. It’s just that by now it was being swamped by quantity. This is essential. My criticism is that with better guidance and direction, Elvis could have taken his original pop synthesis much further.

19 Fun In Acapulco (1963)

01. Fun in Acapulco

02. Vino, Dinero Y Amor

03. Mexico

04. El Toro

05. Marguerita

06. The Bullfighter Was a Lady

07. (There's) No Room to Rhumba in a Sports Car

08. I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here

09. Bossa Nova Baby

10. You Can't Say No in Acapulco

11. Guadalajara

12. Love Me Tonight

13. Slowly but Surely

Elvis and Mexico, an irresistible combination. As Elvis croons, ‘you can’t say no, in Acapulco.’ There are, admittedly, some fairly embarrassing musical moments here. I’ll not name them, because fans are partial to them, and who am I to rain on anyone's parade? (the titles alone should give you a clue). Elvis should have owned the sixties. He was top of the tree, the field was open, he had the pick of musicians and material. And his management had him doing this! He didn’t even go to Mexico, either. The film was recorded in a backlot in Hollywood, after some cock-and-bull story about derogatory remarks Elvis was supposed to have said about Mexican women. How about a pack of lies that manager Tom Parker spread to give an excuse as to why Elvis can't leave the country. Parker was a illegal immigrant and was afraid that if he ever left the country he would never be able to get back in. And he didn't dare let Elvis, his cash cow, out of his sights and out of his clutches.

‘Slowly but Surely’ is one of the first songs to have a fuzzbox guitar. It was one of those ‘bonus’ songs that would increasingly crop up on soundtrack albums. Those bonus songs were often by the far the most interesting, giving indications of what Elvis could have been doing had he not been ‘Lost in Hollywood.’ And what the Bossa Nova has got to do with Mexico is anyone’s guess. It was my favourite track from the film. It’s fun, written by Leiber and Stoller.

That said, this is a world away from developing the blues/country/rock/gospel/pop synthesis that Elvis had pioneered at Sun. He’d tried Calypso on ‘Girls!, Girls!, Girls!,’ now it’s Herb Alpert and Bossa Nova. In future films he’d be singing songs trying to start new dance crazes, songs like ‘Do the Vega’ and ‘Do the Clam,’ as if the King of Rock’n’Roll had run out of ideas as to how to develop rock any further and was now getting jealous that he hadn’t done ‘Let’s Twist Again.’ Champions triumph, they see off all their competitors, then they get lazy, slow, fat, and complacent; they don’t see the challengers coming and, when they do come, they can’t do anything to stop them. Whilst Elvis was having ‘fun’ in Acapulco – grinding out product in some backlot in Hollywood – the world of pop was preparing to turn. This album was Elvis’ last release before The Beatles arrived in America. It's pleasant and entertaining, and 'Bossa Nova Baby' remains a cracking dancer. But Elvis is not advancing.

20 Kissin' Cousins (1964)

01. Kissin' Cousins (No. 2)

02. Smokey Mountain Boy

03. There's Gold In the Mountains

04. One Boy, Two Little Girls

05. Catchin' On Fast

06. Tender Feeling

07. Anyone (Could Fall in Love with You)

08. Barefoot Ballad

09. Once Is Enough

10. Kissin' Cousins

11. Echoes of Love

12. (It's A) Long Lonely Highway

Beatlemania hit America in January 1964. This was Elvis’ response. Of this, Variety wrote, "This new Elvis Presley concoction is a pretty dreary effort, one that certainly won't replenish the popularity of Sir Swivel. Presley needs — and merits — more substantial material than this if his career is to continue to flourish as in the past." Musicals like this were old hat. They were modeled on pre-Presley pop. The odd subject matter of this film is made more comprehensible when one remembers that The Beverley Hillbillies was one of the most popular TV shows in the US at this time. Elvis is following pop culture at its safest, most populist, rather than leading the way. Elvis the revolutionary had turned into the very thing his music had rejected. Effectively, Elvis had changed the world in order to become the very thing he had moved the world away from. I may be wrong here – it has been known – but the mask Elvis was wearing slips even in the films. Check the performance of ‘There’s gold in the mountains,’ where Elvis is singing a jolly tune with ‘the prettiest girls I ever did see.’ He has his usual winning smile as he rolls about in the hay with a couple of said girls, but poor editing means the scene keeps rolling, and Elvis’ smiling face quickly falls into a scowl as he troops off looking thoroughly hacked off with everything, pretty girls notwithstanding. This, patently, was a feeble response to Beatlemania. The critics were spot on, Elvis needed and his talent merited more substantial material than this. It was not forthcoming. The Beatles had a walkover victory.

Among the bizarre and downright depressing, there are actually some breezy little numbers here. The problem is that, by this stage, only the fans will wade through the frankly uneven material to find the gems. Again, it is the ‘bonus’ track that catches the ear, ‘Long Lonely Highway.’ An album of that kind of material would have had Elvis back in business. But there are occasional little gems among the film fodder. But I do have a sweet tooth. OK, I’ll say it, ‘Tender Feeling’ and ‘Gold in the mountains’ have an irresistible appeal, the former a close relation of 'Love me Tender.' It was enough to keep the fans turning up for the next ‘same old.’ Meanwhile, those former skifflers from Liverpool just kept on getting better and better. It's not a good album and contains some appalling songs. 'Once is Enough' is a belter, though, and with a little reworking and more raunch could have been a great single.

21 Roustabout (1964)

01. Roustabout

02. Little Egypt

03. Poison Ivy League

04. Hard Knocks

05. It's a Wonderful World

06. Big Love, Big Heartache

07. One Track Heart

08. It's Carnival Time

09. Carny Town

10. There's a Brand New Day on the Horizon

11. Wheels On My Heels

Context is important. The Beatles had taken America by storm. Elvis needed to up his game. Instead, it was more of the same. The old rock’n’roll would no longer do, but pastiches like ‘Hard Knocks’ would merely excite those drawing on memories. Leiber and Stoller’s ‘Little Egypt’ is good, a throwback. But the past was gone. I always liked ‘It’s a Wonderful World.’ But it was old-fashioned. Elvis had become an anachronism. He was still playing this young country buck finding a little fame and fortune, the old Loving You tale in different contexts. But Elvis was no longer twenty one and a young contender. The story of a singing odd-job man in demand in the carnies is from a bye-gone age. ‘Wheels on my heels’? The world was racing well ahead of Elvis. The album would be Elvis’ final soundtrack to reach number one and the last number one album he would have until 1973 with Aloha From Hawaii: Via Satellite. 'There's a brand new day on the horizon' is appealing, a reworking of 'This little light of mine.' It could have been better if done apart from the film context. If only new horizons had been in view.

So why did they do it and keep on doing it? ‘Business’ is the one word response which suffices for argument, rationale and strategy on the part of Elvis’ manager Tom Parker. It was lucrative. Elvis received up to $1,000,000 up front for each of these films, a figure which was often half the production budget for the film. Then there was the 50% share of the profits. And Parker’s own exorbitant share. The last film to have high production values, and costs, was ‘Viva Las Vegas.’ Now, these films were being shot in three weeks, with the complete scoring and recording of the soundtrack albums taking no more than two weeks. Parker’s assistant Freddy Bienstock had the job of fitting songs and their publishing rights into the profit equation via the companies Elvis Presley Music or Gladys Music, the Hill and Range Publishing companies owned by Presley and Parker. (That is, ostensibly owned by Elvis but completely controlled by Parker). Writers would have to submit 50% of their publishing to these companies, not only on the recording of the song by Elvis, but all future recordings. In face of this, writers of quality with a successful track record lost interest in Elvis and spurned the Elvis machine. Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, Otis Blackwell and Winfield Scott, and Don Robertson had all been contributing good material in the early sixties, but they lost interest and went away. Leiber and Stoller had long since walked away, going on to write many sixties classics for the Drifters and others. In the future, Elvis would miss out on quality material by new singer songwriters such as Kris Kristofferson. He wanted to do ‘Sunday Morning Coming Down’ for instance, but Kristofferson, successful artist in his own right, his talent in demand, and smart and savvy as he was, would give up nothing. It was the same with Dolly Parton and her song ‘I will always love you.’ She refused to hand over any of her publishing. Years later it became a smash for Whitney Houston. Elvis could have had it. He lost good material this way and was forced to sing the songs written by hacks. Pay artists their full worth! Elvis' talent was forever having to redeem the work of hacks.

It had all become an interlocking self-promotion that merely fed on its own hollowness. Or starved. One MGM employee to remarked that the movies "didn't need titles. They could be numbered. They would still sell.” That’s clearly what they had thought, which is why they thought they had licence to keep hitting the till. But as time went by, neither the movies nor the soundtracks were selling anymore, and they took Elvis’ music down with them. The depressing thing is not just the waste of Elvis’ talent, but the talent of the crack musicians he had with him.

22 Girl Happy (1965)

01. Girl Happy

02. Spring Fever

03. Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce

04. Startin' Tonight

05. Wolf Call

06. Do Not Disturb

07. Cross My Heart and Hope to Die

08. The Meanest Girl in Town

09. Do the Clam

10. Puppet on a String

11. I've Got to Find My Baby

12. You'll Be Gone

And still no response from Elvis to The Beatles. Excluding Gold Records vol 3 hit compilation, this was the sixth album of original material in a row that was a film soundtrack. Elvis was lost in Hollywood. An error in mastering resulted in Elvis’ voice being sped up on several of the recordings, including the title track itself. It shows how little attention was being paid that no-one noticed and that it took eternities for the error to be corrected once it had been pointed out.

Even I have to admit that I lost track of Elvis’ films and soundtracks. One merged into another. I remember 'Girl Happy' as totally unmemorable, and having heard it again it is indeed worthy of being forgotten. All that stand out here are a couple of catchy tunes and the tracks which are so bad that they were really, truly, criminally awful. ‘Do not disturb’ and ‘Puppet on a string’ are the very low-key standouts, and 'Cross My Heart, Hope to Die' savours a little of the Brook Benton material that enjoyed a certain popularity at the time. In many ways, these three tracks sum up where Elvis had found himself in his career. Much here is hack work. ‘Every time I see a pretty face, my heart just heads for outer space ..’ Some of the lyrics on these tracks beggar belief: 'Any male in Fort Lauderdale who is not pursuing a cute female / Will automatically land in jail.' Some of these writers ought to have been put in jail. And made to listen to their own songs. On a loop.

By now, every time people got the merest hint of an Elvis film and soundtrack, they headed for the hills. People who loathe Elvis just need to cite ‘Do the Clam’ to prove how bad he was. It was released as a single, as if to wave the white flag of surrender to The Beatles. It hit the heights of 21 in the charts, obviously selling only to the diehards. Put alongside what The Beatles were doing, it is an embarrassment. The song would win Elvis no new fans, and lose him plenty of old ones. The B-side – added to the album as a bonus track – is much more interesting, although incredibly antiquated. "You'll Be Gone" was actually written by Elvis with Red West and Charlie Hodge, two members of his "Memphis Mafia" members. It was a variant on Cole Porter’s "Begin the Beguine." Porter had denied permission to alter the lyrics, so the Porter song was used as a template to craft a new song. Try to find the undubbed version, it is very thrilling.

The problem is that Elvis was so good he could raise the poorest of material to the standard of a classic, and make even the lamest material enjoyable to listen to. Plenty of the material presented to him in the films is well below an artist of his calibre. He redeems it, or a lot of it, and therein lies the problem. In making the unlistenable listenable, and profitable, he kept the floodgates open, and the dross poured in.

23 Elvis For Everyone (1965)

01. Your Cheatin' Heart

02. Summer Kisses, Winter Tears

03. Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers

04. In My Way

05. Tomorrow Night

06. Memphis Tennessee

07. For the Millionth and the Last Time

08. Forget Me Never

09. Sound Advice

10. Santa Lucia (From 'Viva Las Vegas')

11. I Met Her Today

12. When It Rains, It Really Pours

This was welcome relief among the deluge of soundtracks, but very much a gathering of the waifs and strays. There had been only the one non-movie recording session since May 1963, that of January 1964, which resulted in a meagre three tracks, two of which had already been issued as a single. RCA needed a new album, and searched the vaults for scraps and leftovers. The album made the top ten on the album charts but was the first Elvis album to sell fewer than 300,000 copies. In other words, chart positions with respect to Elvis were false and were masking the collapse in interest. Diehard Elvis fans would buy his new material immediately, ensuring a decent chart position. But there would be little further interest. Music fans were elsewhere, with the new sixties artists. Elvis was no longer relevant, musically. He had his own audience, with whom he was stuck in a world at some remove from the real world. 

Those with a long standing interest in Elvis will be drawn to three tracks from the fifties, a slow Lonnie Johnson blues ‘Tomorrow Night’ and a hard gut-bucket blues ‘When it rains,’ and an up tempo rendition of Hank Williams’ ‘You’re Cheatin’ Heart.’ It’s not Elvis at his fifties best, mind. 'Tomorrow Night' had been left unfinished, and is completed now by a Chet Atkins Nashville country production that is removed from Elvis' original intentions. And Elvis cuts loose on an alternate take of 'You're Cheatin' Heart; which, to my ears, is much better than the released version). ‘Memphis Tennessee’ is a cracking version of the Chuck Berry classic, which had been slated for an Elvis single. It’s a lost Elvis classic.

Nice ballads, beautiful voice, inoffensive, insubstantial. You see how difficult it is to identify a ‘definitive’ Elvis album. The man’s music was as scattered as his ability was varied. Given its nature and it short running time, this album anticipated the ‘budget’ releases that came in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. Given the historic importance of Elvis’ Sun days, the unheralded and unannounced of unissued Sun material here – doctored – epitomizes precisely what the recording company thought of Elvis’ significance in the history of music – nothing. They didn't thing, it was of no importance to them. In many ways, an uneven, random album such as this is actually definitive, in the sense that it does actually indicate how Elvis’ music was packaged, sold and consumed. ‘Summer Kisses’ is a beauty, mind. There was almost always enough to keep drawing you back to the well.

Almost always …

24 Harum Scarum

01. Harem Holiday

02. My Desert Serenade

03. Go East, Young Man

04. Mirage

05. Kismet

06. Shake That Tambourine

07. Hey Little Girl

08. Golden Coins

09. So Close, Yet So Far (From Paradise)

10. Animal Instinct

11. Wisdom of the Ages

Honestly. There are times when even I’m lost for words. I’m just wondering how many people bought this and swore there and then they would never buy another Elvis album for as long as there was sand in the desert. The Beatles are all over the world, and Elvis is reinventing himself as Rudolf Valentino. ‘Every pretty girl is going to know I’m around ..’ I’m almost interested to find out which dumbcluck wrote this song ‘Harem Holiday.’ File under desperate. Although I have to declare a very soft spot for "Mirage" and "Kismet," and consider "So Close, Yet So Far (From Paradise)" a minor classic. It is a smouldering ballad that deserves to be better known. At the same time "Hey Little Girl" is utterly creepy. Elvis should not only have refused to perform it but have cleared his entire management out with a few choice words.

25 Frankie And Johnny (1966)

01. Frankie and Johnny

02. Come Along

03. Petunia, the Gardener's Daughter

04. Chesay

05. What Every Woman Lives For

06. Look Out, Broadway

07. Beginner's Luck

08. Down By the Riverside / When the Saints Go Marching In

09. Shout It Out

10. Hard Luck

11. Please Don't Stop Loving Me

12. Everybody Come Aboard

Cracking title song, and good ballads ‘Please Don't Stop Loving Me’ and ‘Beginner's Luck.’ And lots of film fodder, songs and lines that merely move the plot along. This is music that cannot be heard independently of the film. It's entertaining. I've read that the film gave McCartney the idea of the concept of Sgt Peppers. 

26 Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966)

01. Paradise, Hawaiian Style

02. Queenie Wahine's Papaya

03. Scratch My Back

04. Drums of the Islands

05. Datin'

06. A Dog's Life

07. House of Sand

08. Stop Where You Are

09. This Is My Heaven

10. Sand Castles

OK, by this time, it was plain obvious that Elvis was in deep trouble. Standards had slipped, and here was the awful truth. In the main, Elvis’ film soundtracks had a few redeeming qualities, the odd catchy tune, a decent ballad, or just a nice undemanding little ditty. This is just the abomination of desolation. He’s trying to do ‘Blue Hawaii’ again, but this effort is lame. Out of date, out of ideas, and out of time. Beatles were putting out Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt Peppers. Elvis is singing with a dog ('A Dog's Life'). And another 'cute,' as in excruciating, kid. This film and soundtrack had at least three contenders for the worst ever Elvis song. I have a feeling that a film and soundtrack like this may be a test of how great an Elvis fan you are, involving the extremes to which you would go to prove your fandom. Buying an album such as this is not the test, listening to every song to the last line is. I shall exempt 'Stop where you are' from this criticism. And I shall praise "Sand Castles" as a beautiful little gem of a song, one of my personal favourites. Of course, for reasons fathomable only by a world class psychiatrist, the song was cut from the film. (I prefer take 1 to the one that was issued, it possesses an irresistible intimacy). "This is My Heaven" is also a beautiful song, Elvis soaring high in his register. As for "Queenie Wahine's Papaya," I have written a little article which explores the idea that there are things going on in the song that make it much more interesting than it actually is. I mean, the song really can't be as bad as it seems, surely.

27 Spinout (1966)

01. Stop, Look and Listen

02. Adam and Evil

03. All That I Am

04. Never Say Yes

05. Am I Ready

06. Beach Shack

07. Spinout

08. Smorgasbord

09. I'll Be Back

10. Tomorrow Is a Long Time

11. Down In the Alley

12. I'll Remember You

‘Adam and Evil.’ What a song title that is. I ask you. People who buy this will come away wondering whether Elvis was schizophrenic. Listen to the album, try and find ‘Beach Shack’ or ‘Smorgasbord’ if you can, and try and listen .. if you can. ‘Come see my etchings, I wish you would. Don’t be afraid girl, my intentions are good.’ !! Elvis, mate, get yourself a lawyer. Or a gun. Or a hit squad. Suffer the tripe on this soundtrack, bear it with gritted teeth if you must. It's worth it, just to make your way to the three bonus songs that bring up the rear on the album. Seriously, it’s like Elvis existed in parallel universes. ‘Tomorrow is a Long Time’ is a sublime version of the Bob Dylan song, the version that Dylan, of all the overs of all of his songs, ‘treasured the most’ (Gray, Michael. The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia. New York: Continuum, 2006; p. 666). 'Down in the Alley' is a corking raucous blues, proving not only that Elvis could still do it, but do it in a much more raw and mature voice than he had ever had. And ‘I’ll Remember You’ is a beautiful Hawaiian ballad. Elvis' talent was being wasted in pursuit of easy money in the films. Elvis earned, Parker earned, the songwriting hacks earned. All that lost out was the music and Elvis' own artistic ambition and creativity. The bonus songs are essential, the film songs are abominable. Again, with exceptions enough to keep the punters interested. ‘All that I am’ is actually a very fine ballad, sophisticated and lush, so much so that Tony Bennett recorded a version years later. And 'Am I Ready?' is also trademark Elvis piano ballad, like 'As long as I have you' and 'Where do you come from?' Very nice, a little gem. The tragedy is that it is only fanatics such as I who would be aware of the good material that Elvis was still recording. To the rest of the world he had been eclipsed.

28 How Great Thou Art (1967)

01. How Great Thou Art

02. In the Garden

03. Somebody Bigger Than You and I

04. Farther Along

05. Stand By Me

06. Without Him

07. So High

08. Where Could I Go But to the Lord

09. By and By

10. If The Lord Wasn't Walking By My Side

11. Run On

12. Where No One Stands Alone

13. Crying In the Chapel

14. We Call On Him

15. You'll Never Walk Alone

Exceptional. If you don’t like gospel, buy this, and discover that you do. This is Elvis at his best. He was awarded his very first Grammy for this album. The only problem, with an eye on Elvis' reputation as a rock and pop artist, is that this was gospel music, a niche field, of no relevance to the pop world. To all intents and purposes Elvis has disappeared as a contemporary artist. His main focus was films. His singles were struggling. His albums non-existent. ‘How Great Thou Art’ was Elvis’ first non-soundtrack album recording of new material since 1962’s ‘Pot Luck,’ and his first album release not to include any soundtrack recordings since the previous gospel album in 1960. But it was gospel and not pop. We would have to wait until 1969 for a studio album of pop/rock material from Elvis.

29 Double Trouble (1967)

01. Double Trouble

02. Baby, If You'll Give Me All of Your Love

03. Could I Fall In Love

04. Long Legged Girl (With the Short Dress On)

05. City by Night

06. Old MacDonald

07. I Love Only One Girl

08. There Is So Much World to See

09. It Won't Be Long

10. Never Ending

11. Blue River

12. What Now, What Next, Where To

Again, the album boasts good bonus songs alongside mainly film fodder,  unremarkable in the main, apart from the truly wretched. The title track ‘Double Trouble’ always reminded me of a middle-aged version of The Doors’ ‘Break on Through.’ It has a similar feel, but none of the aggression and drive. Written by Pomus and Shuman, it shows signs of Elvis getting hip, or showing signs that he had better make the effort. I’ll tell you a little quirky fact about myself here. I don’t play this album in its entirety. I remember the film being shown on TV sometime in the late seventies, early eighties. I don’t remember this film with much affection, I must admit, other than being hugely impressed with the song ‘City by Night.’ This is a great bluesy tune, as I remember it. And I say ‘as I remember’ for a reason. I never quite accepted that we would never hear Elvis again after he died. So I filed this song away after I heard it this once, never to be heard again, so that I would know, at the back of my mind, there was still one more great Elvis song to come, and that therefore Elvis was still with us. I still haven’t heard it since that first time, whenever that was. Quirky or what? We all have our little foibles. Given all the alternates and reworkings that are now available I should give this a right royal listen in the near future. This film and its soundtrack is also notorious for Elvis’ bad tempered rendition of ‘Old MacDonald had a farm.’ Let’s see what they make of that, Elvis shouted after he stormed out of the recording booth after just one take. We know what they made of it, they issued it, and thereby made a nonsense of Elvis' reputation. It is somewhat sobering to think that 'Old MacDonald' may not even be the worst song on the album. The attempt to rock out on 'Long Legged Girl' sounds utterly forced and fake, whilst 'I Love Only One Girl' is irritating. The album was released the same day that The Beatles released Sgt Peppers, something that could hardly have improved Elvis’ mood. On the plus side, 'Could I Fall in Love' is a delightful love song, only serving to offer proof that Elvis' talent was being frittered away.

30 Clambake (1967)

01. Guitar Man

02. Clambake

03. Who Needs Money?

04. A House That Has Everything

05. Confidence

06. Hey, Hey, Hey

07. You Don't Know Me

08. The Girl I Never Loved

09. How Can You Lose What You Never Had

10. Big Boss Man

11. Singing Tree

12. Just Call Me Lonesome

Now this is getting predictable, the same old schizophrenia. ‘Confidence’ is a simply execrable copy of Frank Sinatra’s perfectly execrable ‘High Hopes.’ Of the film songs, only ‘A house that has everything’ is worthy (if it is classed as a guilty pleasure, I’ll openly plead guilty very loudly, it’s very catchy). The bonus songs show us the real Elvis, and show us where Elvis should have been all along: ‘Guitar Man,’ ‘Big Boss Man,’ (and we could add ‘Hi Heel Sneakers’ from the same session here) are great country/blues/rock tracks. ‘You don’t know me’ is a mature rendition of the classic ballad. An album of this kind of music would have been substantial. The sad fact is that no-one with any taste would have been prepared to shell out money to wade through the dross of film songs to get to the real gems that Elvis was still producing.

By the end of 1966, Elvis had lost the artistic respect he once had. The music revolution he had started had been continued and taken much further by others, very many of whom had been inspired by his former self, but were now leaving his present self far behind. The art had long since been compromised by the commerce, and these albums were no longer commanding the sales they once did. Elvis himself had lost interest, the recording sessions proving to be a debacle, issuing in a mere seven songs.

The album peaked at 40 on the Billboard 200.

Not before time, Elvis determined to take musical matters into his own hands. Popular music had raced ahead of him. It was worse than that, actually. In leading the rock’n’roll revolution of the 1950s, Elvis had fashioned a new form of popular music. This was now being taken on further and developed in new ways. But there is a big difference in the relation between Elvis and the established stars of the 1950s and the new music revolutionaries of the 1960s and the Elvis of the 1960s. The old fifties stars continued to make fine music, and a case can be made that the 1950s belonged not to Elvis but to Sinatra, depending on your musical tastes. Bennett, Como et al continued to make fine, and popular, music. The established stars in the 1950s were not eclipsed by rock’n’roll in anything like the same way that Elvis in the 1960s had been eclipsed by the new wave of rock and soul, for the very reason that they were never rockers in the first place. Elvis had been outstripped by those whom he had inspired.

If we judged Elvis on the films alone, then Elvis was lame and outdated. Of course, as ‘Tomorrow is a Long Time’ shows, to judge Elvis by the films would be to commit a big mistake. But an understandable one, since the films were the public face, in fact the only face, of Elvis. Elvis knew it and so went in search of quality material by good, and if possible, contemporary, songwriters. Putting aside issues of publishing control and clearance, Elvis did what he should have been doing all along, and choosing the material that inspired his creative muse. He went back to county and blues, recording Eddy Arnold's country and western hit of 1956 "You Don't Know Me" and Jimmy Reed's 1960 rhythm and blues hit, "Big Boss Man." Paired together and released as a single, the songs barely dented the charts, barely making the Top 40. But they would serve to beef up the soundtrack album. Elvis was also impressed by a song he had heard on the radio in Los Angeles by Jerry Reed, ‘Guitar Man.’ No one could get the guitar sound of the Reed record, so Reed himself was invited into the studio to duplicate the distinctive acoustic guitar part. Elvis and Reed together recorded a great version of ‘Guitar Man,’ only for Parker’s henchmen to move in in an attempt to bully Reed out of his publishing. Reed didn’t budge, explaining that he didn’t need the money and that Elvis had got more money than he knew what to do with, and with that threatened to walk out. It was an example of rebellion in the cause of good music that Elvis should have acted on. It would have saved his music, boosted his sales, and saved his life. Because the simple truth is that the management whose bottom line was ‘business’ were actually small-time, small-minded, visionless incompetents who were as utterly lousy at real business as they were tasteless in art.

The five tracks recorded at the session were added to the seven for the film to make for an album that was a frank self-contradiction. The quality material should have gone to make a distinctive album in its own right, with a determined effort to find material to suit. The idea that adding quality cuts to a film soundtrack would raise a sunken ship was a risible strategy. Wasting the good in order to shore up the bad is a classic error. All it succeeded in doing was drowning the quality. ‘Guitar Man’ and ‘Big Boss Man’ are all-time Elvis classics. They barely made an impact on their initial release. ‘Clambake’ sold less than 200,000 copies, putting Elvis close to the bargain bin. Elvis’ future looked uncertain.

31 Elvis' Gold Records Volume 4 (1968)

01. Love Letters

02. Witchcraft

03. It Hurts Me

04. What'd I Say

05. Please Don't Drag That String Around

06. Indescribably Blue

07. (You're The) Devil In Disguise

08. Lonely Man

09. A Mess of Blues

10. Ask Me

11. Ain't That Loving You Baby

12. Just Tell Her Jim Said Hello

I remember buying this very well, a nice sunny day, and a walk home, chatting to the local builders, them all laughing when my mother explained I already had just about every other Elvis record on the planet and didn’t need any more. The album has been heavily criticized for being an odds and sods, containing songs that were never hits, let alone million sellers. For all the album is a worthy addition to the Elvis catalogue, with a genuine rationale, albeit one that flagged up how badly Elvis' career was being managed. This album contains a large part of Elvis' 'lost album.' Forget the films, these tracks destined for single release should have been the leads to entire albums of similar substance. Some cracking up-tempo material, (Witchcraft, Devil in Disguise, A Mess of Blues), interesting Latin flavoured tracks (Jim), irresistible ballads (Love Letters, Indescribably Blue, Lonely Man). I will say that ‘It Hurts Me’ is one of the very best Elvis tracks ever, of any period. It is a great dramatic ballad which demands and receives an immense performance from Elvis. Having said that, I took this record round to a school friend’s house. He was out but his sister was in. I rather think I had been set up on a date. Not that it struck me at the time. We played it in the living room. She got up and left after a while, uttering the one word ‘boring.’ I’m not sure what she was expecting that evening, but she seemed decidedly disappointed. I carried on listening until the record finished and then went home. Alone.

I loved this album, and I think the songs are songs of good quality, the peak of pop sophistication, and an indication of the kind of albums Elvis ought to have been making. But the songs are not of a piece but are gathered from all parts of Elvis' career. 'Ain't That Loving You Baby' goes back to 1958, whilst 'A Mess of Blues' is from 1960. This gives the album something of the character of being a roundup of material that hadn't found a place anywhere else. That's essentially the complaint of the critics. An indication of how much Elvis had slipped as a commercial artist can be seen in the chart positions of each of these gold records. In order, from first to last, these are 19, 32, 29, 21, -, 33, 3, 32, 32, 16, 16, 55. Those modest positions make this ‘gold records’ collection a very different beast to the previous three volumes.

For all that, there is some very fine material on this record.

32 Speedway (1968)

01. Speedway

02. There Ain't Nothing Like a Song

03. Your Time Hasn't Come Yet, Baby

04. Who Are You? (Who Am I?)

05. He's Your Uncle Not Your Dad

06. Let Yourself Go

07. Your Groovy Self - Elvis Presley with Nancy Sinatra

08. Five Sleepy Heads

09. Western Union

10. Mine

11. Goin' Home

12. Suppose

This is a decidedly average soundtrack. There are a couple of decent ballads in the bonus songs, and ‘Your time hasn’t come yet’ is infectious enough, in an inoffensive way. ‘Let yourself go’ is by far and away the standout (which isn’t saying much in this company). The arrangements, particularly the vocal backing, are outdated, and the song was presented much better in the ’68 special. The album is lacklustre. The rock sound is forced. A couple of songs are just embarrassing.

33 Elvis Sings Flaming Star (1968)

01. Flaming Star

02. Wonderful World

03. Night Life

04. All I Needed Was the Rain

05. Too Much Monkey Business

06. The Yellow Rose of Texas / The Eyes of Texas

07. She's a Machine

08. Do the Vega

09. Tiger Man

I have fond memories of this one. It was one of the first two Elvis albums I ever owned (although it was my brother’s – we ‘shared.’) 

This is a decent album containing material that was hard or impossible to find elsewhere. ‘Tiger Man’ was left off the '68 Special album, bizarrely, because it is a standout in a show of standouts. ‘Too much monkey business,’ too, is a gem, from the 'Guitar Man' sessions that should have produced a proper album. There are songs from films without soundtracks or which were cut from films ('Night Life'). There are also some overlooked little gems here too. Even the odd ropy moment - She's a Machine - has a certain appeal. 

By now, the impossibilities of discovering the definitive Elvis should be clear. The randomness and unevenness are, in truth, the definitive Elvis. You learn to take the highs with the lows, side by side, cheek by jowl. And some of the lows are not actually lows, they are just .. entertaining. I mean, the ‘Yellow rose of Texas’ I remember as dire. It’s just that when I hear it again, it is actually infectious. The music is all packaged differently now, and better.

34 Elvis (NBC-TV Special) (1968)

01. Medley: Trouble / Guitar Man

02. Medley: Lawdy, Miss Clawdy / Baby, What You Want Me to Do / Heartbreak Hotel / Hound Dog / All Shook Up / Can't Help Falling In Love / Jailhouse Rock / Love Me Tender

03. Medley: Where Could I Go But to the Lord / Up Above My Head / Saved

04. Medley: Blue Christmas / One Night

05. Memories

06. Medley: Nothingville / Big Boss Man / Guitar Man / Little Egypt / Trouble/Guitar Man

07. If I Can Dream

Elvis is back! He hit with some power on this. He let rip, and a voice that had been so smooth for so long was now raw and raucous. The boxing ring material is lively, the set-pieces are brilliant, ‘If I can dream’ is one of Elvis’ very best, and Elvis was still the best. For those who like it raw and edgy. Essential, of course. Except … why on Earth was ‘Tiger Man’ cut from this and placed on an odds and sods budget album? Criminal. The capacity of the folk charged to manage the career of Elvis Presley to mangle his music is remarkable.

35 From Elvis In Memphis (1969)

01. Wearin' That Loved On Look

02. Only the Strong Survive

03. I'll Hold You In My Heart (Till I Can Hold You In My Arms)

04. Long Black Limousine

05. It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin'

06. I'm Movin' On

07. Power of My Love

08. Gentle On My Mind

09. After Loving You

10. True Love Travels On a Gravel Road

11. Any Day Now

12. In the Ghetto

Every track a gem (note that reissues are now adding material not on the original albums, giving a much better record of what Elvis’ recording career). Most of the tracks here could be selected to prove just how truly great Elvis was. The only frustrating thing is to listen to work of this quality and regret the very many wasted years that had gone before. This is often presented as the first choice of the American Sound material of 1969. That can't quite be true. 'It Keeps Right on a Hurtin'' is decent enough, but nowhere near as strong as several tracks from Sound which are kept off this album.

36 From Memphis To Vegas/From Vegas To Memphis (2 discs, 1969)

In Concert, Las Vegas 1969

01. Blue Suede Shoes

02. Johnny B. Goode

03. All Shook Up

04. Are You Lonesome Tonight?

05. Hound Dog

06. I Can't Stop Loving You

07. My Babe

08. Medley: Mystery Train / Tiger Man

09. Words

10. In the Ghetto

11. Suspicious Minds

12. Can't Help Falling in Love

Memphis

01. Inherit the Wind

02. This Is the Story

03. Stranger In My Own Home Town

04. A Little Bit of Green

05. And the Grass Won't Pay No Mind

06. Do You Know Who I Am

07. From a Jack to a King

08. The Fair's Moving On

09. You'll Think of Me

10. Without Love (There Is Nothing)

This is a double album. The first is a concert from Elvis’ return to live performance at Las Vegas in 1969, the second is the ‘lesser’ material from the American Sound sessions that had led to the previous album. The concert is thrilling, whilst there are so many substantial tracks among the remainders from American Sound - ‘Stranger In My Own Home Town,’ ‘Without Love,’ ‘Inherit the Wind,’ and ‘the Grass won’t pay no mind’ - that the album cannot accurately be described as the second pick The overall album is not as great as the Elvis in Memphis record, but very few records by anyone are. And those last four tracks could easily have gone on the ‘Elvis in Memphis’ album.

37 (1970) ~ "Worldwide 50 Gold Award Hits, Volume 1"

Heartbreak Hotel

I Was the One

I Want You I Need You I Love You

Don't Be Cruel

Hound Dog

Love Me Tender

Any Way You Want Me

Too Much

Playing for Keeps

All Shook Up

That's When Your Heartaches Begin

Loving You

Teddy Bear

Jailhouse Rock

Treat Me Nice

I Beg of You

Don't

Wear My Ring Around Your Neck

Hard Headed Woman

I Got Stung

Fool Such as I

Big Hunk o' Love

Stuck on You

Mess of Blues

It's Now or Never

I Gotta Know

Are You Lonesome Tonight

Surrender

I Feel So Bad

Little Sister

Can't Help Falling in Love

Rock-a-Hula Baby

Anything That's Part of You

Good Luck Charm

She's Not You

Return to Sender

Where Do You Come From

One Broken Heart for Sale

Devil in Disguise

Bossa Nova Baby

Kissin' Cousins

Viva Las Vegas

Ain't That Loving You Baby

Wooden Heart

Crying in the Chapel

If I Can Dream

In the Ghetto

Suspicious Minds

Don't Cry Daddy

Kentucky Rain

Excerpts From "Elvis Sails" Interview

If you want a ‘definitive’ Elvis album, then here it is. Or was. They’ve been issuing these substantial Elvis ‘best ofs’ ever since (and I’ve bought more than a few of them, arguing over the selection of tracks – put one in, and one has to be left out). This was big for the time, rounding up the hits, the gold records, the songs the world knew and (mostly) loved Elvis for. It was a pricey one, I remember, and it was a long, long while before I saved up the pennies and got round to making the investment. It’s essential, in the way that all Elvis greatest hits and best of packages are essential. It was essential in its day. If you didn't already have all four volumes of the Gold Records. And if you wanted the tracks those volumes didn't contain. 

Essential? It depends on what you have. Definitive? Yes. Is it enough? No. You can never have enough Elvis. And there is more to Elvis than the hits. The management knew it. That was why they kept pumping out ‘product.’ And that was why Elvis was worked into the ground. It’s a tragedy. Elvis was eaten by the adoration he inspired. Consumed.

38 Let's Be Friends (1970)

01. Stay Away, Joe

02. If I'm a Fool (For Loving You)

03. Let's Be Friends

04. Let's Forget About the Stars

05. Mama

06. I'll Be There

07. Almost

08. Change of Habit

09. Have a Happy

This was one of those ‘budget’ albums which gave us a little bit of Elvis for a little bit of money, or an Elvis for those who didn’t have much money, but had a whole lot of love for his music. People of a certain age will remember these albums fondly. Whilst the songs are unlikely to change the musical world on its axis, they do actually show some of the reasons as to why Elvis struck a chord with so many people. Critics give the impression that they want every song or album to break new ground and change the world. Elvis played for the people. You can lose your musical edge and creativity doing that. It isn’t what true artists do. But some of us don’t want to be challenged all the time or even most of the time. There’s some nice songs here, ‘If I'm a Fool (For Loving You),’ the sweet little ‘Let's Be Friends,’ the endearing and almost completely unknown ‘Let's Forget About the Stars,’ and a great Bobby Darin song ‘I'll Be There.’ And I always loved ‘Change of Habit,’ a song of quiet personal revolution, to go with ‘Have a Happy.’ If you want to know all about Elvis and the secret of how he struck a human chord, try this album. It’s not rock’n’roll revolution, of course. 

39 On Stage (1970)

01. See See Rider

02. Release Me

03. Sweet Caroline

04. Runaway

05. The Wonder of You

06. Polk Salad Annie

07. Yesterday

08. Proud Mary

09. Walk a Mile in My Shoes

10. Let It Be Me

Elvis live in Las Vegas, delivering some powerful performances of some very contemporary material, as well as older material given very modern treatment. An absolute cracker of an album, combining contemporary swamp rock, blue-eyed soul, and ballads. Apart from Runaway and Yesterday, which seem slight in this company, this is a strong statement of the new Elvis.

40 "Elvis' Christmas Album" (Camden) (1970)

Side One:

Blue Christmas

Silent Night

White Christmas

Santa Claus Is back in Town

I'll Be Home For Christmas

Side Two:

If Every Day Was Like Christmas

Here Comes Santa Claus

Oh Little Town of Bethlehem

Santa Bring My Baby Back (To Me)

Mama Liked the Roses

This is the old 1957 album minus the gospel material and with two later tracks, ‘If Every Day Was Like Christmas,’ which I absolutely loved the moment I heard it, and ‘Mama Liked the Roses.’ I had this one before the ’57 album and retain a strong affection for it. I’m not at all sure what the Christmas connection of the last song is, other than the ringing of the bells with the line ‘When I hear the Sunday bells ringing in the morning.’

41 Almost In Love (1970)

01. Almost In Love

02. Long Legged Girl (With the Short Dress On)

03. Edge of Reality

04. My Little Friend

05. A Little Less Conversation

06. Rubberneckin'

07. Clean Up Your Own Backyard

08. U.S. Male

09. Charro!

10. Stay Away

If you are still here – and I’m doing my best not to be exhaustive and boring – then welcome to the weird and often times wonderful world of Elvis. There are tracks here which are very credible stabs on Elvis’ part to ‘get with it.’ I always thought ‘A Little Less Conversation’ was a cracking contemporary song. It was ignored at the time, Elvis’ reputation being so much in the mire as a result of those wretched films. But when it was resurrected in the 2000s it became a worldwide number one smash. I always thought ‘Clean up your own Backyard’ was so much better, mind, in a similarly contemporary vein. Again, its association with the films killed interest in it. It came out as a single between Suspicious Minds and In the Ghetto, and it deserves to be in that company. It was from a film and was used to promote said film. It bombed.

There are other interesting tracks here, the very romantic ‘Almost in Love,’ the frankly surreal ‘Edge of Reality,’ (see it performed in the film), and, in the vein of Guitar Man and Big Boss Man, Jerry Reed’s ‘US Male.’ OK, the latter is chauvinistic and nationalistic, with an off-humour that doesn’t work even as irony. I’ve seen it on Elvis ‘best of’ packages as well as on selections of Elvis’ worst. You can make your own mind up. It did used to get play on the radio in the UK, and I believe the first appearance of the entire Pan's People sextet in Top of the Pops was in a routine set to this very song, 30^th May 1968.

And then we get the dreck from the films too - 'Long Legged Girl' - just to unbalance everything and put a dampener on any signs of fires being rekindled. It's an album which shows how, with just a little more thought, Elvis' music could have been better presented. In many ways, essential, if only to help explain to people as to how someone so magnificently gifted and so hugely popular could come to a very sticky end in no time at all. The lack of a unifying theme and coherence on a lot of Elvis albums gives the distinct impression that there was no eye on the music, only on rounding up what was left so as to make for another album. Behind this nonsense was a greedy and exploitative strategy on the part of the record company. There was no need at all for so many albums to be issued every year. There was material enough left of similar quality to make for coherent releases. There was no need for padding with tracks which negated the good material. 

42 That's The Way It Is (1970)

01. I Just Can't Help Believin'

02. Twenty Days and Twenty Nights

03. How the Web Was Woven

04. Patch It Up

05. Mary In the Morning

06. You Don't Have to Say You Love Me

07. You've Lost That Loving Feeling

08. I've Lost You

09. Just Pretend

10. Stranger in the Crowd

11. The Next Step Is Love

12. Bridge over Troubled Water

Mixing live performances and studio recordings, this is very much a statement of the new Elvis. The old rock’n’roll star no more, Elvis was now a gifted ballad singer equipped with a rich and powerful voice and a band, and even an orchestra, to match. He could hit with real power, too, on contemporary rhythm and blue-eyed soul.

There are many standouts on the album. But it is one to be taken whole. It’s a good statement as to who Elvis was now, in 1970. Looking back from Elvis’ demise in 1977, people are inclined to see Elvis in the seventies as a story of decline. To those living in 1970, Elvis was in exceptional form and king of the hill. Whilst the music is more adult MOR than rock’n’roll, Patch it Up is a powerhouse of a performance. And it is often forgotten, if it was ever known, that Elvis walked into Sun studios in 1953, and returned in 1954, as a ballad singer. He wasn’t quite so great a ballad singer back then, when he was so young (although his 1954 rendition of ‘Blue Moon’ continues to haunt the imagination). But he was a great ballad singer by 1970, a very great one indeed. And he could also do some great up tempo stuff too. I’ll pick an odd one for special mention, though. Critics considered ‘The Next Step is Love’ to be an awkward attempt on Elvis’ part to get with the weird songs of the late sixties. They may be right. I’ve seen a live performance of the song, and Elvis struggles with its complexities. There are lines reminiscent of Macarthur Park, and a trumpet that echoes the Bach piccolo trumpet of the Beatles’ Penny Lane. It shouldn’t work, and some critics say it doesn’t. I say it does.

I have fond memories of this album. I remember acquiring this album on a shopping expedition with my mother to Wigan way back when. My mother was in search of a new coat for some occasion or other. She spent so long in one shop that customers started to mistake her for one of the staff and began approaching her for advice. She bought my quiescence with the promise of an Elvis album as a reward. After what seemed like days trying every damned coat in Christendom on, settling for some black and white chequered abomination with a big black collar, I got round to choosing an Elvis record in a local record store. There was a fair bit of money left after the coat, and so I could choose from the pricier end of the scale. And still have enough left for a big fruit and nut chocolate bar. And then we went home on the bus, with me sat there studying the images next to every song on the back cover.

43 Elvis Country (I'm 10,000 Years Old) (1971)

01. Snowbird

02. Tomorrow Never Comes

03. Little Cabin On the Hill

04. Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On

05. Funny How Time Slips Away

06. I Really Don't Want to Know

07. There Goes My Everything - Elvis Presley & The Imperials Quartet

08. It's Your Baby, You Rock It

09. The Fool

10. Faded Love

11. I Washed My Hands In Muddy Water

12. Make the World Go Away

There are some impressive performances here, the odd immense one, indeed. Country/blues/ballads, this is a mature take on the original Elvis Sun synthesis. Solid and substantial. The third of four albums of material from 1970, indicating just how productive Elvis could be with the right material. I prefer the undubbed versions of the songs to the ones issued here. ‘I Washed my Hands’ is a revelation without the horns. It is an exceptional record, one of Elvis' very best.

44 Love Letters From Elvis (1971)

01. Love Letters

02. When I'm Over You

03. If I Were You

04. Got My Mojo Working / Keep Your Hands Off of It

05. Heart of Rome

06. Only Believe

07. This Is Our Dance

08. Cindy, Cindy

09. I'll Never Know

10. It Ain't No Big Thing (But It's Growing)

11. Life

The critical reputation of this album is poor, seeing as it is considered to be the leftover material from the Nashville 1970 session. 

This verdict could all have been changed with the addition of "The Sound of Your Cry," "Where Did They Go, Lord," and "Rags to Riches," three substantial tracks recorded later in 1970. The album was released in 1971, so the inclusion of the tracks would have made sense. In the form issued, the album is fine, with a few week patches. Other artists, exercising quality control, would have left a lot of this material in the vaults. But not all of it. The reworking of his old hit ‘Love Letters’ is very soulful and could easily have gone on 'That's the Way It Is.' ‘Mojo’ is energetic, a jam, really, and very thrilling. It doesn’t have the swing of the blues, but is exciting enough. There are some pleasant country style singalongs. ‘Life’ is an ambitious song, a song with a message, and credit to Elvis for giving it a look. It doesn't quite take flight, but I count it as a noble failure. ‘Heart of Rome’ is the showstopper of the album, very much in the manner of 'It's Now or Never' meets ‘Rags to Riches.’ It's critical stock is low, but it's memorable. Much better, in similarly dramatic vein, are  ‘The Sound of your cry’ and ‘Where did they go.’ The addition of these could have given a fairly lackadaisical album some real force and substance, bringing it much closer to the standard of "That's the Way" and "Country" to form a more balanced trilogy.

My favourite track is ‘Only Believe.’ But ‘I’ll Never Know’ is a delicate ballad that could easily have found a place on ‘That’s the Way it is’ (the undubbed version is better, more intimate), whilst ‘If I were you’ is a wonderful slice of country that merits a place on ‘Elvis Country,’ as does ‘It Ain’t no big thing.’ 'When I'm Over You' and 'Cindy Cindy' could also have gone on 'Country.'

45 "You'll Never Walk Alone" (1971)

Side One

1 You'll Never Walk Alone

2 Who Am I ?

3 Let Us Pray

4 (There'll Be) Peace In The Valley (For Me)

5 We Call On Him

Side Two

1 I Believe

2 It Is No Secret (What God Can Do)

3 Sing You Children

4 Take My Hand, Precious Lord

5 Swing Down Sweet Chariot

This is an interesting roundup of some of Elvis’ gospel material. It is difficult to evaluate as an album because it is a compilation of material drawn from all parts of Elvis' catalogue. It consists of the entire 1957 ‘Peace in the Valley’ EP (which is exceptional) alongside material from the late sixties and the dreaded films. The title track comes from the 'Guitar Man' era of 1967 and 1968, whose songs were scattered and wasted instead of being issued as one strong and coherent album. 'You'll Never Walk Alone' is associated with football in Britain, and specifically is the anthem of my beloved Liverpool football team. Elvis brings a gospel weight to the song and to make something profound, moving, and substantial.

This album was played to our class at school by the deputy head. His reasoning seems to have been that the ‘king of rock’n’roll’ singing a football song as title track would be a good way of making religion and Christianity cool with the rebel angels and confessed heathens who composed the bulk of the class. I don’t remember much enthusiasm being shown for the album as it played but, on the plus side, I don’t recall any objections, which, given that this was a class of reprobates and miscreants, points to a general consent as opposed to a predictable revulsion and rebellion. That, I would say, indicates a positive response in Elvis’ favour.

It’s not rock'n'roll revolution. In fact, it is something much more profound and enduring than that. ‘Who am I, that the King would bleed and die for?’ Bear that in mind whenever you hear Elvis proclaimed the king.

46 C'mon Everybody (1971)

01. C'mon Everybody

02. Angel

03. Easy Come, Easy Go

04. A Whistling Tune

05. Follow That Dream

06. King of the Whole Wide World

07. I'll Take Love

08. I'm Not the Marrying Kind

09. This Is Living

10. Today, Tomorrow and Forever

This is another of those ‘budget’ albums that was the introduction to Elvis for so many people when they were kids in the seventies. They cost much less than the main Elvis albums, £1 or less compared to £3-4. A full album for the quarter of the price. Whilst knew the hits, of course, (although we weren’t saturated with music back then), these budget albums coloured our impressions of Elvis. Many of us were raised on the ‘lesser’ Elvis, on the film songs and leftovers and such like. And, truth be told, these ‘lesser’ songs are actually endearing, exciting, and enduring. If you want to know the secret of Elvis’ success, it lies here in these humble offerings. They are just simple tunes in the main, nothing challenging or ground-breaking. It’s not Dark Side of the Moon. But there’s room in the world for a nice voice, a jolly tune, and a silly love song. In fact, that constitutes the biggest space of all, and Elvis did more than most to fill it (for good, in the main, although not always). A couple of decent rockers, a couple of pleasant ballads, and the utterly infectious ‘Follow that Dream.’ It’s ‘budget,’ fine, but not throwaway. There's a lot of snobbery involved in assessing the Elvis albums. Not everyone can afford full-priced albums. Granted, the music could have been better presented. These albums were not so much cheap as inexpensive, and very cheerful. Decades later Bruce Springsteen was doing his own cover of ‘Follow that Dream.’ I love Bruce, have everything he’s done, but his version isn’t a patch on Elvis’. This and ‘I Got Lucky’ were the next two Elvis albums I had, so I remember them both fondly, and the Elvis on these ‘budget’ records remains very much the real and true Elvis in my psyche.

47 I Got Lucky (1971)

01. I Got Lucky

02. What a Wonderful Life

03. I Need Somebody to Lean On

04. Yoga Is as Yoga Does

05. Riding the Rainbow

06. Fools Fall In Love

07. The Love Machine

08. Home Is Where the Heart Is

09. You Gotta Stop

10. If You Think I Don't Need You

Another budget album. You can see how the minds of the product managers worked. Spread the film soundtrack material out a bit more, take it to market one more time, add a few leftovers, some rockers, some ballads, and some dumb stuff for the kids. And you get your hands in the pockets of the fans one more time. As kids, we loved ‘Yoga is as Yoga does.’ It was fun. Or so we thought. But it really is dumb, and more than probably written on the orders of ‘the management’ to belittle Elvis’ genuine interest in yoga, and the people – outsiders who may interfere with business – who know all about it. Ask Larry Geller about the one and only time he was invited to Tom Parker’s house, and he’ll tell you what happened to his house while he was drawn away.

You tell me just how I can take this yoga serious

When all it ever gives to me is a pain in my posteriors

Elvis, do yourself, and the rest of us, a favour and get rid of your manager, he’s the real pain in the posterior, a big one too.

There are some decent songs from the films here. One that gets better with age is the very classy ‘I Need Somebody to Lean on,’ as close as Elvis ever came to sophisticated piano jazz balladry. Elvis tries it on for size and finds that it fits perfectly. He should have done more in this style, because he had a real talent for it. The highlight of the album, for me, is a song not from the films, another one of those left over from one of those aborted recording sessions that indicate just what Elvis could and should have been doing with his time and talent, a very good version of The Drifters’ ‘Fools Fall in Love.’ Just another reminder as to what all the fuss was about. And why there was a lot of fuss.

48 "The Other Sides: Worldwide Gold Award Hits, Vol. 2" Mono 2 (1971)

A1 Puppet On A String 2:46

A2 Witchcraft 2:22

A3 Trouble 2:18

A4 Poor Boy 2:15

A5 I Want To Be Free 2:15

A6 Doncha' Think It's Time 1:57

A7 Young Dreams 2:25

B1 The Next Step Is Love 3:35

B2 You Don't Have To Say You Love Me 2:31

B3 Paralyzed 2:24

B4 My Wish Came True 2:36

B5 When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again 2:22

B6 Lonesome Cowboy 3:05

C1 My Baby Left Me 2:15

C2 It Hurts Me 2:27

C3 I Need Your Love Tonight 2:04

C4 Tell Me Why 2:09

C5 Please Don't Drag That String Around 1:55

C6 Young And Beautiful 2:07

D1 Hot Dog 1:19

D2 New Orleans 2:00

D3 We're Gonna Move 2:30

D4 Crawfish 1:50

D5 King Creole 2:09

D6 I Believe In The Man In The Sky 2:14

D7 Dixieland Rock 1:39

E1 The Wonder Of You 2:35

E2 They Remind Me Too Much Of You 2:34

E3 Mean Woman Blues 2:19

E4 Lonely Man 2:46

E5 Any Day Now 3:00

E6 Don't Ask Me Why 2:08

F1 (Marie's The Name) His Latest Flame 2:10

F2 I Really Don't Want To Know 2:46

F3 (You're So Square) Baby I Don't Care 1:53

F4 I've Lost You 3:29

F5 Let Me 2:10

F6 Love Me 2:44

G1 Got A Lot O' Livin' To Do! 2:37

G2 Fame And Fortune 2:30

G3 Rip It Up 1:55

G4 There Goes My Everything 2:59

G5 Lover Doll 2:15

G6 One Night 2:33

H1 Just Tell Her Jim Said Hello 2:00

H2 Ask Me 2:08

H3 Patch It Up 3:13

H4 As Long As I Have You 1:53

H5 You'll Think Of Me 4:03

H6 Wild In The Country

Put it together with volume 1, and you have the definitive Elvis as the gold-plated, million-selling hit maker he was. These documents are impressive. Count the tracks and run your eyes down the titles and you will see what a prolific artist Elvis Presley really was. These two volumes indicate a substantial body of work. This volume collects the lesser hits and the other sides and a few more besides. Most artists would struggle to fill a single volume of ‘greatest hits’ or ‘greatest’ with a smattering of hits. Elvis could deliver 50 greatest hits and then follow it up with another 50 of the ‘other sides.’ How good was Elvis? I couldn’t really put it clearly and concisely, so I’ll put it in a roundabout way. Mark Knopfler is a big Elvis fan, nominating Elvis as the greatest singer of the twentieth century. Asked to put an Elvis song to his claim, he chose ‘Young and Beautiful.’ And here it is on the ‘other sides.’ And just check out ‘His Latest Flame.’ Exceptional. Decades later the great Manchester band The Smiths were doing their own Mancunian version as ‘Rusholme Ruffians.’ It’s the same tune. Elvis is everywhere and always with us, even in Rushholme.

49 Elvis Sings The Wonderful World Of Christmas (1971)

01. O Come, All Ye Faithful

02. The First Noel

03. On a Snowy Christmas Night

04. Winter Wonderland

05. The Wonderful World of Christmas

06. It Won't Seem Like Christmas (Without You)

07. I'll Be Home On Christmas Day

08. If I Get Home On Christmas Day

09. Holly Leaves and Christmas Trees

10. Merry Christmas Baby

11. Silver Bells

12. If Every Day Was Like Christmas

Apparently this was recorded in summer in the blazing heat. The arrangements are a lot grander compared to the humble simplicity of the ’57 Christmas album. I always thought that Elvis sounds tired and strained in places here. He had been working hard at an incredible pace for two years by this stage, so that's not surprising. The songs are well done, though. There's a good variety of material. This album forms a counterpoint to the first album. There are three choice ballads here ‘It Won't Seem Like Christmas (Without You), the bluesy angst-ridden ‘I'll Be Home On Christmas Day,’ and the incredibly warm ‘If I Get Home On Christmas Day.’ And Elvis cuts loose on the old Charles Brown blues classic ‘Merry Christmas Baby.’ And if you like it sweet and simple, as I do, try ‘On a snowy Christmas night.’ 'It Won't Seem Like Christmas Without You' made a nice single in the early 1980s, whilst 'Holly Leaves and Christmas Trees' has an elegiac quality. It's a nice record that sounds better with each passing year.

50 "Elvis Sings Hits From His Movies, Volume 1" (1972)

1. "Down by the Riverside" / "When the Saints Go Marching In" (from Frankie and Johnny) 1:55

2. "They Remind Me Too Much Of You" (from It Happened at the World's Fair) 2:30

3. "Confidence" (from Clambake) 2:31

4. "Frankie and Johnny" (from Frankie and Johnny) 2:33

5. "Guitar Man" (non-movie bonus track from the Clambake soundtrack album) 2:20

Side two

1. "Long Legged Girl (With The Short Dress On)" (from Double Trouble) 1:27

2. "You Don't Know Me" (from Clambake) 2:31

3. "How Would You Like To Be" (from It Happened at the World's Fair) 3:26

4. "Big Boss Man" (non-movie bonus track from the Clambake soundtrack album) 2:53

5. "Old MacDonald" (from Double Trouble)

An album without rhyme and even less reason. Albums like this could put unwary buyers off Elvis for life. I bought this one on holiday in the Lake District. All those rolling hills and deep lakes, so I’m in a little record shop looking at Elvis records. Of course. Like I was short of Elvis albums. So why, among all the records on offer, did I choose this strange article? In the first place it was cheap. In the second place, it had a few tracks I didn’t have. To the extent that the gentle ballad ‘They remind me too much of you’ and the classic blues ‘Frankie and Johnny’ were added to my collection, the purchase was worthwhile. Other than that, the album is frankly bizarre and could have been designed to put the causal Elvis fan off Elvis for life. The two standouts are the single ‘Guitar Man’ and ‘Big Boss Man.’ Combining country/blues/rock, these tracks demonstrate what Elvis could and should have been doing with his time and talent in 1967. They are exceedingly good. Any music fan should have them. Put these tracks together with 'Hi Heel Sneakers,' 'Too Much Monkey Business,' 'US Male,' 'You Don't Know Me,' 'You'll Never Walk Alone,' and some of the more contemporary tracks from the films ('A Little Less Conversation,' 'Clean Up Your Own Backyard,' 'Change of Habit,' 'Charro,' 'Stay Away,' (all used on other budget albums)) and you actually have a very good, coherent album.

Many may well have been drawn into buying this album on account of the headline track and cheap price. It was a great way to introduce Elvis to a new audience. Except that anyone drawn in to this album would have recoiled in horror from abominations like ‘Confidence,’ ‘Old MacDonald,’ ‘Long Legged Girl,’ ‘How would you like to be.’ Lame, dire and atrocious, such material utterly negates the quality. Seriously, albums like this could be designed to sabotage Elvis’ career and put anyone of discerning musical taste off the man for life – some of these tracks count as the very worst in Elvis’ career, and here they are placed in association with some of his best. Cheap and nasty.

51 "Burning Love and Hits From His Movies, Volume 2" (1972)

Side one

1. "Burning Love" Dennis Linde March 28, 1972 2:50

2. "Tender Feeling" (from Kissin' Cousins) Bernie Baum, Bill Giant, Florence Kaye September 29, 1963 2:32

3. "Am I Ready" (from Spinout) Roy Bennett, Sid Tepper February 16, 1966 2:24

4. "Tonight Is So Right for Love" (from G.I. Blues) Joseph Lilley, Abner Silver, Sid Wayne April 27, 1960 2:11

5. "Guadalajara" (from Fun in Acapulco) Pepe Guízar, Joseph Lilley January 23, 1963 2:42

Side two

1. "It's a Matter of Time" Clive Westlake March 29, 1972 3:04

2. "No More" (from Blue Hawaii) Hal Blair, Don Robertson March 21, 1961 2:21

3. "Santa Lucia" (from Viva Las Vegas) Traditional: Arranged by Elvis Presley July 10, 1963 1:11

4. "We'll Be Together" (from Girls! Girls! Girls!) Phillip Brooks, O'Curran March-May 1962 2:14

5. "I Love Only One Girl" (from Double Trouble)

So the management do the same thing, yet again. There’s a pattern here, of course. If something sells, do it again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and … until either the fans go away, or Elvis does. They did it with the records, they did it with the films, they did it with the concerts. Dull, unimaginative, and decreative, and designed to kill interest in Elvis, and designed to kill Elvis’ creative spirit. The story is that Elvis’ manager Tom Parker (I’ll be damned if I call that old carny conman the ‘colonel’ he called himself) was the genius behind these budget albums, all clear profit for him. Those albums were not selling, so he had the genius idea of taking Elvis’ latest big single and sticking it on another album of leftovers from the film soundtracks. ‘Burning Love’ (flip side ‘It’s a matter of time’) was riding high in the charts, on the way to the top. Tom Parker puts it on this album to sell his grab-bag on unwantables and undesirables, takes it out of chart action, and utterly stymies Elvis’ best attempts to establish his new profile as a contemporary artist. Again, music lovers who, rightly, appreciated ‘Burning Love’ and were drawn in to check Elvis out would have picked this album up, and just as quickly dropped it, never to go near Elvis again. It’s not that the songs are bad, it’s that they need to complement one another rather than, as here, contradict. The songs have squat to do with the Elvis of ‘Burning Love.’ The problem is that, as a result of this approach, Elvis will lack a stable and clear musical profile, his new music will be competing against contrary and plainly self-contradictory versions of his own self. And if the real Elvis was not going to be allowed to stand up, his musical creativity and integrity was going to fall apart. It’s through this endless pitching of product, with no thought whatsoever given to the quality and character of the music, that the public lost touch with Elvis and Elvis lost touch with who he was.

52 Elvis Now (1972)

01. Help Me Make It Through the Night - Elvis Presley & The Imperials Quartet

02. Miracle of the Rosary

03. Hey Jude

04. Put Your Hand In the Hand

05. Until It's Time for You to Go

06. We Can Make the Morning

07. Early Mornin' Rain - Elvis Presley with The Nashville Edition

08. Sylvia

09. Fools Rush In (Where Angels Fear to Tread)

10. I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago

The sessions around this time could have been the basis for an incredibly interesting experiment in folk rock, Elvis style. Purists will not appreciate the orchestration, of course. But Elvis was always impure, blending and matching and adding to create an original musical synthesis from the very first. This is the man who walked into Sun studios, known for recording black blues artists, and sang Bing Crosby’s 'Harbour Lights.' If you want purism, forget Elvis, he was a pure thoroughbred musical mongrel. The best of breed. He was an integrator, as Little Richard said, in more ways than one. Here he was integrating some choice material from the folk catalogue into his new mature style. This album didn't draw on all the material that was available, adding weak tracks from 1969 and 1970 to make up the numbers. The result was a very patchy album indeed, expressing only very inadequately the quality and, indeed, success of Elvis’ experimentations with folk. 

A few additions and a couple of deletions would serve to make this a very good album indeed. 

‘I’m Leavin’ is simply one of the best songs he ever did, a haunting folk inflected orchestrated ballad with complex tempo changes which Elvis handles in a masterly way. It was a single release, and hence left off the album. Big things were expected of it. It was merely a minor hit. It is one of Elvis' very best recordings. Such are the vagaries of the pop world. Restored to the album here it strengthens the quality considerably. The same with respect to another single ‘It’s Only Love.’ I would also add ‘The First time ever I saw your face.’ People may complain about the over-orchestration of the latter, overlaying a very delicate folk ballad. That's fine. But I do like that Elvis is still trying things out. 

As to the tracks that are on here, Elvis plays on the strings to bring out the core sentimentality of Buffy Sainte-Marie’s ‘Until it’s time for you to go.’ I have seen criticisms of the strings on this, too. don’t care what ‘purists’ say. They can be as pure as they like in their own world. I say Elvis, with a voice that has the decay of strings, and sings this material impeccably. And if you read Andrea Warner, biographer of writer Buffy Sainte Marie, she agrees. Elvis does the most heart-rending version of this much covered song. He does a great version of ‘Early Mornin’ Rain’ too, and writer Gordon Lightfoot agrees. 'We Can Make the Morning' is also a strong contemporary song that deserves to be much better known. Add his off-the-cuff version of Dylan’s ‘Don't Think Twice, It's All Right’ and ‘I Shall Be Released’ to this album and throw out the tracks that plain don’t fit, the inappropriate and the lousy, and you do have a very good album. 

Of course, as it happened, the additional material was kept off, its place taken by the execrable version of 'Hey Jude,' the cabaret 'Fools Rush In,' the weak 'Sylvia,' and the leftover 'I Was Born 10,000 Years Ago.' The fact is that if you keep putting insubstantial and inferior material alongside good material, then you will merely corrupt the good material and diminish its value, both artistically and commercially. ‘Bad money drives out good,’ said the Tudor economist Sir Thomas Gresham. Gresham’s law applies in music, too. OK, I’ll say it, Elvis’ version of ‘Hey Jude’ has to be one of the lousiest versions of a Beatles classic ever committed to record, so much so it could have been conceived and executed as a full-frontal assault on the Beatles’ biggest selling record ever. He’s in the wrong key and straining. Clearly an experiment that failed, and it should have been left there. And ‘Fools Rush in’ was also obviously concocted with a view to doing a familiar song for an undemanding cabaret audience. Not needed here. And it could have been done better, had Elvis sounded more interested. Gee, he even had James Burton on hand to reprise the great solo he played on Ricky Nelson's version. And we could lose the front cover of Elvis in the jump suit too, because it doesn’t remotely fit the material. And ditch the constant pitching of other albums on the back cover. You know, actually present the man’s music for its intrinsic worth, is that too much to ask those who just want to turn a buck?

53 "Separate Ways" (1972)

A1 Separate Ways

A2 Sentimental Me

A3 In My Way

A4 I Met Her Today

A5 What Now, What Next, Where To

B1 Always On My Mind

B2 I Slipped, I Stumbled, I Fell

B3 Is It So Strange

B4 Forget Me Never

B5 Old Shep

My very first Elvis album and my nomination for National Album Day.

It’s another ‘budget’ album, with a variation on the same template. Elvis’ latest single and big hit ‘Always on my mind/Separate ways’ is used to lead another venture into gathering together the waifs and strays of Elvis’ past. The material is slight and insubstantial in the main. But actually very tasteful and restrained, just Elvis and that very beautiful and very pure voice. The voice is keening, it pulls on the heart strings. ‘Sentimental me’ is from one of the early sixties studio albums, and its quality should lead people back to the overlooked qualities of those neglected, understated little gems of pop sophistication. ‘I Met Her Today’ had always been neglected, but it’s beauty is now increasingly recognized. ‘Is it so Strange’ is the classic awaiting discovery. It had been intended for single release in the fifties, but writer Faron Young refused to be bullied out of his publishing – good on him, pay the artists what their talent is worth! – and so the song disappeared. Elvis loved the song, and you can n hear why. It’s a strange sad beauty. 'What Now, What Next, Where To' is another good song. 

I remember playing the album as soon as we got it home. Apart from the jaunty ‘I slipped, I stumbled, I fell,’ the mood was quiet, reflective, sombre even. ‘That was very nice,’ my mother said as it finished, or some such words. I’d been struck dumb by ‘Old Shep,’ which is without a shadow of doubt the greatest of all songs about dead dogs. My granny loved it.

54 He Touched Me (1972)

01. He Touched Me

02. I've Got Confidence

03. Amazing Grace

04. Seeing Is Believing

05. He Is My Everything

06. Bosom of Abraham

07. An Evening Prayer

08. Lead Me, Guide Me

09. There Is No God But God

10. A Thing Called Love

11. I, John

12. Reach Out to Jesus

I rather neglected this one in my younger days. It’s heavy and has a distinctively religious theme … This was the era of glam rock, loud raucous shout-alongs, and stamping feet. Chuck Berry had ‘My ding-a-ling’ at the top of the charts. And Elvis is doing God. And doing it very well, in the main. There are some intricate arrangements on here, and Elvis acquits himself impressively well. But Elvis is best when he moves you, in my book. He does that here too. ‘Lead Me, Guide Me’ and ‘Amazing Grace’ most of all and best of all. The album is different to Elvis' previous gospel albums in being contemporary gospel rather than tradition. The music is lively in some places, earnest in others. I absolutely loathed his version of ‘A Thing called Love’ for a long time. We are all familiar with Johnny Cash’s hit version, so I was interested in what Elvis would do with the song. He utterly transforms it, so much so that it didn't sound right to my ears at first. My advice is to keep listening to it until it does sound right. Because it is right!

55 Elvis: As Recorded At Madison Square Garden (1972)

01. Introduction: Also Sprach Zarathustra (Theme From 2001: A Space Odyssey)

02. That's All Right

03. Proud Mary

04. Never Been to Spain

05. You Don't Have to Say You Love Me

06. You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'

07. Polk Salad Annie

08. Love Me

09. All Shook Up

10. Heartbreak Hotel

11. Medley: (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear / Don't Be Cruel

12. Love Me Tender

13. The Impossible Dream (The Quest)

14. Introductions by Elvis

15. Hound Dog

16. Suspicious Minds

17. For the Good Times

18. American Trilogy

19. Funny How Time Slips Away

20. I Can't Stop Loving You

21. Can't Help Falling In Love

22. End Theme (Orchestra)

I never cared much for this live concert album. It didn't sound right to me, it sounded rushed. My musical instincts were right. Many years later we found out that Elvis' cheapskate mismanager Tom Parker wanted to squeeze as much as he could onto the one album for publishing reasons, and so sped it all up. It sounded like music on a conveyor belt to me at the time. 

Properly remastered, at the right speed, it’s a good concert, with Elvis triumphing on Sinatra’s home ground. 

I’m always ambivalent on concert recordings. They are shows rather than musical documents, meaning that you really needed to have been there to appreciate how good they were. That said, there are some fine performances which stand in their own right, independently of the event. Of the material, ‘Never been to Spain’ is a welcome addition to the Elvis catalogue, it is exceedingly good, contemporary, and performed superbly well. I hear this and wish only that Elvis could have gathered more material like this and recorded it in the studio. The up-tempo soul reworking of 'Polk Salad Annie' is also very good.

People like John Lennon, George Harrison, Elton John, Robert Plant, David Bowie and others were in the audience. "I’m sure Elvis never sang better than he did at Madison Square Garden... he turned on the power, and powerful it was," said Elvis’ piano player Glen D. Hardin. And he should know. The reviews were ecstatic. "Once in a great while, a special champion comes along... Friday night at Madison Square Garden, Elvis was like that." (New York Times Review, June, 1972). The shows were a sellout, Elvis breaking all records for the arena. There were no freebies. George Harrison, John Lennon and Bob Dylan had to pay like everyone else. They came away raving about how great Elvis had been. This bears repetition, because the story told of Elvis in the seventies is now one of decline and fall. That story would have been incomprehensible to anyone witnessing this concert, or the Hawaii show of a year later. Elvis remained a very great artist in the 1970s, and lazy critics who read backwards mistake an optical illusion for reality. History has to be lived forwards but is only understood backwards. We know the tragic way the Elvis story ended, and so read the tragedy that occurred at the end backwards. The missteps and misdirections seem obvious in retrospect. But we need to be careful when reading the story that way. Not only were there successes on the way to that fateful ending, those successes were actually huge, and not only materially but also artistically.

The warning signs were everywhere, but the signs of Elvis as the biggest star on the planet were even bigger, and in the biggest lights of all.

"From Backwoods Phenom in 1956 To Polished Superstar," said Variety", "Presley Talents Richly Intact," said The New York Times, "Elvis Enjoying Reign As King In New York," added the Memphis Commercial Appeal, "Nostalgia was but a small part of the celebration," said Billboard. "Elvis' voice, always better than the critics admitted has become even richer and more resonant than before... Thousands of bursting lightbulbs created a psychedelic lightshow, and the stage seemed to shudder and jump in the tiny spaces between light and dark. That image only reinforced what one had suspected from the start. Elvis has transcended the exasperating constrictions of times and place."

That may sound like some achievement, and it may well have been some achievement, but the problem is that once you have transcended time and place, there is nowhere else for you to go.

56 Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite (2 discs, 1973)

01. Introduction: Also Sprach Zarathustra (Theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey)

02. See See Rider

03. Burning Love

04. Something

05. You Gave Me a Mountain

06. Steamroller Blues

07. My Way

08. Love Me

09. Johnny B. Goode

10. It's Over

11. Blue Suede Shoes

12. I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry

13. I Can't Stop Loving You

14. Hound Dog

15. What Now My Love

16. Fever

17. Welcome to My World

18. Suspicious Minds

19. Introductions by Elvis

20. I'll Remember You

21. Long Tall Sally / Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On

22. An American Trilogy

23. A Big Hunk O' Love

24. Can't Help Falling In Love

25. Blue Hawaii

26. Ku-U-I-Po

27. No More

28. Hawaiian Wedding Song

29. Early Morning Rain

I ordered this one from a catalogue. It was huge and impressive, a double album in which Elvis showed his genuine multiplicity in music. It cost what was a lot of money for me in those days, and I had to save up. The Aloha concert went worldwide via satellite, reaching some 1.5 billion people. The album contained the words ‘we love Elvis’ in every language on Earth. Elvis was big and he was loved the world over by every kind of people. Elvis does it all here and does it well, rock’n’roll, blues, ballads old and new, folk, French songs, Hawaiian songs, Hank Williams, showstoppers. It seems that Elvis watched the recording of this show silently. When it finished, he got up without a word and went to bed. It was as though there was nothing more to be said, nothing to prove, and nowhere else to go. He had triumphed. 

Liverpool jazz/blues artist George Melly chose this as the album of the millennium. He’d rated Elvis from the first, the way he injected blues into pop and country. But he also spoke of the tendency of the world of pop and commerce to corrupt the artist and the artistry to end with a triumph of style and substance. Elvis always walked that fine line separating one from the other. Here, he combined the two as well as anyone ever did or ever could. As for my personal view, I always felt that there was a sadness hanging over this show. Elvis seemed restrained. The old fire and power doesn’t seem to be there, the performance on the rock numbers is mainly act and echo. The real passion comes on the ballads, which Elvis charges with real emotional power. I always found it significant that, in front of 1.5 billion people who were all saying ‘we love Elvis’ in every language on the planet, Elvis sings ‘I’m so lonesome I could cry’ with real emotional depth. Everyone sang Hank Williams’ songs, filling entire albums with Hank Williams. Elvis rarely did. It wasn't that he disliked Hank Williams, the very opposite in fact. He felt that once Hank Williams had done a song, then it was done. I find it significant that he is singing Hank Williams in this concert for a global audience. I always feel a sense of sorrow, triumph, and finality when watching this concert. 'It's Over,' as one of the best performances says. The performance of 'An American Trilogy' is masterful. 

57 Elvis (Fool) (1973)

01. Fool

02. Where Do I Go from Here

03. Love Me, Love The Life I Lead

04. It's Still Here

05. It's Impossible

06. (That's What You Get) For Lovin' Me

07. Padre

08. I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen

09. I Will Be True

10. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right

'Elvis (Fool)' is remarkably similar to 'Elvis Now' in suffering from the same flaws of selection and in having the potential to have been so much better. There was enough material for a strong contemporary ballad based album. Instead, tracks that could and should have made for the lost folk album are joined with ballads, spare piano performances, and the odd unplaced and leftover track. 'Padre' sticks out like a sore thumb, as does the live performance of 'It's Impossible.' The problem lies not in the individual tracks but in the blend and mix. There is an incongruity here that doesn't make the best of the material. Individually, 'I Will Be True,' 'It's Still Here,' and 'I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen' are beautiful, spare and tempered. Together, the effect can be depressing. 

Once more, the addition of other tracks that were available could have served to beef the material up to have produced a substantial document and a true reflection of how good an artist Elvis still was. The original release was too patchy to make any impression at the time. The material is good, but the arrangements can sound a little cluttered on a couple of tracks. ‘Where Do I Go from Here’ could have been a classic. Elvis revisits Ivory Joe Hunter on ‘I will be true’ and ‘It’s still here,’ very sparse ballads exhibiting a naked piety. It can make for harrowing listening in parts. It’s a continued development of folk inflected rock balladry. 

The addition of the hit singles would have elevated the album to a considerable height, significantly raising the quality. If it had been left to me, I would have taken Gordon Lightfoot's 'For Lovin Me' and Dylan's 'Don't Think Twice, it's Alright,' and maybe one of the Ivory Joe Hunter tracks ('I Will Be True' and 'It's Still Here') and placed them on 'Elvis Now' with other tracks - 'For the Good Times' in addition to the ones mentioned above - to form a very good Elvis folk album. To 'Elvis (Fool)' I would have added 'Separate Ways,' 'Always On My Mind,' Burning Love,' 'It's A Matter of Time,' and, for a live track to replace 'It's Impossible,' 'American Trilogy.' Now that makes for two substantial and coherent albums of the new Elvis.

The lesson is this, at the time Elvis had three recording careers – live concert recordings, hit singles, and albums. The albums rounded up whatever was left, but stood in need of the hit singles in order to strengthen their profile. At the time, the albums were overlooked as patchy affairs containing too much sad and fairly depressing material. At the hit singles, and it becomes plain that Elvis was still an artist of some weight and significance, if worlds away from rock’n’roll. He was carving out a new identity. Unfortunately, the public wanted memories.

58 Raised On Rock (1973)

01. Raised On Rock

02. Are You Sincere

03. Find Out What's Happening

04. I Miss You

05. Girl of Mine

06. For Ol' Times Sake

07. If You Don't Come Back

08. Just a Little Bit

09. Sweet Angeline

10. Three Corn Patches

The album has a title track which has the supposed ‘king of rock’n’roll’ claiming that he was ‘raised on rock,’ citing his own songs as proof and evidence! 'Raised on Rock' the song is a decent enough rocker that did little in the charts. It's a story song that someone else should have been telling about Elvis. I always loved the ballad ‘I Miss You,’ which I remember taping on cassette when it was played on Radio City, Liverpool, one night. It was another single that didn't get much reaction, didn’t do anything in the charts either, and so soon faded from view. It’s yet another in the long line of sad Elvis lost relationships songs, which very probably the public had heard from him once too often by now. There would be more to come, meeting with similar indifference. Best of all here is Tony Joe White’s ‘For Ol’ Times Sake,’ another of those folk-inflected country/rock ballads Elvis was experimenting with. The song is spoken as much as sung, and Elvis sings it well. On 'Are You Sincere?' Elvis returns to 'Are You Lonesome Tonight?' country, although with much less angst. The four or so country-soul-rockers don't seem to catch fire, although they are more interesting in the alternate takes. Jerry Lee Lewis was doing something much more forceful with 'Just a Little Bit.' This album has promise, but Elvis seemed uninspired. With more work, this could have been good. The album as a whole never even faded into view, let alone faded away. 

By now you will have got the picture. You have to go mining for essential Elvis tracks among the inessential, and many of the tracks which are definitively Elvis are, paradoxically, not his very best, but the anomalies. The material was recorded in Stax studios, the home of Memphis soul, and so Elvis, being Elvis, sounds most inspired on old ballads. ‘Are you Sincere?’ takes Elvis back into ‘Are you lonesome tonight?’ territory. Tracks that should have worked didn’t; tracks that shouldn’t have worked did. ‘Are you sincere?’ worked. So did 'I Miss You.'

59 Good Times (1974)

01. Take Good Care of Her

02. Loving Arms

03. I Got a Feelin' in My Body

04. If That Isn't Love

05. She Wears My Ring

06. I've Got a Thing About You Baby

07. My Boy

08. Spanish Eyes

09. Talk About the Good Times

10. Good Time Charlie's Got the Blues

I remember well the days when Elvis was alive and still a hit maker and had new singles and albums out. I was now old enough to be rooting for Elvis in the charts, monitoring whether his singles went up or down. This was the first album I consciously remember rooting for. The single release was ‘My Boy,’ a big-voiced dramatic ballad. It was a big hit, too, top ten, then top five. It was, frankly, far too mature a song for a mere nine year old such as I to appreciate fully. But I cheered it up the charts all the same and was content to know that Elvis was still the best. A top five hit is not to be sniffed at. I saved up my pocket money and bought the album. It’s not young person’s music. The qualities of the album became more and more apparent to me as the years passed. It is, actually, a very fine statement of who and what Elvis was as an artist, a mature presentation of the original Sun synthesis of country, blues, rock, pop, and gospel. Elvis blended these things in a revolutionary way at Sun and changed the world of pop music. And whilst it is too much to claim that he changed the world with these recordings, if you think about it, Elvis here and elsewhere in the seventies is actually redefining country music in the pop/rock/ballad direction that became huge in the nineties and after (for good or ill, is another question). He received next to no credit for it at the time, with one critic suggesting that if this is the best that the former king of rock’n’roll can do then he would be better off retiring. Some of the songs on here are a little too familiar to excite the world, inviting the dismissive approach of critics and disinterest of the public – the album was the first Elvis album to bomb and end up being remaindered – but the bulk of it is substantial. The qualities of some of the tracks on here improve with age. ‘Loving Arms’ is an exceptional, soulful ballad, up there with Elvis’ very best, ‘If that isn’t Love’ is a towering contemporary gospel ballad, ‘I’ve got a Feelin’ in my body’ a super-charged rock-gospeller. From the pen of Jerry Reed, ‘Talk and the Good Times’ is in the class of ‘Guitar man,’ whilst the poignancy of ‘Good time Charlie’ was to become all too clear in just a few more years. Earlier I referred to Elvis at Stax as a lost opportunity. It's Stax! The home of black Memphis soul. Elvis had half of Booker T's MG's available to him. So he sings "Spanish Eyes!" Love it! That's one of a million reasons why I love Elvis. He never did quite what those with impeccably good taste say he ought to have done. That's why he was Elvis, and why they were critics.

I would say that 'Good Times' is essential Elvis for the reason that it stakes out that mature synthesis of blues/country/rock/pop/gospel that was very much what the young twenty year old Memphis truck driver had promised all those years ago at Sun. He was now an established artist who had more than redeemed every promise he had made when he fashioned rockabilly into pop. It’s not rock’n’roll, the critics will continue to bleat. Neither were ‘Blue moon,’ ‘I love you because,’ 'Tomorrow Night,' or ‘Harbour Lights,’ which Elvis recorded in his first few months at Sun. He was always a pop and ballad singer as well as country, blues and rock. Elvis never sold out of rock’n’roll rebellion because he never actually bought into such a notion in the first place. He was a integrator and a synthesizer, and he was about inclusion. That indicates a very democratic spirit indeed. Forget notions of kingship, Elvis appealed because he reached out to each and all without implication, rich and poor, black and white, young and old, American and every other nation on the planet. Those who like their music pure and fixed in neatly defined categories won’t get it. The rest of us who like a good tune and a good voice would, and did.

60 Elvis: As Recorded Live On Stage In Memphis (1974)

01. See See Rider

02. I Got a Woman

03. Love Me

04. Trying to Get to You

05. Long Tall Sally / Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On / Mama Don't Dance / Flip, Flop and Fly / Jailhouse Rock / Hound Dog

06. Why Me Lord

07. How Great Thou Art

08. Blueberry Hill / I Can't Stop Loving You

09. Help Me

10. An American Trilogy

11. Let Me Be There

12. My Baby Left Me

13. Lawdy Miss Clawdy

14. Can't Help Falling In Love

15. Closing-Vamp

Even as a young person, I gained the sense of this concert as having something of an elegiac feel. Maybe that’s the wrong word. The feeling isn’t sad, it is celebratory. But it does convey the sense that Elvis had triumphed, with nowhere else to go but to keep performing a victory tour by pulling out the memories for the people. And the crowd loved it. It’s a celebration. But there’s no new ground. The standout here is the gospel in the middle, ‘Why me Lord?’ and ‘How great thou art,’ which are immense. Elvis won the Grammy for gospel performance. The album is satisfying for an Elvis fan, a mutual confirmation between artist and audience.

61 (1974) ~ "Elvis - A Legendary Performer, Volume 1"

That's All Right 1:55

I Love You Because 3:27

Heartbreak Hotel 2:08

Elvis (Excerpts From Interview) 0:34

Don't Be Cruel 2:03

Love Me 2:32

Trying To Get To You 2:55

Love Me Tender 2:42

(There'll Be) Peace In The Valley (For Me) 3:20

Elvis (Excerpts From Interview) 2:14

(Now And Then There's) A Fool Such As I 2:30

Tonight's All Right For Love 1:20

Are You Lonesome To-Night? 3:31

Can't Help Falling In Love 3:00

To appreciate albums like this, you had to be an Elvis fan at the time. This mixed the epochal – ‘That’s all Right’ and ‘Heartbreak hotel’ – with the classic hits – ‘Don’t be cruel,’ ‘A fool such as I,’ ‘Can’t help falling in love’ – with the fantastic ’68 comeback – with rarities – my first hearing of ‘Tonight's All Right For Love,’ from Tales from the Vienna Wood (marvellous!) – and the peerless ‘Peace in the Valley.’ Elvis could do it all, and did.

The only problem with an album like this is that its release had the contemporary Elvis involved in a competition with an unbeatable foe - his younger, epoch-defining, hit making self.

62 Elvis’ 40 Greatest Hits (1974)

My Baby Left Me

Heartbreak Hotel

Blue Suede Shoes

Hound Dog

Love Me Tender

Got A Lot O' Livin' To Do

(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear

Party

All Shook Up

Old Shep

Don't

Hard Headed Woman

King Creole

Jailhouse Rock

A Big Hunk O' Love

I Got Stung

One Night

(Now And Then There's) A Fool Such As I

I Need Your Love Tonight

Stuck On You

Fever

It's Now Or Never

Are You Lonesome Tonight?

Wooden Heart

Surrender

Marie’s The Name, His Latest Flame

Wild In The Country

There's Always Me

Rock-a-hula Baby

Can't Help Falling In Love With You

Good Luck Charm

She's Not You

Return To Sender

You're The Devil In Disguise

Crying In The Chapel

Guitar Man

In The Ghetto

Suspicious Minds

There Goes My Everything

Vocals [Vocal Accompaniment] – The Imperials Quartet

Don't Cry Daddy

I have fond memories of this double album. It was advertised on television, which I loved in itself, as a constant reminder to the public that Elvis was the greatest, in case there could be any doubt about the matter. I received this as my main present for Christmas 1974. It was a good Christmas indeed. This was Elvis at his very best. No more budget albums, piecing Elvis together from leftovers. This was my first taste of the Elvis the gold-plated big hitter. With ten tracks a side it was like having four albums in one.

I may have been young, and I may have loved everything with Elvis’ name on (again, an album with ‘Old Shep’ on. The Mount Olympus of songs about dead dogs). But, as I pondered all things Elvis, studying the details on the album covers and the track listing, something did strike me about this ‘greatest’ compilation. Six of the tracks were from 1956, thirteen from 1957-58, sixteen from 1960-1, one from 1967, three from 1969, and just one from 1970, covering the whole of the seventies. (I notice details like that, it is one of my oddities). Put another way, that’s thirty five of the forty tracks from just five years in the first part of Elvis’ career and just five from the period 1962-1974. That breakdown reinforced the impression that Elvis was once great and then faded over the years. That’s the view of the critics. But it’s wrong.  My young mind somewhat understood that that impression of Elvis was false. What is true is that Elvis the artist was trapped within public and critical conceptions of Elvis the rock’n’roll icon. The album sold in millions and was huge. People loved the young Elvis but were lukewarm towards the contemporary Elvis of the early seventies. People like their idols to be twenty one and forever young. Elvis got older, he started to show his cracks, his frailties and fragilities. He failed, he fell. But he got better and he got more real as he did so, flaunting the flaws and all. That’s my view, at least for so long as he remained healthy and interested. How much reality can people take? ‘Not a king, just a man,’ as he sang on ‘Until it’s time for you to go.’ People wanted a god. 'There's only the one king,' Elvis would say. People should have listened. It was nearly time for Elvis to go. Although no one suspected it at the time, despite warning signs that seem loud, clear and visible in retrospect.

63 Promised Land (1975)

01. Promised Land

02. There's a Honky Tonk Angel (Who Will Take Me Back In) - Elvis Presley with J.D. Sumner & The Stamps

03. Help Me

04. Mr. Songman

05. Love Song of the Year

06. It's Midnight

07. Your Love's Been a Long Time Coming

08. If You Talk in Your Sleep

09. Thinking About You

10. You Asked Me To

1975 was the year I started to think that there was no justice in this world. Leeds United were robbed by the decisions of a bent referee in the European Cup Final against Bayern Munich, The Shadows were beaten into second place in the Eurovision Song Contest by a song called ‘Ding-Ding-a-Dong,’ and Elvis’ new single, ‘Promised Land,’ which ought to have owned the number one spot for at least a year and a half, stalled at number eleven in the charts. I didn’t understand it, I really didn’t. Number ten went to a new band called Queen with ‘Now I’m Here,’ a band who were soon to become my absolute favourites. There’s a handing over here that I wasn’t aware of at the time.

As to the album, 'Promised Land' is ‘Good Times’ mark II, representing the second choices from the Stax sessions of ’73. If ‘Good Times’ was panned by critics and shunned by the public, what chance did this one have? Decent country ballads, pleasantly inoffensive songs. And some great tracks. ‘It’s Midnight’ is the big dramatic powerhouse. After the title track, I would single out ‘You Asked Me To,’ a great slice of country rock. 'There's a Honky Tonk Angel' is deep soulful country, too.

Rather than dividing Elvis up and diluting his quality, the great rockers on here should have gone on ‘Good Times’ in place of the old-fashioned ballads to make for one very strong album. Or, have one album for the country ballads and another for the more rock and soul oriented material. Instead, force was divided and diluted and Elvis’ music started to lose its impact. We can see it better now. 

64 "Pure Gold" (1975)

A1 Kentucky Rain

A2 Fever

A3 It's Impossible

A4 Jailhouse Rock

A5 Don't Be Cruel

B1 I Got A Woman

B2 All Shook Up

B3 Loving You

B4 In The Ghetto

B5 Love Me Tender

A very handy compilation to draw in the casual Elvis fan and turn them into a fanatic like the rest of us. Among the classic hits here are tracks like ‘Kentucky Rain,’ which is an unheralded classic that ought to have been a huge hit, but wasn’t, Elvis’ energetic take on Ray Charles’ gospel based blues ‘I Got a Woman,’ and, most welcome for me, Elvis’ lovely rendition of ‘It’s Impossible,’ by the great Mexican songwriter Armando Manzanero. The song always seems to get overlooked, dismissed as cabaret. It’s very nice. Of course, I love anything bathed in strings. And listen, too, to Elvis’ cool as a crocodile rendition of ‘Fever.’ It's a good selection, tempting newcomers into deeper waters.

65 Elvis Today (1975)

01. T-R-O-U-B-L-E

02. And I Love You So

03. Susan When She Tried

04. Woman Without Love

05. Shake a Hand

06. Pieces of My Life

07. Fairytale

08. I Can Help

09. Bringin' It Back

10. Green, Green Grass of Home

Context and perspective can make all the difference. Place and time. As the years go by, as we grow older, and as the ephemeral and the unimportant fade from view and the substantial remains, it is interesting to see different appreciations of Elvis’ music. At the time, the choice of material on this album was considered to be derivative and unimaginative. The songs on here were very familiar from being the recent big hits of others. Elvis’ quiet, reflective approach didn’t take anything by storm. The album passed the world by. As the years roll on by, the qualities of the album become more apparent. The songs lose their associations with other artists, leaving us to better appreciate Elvis' distinctive reworkings.

‘T-R-O-U-B-L-E’ is a storming country rocker that was showing the path that would be taken by country in the nineties and after. On this, at least, Elvis was breaking new ground, even if would be the new artists of the next decades who would become its stars. There’s decent country material on here, blues/gospel, a fun take of ‘I Can Help.’ ‘And I love you so’ and ‘Green Green Grass of Home’ were far too well known for Elvis to make any impression at the time here, and he didn’t. They not only stand up decades on, they stand as the best versions of the songs, in my humble opinion (actually, Jerry Lee Lewis' 'Green Grass' is exceptional, but I like Elvis' low key version. Let's appreciate their different qualities, the way that they bring something unique to the song). 

The album, in short, sounds much better now than it ever did then. In fact, I would suggest buying the ‘Legacy’ edition of this album, which has the undubbed versions of these songs. Elvis shorn of strings and cluttered arrangements sounds much, much better. The Elvis ignored by critics and public alike as the seventies progressed was actually far more an important and creative an artist than was ever apparent at the time. The problem then was that the new, older, Elvis was competing not merely against other artists but against himself, his own peerless past being constantly repackaged and sent out to market. Given the choice between young and old Elvis, critics and public alike went for the familiar, the Elvis they new from the good old days. Like those days when the world was young, and so were we all, that’s the Elvis people wanted back. The new Elvis was scorned and spurned. That Elvis is still standing.

66  "Elvis - A Legendary Performer, Volume 2" (1976)

Harbor Lights 2:35

Interview With Elvis 3:34

I Want You, I Need You, I Love You 2:40

Blue Suede Shoes 1:37

Blue Christmas 2:03

Jailhouse Rock 2:22

It's Now Or Never 3:11

Cane And A High Starched Collar 2:40

Presentation Of Awards To Elvis 1:24

Blue Hawaii 2:28

Such A Night 3:46

Baby What You Want Me To Do 1:41

How Great Thou Art 2:55

If I Can Dream 3:10

Who on Earth could compete with that stellar list of tracks? Who, even, has the musical range and variety, let alone the quality? The Elvis of the time was having to compete with his unbeatable old self. Of interest here is the first hearing of ‘Harbour Lights,’ a ‘new’ Sun recording, and the cracking blues of ‘Baby what do you want me to do?’ from the ’68 Special.

Of course, critics and public compared and contrasted and drew the conclusion that the Elvis of the golden years was so much better than the Elvis of today, with all his sad songs and strained attempts to rock. It was unfair. No-one could compare with that past, it gave Elvis the actual artist no space in which to breath and move.

67 Elvis Presley – The Sun Collection (1976)

A1 That's All Right 1:54

A2 Blue Moon Of Kentucky 1:59

A3 I Don't Care If The Sun Don't Shine 2:23

A4 Good Rockin' Tonight 2:10

A5 Milkcow Blues Boogie 2:32

A6 You're A Heartbreaker 2:08

A7 I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone 2:34

A8 Baby Let's Play House 2:13

B1 Mystery Train 2:24

B2 I Forgot To Remember To Forget 2:24

B3 I'll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin') 2:18

B4 I Love You Because (1st Version) 2:38

B5 Trying To Get To You 2:28

B6 Blue Moon 2:39

B7 Just Because 2:29

B8 I Love You Because (2nd Version)

This album at last gathered in one place the Sun recordings which had caused all the excitement and raised all the expectations in the first place. As the years passed, my interest in Elvis waned. I turned on him for not being ‘the King’ after all. He was flawed, and he failed. I felt he had failed us. I dissected his career, saw all of his errors, mistakes, and misdirections, and savaged him mercilessly for not ditching his crook of a manager, for being complicit in fleecing the public, for taking the easy money, for compromising the music, for the lame movies, for the dumb songs written by hacks, for touring the same damned concerts year in year out in the same damned places to the same damned people, for being a mechanical toy, a puppet on a string working for and being worked by the man. Rebel? Elvis was a powder-puff pushover. But through all the years of abuse and insult, I did actually enjoy going back to the beginning and these songs from the Sun days, reveling in all that youthful promise and energy and innocence. And, of course, in short time I was hooked again. Elvis wasn’t a king, still less was he a god. He was a mere mortal, as flawed as the rest of us and, if you check his life out, even more flawed. It is remarkable he actually did as much as he did. I say he’s a democrat, one of us. The problems come when we raise individuals beyond realities and make them conform to some ideal projection of our own fantasies. Elvis was a cipher in this respect. And it was impossible for his real person to match up to the inflated, and contrary, expectations his public had for him. He was ripped apart by the contrary pulls coming from all those making some kind of a claim on him. Yes, he got plenty wrong, and he should have done things otherwise. I have drawn the conclusion that he could do no other and that the story is a tragedy.

Here he is at the beginning, full of enthusiasm, packed with talent, mixing country, blues, gospel and pop to create … what? The future. A future in which all belonged. The future was before him and, for all of the errors and deviations which critics can harp on, he did actually more than deliver on all the promise he showed here. That fact is not stated anywhere near enough. I’m not blind to the flaws and the failures, and I’ve made frequent reference to them here. But it is the irrepressible and spirited young kid with the boundless confidence and equally boundless talent on these Sun sides that continues to hold my imagination, and whose joy and vitality continue to echo down the decades. And will continue so to do. Go back to the beginning, get hooked again, and then follow the career as it unfolded, deviated here, took sterile forms there, but more often than we realize burst with creativity and delivered some mighty fine music. And music of all kinds.

Essential? If you were alone with this album on a desert island, you probably never want to leave it.

68 From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee (1976)

01. Hurt

02. Never Again

03. Blue Eyes Crying In the Rain

04. Danny Boy

05. The Last Farewell

06. For the Heart

07. Bitter They Are, Harder They Fall

08. Solitaire

09. Love Coming Down

10. I'll Never Fall In Love Again

Oh my. It was obvious to me that Elvis was not just feeling sad, but was sunk in a deep depression and preparing to say goodbye. The pretence of the forced jollity of those ‘rockers’ in the films of the mid to late sixties and the throwaway rock’n’roll melodies of the concerts was stripped away here. The mask slipped. Elvis was miserable and mired in a personal hell that too few were prepared to see. The album is painful and raw. And Elvis’ ‘Danny Boy’ is the greatest version of very possibly the greatest song ever written. 'Gimme some truth!,' screamed John Lennon. Here is truth too raw to digest, too painful to suffer, and too harrowing to witness. Elvis died unheard, unheeded, and alone. It wasn't a martyr's death like John Lennon's, it only served to make him even more a figure of ridicule.

69 Moody Blue (1977)

01. Unchained Melody

02. If You Love Me (Let Me Know)

03. Little Darlin'

04. He'll Have to Go

05. Let Me Be There

06. Way Down

07. Pledging My Love

08. Moody Blue

09. She Thinks I Still Care

10. It's Easy for You

The very last Elvis album, that is, the last album when Elvis was alive. It’s a patchy affair. As was obvious on the previous album, Elvis was too ill to be recording. Rather than allowing the poor man to take care of his physical and mental health – or doing it for him if he was incapable – RCA sent a mobile recording unit to his home in Graceland and stuck a microphone under his nose to capture anything they could and turn it into product. I hold all these sharks in complete contempt and damn their soulless carcasses to Hades. I hope whatever Hell these people are consigned to that they are forced to listen to ‘Little Darlin’ for all eternity, no pitchforks and fires required. (Oh, and ‘Old MacDonald’ and ‘Confidence.’)

And I’ll blast the nonsense of critics here, too, who allege that ‘Way Down’ only reached number one because Elvis died. OK, with respect to chart position. But Elvis was still a viable chart hitter. His previous single, the infectious ‘Moody Blue,’ which my dear mother absolutely adored, reached number six in the UK charts. And I remember my school friends raving about ‘Way Down’ before Elvis died. Country disco if you please! And they say Elvis was no longer breaking new ground! ‘Unchained Melody’ is painful, but immense, Elvis finding depths no-one on this song has come close to reaching. 

I’ll make special mention of the Tim Rice-Andrew Lloyd Weber song ‘It’s Easy for You,’ because no one else ever has, and because the writers actually say Elvis made a very fine recording of the song. He did, too. In fact, if you listen to the Jungleland CD, which is just Elvis and the band without the overdubs, he's not in bad voice at all. The padders and the dubbers, the packagers and the overproducers, made Elvis sound much worse than he was. 

The last song he did was ‘He’ll have to go.’ The members of the band were booked to tour with Emmylou Harris. Elvis wasn't well enough to record, and so stayed in bed. The musicians put down the backing track and left. Elvis came down alone, put down the vocal, and went back to bed. It’s a slow, soulful, mournful, blues-country classic. And on that note, Elvis went.

Moody Blue is not a great album to end a career on. So short of material were RCA that they rescued a track from the ’74 Memphis concert album to make up the ten tracks. They also used a live recording of 'Little Darlin', of which the less said the better. The least said about this track the better, so I’ll use just one word to describe it – appalling. My mother used a much stronger word, which says a lot since she was an Elvis fanatic who loved Elvis songs like ‘Daddy Big Boots.’ (OK, I know, it is cute).

It’s not really an album to judge Elvis by. The odd thing is this, though … if you put the very best songs contained on this album together with the best songs of the ‘Boulevard’ album, keep it to a lean ten or twelve, then you do actually have a fine record indeed. And when you remember that Elvis was very sick in mind and body, being able to record only in his own home, I think you have an immense achievement. I am, of course, a fanatic. But a somewhat reasonable one at the same time. Just try it, select the best 10-12, and you will see that I am right. And you will see that Elvis not only still had his voice, he had enriched it with experience and discovery.

70 (1977) ~ "Welcome To My World"

A1 Welcome To My World (Live) 1:57

A2 Help Me Make It Through The Night 2:45

A3 Release Me (And Let Me Love Again) (Live) 2:56

A4 I Really Don't Want To Know 2:44

A5 For The Good Times (Live) 3:07

B1 Make The World Go Away (Live) 3:07

B2 Gentle On My Mind 3:21

B3 I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry (Live) 2:10

B4 Your Cheatin' Heart 2:26

B5 I Can't Stop Loving You (Live - Unreleased)

The attraction for fans here were the previously unreleased songs. For everyone else, if you have never heard Elvis’ version of ‘Gentle on my mind,’ then you are missing out. It’s powerful, with Elvis finding soulful depths not apparent on the guitar-based versions. It's a good collection of material around a coherent feeling and sound, with only the youthful 'Your Cheatin' Heart' somewhat anomalous. It's very good to hear 'I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry,' 'Welcome to My World,' and 'For the Good Times' standing on their own merits as soulful country songs independent of their concert origins. For once, a considered and well-thought out track selection from RCA. 

71 "Elvis In Concert" (1977)

Elvis Fans' Comments/Opening Riff

Also sprach Zarathustra (Theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey)

See See Rider

That's All Right

Are You Lonesome Tonight

(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear/Dont' Be Cruel

Elvis Fans' Comments II

You Gave Me A Mountain

Jailhouse Rock

Elvis Fans' Comments III

How Great Thou Art

Elvis Fans' Comments IV

I Really Don't Want To Know

Elvis Introduces His Father

Hurt

Hound Dog

My Way

Can't Help Falling In Love

Closing Riff/Special Message From Elvis' Father

I Got A Woman/Amen

Elvis Talks

Love Me

If You Love Me (Let Me Know)

O Sole Mio/It's Now Or Never

Trying To Get To You

Hawaiian Wedding Song

Fairytale

Little Sister

Early Morning Rain

What'd I Say

Johnny B. Goode

And I Love You So

And in the end … this was my big Christmas present in 1977, what purported to be Elvis’ last ever concert. We played it all over Christmas. Fan interviews saying how great Elvis was - shades of the worst parts of the That's The Way It Is film - all the hits and the screams of excited fans, then the message from Elvis’ father Vernon on Elvis’ death. After umpteen plays, my mother asked my dad whether he liked Elvis. ‘Yes,’ he replied, which was the answer we wanted and which he knew he had to give, 'when he had a voice,' a comment that dug him a deep hole. The implication was that Elvis here in 1977 was struggling badly. He did, in truth, sound short of breath in several places, and noticeably shortened a number of the songs. I held up the pictures on the album sleeves to prove that Elvis wasn’t 'fat,' either. The critics were talking rubbish. That’s the level of denial of reality that can get a man into deep, deep trouble.

I loved ‘Fairytale,’ ‘Little Sister,’ and ‘Early Mornin’ Rain’ here. He does a powerful, if short version, of ‘I Really don’t want to Know.’ The hits come thick and fast. He sings ‘My Way,’ introducing it by saying he has to read from a sheet because he doesn’t really know the words. The ironies are painfully sad. If he had have done it his way, he would have been in far better condition as a person and an artist than he now was. On ‘How Great thou art’ he sings like he has just had a vision of the Gates of Heaven opening wide in front of him. It’s the standout performance here. The album ends on a beautiful rendition of 'And I Love You So,' which never gets a mention. So I shall mention it in praise.

The best way to listen to the album in order to appreciate its qualities is to separate it, if you can, from its association with the demise of Elvis. The image of a bloated Elvis nearing the end of his life casts a huge and very dark shadow over this album. There are some fine performances here and the album is nowhere near as bad as critics say repeatedly and lazily. It's far from great, mind, although there are moments of greatness.

Elvis Sings for Children and Grownups Too 1978

Teddy Bear

Wooden Heart

Five Sleepy Heads

Puppet On A String

Angel

Old MacDonald

How Would You Like To Be

Cotton Candy Land

Old Shep

Big Boots (Slow Version)

Have A Happy

What the ... This should have been titled ‘Elvis Sings for Children and Morons Too.’ It's as though there had been a vote as to what the worst Elvis songs were, exempting four or five. 

In an act of totally uncharacteristic rebellion, Elvis did one bad-tempered take of ‘Old MacDonald had a farm’ and stormed out of the recording booth with the words ‘see what they make of that.’ It was unusable, Elvis thought. It was not only put it in the film and on the soundtrack, it kept turning up on budget albums, disgracing choice cuts like ‘Guitar Man’ and ‘Big Boss Man’ with its appalling presence. And here it is again. The Elvis management as good as ever, then. I always loved ‘Wooden Heart,’ mind. And my mother would never have a word against ‘Daddy Big Boots.’ So it’s not all completely dire, then. 

If you really want to know just how great Elvis was, just consider the way in which his career was grossly and criminally mismanaged, with a dispiriting and decreative grip that was almost unerring. I should, in the interests of research, try to discover the reasoning that lay behind this album, really, but actually can’t be bothered – the characters running Elvis’ career were bog standard and not worth a blow on a rag man’s trumpet, it's as simple as that. One last opportunity to steal the kids’ pocket money before they all forget Elvis now he was dead. Have a happy sunny smiling face. I shouldn’t knock it. I’m seeing top star reviews and reading people saying they bought it for their grandchildren and that they love it. It must be ‘Old Shep.’

73 Hits of the 70s

The Wonder Of You

I'm Leavin'

Burning Love

Always On My Mind

I Just Can't Help Believing

You Don't Have To Say You Love Me

There Goes My Everything

Rags To Riches

Until It's Time For You To Go

Kentucky Rain

I've Lost You

An American Trilogy

This is stunning, high quality, album which presents Elvis’ hits from 1970 to 1972, distilling the beautiful essence of just two years. The record is exceptional. (I’ll not add ‘if you like ballads.’ If you are serious about Elvis, you simply have to encompass the multiplicities that he did). The consistently high standard of performance is remarkable. The fact is that the quality of Elvis’ output was severely underestimated in being drowned out by sheer quantity. The truth is that Elvis delivered quality in a quantity that few other artists could match. Here, high quality tracks that had gone missing in chart inaction ('Kentucky Rain,' 'I'm Leavin,') as well as being buried on average albums ('Until It's Time for you to Go') joined the massive hits ('The Wonder of You,' 'Always on My Mind,' 'Burning Love') and the solid and substantial ('I Just Can't Help Believin' etc etc). It's a fantastic record. I always treated it as the unofficial Elvis' Gold Records volume 5.

74 (1977) Elvis in Demand

A1 Suspicion

A2 Hi Heel Sneakers

A3 Got A Lot O' Livin' To Do

A4 Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?

A5 Please Don't Drag That String Around

A6 It's Only Love

A7 The Sound Of Your Cry

A8 Viva Las Vegas

B1 Do Not Disturb

B2 Tomorrow Is A Long Time

B3 It's A Long Lonely Highway

B4 Puppet On A String

B5 The First Time Ever I Saw Her Face

B6 Summer Kisses & Winter Tears

B7 It Hurts Me

B8 Let It Be Me

This is another magnificent record. Unfortunately, by this stage, some alarming divisions were opening up in the Critchley family household over Elvis. Even after all these years I still find it hard to confess the plain truth in private, let alone in public, but somewhere in the dramatic events of the previous year my brother had ceased to be an Elvis fan. He was now listening to The Eagles, and I’ve held a grudge against that band of long-haired guitar strumming hippies ever since. I bought this album and was happily playing it, hoping to tempt my brother back into the fold. Only the tone deaf and terminally tasteless could resist? My brother picked up the album sleeve and said Elvis ‘looks like a gimp,’ whatever that meant (I never did find out). And with that he walked out of the room, the end of the connection of Elvis and my brother.

It was his loss. He became a huge Bob Dylan fan. On this album, Elvis delivers the very best version of a Bob Dylan song ever delivered by anyone ever. And that’s a view you can hear straight from the horse himself. I am, of course, referring to ‘Tomorrow is a long time,’ which is sublime. Bob Dylan himself said that Elvis’ version of the song was "the one recording I treasure the most." Not ‘one of,’ note, but ‘the one.’ The only other place that that track was available was the California Holiday soundtrack. This album is superb in gathering in one place a lot of neglected Elvis classics, minor classics, and obscurities. The album is packed with goodies. The track selection came by way of popular demand, a vote among Elvis fans for tracks that deserved to be better known. Years of criminal neglect meant that there was a crying need for this album. 

There are some super songs on here. I always thought ‘Suspicion’ was one of Elvis’ very best. ‘The Sound Of Your Cry’ and ‘It's Only Love’ were new to me, lost singles from 1970 and 1971. ‘Viva Las Vegas’ performed poorly as a single when it was released in 1963. It is now rightly recognized as the classic it always was, with covers by Springsteen and ZZ Top. ‘It's A Long Lonely Highway’ is an upbeat country rocker, coming just before the country rock explosion of the sixties, showing how Elvis should have been leading the way, as his young fans of old became the new artists of the day. ‘Puppet On A String’ and ‘Summer Kisses & Winter Tears’ are nice, the latter being hard to find. ‘It Hurts Me’ is immense, one of his very best, and this is the stripped down version, without the backing vocals, and sounding even more powerful as a result. The album is worth obtaining for that track alone. The album ends with a live in Las Vegas version of the old Everly Brothers’ hit, ‘Let it be me,’ written by French heavyweight Gilbert Bécaud. It is exceptional. I love Elvis’ genuine multiplicity in music, the way he encompasses so many strands and heals the divides. It’s all music. This album celebrates every aspect of Elvis, Elvis in all dimensions.

As for the horse’s view of Elvis in Las Vegas … it is speculated that Bob Dylan wrote the song "Went to See the Gypsy" after seeing Elvis in Las Vegas. The song makes reference to meeting a mysterious and important man in a hotel. In the song there are these lines: "A pretty dancing girl was there, and she began to shout... 'He did it in Las Vegas, and he can do it here.'" Elvis was doing what he did, and doing it very well indeed, long before he lost himself in Las Vegas (or Hollywood for that matter), and that is indeed what he could and should have been doing. The lines are considered to refer to Elvis' record-breaking run of performances in Las Vegas, beginning in July 31, 1969. There was no meeting between Elvis and Dylan, though, and Dylan didn’t want there to be a meeting. In an interview with Rolling Stone's Douglas Brinkley in 2009, Dylan said this: "I never met Elvis, because I didn't want to meet Elvis... I know The Beatles went to see him, and he just played with their heads." Dylan proceeded to elaborate upon the mythical image he had of Elvis: "Elvis was truly some sort of American king. Two or three times we were up in Hollywood, and he had sent some of the Memphis Mafia down to where we were to bring us up to see Elvis. But none of us went... I don't know if I would have wanted to see Elvis like that. I wanted to see the powerful mystical Elvis that had crash-landed from a burning star onto American soil."

None of us should have wanted to see Elvis like that, as some kind of king or god, some phony, fake, impossible void, that’s Dylan’s point. He’s right. At the same time, once we start to see Elvis as this ‘powerful mystical’ force it does seem that we must inexorably turn him into royalty or divinity. He’s real, one of us, just like us, one of the people, a democrat, bring him back down to Earth and back among the people. And then you appreciate just how remarkable he was after all.

75 "Elvis - A Legendary Performer, Volume 3" (1978)

A1 Hound Dog

A2 Excerpts From Interview With Elvis And The Colonel 7:08

A3 Danny

A4 Fame And Fortune

A5 Frankfort Special

A6 Britches

A7 Crying In The Chapel

B1 Surrender

B2 Guadalajara

B3 It Hurts Me

B4 Let Yourself Go

B5 In The Ghetto

B6 Let It Be Me (Je T'Appartiens)

... bonus track - The Impossible Dream (from the "He Walks Beside Me" album)

The appeal of this album lies in completing your ‘Legendary Performer’ sets, and in obtaining the previously unreleased or hard to find recordings. Snapping these up also involved duplicating many of the songs already in your collection. I started to count how many times I had ‘Hound Dog’ and ‘Love me Tender’ (and ‘Old Shep,’ still the greatest ‘dead dog’ song in history). And doesn’t the Mexican fun-fest ‘Guadalajara’ complement the powerful ballad ‘It Hurts Me’ so perfectly well? No, not really. Compilations like this fell between two stools, one giving the best of Elvis to tempt people who didn't have it, the other giving rarities to those who already had the hits.

76 Elvis ‎– The '56 Sessions Volume 1 (1978)

I Got A Sweetie (I Got A Woman)

Heartbreak Hotel

Money Honey

I'm Counting On You

I Was The One

Blue Suede Shoes

My Baby Left Me

One-Sided Love Affair

So Glad You're Mine

I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Cry Over You

Tutti Frutti

Lawdy, Miss Clawdy

Shake, Rattle And Roll

I Want You, I Need You, I Love You

Hound Dog

Don't Be Cruel

Stellar. I bought volumes one and two together and had Elvis’ breakthrough recordings of 1956 all in one place. The recordings are essential.

77  Elvis ‎– The '56 Sessions Volume 2 (1978)

Anyway You Want Me (That's How I Will Be) 2:17

Love Me Tender 2:47

We're Gonna Move 2:28

Poor Boy 2:13

Let Me 2:07

Playing For Keeps 2:52

Love Me 2:42

Paralysed 2:21

How Do You Think I Feel? 2:09

How's The World Treating You? 2:22

When My Blue Moon Turns Gold Again 2:19

Long Tall Sally 1:51

Old Shep 4:10

Too Much 2:33

Any Place Is Paradise 2:25

Ready Teddy 1:55

First In Line 3:20

Rip It Up 1:53

Two volumes of thirty four high quality songs recorded in the one year, several million selling number one hit records among them. This was why they called Elvis the king. Rock, blues, ballads, country forged into a new form of popular music, available to one and all, without cultural implication, an open invitation to The Beatles, Stones etc to join in and take the music on and further. If you can work out how Elvis got from here to ‘Old MacDonald had a farm’ and ‘I love only one girl’ a decade later .. There’s no mystery to unravel, mind, the corrupting forces are very clear and obvious: industry, money, management. And lest I accused of being an apologist, Elvis was complicit in his own demise – the road taken was paved with gold, and he took it, despite reservations expressed along the way. He knew the conflict between the image and the real person, and the truth is, as much as he found the strain unbearable, he couldn’t distance himself from the image. He was in the grip of public expectations and his own need for validation.

Put the Sun Session together with these two volumes of the ’56 Sessions, and you see why Elvis matters. We can argue forever about what came after, and what could have and ought to have come after. But in these three albums the case for Elvis is unarguable.

78 (1979) ~ "Our Memories of Elvis" Volume 1

Are You Sincere

It's Midnight

My Boy

Girl of Mine

Take Good Care of Her

I'll Never Fall in Love Again

Your Love's Been a Long Time Coming

Spanish Eyes

Never Again

She Thinks I Still Care

Solitaire

The idea of this and the second volume is to present ‘the pure Elvis sound,’ Elvis’ unadorned voice, without the overdubs, backing vocals, and the orchestral arrangements which were added later and which many considered syrupy. This is just Elvis as he sang in the studio, without the additional accompaniment which very often got in the way. Removing the overdubs allowed the raw emotion of Elvis’ voice to come to the fore.

The producers of Elvis’ music in the seventies were faced with a real dilemma. Elvis was often ill and tired, and his voice was often fragile as a result. Many of us would see that as making Elvis’ vocal performance more emotional and moving. To those charged with turning Elvis’ performances into usable, saleable product, this would have been considered a weakness that needed to be covered up behind piles and piles of backing-vocals and strings. Elvis’ voice was thus left sounding muffled, and was often drowned out.

For more about Felton Jarvis as Elvis' producer please read 'Elvis The Man & His Music' #94 and the article "Felton Jarvis Reappraised" by Luther Moore.

Here is a little extract that helps explain the appeal of "Our Memories Of Elvis"...

.. Like his artist, Felton Jarvis seems to have lived in a musical vacuum, unable to understand or assimilate changing musical tastes and simply incapable of developing a more contemporary post-production approach. So once again, clichéd horns, heavy strings and an ever-present sea of backing vocals continued to dominate. Songs like 'Sylvia' and 'Heart Of Rome' were never going to be classics anyway, but in their undubbed form they exhibit a charm and a directness that Jarvis' mixing once again utterly destroyed. And that, fairly and squarely, was his fault.

Concerns about Jarvis' abilities were also being raised within RCA, where Joan Deary made no effort to disguise her lack of respect for his work. The relative failure of albums like 'Fool' and 'Raised On Rock' only strengthened her view, but any hopes she may have had of displacing Jarvis were lost when Elvis came down firmly in the producer's camp. "Your husband is a jewel", he told Mary Jarvis, effectively cutting off any debate. But it's worth noting that for the December '73 Stax sessions, Deary sent four of RCA's New York engineers to run the sessions, and crucially,to mix the results too. And her concerns were shared by others. RCA executive Joe Galante said, "The company was at the point where it wasn't a matter of control or direction anymore, it was containment". But still nobody stepped in. And the quality and the frequency of the recordings continued to fluctuate wildly.

The July '73 Stax sessions were expected to produce 24 masters - Elvis recorded only nine, and after throwing another tantrum left the studio and refused to return. Jarvis had no option but to cancel the remaining dates. Elvis didn't even bother to record in 1974 and the March '75 sessions that produced 'Elvis Today' were also expected to produce a further three stand alone singles - none of which ever materialised. The February '76 Graceland dates produced barely enough material for one new album and the October dates only half of that - Elvis preferring to ride around on a motorbike instead. Worse, when sessions were scheduled for Nashville in January '77, Elvis simply didn't show up at all.

More distressingly, most of what was recorded were either hurriedly executed cover versions or syrupy, middle-of-the-road ballads that catered to Elvis' increasingly melancholic, maudlin outlook - a situation that Jarvis simply couldn't control. 'Moody Blue' showed a definite improvement - even if it was another cover version - but the album of the same name was awash with the usual strings and horns, arranged again by Bergen White in a style that had long since become outdated. Undubbed session outtakes reveal just how ham-fisted these arrangements really were, with Jarvis' astonishingly inept handling of “It's Easy For You” being especially abhorrent. But always it would seem with Elvis' approval. "Ronnie", Jarvis is said to have told drummer Ronnie Tutt, "I'm just there to make him happy". And it continued that way to the end.

Would a different producer have made a difference? Would a more challenging artistic environment have forestalled Elvis' descent? It's difficult to say. Elvis certainly wasn't an easy artist to control or direct; he did pretty much as he liked. "He thought he was Superman", said Parker of his client, in a mid-'80's interview. "He thought he could do anything." And as he got older that feeling only intensified. And, of course, nobody ever disabused him of the notion.

What can't be denied is that for the first three or four years of their association Jarvis and Elvis made some terrific records that certainly re-energised a seriously deflated artist. After that, I think it got stale and complacent - on both sides. The spark dimmed, and familiarity took the place of innovation and challenge. More pointedly, I don't think Jarvis was capable of steering Elvis towards a more challenging musical path anyway. He was, after all, a middle-of-the-road country and western producer from the Countrypolitan era, with all the baggage and influences that that background implies. Anything more creative was simply beyond his reach.

Elvis was just in bad company all round. The whole Elvis machine had no idea musically, none.

Which, no doubt, was why critics and large sections of the public didn’t much care for these albums when they came out, Elvis’ voice being buried beneath the excessive mush of backing vocals and strings and cluttered arrangements. Strip it down and make it clean, clear, pure and raw, warts and all. And what was revealed was, actually, not very warty at all, rich, delicious and fruity, and the wear and tear in Elvis’ voice, when it shows, is real and earned. Songs of experience.

79 (1979) Our Memories of Elvis, Volume 2

I Got A Feelin' in My Body

Green Green Grass of Home

For The Heart

She Wears My Ring

I Can Help

Way Down

There's A Honky Tonk Angel

Find Out What's Happening

Thinking About You

Don't Think Twice It's All Right (jam)

We can add, here, volume 3 from the CD release

Volume 3

Woman Without Love

Moody Blue (complete)

When I'm Over You

It's A Matter Of Time

Sweet Angeline

Hurt

Shake A Hand

Promised Land

Heart Of Rome

If You Don't Come Back

Bonus Material

Mr. Songman

For Ol' Time Sake

Love Coming Down

Pledging My Love (complete)

Raised On Rock

The Last Farewell

Fool

The ‘pure Elvis sound’ approach redeemed what may have sounded irredeemable. And it gave another indication of how Elvis may have developed and thrived as an artist had he had the right support and direction – and had he been able to give himself that direction. He didn’t need to be drowned out by mush, a cheap trick that fools no-one.

80 ELVIS ARON PRESLEY (8 x LP's)

(US) RCA CPL8 3699

Released: August 1980

Album 1 Side 1

An Early Live Performance

Heartbreak Hotel

Long Tall Sally

Blue Suede Shoes

Money Honey

Album 1 Side 2

Monolog

An Elvis Monolog

Recorded: Venus Room, New Frontier Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada, May 6, 1956

Recorded: On a United Artists' movie set, 1962

Album 2 Side 1

An Early Benefit Performance

Heartbreak Hotel

All Shook Up

Fool Such As I

I Got A Woman

Love Me

Introductions

Such A Night

Reconsider Baby

Album 2 Side 2

I Need Your Love Tonight

That's All Right

Don't Be Cruel

One Night

Are You Lonesome Tonight

It's Now Or Never

Swing Down Sweet Chariot

Hound Dog

Recorded: USS Arizona Memorial Benefit Concert, Bloch Arena, Pearl Harbour,

Honolulu, Hawaii, March 25, 1961

Album 3 Side 1

Collectors' Gold From The Movie Years

They Remind Me Too Much Of You (Take 1)

Tonight's All Right For Love (Takes 2, 3, 4, 7 & 17)

Follow That Dream (Take 2)

Wild In The Country (Take 16)

Datin' (Takes 6, 7, 8, 11 & 12)

Album 3 Side 2

Shoppin' Around (Takes 3 & 5) from April 27 session

Can't Help Falling In Love (Take 24)

Dog's Life (Take 5 & 6)

I'm Falling In Love Tonight (Takes 1, 2, 3 & 4)

Thanks To The Rolling Sea (Take 10 Movie Version)

Album 4 Side 1

TV Specials

Jailhouse Rock

Suspicious Minds

Lawdy Miss Clawdy / Baby What You Want Me To Do

Blue Christmas

Album 4 Side 2

You Gave Me A Mountain

Welcome To My World

Trying To Get To You

I'll Remember You

My Way

Album 5 Side 1

Las Vegas Years

Polk Salad Annie

You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'

Sweet Caroline

Kentucky Rain

Are You Lonesome Tonight (Laughing Version)

Album 5 Side 2

My Babe

In The Ghetto

American Trilogy

Little Sister / Get Back

Yesterday

Album 6 Side 1

Lost Singles

I'm Leavin'

First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

Hi-Heel Sneakers

Softly As I Leave You

Album 6 Side 2

Unchained Melody (Rushmore Civic Center, Rapid City, South Dakota, June 21, 1977)

Fool

Rags To Riches

It's Only Love

America, The Beautiful

Album 7 Side 1

Elvis At The Piano

It's Still Here

I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen (without overdubs)

Beyond The Reef (Overdubbed)

I Will Be True

Album 7 Side 2

Concert Years Part 1

Also Sprach Zarathustra

See See Rider

I Got A Woman / Amen / I Got A Woman

Love Me

If You Love Me (Let Me Know)

Love Me Tender

All Shook Up

Teddy Bear / Don't Be Cruel

Album 8 Side 1

Concert Years Part 2

Hound Dog

Wonder Of You

Burning Love

Dialog / Introductions / Johnny B. Goode

Introductions / School Days (Long Live Rock and Roll)

T-R-O-U-B-L-E

Why Me Lord

Album 8 Side 2

Concert Years Part 3

How Great Thou Art

Let Me Be There

American Trilogy

Funny How Time Slips Away

Little Darlin'

Mystery Train / Tiger Man

Can't Help Falling In Love

That's a lot of Elvis. Included here is the Pearl Harbour Hawaii concert of 1961.

81 "Guitar Man" (1981)

A1 Guitar Man

A2 After Loving You

A3 Too Much Monkey Business

A4 Just Call Me Lonesome

A5 Lovin' Arms

B1 You Asked Me To

B2 Clean Up Your Own Backyard

B3 She Thinks I Still Care

B4 Faded Love

B5 I'm Moving On

I never cared for this album. If you are going to rework and ‘update’ Elvis’ songs, then do it with some vim and vigor, and actually update it. This makes Elvis sound like one of the dime a dozen late seventies country rock stars. That kind of sound quickly dates, and was dated at the time, truth be told. There is no update at all. The American Sound material didn’t need to be messed with, the same with respect to Guitar Man and Too Much Monkey Business too. 'Backyard' remains a lost classic that needs to be discovered as was and as is. Same with 'Lovin’ Arms.' It’s an album I revisit in idle moments. I do think ‘Just call me lonesome’ was ripe for a rethink, I just don’t think it got it here. A missed opportunity.

82 "This Is Elvis" (1981)

A1 (Marie's The Name) His Latest Flame 2:06

A2 Moody Blue 2:49

A3 That's All Right 1:54

A4 Shake, Rattle & Roll - Flip, Flop & Fly 2:43

A5 Heartbreak Hotel 2:02

A6 Hound Dog 2:48

A7 Excerpt From Hy Gardner Interview 1:57

A8 My Baby Left Me 2:11

B1 Merry Christmas Baby 2:49

B2 Mean Woman Blues 2:32

B3 Don't Be Cruel 3:30

B4 (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear 1:46

B5 Jailhouse Rock 2:25

B6 Army Swearing In 0:28

B7 G.I. Blues 2:36

B8 Departure For Germany 0:51

B9 Excerpt From Home From Germany Press Conference 1:31

C1 Too Much Monkey Business 2:09

C2 Love Me Tender 2:41

C3 I've Got A Thing About You Baby 1:35

C4 I Need Your Love Tonight 2:03

C5 Blue Suede Shoes 2:31

C6 Viva Las Vegas 2:13

C7 Suspicious Minds 0:19

C9 Promised Land 1:57

D1 Excerpt From Madison Square Garden Press Conference 1:16

D2 Always On My Mind 3:01

D3 Are You Lonesome Tonight? 2:57

D4 My Way 3:44

D5 An American Trilogy 4:31

D6 Memories 2:18

A good overview, to go with the film. The shortened ‘Merry Christmas Baby’ with added strings is the one that caught my ear here. It isn't that I prefer this version, but that it is different to the other versions I have.

82 "I Was The One"... bonus track - The Elvis Medley (1983)

1 My Baby Left Me

2 (You're So Square) Baby I Don't Care

3 Little Sister

4 Don't

5 Wear My Ring Around Your Neck

6 Paralyzed

7 Baby Let's Play House

8 I Was The One

9 Rip It Up

10 Young And Beautiful

11 Ready Teddy

12 Your Cheating Heart take 9 bonus track on UK LP

13 Shake, Rattle And Roll/Flip, Flop & Fly (overdubbed, from the Dorsey TV Show, January 28, 1956) 14 Don't Be Cruel (overdubbed, from the Ed Sullivan TV Show, June 6, 1956)

15 Heartbreak Hotel (overdubbed, from the Dorsey TV Show, March 12, 1956)

16 Hound Dog (overdubbed, from the Milton Berle Show, June 5, 1956)

17 The Elvis Medley: Jailhouse Rock / Teddy Bear / Hound Dog / Don't Be Cruel / Burning Love / Suspicious Minds

Recordings from the TV shows in 1956 were welcome additions. I was looking for these in the one place. The songs on this album have been overdubbed by the producers, Elvis’ old pianists Tony Brown and David Briggs. New tracks have been added to the original tapes, in an attempt to give the material a fuller sound, booming bass and true stereo. The result is a sound that sounds completely false.

83 "Elvis - A Legendary Performer, Volume 4" (1983)

1. "When It Rains, It Really Pours" (Recorded: Sun Studios, Memphis, November 1955; includes 2 false starts and studio chatter)[2]) Bill Emerson 4:03

2. "Interview" (Elvis interviewed by Ray and Norma Pillow, recorded in Tampa, Florida, 1956) ̶ 2:09

3. "One Night of Sin" (previously unissued alternate version of "One Night", recorded 1958) Dave Bartholomew / Pearl King / Anita Steiman 2:34

4. "I'm Beginning to Forget You" (private recording, April 1959) Willie Phelps 3:00

5. "Mona Lisa" (private recording, April 1959) Ray Evans / Jay Livingston 2:28

6. "Wooden Heart" (false start, studio chatter, and alternate take of this 1960 recording for the film G.I. Blues) Bert Kaempfert / Kay Twomey / Ben Weisman / Fred Wise 3:20

Side two

1. "The Lady Loves Me" (1963 duet with Ann-Margret recorded for Viva Las Vegas but unreleased until now) Roy Bennett / Sid Tepper 3:42

2. "Swing Down Sweet Chariot" (unreleased 1968 recording from the soundtrack of The Trouble with Girls; remake of a song Presley first recorded in 1960 for his album, His Hand in Mine) Traditional 2:13

3. "That's All Right (Mama)" (live version recorded at NBC Studios, Burbank, California for the 1968 TV special) Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup 3:04

4. "Are You Lonesome Tonight" (previously released 1969 live version, recorded in Las Vegas; known as the Laughing Version" as Presley begins laughing during the performance) Lou Handman / Roy Turk 2:51

5. "Reconsider Baby" (previously unissued June 10, 1972 performance, recorded at Madison Square Garden) Lowell Fulson 2:47

6. "I'll Remember You" (previously unissued performance from the same show as above) Kui Lee 2:35

7. "Plantation Rock" (previously unissued track recorded in 1962 for Girls! Girls! Girls! but not used)

Interesting. Private recordings, alternate takes, and unreleased songs. There is a great start with the Sun blues of "When It Rains, It Really Pours" and the previously unreleased "One Night of Sin," an alternate version of "One Night." We have some private recordings, "I'm Beginning to Forget You," and the exquisite "Mona Lisa." Does the world really need an alternate take of "Wooden Heart"? Yes, actually. We finally get to hear the unreleased 1963 duet with Ann-Margret "The Lady Loves Me" recorded for Viva Las Vegas. The unreleased live performance of "Reconsider Baby," recorded at Madison Square Garden in June 10, 1972, was much appreciated. I’ve heard Robert Plant raving about it. Well here it is, where we can all listen to it.

84 "Elvis' Gold Records, Volume 5" (1984)

A1 Suspicious Minds

A2 Kentucky Rain

A3 In The Ghetto

A4 Clean Up Your Own Back Yard

A5 If I Can Dream

B1 Burning Love

B2 If You Talk In Your Sleep

B3 For The Heart

B4 Moody Blue

B5 Way Down

Volume 5 finally came out, and not before time. Volume 4 had come out in 1968. This one was a big disappointment for me. The previous four volumes were packed with good songs, and were compact documents concentrating on short time periods. This one ranges from 1968 to 1977, misses out many key hits, includes songs which were not hits and not obviously key. I mean, where are ‘Always on my mind,’ ‘American Trilogy,’ etc? ‘Hits of the Seventies’ should have been vol 5, with another volume for tracks that came after, like ‘Promised Land’ and ‘T-R-O-U-B-L-E’.

85 GOLDEN CELEBRATION (6 x LP's)

(US) RCA CPM6 5172

Released: September 1984

Side 1 (Sun Session Outtakes 1954, 1955)

Harbor Lights (Take 3)

That's All Right (Take 1, 2, 3)

Blue Moon Of Kentucky (Take 1 Slow)

I Don't Care If The Sun Don't Shine (Take 1, 2, 3)

I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone (Take 5 released as Take 11 Slow)

I'll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin') (Incomplete Take)

When It Rains, It Really Pours (Take 3 (Part), 7, 6 (Part) and 5) (SUN Version)

Side 2 (Dorsey Brothers Stage Shows, New York, January 28, February 4 & February 11, 1956)

Shake Rattle And Roll / Flip, Flop and Fly

I Got A Woman

Baby Let's Play House

Tutti Frutti

Blue Suede Shoes

Heartbreak Hotel

Side 3 (Dorsey Brothers Stage Shows, New York, February 18, March 17 & March 24, 1956)

Tutti Frutti

I Was The One

Blue Suede Shoes

Heartbreak Hotel

Money Honey

Heartbreak Hotel

Side 4

(Milton Berle Show California 1956)

Heartbreak Hotel

Blue Suede Shoes

Blue Suede Shoes

Hound Dog

I Want You, I Need You, I Love You

(Steve Allen Show New York 1956)

I Want You, I Need You, I Love You

Hound Dog

Side 5 (Mississippi Alabama Fair and Dairy Show, Tupelo, Mississippi, September 26, 1956)

Heartbreak Hotel

Long Tall Sally

Introductions and Presentations

I Was The One

I Want You, I Need You, I Love You

I Got A Woman

Side 6 (Mississippi Alabama Fair and Dairy Show, Tupelo, Mississippi, September 26, 1956)

Don't Be Cruel

Ready Teddy

Love Me Tender

Hound Dog

Vernon and Gladys Presley Interview

Nick Adams Interview

A Fan

Elvis

Side 7 (Mississippi Alabama Fair and Dairy Show, Tupelo, Mississippi, September 26, 1956)

Love Me Tender

I Was The One

I Got A Woman

Don't Be Cruel

Blue Suede Shoes

Baby Let's Play House

Hound Dog

Announcements

Side 8 (Ed Sullivan Show, California and New York, September 9 & October 28, 1956)

Don't Be Cruel

Love Me Tender

Ready Teddy

Hound Dog

Don't Be Cruel

Love Me Tender

Love Me

Hound Dog

Side 9 (Ed Sullivan Show, New York, January 6, 1957)

Hound Dog

Love Me Tender

Heartbreak Hotel

Don't Be Cruel

Too Much

When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again

Peace In The Valley

Side 10 (Elvis At Home, Germany, 1958-1960)

Danny Boy

Soldier Boy

Fool, The (Takes 1, 2 & 3)

Earth Angel

I Asked The Lord (He's Only A Prayer Away)

Side 11 (Collectors Treasure, Discovered At Graceland, 1966 Home Recordings)

TV Guide Interview

My Heart Cries For You

Dark Moon (Take 1 & 2)

Write To Me From Naples

Suppose

Side 12 (NBC TV Special, Burbank, California, June 27, 1968)

Blue Suede Shoes

Tiger Man

That's All Right

Lawdy Miss Clawdy

Baby, What You Want Me To Do

Love Me

Are You Lonesome Tonight

Baby, What You Want Me To Do

Blue Christmas

One Night

Trying To Get To You

Incredibly interesting for the fans to hear, but utterly lacking in coherence. Non-fans would find themselves lost. Wonderful to have the Mississippi show. And the TV performances.

86 "A Valentine Gift For You" (1985)

A1 Are You Lonesome Tonight?

A2 I Need Somebody To Lean On

A3 Young And Beautiful

A4 Playing For Keeps

A5 Tell Me Why

A6 Give Me The Right

A7 It Feels So Right

B1 I Was The One

B2 Fever

B3 Tomorrow Is A Long Time

B4 Love Letters

B5 Fame And Fortune

B6 Can't Help Falling In Love

If you don’t already have these, you are not an Elvis fan. If you are an Elvis fan, you already have these. A decent introduction for the interested, and encouraging further interest rather than deterring it. A huge advance on the previous approach, then.

87 "Reconsider Baby" (1985)

1 Reconsider Baby 3:40

2 Tomorrow Night 2:58

3 So Glad You're Mine 2:19

4 One Night 2:44

5 When It Rains, It Really Pours 1:49

6 My Baby Left Me 2:10

7 Ain't That Loving You Baby 2:30

8 I Feel So Bad 2:54

9 Down In The Alley 2:47

10 Hi-Heel Sneakers 2:46

11 Stranger In My Own Home Town 3:50

12 Merry Christmas Baby 6:28

A definite favourite of mine, concentrating some of Elvis’ most powerful blues performances in one place, where they sound even better when set alongside complementary material. There are tracks here which would come as a revelation to those who know only the hits. Gathered in one place, it makes a convincing case for Elvis as a blues singer. The alternate fast version of ‘Ain’t that loving you baby’ is very exciting to hear.

88 "Always On My Mind" (1985)

A1 Separate Ways

A2 Don´t Cry Daddy

A3 My Boy

A4 Solitaire

A5 Bitter They Are, Harder They Fall

A6 Hurt

B1 Pieces Of My Life

B2 I Miss You

B3 It´s Midnight

B4 I´ve Lost You

B5 You Gave Me Mountain

B6 Unchained Melody

B7 Always On My Mind

Fantastic idea! Just what Elvis’ seriously unraveling reputation needed, an album of concentrated misery, loss, and depression! There’s a context here. In the aftermath of Elvis’ death there was a long and lurid interest in the grubby and sordid details of the man behind the mask. The cracks started to appear in the god-like image, and once they opened, the entire edifice fell in pieces to the floor. The books were coming out thick and fast. Elvis, it was apparent, was not only neither a king nor a god but a very flawed human being. And the last thing we want from our idols is to be like us. We heard all about the drug addiction, we heard about his odd behaviour, his strange relationships with people, the carpets on the ceiling at Graceland and miscellaneous other oddities, some tales more lurid than others. It had never been cool to be an Elvis fan in my lifetime. The Beatles had long since eclipsed Elvis, and things had moved rapidly on since 1970. But there was always that great image and aura, and the numbers – the number of hits, the gold records, the sales figures, the sellout concerts. Elvis was big. By the mid-eighties Elvis had not only been cut down to size, he had been revealed to be a fake, a fraud, a copyist, a cultural appropriator, a racist, a sellout, a drug addict, a pervert, a moron. And the fans, mired in martyrdom, were morons, too. When they were not sending ‘laughing’ Elvis up the charts with ‘Are Lonesome tonight?’, they were wallowing in the self-pitying Elvis of the seventies. Elvis spent an inordinately long time singing about his regret that Priscilla had left him for his karate instructor. Read the truth and the mystery is why she hadn’t left much earlier. Elvis’ life and his behaviour was not as it ought to have been. So let’s be harsh and judgemental and say that his miserable end was long in coming and more than well deserved. Oh, and he pinched a black woman’s song and stuffed his oafish face on the millions he made on it and died as a fat inflated blimp consumed by his appropriation of that which was not his.

There’s more from where that came from. I heard it all and took it in. The negativity against Elvis was relentless. And those of us reeling from the shock that he was a mortal man after all were unable to resist. On ‘Hound Dog’ let me merely say this, the song was not Willie Mae Thornton’s, it was written by two Jewish white kids Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. And if we are going to start accusing anyone of theft, then Leiber and Stoller, the Jewish white kids who had written the song, had to sue Thornton and Johnny Otis for trying to claim the song as their own. Elvis performed the song for a bit of fun on a TV show, got absolutely hammered by critics, who were clearly worried about the way he was mixing black and white, setting a very dangerous precedent for a profoundly racist country. He was made to perform the song dressed in top and tails in front of a dog on the Steve Allen show in an attempt at public humiliation. Elvis was appropriately boiling mad angry and went into the studio shortly afterwards to record a hard as nails rock version of the song, taking out the blues groove, and losing entirely the whole sense of the song as a woman’s song. But it was a rebellion, all the same, and hit the world as such, taking it by storm. Eric Clapton loved it. So don’t come near me with this tripe about ‘Hound Dog.’ Because, apart from anything else, it is not the greatest song in the world. Elvis made it so much bigger than it actually was as a song. The flip side ‘Don’t be cruel’ is infinitely superior. It was written by Otis Blackwell. Blackwell was black. Cultural theft? Blackwell was brought up on the Grand Ole Oprey and country music; his favourite singer was white singing cowboy Tex Ritter. Tex Ritter, like other country stars, was hugely popular. I hope you get the point. Had Elvis simply been interested in making money, there were far easier ways for him to do it than blues – country music was huge, with established pop starts like Frankie Laine, Rosemary Clooney, Patti Page, Tony Bennett, Bing Crosby all helping themselves to the best country material.

The assault on Elvis was so huge and so relentless in the 1980s that it took me years to take up his cause. But now I fight back hard and strike hard against bigotry, stupidity, ignorance, hypocrisy and downright fraudulent claims. I’ll give you an example. Alice Echols in her book on Janice Joplin repeated a racist comment that Elvis ‘reportedly’ made back in the fifties. She did so to make Joplin look like a real blues artist who paid homage to the black originators and Elvis a racist appropriator. I’ll not repeat the comment, it is readily enough available. That comment was cited frequently and repeated as gospel truth in the 1980s and 1990s. People were not inclined to trace it to source. It is striking how many obviously wanted to believe it to be true. Research has been done on this, and there is no basis at all to the comment, every attempt to explain its origin being refuted. Its origin was an attempt by racists in America in the 1950s, afraid of the way Elvis was mixing black and white, and scared stiff by Elvis’ popularity amongst a black audience, to split Elvis from a black audience, and keep America divided. So well done all those radicals and liberals getting hip with ‘the streets’ in the eighties and nineties, you fell for it hook, line and sinker, thereby reinforcing the very divisions that Elvis was challenging. The racists had their victory in the end, then. I contacted Echols and her publishers demanding she showed the evidence to back her claims up. She never replied. Of course she didn’t. She couldn't supply the evidence I called on her to supply in order to support her claims. I know for a fact that she has no evidence, for the very reason that there is none. But the book repeats the claims, all the same. I note the irony that someone making such a big issue of prejudice and bigotry should be so prejudiced and bigoted herself, happily traducing the reputation of someone who, actually, was an integrator, in order to promote her pet prejudice.

As you may deduce from that, this kind of thing makes me angry. It was as a result of this onslaught that I abandoned Elvis throughout the eighties and nineties, and in fact turned on him with a vengeance. The next albums were ones which I had to catch up with many years later. But catch up I did. I’m not exactly sure what turned the tide for me. It certainly wasn’t the ‘laughing’ version of ‘Are you lonesome tonight?,’ and it certainly wasn’t the devotion of the Elvis fans which, however well-meaning, served to reinforce the general consensus that the Elvis world was just plain low brow, tawdry, and dumb. I remember hearing ‘Long Black Limousine’ on Anne Nightingale’s BBC radio 1 show and being knocked over by its sheer emotional power. And Johnnie Walker played ‘Stand By Me’ on his radio 1 show too, with the words ‘he really was the greatest.’ This was deep soul indeed. The fans kept repeating that Elvis was the greatest. I came to realize that he was actually a whole lot better than that.

89 "The Memphis Record" (1987)

A1 Stranger In My Own Home Town

A2 Power Of My Love

A3 Only The Strong Survive

A4 Any Day Now

A5 Suspicious Minds

B1 Long Black Limousine

B2 Wearin' That Loved On Look

B3 I'll Hold You In My Heart

B4 After Loving You

B5 Rubberneckin'

B6 I'm Movin' On

C1 Gentle On My Mind

C2 True Love Travels On A Gravel Road

C3 It Keeps On Right A-Hurtin

C4 You'll Think Of Me

C5 Mama Liked The Roses

C6 Don't Cry Daddy

D1 In The Ghetto

D2 The Fair Is Moving On

D3 Inherit The Wind

D4 Kentucky Rain

D5 Without Love

D6 Who Am I?

Stunning! This double album gathers all of the American Sound recordings from 1969 in the one place. Of course it is essential, certainly for Elvis fans. The only problem is the problem of all such documents, and that is the way that their comprehensive nature precludes selection. Select the very best twelve to fourteen tracks, ensuring balance, consistency of theme, and complementarity, and you will have an album as good as any produced and better than pretty much nearly all of them. 

There are remixes and alternates on here to tempt the Elvis fans in their endless quest to complete their Elvis collections.

90 "The Complete Sun Sessions" (1987)

A1 That's Alright

A2 Blue Moon Of Kentucky

A3 Good Rockin' Tonight

A4 I Don't Care If The Sun Don't Shine

A5 Milkcow Blues Boogie

A6 You're A Heartbreaker

A7 Baby Let's Play House

A8 I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone

B1 Mystery Train

B2 I Forgot To Remember To Forget

B3 I Love You Because

B4 Blue Moon

B5 Tomorrow Night

B6 I'll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin')

B7 Just Because

B8 Trying To Get To You

C1 Harbor Lights

C2 I Love You Because - Takes 1&2

C3 That's All Right

C4 Blue Moon Of Kentucky

C5 I Don't Care If The Sun Don't Shine

C6 I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone (My Baby's Gone)

C7 I'll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin')

C8 When It Rains, It Really Pours

D1 I Love You Because - Take 3

D2 I Love You Because - Take 4

D3 I Love You Because - Take 5

D4 I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone (My Baby's Gone) - Take 7

D5 I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone (My Baby's Gone) - Take 8

D6 I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone (My Baby's Gone) - Take 10

D7 I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone (My Baby's Gone) - Take 11

D8 I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone (My Baby's Gone) - Take 13

D9 I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone (My Baby's Gone) - Take 12

All the Sun recordings all in one place. To show those still unconvinced that Elvis was the best, you need a choice selection; to those who already know Elvis was the best, you need it all. This takes the latter approach.

91 "Essential Elvis - The First Movies" (1988)

(US) RCA 6738-1-R (LP)

(US) RCA 6738-2-R (CD)

Released: January 1988

Love Me Tender

Let Me

Poor Boy

We're Gonna Move

Loving You (Take 10 Slow Version)

Party (Movie Version)

Hot Dog

Teddy Bear

Loving You (Take 20, 21 Fast Version)

Mean Woman Blues (Movie Version)

Got A Lot O' Livin' To Do (Take 13 End Film Version)

Loving You (Take 1 Fast Version)

Party

Lonesome Cowboy

Jailhouse Rock (Film Version Vocal Overdubs Take 6)

Treat Me Nice (Splice Takes 10 & 13 Film Version)

Young And Beautiful (Take 12 Movie Finale Version)

Don't Leave Me Now (Take 12 Movie Version)

I Want To Be Free (Take 11)

Baby I Don't Care (Take 16 Vocal Overdubs Take 6)

Jailhouse Rock (Take 5)

Got A Lot O' Livin' To Do

Loving You (Take 1 Slow Version)

Mean Woman Blues

Loving You (Take 8 Fast Version)

Treat Me Nice

Love Me Tender (End Title Film Version)

Essential indeed. This contains 14 alternate takes or rarities, a few of which are radically different from the versions that were released. The album is a departure, promising a new approach to releasing Elvis’ material. RCA’s approach to Elvis in the decade since his death had mirrored their approach to Elvis when he was alive – dull and uninspired, just like the clueless jumble that characterized Elvis’ album releases. Fans wanted something different, something new, not the endless pick and mix from among the same songs. There was little unreleased material available, but there were a lot of alternate takes. We now got to hear the same Elvis songs in different versions. Wonderful. The only thing that worried me was that radio would struggle to differentiate the definitive versions from the alternates, with the result that lesser material would go out instead of the best recordings. It’s a minor concern, I’m sure, but it did happen. Poor Elvis was competing with himself again, the best versions of his best songs now being threatened by the lesser versions.

92 "The Alternate Aloha" (1988)

A1 Also Sprach Zarathustra

A2 See See Rider

A3 Burning Love

A4 Something

A5 You Gave Me A Mountain

A6 Steamroller Blues

A7 My Way

A8 Love Me

A9 It's Over

A10 Blue Suede Shoes

A11 I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry

B1 What Now My Love

B2 Fever

B3 Welcome To My World

B4 Suspicious Minds

B5 I'll Remember You

B6 American Trilogy

B7 Big Hunk 'O Love

B8 Can't Help Falling In Love

B9 Blue Hawaii

The day before the big global ‘Aloha’ concert in ’73 Elvis performed a dress rehearsal. Elvis seemed nervous and cautious in the main event, clearly restraining himself and pacing himself. Here, he is more relaxed. He forgets some of the words on ‘Burning Love’ and ‘Steamroller Blues,’ but the concerts are very similar. Elvis very clearly had a set idea on how he wanted this performance to go.

93 "Stereo '57 - Essential Elvis, Vol. 2" (1989)

1 I Beg Of You (Take 1) 2:11

2 Is It So Strange (Take 2) 2:36

3 Have I Told You Lately That I Love You (Take 2) 1:58

4 It Is No Secret (What God Can Do) (Takes 1,2,3) 6:10

5 Blueberry Hill (Take 2) 3:05

6 Mean Woman Blues (Take 14) 2:20

7 (There'll Be) Peace In The Valley (Take 2,3) 3:59

8 Have I Told You Lately That I Love You (Take 6) 1:56

9 Blueberry Hill (Take 7) 2:43

10 That's When Your Heartaches Begin (Take 4,5,6) 4:10

11 Is It So Strange (Take 7,11) 4:13

12 I Beg Of You (Take 6,8) 2:48

13 (There'll Be) Peace In The Valley (Take 7) 3:41

14 Have I Told You Lately That I Love You (Take 12,13) 3:31

15 I Beg Of You (Take 12) 2:02

16 I Believe (Take 4) 2:13

17 Tell Me Why (Take 5) 2:09

18 Got A Lot O'Livin' To Do! (Take 9) 2:33

19 All Shook Up (Take 10) 1:58

20 Take My Hand, Precious Lord (Take 14) 3:19

The holy and the profane, the sacred and the sinful, Elvis wrapped it all together as one. And with the release of the alternates, people get what they were always hankering for – the young Elvis of the 1950's comes back to life. I love that the often overlooked gems ‘Is it so strange’ and ‘Tell me why’ get a run out alongside the songs from Loving You as well as the gospel of ‘Peace in the Valley.’ Arranged alongside each other, you see how effortlessly Elvis blended the sacred and the secular on a continuum. The result is a document that encapsulates all that was vital and innovative about the Elvis of 1957 perfectly.

"The Million Dollar Quartet" (1990)

Disc: 1

1. You Belong To My Heart

2. When God Dips His Love In My Heart

3. Just A Little Talk With Jesus

4. Jesus Walked That Lonesome Valley

5. I Shall Not Be Moved

6. Peace In The Valley

7. Down By The Riverside

8. I'm With A Crowd But So Alone

9. Farther Along

10. Blessed Jesus (Hold My Hand)

11. As We Travel Along On The Jericho Road

12. I Just Can't Make It By Myself

13. Little Cabin Home On The Hill

14. Summertime Is Past And Gone

15. I Hear A Sweet Voice Calling

16. Sweetheart You Done Me Wrong

17. Keeper Of The Key

18. Crazy Arms

19. Don't Forbid Me

20. Too Much Monkey Business

21. Brown Eyed Handsome Man

22. Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind

23. Brown Eyed Handsome Man

24. Don't Be Cruel

25. Don't Be Cruel

26. Paralyzed

27. Don't Be Cuel

28. There's No Place Like Home

29. When The Saints Go Marching In

30. Softly And Tenderly

31. Is It so Strange

32. That's When Your Heartaches Begin

33. Brown Eyed Handsome Man

34. Rip It Up

35. I'm Gonna Bid My Blues Goodbye

36. Crazy Arms

37. That's My Desire

38. End Of The Road Black Bottom Stomp

39. Black Bottom Stomp

40. You're The Only Star In My Life

41. Elvis

A revelation. If not the revelation that rockers had anticipated, a revelation all the same. I already had a bootleg with half of this on. Rumours had been wild about the rock’n’roll revelation these tapes contained. Elvis, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash as a rock’n’roll vanguard. When we finally got to hear it, it was every bit the revelation we had anticipated, just not exactly the one that had been anticipated. Much of this is gospel! Gospel with a rockabilly beat and feel. And it is utterly joyous! Many years later I had this playing on CD down Route 66 in California, the car rockin’ and reelin’ with an awesome singalong in which no-one knew any of the words, but sung them anyway. There were no crashed cars, and no one got arrested. And no one could pick out Johnny Cash, either. And no one ever has or ever will. Country boy, remember the days when you sang those songs for free …

"Hits Like Never Before - Essential Elvis, Vol. 3" (1990)

King Creole (1st Version Take 18)

I Got Stung (Take 1)

Fool Such As I (Take 3)

Wear My Ring Around Your Neck (Take 22 Undubbed)

Your Cheatin' Heart (Take 9)

Ain't That Loving You Baby (Take 1)

Doncha' Think It's Time (Take 40)

I Need Your Love Tonight (Take 2, 10)

Lover Doll (Take 7 Master Undubbed)

As Long As I Have You (Take 8 Long Movie Version)

Danny (Take 10)

King Creole (1st Version Take 3)

Crawfish (Unedited Master Take 7 with Kitty White from Movie)

Big Hunk O' Love (Take 1)

Ain't That Loving You Baby (Take 5, 11)

I Got Stung (Take 13, 14)

Your Cheatin' Heart (Take 10 Master)

Wear My Ring Around Your Neck (Take 22)

Steadfast, Loyal and True (Take 6 Movie Version)

I Need Your Love Tonight (Take 5)

Doncha' Think It's Time (Spliced from Take 47, 40 & 48)

I Got Stung (Take 12)

King Creole (Take 8 Main Title Instrumental Version)

As Long As I Have You (Take 4 Short Movie Version)

Very similar to the Elvis '57 album, and every bit as vital. Fifties Elvis is back! Just what many people always wanted. It soon became apparent that Elvis would settle on an arrangement and then keep doing it until he was satisfied. The idea that the vaults were full of vastly different alternates was wishful thinking. But slight variations were much appreciated, it was like hearing Elvis anew. And these songs will always be very good. I much prefer alternate take 9 of 'Your Cheatin' Heart' to the released version, it is looser and swings like the clappers.

"The Great Performances" (1990)

1 My Happiness (Original Source From Sun Records)

2 That's All Right

3 Shake, Rattle & Roll / Flip, Flop & Fly

4 Heartbreak Hotel

5 Blue Suede Shoes

6 Ready Teddy

7 Don't Be Cruel

8 Teddy Bear

9 Got A Lot Of Livin' To Do

10 Jailhouse Rock

11 Treat Me Nice

12 King Creole

13 Trouble

14 Fame And Fortune

15 Return To Sender

16 Always On My Mind

17 American Trilogy

18 If I Can Dream

19 Unchained Melody

20 Memories

I have the video for this, which is wonderful. This album is noteworthy for being the first appearance of "My Happiness," the song which Elvis made as a private recording at Sun in 1953, effectively auditioning for the label. It is noteworthy, too, that the song is a slow, sad ballad, miles away from rhythm and blues, and miles away from the revolutionary sound that Elvis was to pioneer just a year later. I tell you, Elvis saw himself as a ballad singer. The album presents a good overview of Elvis in just 20 tracks. Of course, it only skims the surface but, in doing so, makes plain the fact that Elvis Presley was a remarkable singer and artist.

COLLECTORS GOLD

(US) RCA 3114-1-R (LP)

(US) RCA 3114-2-R (CD)

Released: August 1991

Disc 1

G.I. Blues (Take 1)

Pocketful Of Rainbows (Take 22, 17)

Big Boots (Fast version Take 7)

Black Star ( End Title Version Take 6)

Summer Kisses, Winter Tears (Take 14)

I Slipped, I Stumbled, I Fell (Lower Key Version Take 18)

Lonely Man (Take 4 Solo Version)

What A Wonderful Life (Take 1, 2)

Whistling Tune (Take 4 without whistling overdub)

Beyond The Bend (Take 2)

One Broken Heart For Sale (Take 1 Movie Version)

You're The Boss (Take 16, 3) (Duet with Ann-Margret)

Roustabout (Take 6)

Girl Happy (Take 4)

So Close, Yet So Far (From Paradise) (Take 4)

Stop, Look And Listen (Take 3)

Am I Ready (Take 1)

How Can You Lose What You Never Had (Take 1, 3)

Disc 2

Like A Baby (Take 1, 2)

There's Always Me (Take 4)

I Want You With Me (Take 1)

Gently (Take 3)

Give Me The Right (Take 1)

I Met Her Today (Take 1)

Night Rider (Take 1, 2)

Just Tell Her Jim Said Hello (Take 1)

Ask Me (Take 2 from 1963 session)

Memphis Tennessee (Take 2)

Love Me Tonight (Take 1)

Witchcraft (Take 1)

Come What May (Take 6)

Love Letters (1966) (Take 3, 4, 7)

Goin' Home (Take 21, 24)

Disc 3

Blue Suede Shoes (Live)

I Got A Woman (Live)

Heartbreak Hotel (Live)

Love Me Tender (Live)

Baby What You Want Me To Do (Live)

Runaway (Live)

Surrender - Are You Lonesome Tonight (Laughing Version) (Live)

Rubberneckin' (Live)

Memories (Live)

Introductions (Live)

Jailhouse Rock - Don't Be Cruel (Live)

Inherit The Wind (Live)

This Is The Story (Live)

Mystery Train - Tiger Man (Live)

Funny How Time Slips Away (Live)

Loving You - Reconsider Baby (Live)

What'd I Say (Live)

My only grievance with albums like this is that they give us too much, without coherence. It's for the fans to make what they can of them, and of course that is precisely what they will enjoy doing with the newly released material.

"The Lost Album" (1991)

1 Long Lonely Highway 2:20

2 Western Union 2:10

3 Witchcraft 2:18

4 Love Me Tonight 2:00

5 What Now, What Next, Where To 1:56

6 Please Don't Drag That String Around 1:54

7 Blue River 1:31

8 Never Ending 1:57

9 Devil In Disguise 2:20

10 Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers 1:47

11 Echoes Of Love 2:38

12 Slowly But Surely 2:12

13 It Hurts Me 2:27

14 Memphis, Tennessee 2:08

15 Ask Me 2:06

At long last! This ‘lost’ album shows how Elvis’ music ought to have been presented. This was the 1963-64 album that never was but should have been. Of course, there would not have been so many tracks, and the loss of three here would serve to improve consistency and raise the quality even further. It’s an example of how simply tightening up quality control would have given Elvis’ musical profile a much sharper and clearer public view. People are inclined to think Elvis disappeared in a series of more-of-the-same movies, but actually he remained a substantial recording artist, just not as prolific as he had been and as he could have been. From 1963 through to 1968, the quality was scattered, diluted, and drowned. There are at least six bona fide classic tracks on this album, comprising ballads, R&B, and rock and country rock. The fact that the material was not issued in this way when Elvis was alive is a scandal and a tragedy, doing immense damage to Elvis' artistic reputation. It’s not just that this music got lost, but that Elvis himself got lost. As 1969 was to demonstrate, a strong album performance would have restored purpose and direction to Elvis’ career, and encouraged further development along the same lines. Elvis’ management was not merely mercenary, it was imbecilic, and Elvis should have had the nous to clear them all out. He obviously didn’t, and that sealed his fate.

"Collectors Gold" (1991)

Hollywood

1-1 G.I. Blues

1-2 Pocketful Of Rainbows

1-3 Big Boots

1-4 Black Star

1-5 Summer Kisses, Winter Tears

1-6 I Slipped, I Stumbled, I Fell

1-7 Lonely Man

1-8 What A Wonderful World

1-9 A Whistling Tune

1-10 Beyond The Bend

1-11 One Broken Heart For Sale

1-12 You're The Boss

1-13 Roustabout

1-14 Girl Happy

1-15 So Close, Yet So Far

1-16 Stop, Look And Listen

1-17 Am I Ready

1-18 How Can You Lose What You Never Had

Nashville

2-1 Like A Baby

2-2 There's Always Me

2-3 I Want You With Me

2-4 Gently

2-5 Give Me The Right

2-6 I Met Her Today

2-7 Night Rider

2-8 Just Tell Her Jim Said Hello

2-9 Ask Me

2-10 Memphis, Tennessee

2-11 Love Me Tonight

2-12 Witchcraft

2-13 Come What You May (You Are Mine) 1:51

2-14 Love Letters 3:39

2-15 Going Home 3:01

Live In Las Vegas

3-1 Blue Suede Shoes

3-2 I Got A Woman

3-3 Heartbreak Hotel

3-4 Love Me Tender

3-5 Baby, What You Want Me To Do

3-6 Runaway

3-7 Surrender / Are You Lonesome Tonight

3-8 Rubber Neckin'

3-9 Memories

3-10 Introductions By Elvis Presley 2:07

3-11 Jailhouse Rock / Don't Be Cruel

3-12 Inherit The Wind

3-13 This Is The Story

3-14 Mystery Train / Tiger Man

3-15 Funny How Time Slips Away

3-16 Loving You / Reconsider Baby

3-17 What'd I Say

This is an attempt to give a concise overview of the different aspects of Elvis' career. Elvis had parallel careers running alongside each other – films, singles, albums, concerts. The remarkable thing is that he scaled the heights in all four domains. That needed to be handled well to prevent exhaustion, confusion of purpose, and competition with oneself. It wasn’t handled well. Elvis’ sheer talent and stamina kept it going so well for so long.

"Elvis Presley sings Leiber & Stoller" (1991)

Hound Dog

Love Me

Loving You

Hot Dog

I Want To Be Free

Jailhouse Rock

Treat Me Nice

Baby I Don't Care

Santa Claus Is Back In Town

Don't

Trouble

King Creole

Steadfast, Loyal & True

Dirty Dirty Feeling

Just Tell Her Jim Said Hello

Girls Girls Girls

Bossa Nova Baby

You're The Boss Elvis Presley, Ann Margret

Little Egypt

Fools Fall In Love

Saved

Excellent. Elvis and songwriters Leiber and Stoller worked wonderfully well on the early films Loving You, Jailhouse Rock and King Creole. Then Elvis’ mismanager/slave owner/parasite Tom Parker perceived the threat that their artistic influence entailed to his commercial priorities and cut them out. Here, we finally get to hear the duet with Ann Margaret, ‘You’re the Boss’ from Viva Las Vegas. Viva Las Vegas had a much better than usual collection of songs and yet a soundtrack album was not released. The reason is clear – sabotage on Parker’s part. The film had production values, was successful, and Elvis got on great with Ann Margaret. Parker wanted cheap and cheerless, and an Elvis isolated from other stars. ‘You’re the boss’ was cut from the film, too, and unreleased until long after Elvis’ death. If you think I’m kidding about Parker as being a manipulative crook, then consider the tripe served up to Elvis in the films – ‘Old MacDonald had a farm’ for crying out loud – and consider how it would be put out on endless soundtracks and then re-packaged umpteen times. I’m not saying ‘You’re the boss’ is the greatest song you’ll ever hear, and I’ll readily agree that the LaVern Baker and Jimmy Ricks' version is superior. But the Elvis-Ann Margaret version is good all the same, and was sabotaged, that’s all I’m saying.

As for the rest, excellent. I don't necessarily think the Leiber and Stoller songs are Elvis' best, I prefer his Otis Blackwell and Pomus-Shuman material. But these tracks are history-makers and show what could have been done in the sixties had the songwriting team not been sidelined. It's good to have this material all in the one place. It is telling that 'Three Corn Patches' is omitted. It's not a good song and remains leaden for all of Elvis' attempts to swing it. I have heard alternate takes which are better. I would have put it in to complete the set.

COMPLETE 50's MASTERS : THE KING OF ROCK 'N' ROLL

(US) RCA 07863 66050-2 (CD x 5)

Released: June 1992

Disc 1

My Happiness

That's All Right

I Love You Because

Harbor Lights

Blue Moon Of Kentucky

Blue Moon

Tomorrow Night

I'll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin')

I Don't Care If The Sun Don't Shine

Just Because

Good Rockin' Tonight

Milkcow Blues Boogie

You're A Heartbreaker

Baby Let's Play House

I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone

Mystery Train

I Forgot To Remember To Forget

Trying To Get To You

When It Rains, It Really Pours (1955)

I Got A Woman

Heartbreak Hotel

Money Honey

I'm Counting On You

I Was The One

Blue Suede Shoes

My Baby Left Me

One-Sided Love Affair

So Glad You're Mine

I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Cry (Over You)

Tutti Frutti

Disc 2

Lawdy Miss Clawdy

Shake Rattle And Roll

I Want You, I Need You, I Love You

Hound Dog

Don't Be Cruel

Any Way You Want Me (That's How It Will Be)

We're Gonna Move

Love Me Tender

Poor Boy

Let Me

Playing For Keeps

Love Me

Paralyzed

How Do You Think I Feel

How's The World Treating You

When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again

Long Tall Sally

Old Shep

Too Much

Anyplace Is Paradise

Reddy Teddy

First In Line

Rip It Up

I Believe

Tell Me Why

Got A Lot O' Livin' To Do

All Shook Up

Mean Woman Blues

Peace In The Valley

Disc 3

That's When Your Heartaches Begin

Take My Hand, Precious Lord

It Is No Secret (What God Can Do)

Blueberry Hill

Have I Told You Lately That I Love You

Is It So Strange

Party

Lonesome Cowboy

Hot Dog

One Night (Of Sin)

Teddy Bear

Don't Leave Me Now

I Beg Of You

One Night

True Love

I Need You So

Loving You

When It Rains, It Really Pours (1957)

Jailhouse Rock

Young And Beautiful

I Want To Be Free

Baby I Don't Care

Don't Leave Me Now (Movie Version)

Blue Christmas

White Christmas

Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane)

Silent Night

O' Little Town Of Bethlehem

Santa Bring My Baby Back (To Me)

Santa Claus Is Back In Town

I'll Be Home For Christmas

Disc 4

Treat Me Nice

My Wish Came True

Don't

Danny

Hard Headed Woman

Trouble

New Orleans

Crawfish

Dixieland Rock

Lover Doll

Don't Ask Me Why

As Long As I Have You

King Creole

Young Dreams

Steadfast, Loyal and True

Doncha' Think It's Time

Your Cheatin' Heart

Wear My Ring Around Your Neck

I Need Your Love Tonight

Big Hunk O' Love

Ain't That Loving You Baby

Fool Such As I

I Got Stung

Interview with Elvis

Disc 5

That's When Your Heartaches Begin

Fool, Fool, Fool (Demo)

Tweedlee Dee (Live)

Maybellene (Live)

Shake Rattle And Roll (Demo)

Blue Moon Of Kentucky (Take 1 Slow)

Blue Moon (Take 2)

I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone (Take 5 Slow Version)

Reconsider Baby (from Million Dollar Sessions)

Lawdy Miss Clawdy (Take 3)

Shake Rattle And Roll (Take 8)

I Want You, I Need You, I Love You (Take 16)

Heartbreak Hotel (Live)

Long Tall Sally (Live)

Blue Suede Shoes (Live)

Money Honey (Live)

We're Gonna Move (Take 4)

Old Shep (Take 5)

I Beg Of You (Take 1?)

Loving You (Slow Version)

Loving You (Up-Tempo Version)

Young And Beautiful (Solo Jail Movie Version)

I Want To Be Free (Movie Version Splice of Takes 10, 12 & 13)

King Creole (Take 3)

As Long As I Have You (Take 8 Long Movie Version)

Ain't That Loving You Baby (Take 11 Fast Version)

Fifties Elvis. History. A permanent record of Elvis as the man who did most to change the times we live in. I bought my copy at Hairy Records in Liverpool, a favourite haunt of mine, where I continued to hunt down vinyl long after the world had turned to CDs. Lovely box, well documented, well written essay from Peter Guralnick. It was nice to see Elvis being treated with the respect he deserved as an artist, at long last.

ESSENTIAL 60's MASTERS I : FROM NASHVILLE TO MEMPHIS

(US) RCA 66160-2 (CD x 5)

Released: September 1993

Disc 1

Make Me Know It

Soldier Boy

Stuck On You

Fame And Fortune

Mess Of Blues

It Feels So Right

Fever

Like A Baby

It's Now Or Never

Girl Of My Best Friend

Dirty, Dirty Feeling

Thrill Of Your Love

I Gotta Know

Such A Night

Are You Lonesome Tonight

Girl Next Door Went A'Walking

I Will Be Home Again

Reconsider Baby

Surrender

I'm Comin' Home

Gently

In Your Arms

Give Me The Right

I Feel So Bad

It's A Sin

I Want You With Me

There's Always Me

Disc 2

Starting Today

Sentimental Me

Judy

Put The Blame On Me

Kiss Me Quick

That's Someone You Never Forget

I'm Yours

His Latest Flame

Little Sister

For The Millionth And The Last Time

Good Luck Charm

Anything That's Part Of You

I Met Her Today

Night Rider

Something Blue

Gonna Get Back Home Somehow

Easy Question

Fountain Of Love

Just For Old Time Sake

You'll Be Gone

I Feel That I've Known You Forever

Just Tell Her Jim Said Hello

Suspicion

She's Not You

Echoes Of Love

Please Don't Drag That String Around

Devil In Disguise

Never Ending

What Now, What Next, Where To

Witchcraft

Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers

Love Me Tonight

Disc 3

Long Lonely Highway

Western Union

Slowly But Surely

Blue River

Memphis Tennessee

Ask Me

It Hurts Me

Down In The Alley

Tomorrow Is A Long Time

Love Letters (1966)

Beyond The Reef (Undubbed Master)

Come What May (Take 7)

Fools Fall In Love

Indescribably Blue

I'll Remember You (Unedited Full Master)

If Every Day Was Like Christmas

Suppose (Overdub of Home Recording 1966 #2)

Guitar Man - What'd I Say (Unedited Master)

Big Boss Man

Mine

Just Call Me Lonesome

Hi-Heel Sneakers (Unedited Full Length Master)

You Don't Know Me

Singing Tree

Too Much Monkey Business

U.S. Male

Disc 4

Long Black Limousine

This Is The Story

Wearin' That Loved On Look

You'll Think Of Me

Little Bit Of Green

Gentle On My Mind

I'm Movin' On

Don't Cry Daddy

Inherit The Wind

Mama Liked The Roses

My Little Friend

In The Ghetto

Rubberneckin'

From A Jack To A King

Hey Jude

Without Love (There Is Nothing)

I'll Hold You In My Heart (Till I Can Hold You In My Arms)

I'll Be There

Suspicious Minds

True Love Travels On A Gravel Road

Stranger In My Own Home Town

And The Grass Won't Pay No Mind

Power Of My Love

Disc 5

After Loving You

Do You Know Who I Am

Kentucky Rain

Only The Strong Survive

It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin'

Any Day Now

If I'm A Fool (For Loving You)

Fair's Moving On

Who Am I

It's My Way / This Time / I Can't Stop Loving You (Informal Recording)

In The Ghetto (Take 4)

Suspicious Minds (Take 6)

Kentucky Rain (Take 8)

Big Boss Man (Take 2)

Down In The Alley (Take 1)

Memphis Tennessee (Take 1 from 1963)

I'm Yours (Take 1 Undubbed Version)

His Latest Flame (Take 4)

That's Someone You Never Forget (Take 1)

Surrender (Take 1)

It's Now Or Never (Undubbed Master)

Love Me Tender - Witchcraft (with Frank Sinatra)

If you want a serious chunk of Elvis, something deeper than the greatest and best compilations, then the boxes are very excellent. I just prefer Elvis is neatly defined chunks. There’s something a bit anonymous about great big chunks. We lose a sense of narrative structure. It looks too much like a list and an archive. But the box is well done, and it contains 'Beyond the Reef' and 'Guitar Man' with the 'What'd I Say' outro. The alternate takes are the ones hardcore fans will want, here, having most of the rest.

"Amazing Grace - His Greatest Sacred Performances" (1994)

Disc: 1

1. I Believe

2. Peace in the Valley

3. Take My Hand, Precious Lord

4. It Is No Secret

5. Milky White Way

6. His Hand in Mine

7. I Believe in the Man in the Sky

8. He Knows Just What I Need

9. Mansion Over the Hilltop

10. In My Father's House

11. Joshua Fit the Battle

12. Swing Down Sweet Chariot

13. I'm Gonna Walk Dem Golden Stairs

14. If We Never Meet Again

15. Known Only to Him

16. Working On the Building

17. Crying in the Chapel

18. Run On

19. How Great Thou Art

20. Stand By Me

21. Where No One Stands Alone

22. So High

23. Farther Along

24. By and By

25. In the Garden

26. Somebody Bigger Than You and I

27. Without Him

28. If the Lord Wasn't Walking By My Side

29. Where Could I Go But to the Lord

Disc: 2

1. We Call On Him

2. You'll Never Walk Alone

3. Only Believe

4. Amazing Grace

5. Miracle Of The Rosary

6. Lead Me, Guide Me

7. He Touched Me

8. I've Got Confidence

9. An Evening Prayer

10. Seeing Is Believing

11. A Thing Called Love

12. Put Your Hand in the Hand

13. Reach Out to Jesus

14. He Is My Everything

15. There Is No God But God

16. I, John

17. Bosom of Abraham

18. Help Me

19. If That Isn't Love

20. Why Me Lord

21. How Great Thou Art

22. I, John

23. Bosom of Abraham

24. You Better Run

25. Lead Me, Guide Me

26. Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus/Nearer My God to Thee

Elvis gospel, essential. Elvis fans will want it all, and here it all is. All the songs from the three gospel albums and the ‘Peace in the valley’ EP plus the songs scattered here and there over films, singles, recording sessions. It all depends upon how much Elvis gospel you want. At this length, you may as well obtain the whole lot. But even if you bought the three gospel albums, you would still need to find the performances scattered in other places. 

ESSENTIAL 60's MASTERS II : COMMAND PERFORMANCES

(US) RCA 66601-2 (CD)

Released: July 1995

Disc 1

G.I. Blues

Wooden Heart

Shoppin' Around

Doin' The Best I Can

Flaming Star

Wild In The Country

Lonely Man

Blue Hawaii

Rock-A-Hula Baby

Can't Help Falling In Love

Beach Boy Blues

Hawaiian Wedding Song

Follow That Dream (Take 4)

Angel

King Of The Whole Wide World

I Got Lucky

Girls! Girls! Girls!

Because Of Love

Return To Sender

One Broken Heart For Sale

I'm Falling In Love Tonight

They Remind Me Too Much Of You

Fun In Acapulco

Bossa Nova Baby

Marguerita

Mexico

Kissin' Cousins

One Boy, Two Little Girls

Once Is Enough

Viva Las Vegas

What'd I Say

Disc 2

Roustabout

Poison Ivy League

Little Egypt

There's A Brand New Day On The Horizon

Girl Happy

Puppet On A String

Do The Clam

Harem Holiday

So Close, Yet So Far (From Paradise)

Frankie And Johnny

Please Don't Stop Loving Me

Paradise Hawaiian Style

This Is My Heaven

Spinout

All That I Am

I'll Be Back

Easy Come, Easy Go

Double Trouble

Long Legged Girl (With The Short Dress On)

Clambake

You Don't Know Me (Movie Version)

Stay Away, Joe

Speedway

Your Time Hasn't Come Yet, Baby

Let Yourself Go

Almost In Love

Little Less Conversation

Edge Of Reality

Charro

Clean Up Your Own Back Yard

Change Of Habit

I like the idea of selecting Elvis' best film songs from the sixties and putting them in one place. The problem, as this collection makes clear, is that views as to what Elvis' best film songs are vary widely. There are tracks on here which I consider to be among Elvis' worst. With more considered thought from those with good taste, the project has promise. It's a good concept, but this selection has me thinking about what my own selection would be. In this form, it is a decent, but flawed, complement to the Essential Masters sixties box. Better selection needed.

ESSENTIAL 70's MASTERS : WALK A MILE IN MY SHOES

(US) RCA 66670-2 (CD x 5)

Released: October 1995

Disc 1

Wonder Of You

I've Lost You

Next Step Is Love

You Don't Have To Say You Love Me

Patch It Up

I Really Don't Want To Know

There Goes My Everything

Rags To Riches

Where Did They Go, Lord

Life

I'm Leavin'

Heart Of Rome

It's Only Love

Sound Of Your Cry

I Just Can't Help Believin'

How The Web Was Woven

Until It's Time For You To Go

We Can Make The Morning

American Trilogy

First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

Burning Love

It's A Matter Of Time

Separate Ways

Disc 2

Always On My Mind

Fool

Steamroller Blues (live from Aloha from Hawaii)

Raised On Rock

For Ol' Times Sake

I've Got A Thing About You Baby

Take Good Care Of Her

If You Talk In Your Sleep

Promised Land

It's Midnight

My Boy

Loving Arms

T-R-O-U-B-L-E

Mr Songman

Bringin' It Back

Pieces Of My Life

Green, Green Grass Of Home

Thinking About You

Hurt

For The Heart

Moody Blue

She Thinks I Still Care (Take 2B Faded)

Way Down

Pledging My Love

Disc 3

Twenty Days and Twenty Nights

I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago

The Fool (different song to Fool)

Hundred Years From Now (Master Splice Takes 1 & 2)

Little Cabin On The Hill

Cindy, Cindy

Bridge Over Troubled Water

Got My Mojo Working - Keep Your Hands Off Of It

It's Your Baby, You Rock It

Stranger In The Crowd

Mary In The Morning

It Ain't No Big Thing (But It's Growing)

Just Pretend

Faded Love (Unedited Overdubbed Master)

Tomorrow Never Comes (Take 6 includes false start)

Make The World Go Away

Funny How Time Slips Away

I Washed My Hands In Muddy Water (Unfaded)

Snowbird

Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On

Amazing Grace (Take 2)

For Lovin' Me

Lady Madonna (Informal Jam Recording)

Disc 4

Merry Christmas Baby

I Shall Be Released

Don't Think Twice, It's All Right

It's Still Here

I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen (without overdubs)

I Will Be True

My Way

For The Good Times

Just A Little Bit

It's Different Now

Are You Sincere

I Got A Feelin' In My Body

You Asked Me To

Good Time Charlie's Got The Blues

Talk About The Good Times

Tiger Man (Jam 12/3/75)

I Can Help

Susan When She Tried

Shake A Hand

She Thinks I Still Care (Take 2B Faded)

Danny Boy

Love Coming Down

He'll Have To Go

Disc 5

See See Rider

Men With Broken Hearts (Short Poem)

Walk A Mile In My Shoes

Polk Salad Annie

Let It Be Me

Proud Mary

Something

You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'

Heartbreak Hotel

I Was The One (Live)

One Night

Never Been To Spain (Live)

You Gave Me A Mountain (Live)

It's Impossible

Big Hunk O' Love

It's Over (Hilton Hotel, Las Vegas, February 17, 1972, Dinner Show)

Impossible Dream (The Quest) (Hilton Hotel, Las Vegas, February 16, 1972, Midnight Show)

Reconsider Baby

I'll Remember You

I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry (live from Aloha from Hawaii)

Suspicious Minds (Live from Aloha from Hawaii)

Unchained Melody (Live Crisler Arena, Ann Arbor, Michigan, April 24, 1977)

Twelfth Of Never (Rehearsal)

Softly As I Leave You (Rehearsal)

Alla En El Rancho Grande (Informal Rehearsal)

Froggy Went A-Courtin' (Informal Rehearsal)

Stranger In My Own Home Town (Informal Rehearsal)

There are some interesting tracks to tempt the Elvis fanatics in. There are some glaring omissions for those who want a comprehensive document. The omission of 'Early Mornin' Rain' renders the whole thing flawed and botched. This is one of Elvis' finest recordings and really boosts his seventies standing. It is not here. On the plus side, 'The Twelfth of Never' is worth the price of admission alone. This may well be my most favourite Elvis song of all.

"Heart & Soul" (1995)

1 Love Me Tender

2 Young And Beautiful

3 Love Me

4 I Want You, I Need You, I Love You

5 Don't

6 As Long As I Love You

7 Loving You

8 Fame And Fortune

9 The Girl Of My Best Friend

10 Are You Lonesome Tonight?

11 Can't Help Falling In Love

12 She's Not You

13 Anything That's Part Of You

14 Love Letters

15 It's Now Or Never

16 It Hurts Me

17 I Just Can't Help Believin'

18 Always On My Mind

19 Suspicious Minds

20 I've Lost You

21 You Don't Have To Say You Love Me

22 Bridge Over Troubled Water

I like the title of this collection, rightly recognizing Elvis as a heart and soul singer. I think a different selection of songs should have been made to support that identification. ‘Bridge over troubled water’ is previously unreleased without the overdubbed applause. With albums like this we are just involved in an endless debate over what goes in and what doesn’t. Given the extraordinary number of high quality songs to choose from, that debate goes on forever, you just choose your favourite compilation from your already near complete collection. These compilations of endless variety are for those who just want the one, in which case one is as good - and as incomplete and as skewed - as any. Nice idea, nice package, another sale.

ELVIS 56

(US) RCA 66856-2 (CD)

Released: April 1996

Heartbreak Hotel

My Baby Left Me

Blue Suede Shoes

So Glad You're Mine

Tutti Frutti

One-Sided Love Affair

Love Me

Anyplace Is Paradise

Paralyzed

Reddy Teddy

Too Much

Hound Dog

Any Way You Want Me (That's How It Will Be)

Don't Be Cruel

Lawdy Miss Clawdy

Shake Rattle And Roll (Take 8)

I Want You, I Need You, I Love You

Rip It Up

Heartbreak Hotel (Take 5)

I Got A Woman

I Was The One

Money Honey

This is very good, distilling the essence of the 1956 sides and adding some alternates to justify a purchase by those who had thought that they already have it all. It really is a brilliant CD, though, and I play it often.

"A Hundred Years From Now - Essential Elvis, Vol. 4" (1996)

1. I Didn’t Make It On Playing Guitar ((Informal Jam))

2. I Washed My Hands In Muddy Water (Undubbed/Unedited Master)

3. Little Cabin On The Hill ((Alternate Take 1))

4. A Hundred Years From Now ((Alternate Take 2))

5. I’ve Lost You ((Alternate Take 6))

6. Got My Mojo Working / Keep Your Hands Off Of It ((Undubbed/Unedited Master))

7. You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me ((Alternate Take 2))

8. It Ain’t No Big Thing (But It’s Growing) ((Alternate Take 2))

9. Cindy, Cindy ((Alternate Take 1))

10. Faded Love ((Country Version))

11. The Fool (Alternate Take 1)

12. Rags To Riches (Alternate Take 3)

13. Just Pretend (Alternate Take 2)

14. If I Were You (Alternate Take 5)

15. Faded Love (Alternate Take 3)

16. Where Did They Go, Lord (Alternate Take 1)

17. It’s Only Love (Alternate Take 9)

18. Until It’s Time For You To Go ((Alternate Master – Take 10))

19. Patch It Up ((Alternate Take 9))

20. Whole Lot-ta Shakin‘ Goin‘ On ((Undubbed/Unedited Master))

21. Bridge Over Troubled Water (Alternate Take 5)

22. The Lord’s Prayer (Informal Performance)

The alternates are appealing, of course, but it’s the unheard title track that is the main selling point. ‘A hundred years from now’ is a quick country sprint on Elvis’ part, doing a very good impersonation of Bill Monroe. Elvis was a country boy all right. This track, though, is merely the lively opener that sets the scene for an incredible journey through authentic 'Elvis Country.' These songs are all as they sounded when Elvis actually recorded them, a lot of alternates, without the later overdubs. This is Elvis live in the studio, rocking out with the band. The quality of minor masterpieces such as 'I've Lost You' become apparent when stripped back to reveal their core beauty. 'That's The Way It Is' and 'Elvis Country' from 1970 are classic Elvis albums. Here, the music of those albums comes to life. This is a magnificent album.

"Great Country Songs" (1996)

1 I Forgot To Remember To Forget

2 Blue Moon Of Kentucky

3 When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again

4 Old Shep

5 Your Cheatin' Heart (Alternate Take 9)

6 (Now And Then There's) A Fool Such As I

7 Just Call Me Lonesome (Alternate Take 6)

8 There Goes My Everything (Alternate Take 1)

9 Kentucky Rain

10 From A Jack To A King

11 I'll Hold You In My Heart (Till I Can Hold You In My Arms)

12 I Really Don't Want To Know

13 It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin'

14 Green, Green Grass Of Home (Alternate Take 1)

15 Fairytale (Alternate Take 2)

16 Gentle On My Mind

17 Make The World Go Away

18 You Asked Me To

19 Funny How Time Slips Away

20 Help Me Make It Through The Night (Alternate Take 3)

21 Susan When She Tried

22 He'll Have To Go

23 Always On My Mind

24 Guitar Man (Remake)

Another variant on how to re-package and re-issue Elvis. We can play this game forever, unpacking and repacking Elvis. Blues, gospel, country, love songs/ballads, rock’n’roll. And then put it all back together. That's a jaundiced view born of experience. This album is actually very good, perked up by the inclusion of some very good alternates. I actually prefer the version of 'Fairytale' here to the one released on 'Today,' whilst 'There Goes My Everything' is significantly different. This also has the lively alternate take 9 of 'Your Cheatin' Heart,' as well as a good version of 'Just Call Me Lonesome.' This is very good, appealing to both Elvis fans and lovers of country music.

"An Afternoon In The Garden" (1997)

1 Introduction: Also Sprach Zarathustra

2 That's All Right

3 Proud Mary

4 Never Been To Spain

5 You Don't Have To Say You Love Me

6 Until It's Time For You To Go

7 You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'

8 Polk Salad Annie

9 Love Me

10 All Shook Up

11 Heartbreak Hotel

12 (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear / Don't Be Cruel

13 Love Me Tender

14 Blue Suede Shoes

15 Reconsider Baby

16 Hound Dog

17 I'll Remember You

18 Suspicious Minds

19 Introductions By Elvis 1:26

20 For The Good Times

21 An American Trilogy

22 Funny How Time Slips Away

23 I Can't Stop Loving You

24 Can't Help Falling In Love

Elvis became the first person to sell out four consecutive shows at MSG. This was an accolade other artists at the time could only dream of achieving. 80,000 tickets were sold and $730,000 made. ‘That woke me up anyway,’ Elvis says after an electrifying performance of ‘Polk Salad Annie.’ It really is a very lively performance, and a lively set. Elvis is in good form. Why do you need this if you already have the evening performance, the original release? Because it has 'Until It's Time for You to Go' and 'Reconsider Baby' and the other doesn't. And because it's Elvis.

BLUE HAWAII (Expanded)

(US) RCA 66959-2 (CD)

Released: April 1997

Blue Hawaii

Almost Always True

Aloha-Oe

No More

Can't Help Falling In Love

Rock-A-Hula Baby

Moonlight Swim

Ku-U-I-Po

Ito Eats

Slicin' Sand

Hawaiian Sunset

Beach Boy Blues

Island Of Love

Hawaiian Wedding Song

Steppin' Out Of Line

Can't Help Falling In Love (Movie Version)

Slicin' Sand (Take 4)

No More (Take 7)

Rock-A-Hula Baby (Take 3)

Beach Boy Blues (Movie Version)

Steppin' Out Of Line (Movie Version)

Blue Hawaii (Take 3)

For those of us who want the movie versions of the songs and the odd alternate take. This is worth having for the movie version of 'Can't Help Falling in Love.' Honestly, though, how long are we poor fans expected to carry on buying. How deep is our love for Elvis. I'd suggest that love carries on until the twelfth of never, and that's a long, long time.

JAILHOUSE ROCK

(US) RCA 67453-2 (CD)

Released: April 1997

Jailhouse Rock

Treat Me Nice

I Want To Be Free

Don't Leave Me Now

Young And Beautiful

Baby I Don't Care

Jailhouse Rock (Movie Version)

Treat Me Nice (Movie Version)

I Want To Be Free (Movie Version Splice Of Takes 10, 12 & 13)

Young And Beautiful (Movie Version)

Don't Leave Me Now (Unused Elvis Piano Version)

Love Me Tender

Poor Boy

Let Me

We're Gonna Move

Love Me Tender (End Title Version)

Let Me (Solo Take 3 Vocal Overdub)

We're Gonna Move (Take 9 Stereo)

Poor Boy (Stereo)

Love Me Tender (Stereo)

This is good to have. I always wanted a 'Jailhouse Rock' album to go with the 'Loving You' and 'King Creole' albums. The soundtrack was too short to justify an album, comes the response, but the same applies to the other two. 'King Creole' weighed in at just over 20 minutes, whilst 'Loving You' is packed on one side, with material recorded at the same time put on the second side. Here, the 'Love Me Tender' material was put on side two. It solves the problem, but isn't remotely as complementary as the two sides of the 'Loving You' album. It's good, though, and I'm glad I have it.

GI BLUES - COLLECTOR'S EDITION

(US) RCA 67460-2 (CD)

Released: April 1997

Tonight Is So Right For Love

What's She Really Like

Frankfort Special

Wooden Heart

G.I. Blues

Pocketful Of Rainbows

Shoppin' Around

Big Boots (Slow Version)

Didja' Ever

Blue Suede Shoes (New Version)

Doin' The Best I Can

Tonight's All Right For Love (Movie Version)

Big Boots (Fast Version)

Shoppin' Around (Take 11)

Frankfort Special (Take 2 Fast Version)

Pocketful Of Rainbows (Take 2)

Didja' Ever (Take 1)

Big Boots (Fast Version Acoustic)

What's She Really Like (Take 7)

Doin' The Best I Can (Take 9)

It's 'G.I. Blues' with additions and alternates.

PLATINUM - A LIFE IN MUSIC (1997)

(US) RCA 07863 67469-2 (4 x CD)

Released: July 1997

Disc 1

I'll Never Stand In Your Way

That's All Right (Take 1, 2, 3)

Blue Moon (Take 2)

Good Rockin' Tonight

Mystery Train

I Got A Woman (Take 7)

Heartbreak Hotel (Take 6)

I'm Counting On You (Take 13)

Shake Rattle And Roll - Flip, Flop and Fly

Lawdy Miss Clawdy (Take 1)

I Want You, I Need You, I Love You (Take 4)

Hound Dog (Live on Milton Bearle Show)

Don't Be Cruel

Rip It Up (Take 15)

Love Me Tender (Live on Ed Sullivan Show)

When The Saints Go Marching In (Private Recording)

All Shook Up

Peace In The Valley (Take 4)

Blueberry Hill (Acetate)

Teddy Bear

Jailhouse Rock

New Orleans

I Need Your Love Tonight (Take 7)

Big Hunk O' Love (Take 4)

Bad Nauheim Medley

(I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen, I Will Be True, It's Been So Long Darling, Apron Strings, There's No Tomorrow)

Disc 2

Stuck On You (Live on Frank Sinatra Show)

Fame And Fortune (Live on Frank Sinatra Show)

It's Now Or Never

It Feels So Right (Take 3)

Mess Of Blues (Take 1)

Are You Lonesome Tonight

Reconsider Baby

Tonight Is So Right For Love (Take 3)

His Hand In Mine (Take 1)

Milky White Way (Take 3)

I'm Comin' Home (Take 3)

I Feel So Bad (Take 1)

Can't Help Falling In Love

Something Blue (Take 2)

Return To Sender

Bossa Nova Baby (Take 2)

How Great Thou Art (Take 2)

Guitar Man (Take 5)

You'll Never Walk Alone (Take 2)

Oh, How I Love Jesus

Tennessee Waltz (Version 1)

Blowing In The Wind

I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You)

I'm Beginning To Forget You

After Loving You

Disc 3

I Got A Woman (Rehearsal 24 June 1968)

Tiger Man (Rehearsal 25 June 1968)

When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again (Rehearsal 27 June 1968)

Trying To Get To You (Rehearsal 27 June 1968)

If I Can Dream (Take 1)

In The Ghetto (Take 3)

Suspicious Minds (Take 7)

Power Of My Love (Take 3)

Baby What You Want Me To Do (Live 24 Aug 1969)

Words (Live 24 Aug 1969)

Johnny B. Goode (Live 22 Aug 1969)

Release Me (Rehearsal)

See See Rider (Rehearsal)

Wonder Of You (Rehearsal Take 4)

Sound Of Your Cry (Take 6)

You Don't Have To Say You Love Me

Funny How Time Slips Away

I Washed My Hands In Muddy Water (Rehearsal)

I Was The One (Rehearsal)

Cattle Call (Rehearsal)

Baby Let's Play House (Rehearsal)

Don't (Rehearsal)

Money Honey (Rehearsal)

What'd I Say (Rehearsal)

Bridge Over Troubled Water (Live)

Disc 4

Miracle Of The Rosary (Take 1)

He Touched Me (Take 2)

Bosom Of Abraham (Take 3)

I'll Be Home On Christmas Day (Take 4)

For The Good Times (Take 2)

Burning Love (Take 4)

Separate Ways (Take 25)

Always On My Mind (Take 2)

American Trilogy

Take Good Care Of Her (Take 4)

I've Got A Thing About You Baby

Are You Sincere (Take 2)

It's Midnight (Take 10)

Promised Land (Take 5)

Steamroller Blues (Live Mid-South Coliseum, Memphis, Tennessee 20 March 1974)

And I Love You So (Take 2)

T-R-O-U-B-L-E

Danny Boy (Take 9)

Moody Blue

Hurt (Take 2)

For The Heart (Take 1)

Pledging My Love (Take 3)

Way Down (Take 2b)

My Way (Live Saginaw 25 April 1977)

Excerpt From Jaycees Speech

An incredibly interesting and varied document. My main criticism would be that it is neither fish nor fowl. The alternates, rehearsals, and live performances are likely to appeal to Elvis fans only, who will almost certainly have the smattering of hits and released versions here. As a fan, I seized on all the material I had not heard before. It's just a vast sprawling document that is wonderful to get lost in.

"Rhythm and Country - Essential Elvis, Vol. 5" (1998)

1. I Got A Feeling In My Body

2. Loving Arms

3. I've Got A Thing About You Baby

4. She Wears My Ring

5. You Asked Me To

6. There's A Honky Tonk Angel

7. Good Time Charlie's Got The Blues

8. Find Out What's Happening

9. For Ol' Times Sake

10. If You Don't Come Back

11. Promised Land

12. Thinking About You

13. Three Corn Patches

14. Girl Of Mine

15. Your Love's Been A Long Time Coming

16. Spanish Eyes

17. Talk About The Good Times

18. If That Isn't Love

‘Best,’ ‘Greatest,’ ‘Essential,’ the issuing of Elvis material has gone from being random and haphazard to being distended. To a company marketing a product it’s all ‘essential,’ and any reasonably fanatical Elvis fan will agree. ‘Definitive’ is another slippery concept – the definitive Elvis is, actually, expresses a combination of all things, including the lame, the lacklustre, and the plain lamentable. Because it’s all here in Elvis’ catalogue.

This is not an ‘essential’ disc for non-fans. Indeed, ‘Three corn patches’ must be one of the worst songs Leiber and Stoller ever wrote, so bad that it was left of the ‘Elvis sings Leiber and Stoller’ album. The criterion I use with respect to categories like ‘great’ or ‘essential’ is the extent to which a track has a value to those who are interested in the music as such and not in the worship and adulation of icons. 

This is, however, an essential album for Elvis experts, completists, and fanatics, people I call 'Elvperts,' people who combine insight, knowledge, and obsession and take it to the nth degree. Such people can assess the evidence and report back to the world about the ‘real Elvis.’ Albums like this are to be mined by Elvis fans for the gems and revelations they contain. These are alternate takes from the Stax sessions of 1973, where Elvis sought to (in)fuse country with southern soul within a pop sensibility to produce a mature contemporary sound with commercial appeal. It was an ambitious concept, contradicting the general impression that Elvis’ career was meandering into an inconsequential middle of the road. With the Stax musicians involved, there is rhythm aplenty, whilst the country ranges from old to new. The two albums released from this material in 1974 and 1975 bombed and Elvis’ reputation continued to lose its contemporary significance. That was unfair, because stripped to one album, the best of the Stax sessions had the potential to be an ‘American Sound ‘69’ reawakening. This issue of the material mixes the good with the average and so-so and would soon test the patience of a non-fan. Here, the Stax sessions come to life, revealing the music to be vital and real.

"Tiger Man" (1998)

Heartbreak Hotel

Baby What You Want Me To Do

Introductions 8pm

That's All Right

Are You Lonesome Tonight?

Baby What You Want Me To Do

Blue Suede Shoes

One Night

Love Me

Trying To Get To You

Lawdy Miss Clawdy

Santa Claus Is Back In Town

Blue Christmas

Tiger Man

When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again

Memories

By now, we were getting into the release of anniversary editions of the big events. Thirty years on from the ’68 special RCA released the complete set from the second of two concerts given by Elvis on June 27, 1968. At long last we got the scandalously omitted 'Tiger Man.' A few tracks here had been previously released, so fans were hearing something old and new, the alternate familiar. It doesn’t add anything to the ’68 Special and, in the ears of non-Elvis fans, can detract from the impact of ’68. Elvis louses up, rambles and banters excessively, forgets lines, stops and starts, with the result that those expecting a professional concert performance will come away thinking Elvis is an incompetent and an amateur. Elvis fans will treat it as a goldmine, setting off in search of those little nuggets left over from a career in which everything was taken to market and flogged to death.

So we are left with the need for a) the complete set and b) a choice selection (which includes 'Tiger Man').

"Memories - The '68 Comeback Special" (1998)

1-1 Trouble / Guitar Man 3:22

1-2 Heartbreak Hotel 1:34

1-3 Hound Dog 0:47

1-4 All Shook Up 2:01

1-5 Can't Help Falling In Love 2:19

1-6 Jailhouse Rock 1:59

1-7 Don't Be Cruel 1:42

1-8 Blue Suede Shoes 2:24

1-9 Love Me Tender 3:29

1-10 Baby What You Want Me To Do 3:16

1-11 Trouble / Guitar Man 4:22

Gospel Medley 9:00

1-12a Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child

1-12b Where Could I Go But To The Lord

1-12c Up Above My Head

1-12d Saved

-

1-13 Memories 3:15

1-14 A Little Less Conversation 1:43

Road Medley 15:42

1-15a Nothingville

1-15b Big Boss Man

1-15c Let Yourself Go

1-15d It Hurts Me

1-15e Guitar Man

1-15f Little Egypt

1-15g Trouble

1-16 If I Can Dream 3:11

2-1 When It Rains, It Really Pours 1:51

2-2 Lawdy, Miss Clawdy 1:45

2-3 Baby What You Want Me To Do 1:27

2-4 That's All Right 6:42

2-5 Heartbreak Hotel 2:53

2-6 Love Me 2:55

2-7 Baby What You Want Me To Do 3:45

2-8 Blue Suede Shoes 4:40

2-9 Baby What You Want Me To Do 2:53

2-10 Lawdy, Miss Clawdy 4:03

2-11 Are You Lonesome Tonight? 2:56

2-12 When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again 0:38

2-13 Blue Christmas 2:27

2-14 Trying To Get To You 2:58

2-15 One Night 3:54

2-16 Baby What You Want Me To Do 3:59

2-17 One Night 3:51

2-18 Memories 3:25

2-19 If I Can Dream 3:10

So which is the one which is the ‘must-buy,’ this one or the one above? Both, for the fans. You see the problem, the marketing is still to the fans. But there is a reason for selection and quality control, and that is to fashion the good into the essential, which has an appeal to those more interested in the music than the idol. Where does the non-fan go for the definitive ’68 Special?

The issuing of Elvis material has improved markedly over the years, but it has to be admitted that it is still flawed. I make that criticism in full recognition of the massive problem that Elvis’ vast catalogue sets anyone seeking to issue definitive sets. The random round everything up, pack it up and send it out on a conveyor belt approach when Elvis was alive destroyed the profile of the music and had critics and public alike confused and often plain unaware of Elvis’ best material. Elvis would no doubt have the necessary distinctions alive in his mind’s eye, separating his quality material from fodder from the publishing company and the film soundtracks. But it is obvious he had no input into how the material was presented, packaged, and released, with the result that ‘Tomorrow is a long time’ ends up being issued on albums containing abominations like ‘Beach shack’ and ‘Adam and evil.’ Then we get the compilations, the same hits in different combinations, the budget approach, the Elvis sings for grown-ups and morons too approach, and the more innovative approach of the ‘legendary’ series. It all flooded the market with different Elvises, with it being less than obvious which one for the discerning music fan to choose. So we weighed up the price of the material in accordance with the nature of our interest. And the fans bought as much as they could. The approach to marketing the music became better, but is still very far from ideal. We now get comprehensive issues, all of the Sun, the ’56, the ’68, the ’69, the Stax material, the Graceland material. In truth, we need to revisit the original albums, add the hits, remove the filler, roundup the material that went missing, and issue albums of material carefully selected to show Elvis’ music at any particular time at its very best. In other words, for the music fan, we don’t need it all in one place, we don’t need alternates and outtakes, we don’t need an archive or a catalogue – we need a definitive album from each and every phase of Elvis’ career. 

I’m saying ‘we’ here meaning the discerning music fan. The Elvis fan, of course, will want it all, but the management’s knowledge of the insatiability of your average Elvis nut was always a big part of the problem. For non-Elvis fans, the comprehensive approach results in documents that are too uneven in quality, and often too disjointed and incoherent, and too plain time-consuming, to properly present Elvis’ music in its true light. The problem has always been the tendency to issue everything, filling out the good material with the lesser material. Fans will hear it all, but non-fans will simply judge what is in front of them and draw the conclusion that Elvis was sometimes good, sometimes very good indeed, but often merely average. That false impression is created by the approach taken to the material. The truth is not merely that Elvis recorded quality, but that he did so in a quantity that far exceeds most other artists. To give an obvious example, in 1970 Elvis recorded sufficient material to fill an entire four albums. Pack that material onto the one album, and keep the rest hidden from view in the vaults, and critical and public attention would have been forced to focus on the very best. The result would be a huge boost to Elvis’ artistic standing. (In truth, the 1970 material was so good that three albums were certainly justified).

This is excellent for the Elvis fan. The non-Elvis fan wants the force of the music to be more concentrated.

SUNRISE (1999)

(US) RCA 07863 67675-2 (CD)

Released: February 1999

Disc 1

That's All Right

Blue Moon Of Kentucky

Good Rockin' Tonight

I Don't Care If The Sun Don't Shine

Milkcow Blues Boogie

You're A Heartbreaker

Baby Let's Play House

I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone

I Forgot To Remember To Forget

Mystery Train

I Love You Because

Harbor Lights

Blue Moon

Tomorrow Night

I'll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin')

Just Because

I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone (Take 1 Slow Version)

Trying To Get To You

When It Rains, It Really Pours

Disc 2

My Happiness

That's When Your Heartaches Begin

I'll Never Stand In Your Way

It Wouldn't Be The Same Without You

I Love You Because (Take 1, 2)

That's All Right (Take 1, 2, 3)

Blue Moon Of Kentucky (Take 1)

Blue Moon (Take 6, 7 & 8)

I'll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin') (Take Unknown Incomplete)

I Don't Care If The Sun Don't Shine (Take 1, 2, 3)

I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone (Slow Version) (Take 5)

Fool, Fool, Fool

Shake Rattle And Roll

I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone (Live)

That's All Right (Live)

Money Honey (Live)

Tweedlee Dee (Live)

I Don't Care If The Sun Don't Shine (Live)

Hearts Of Stone (Live)

The Sun sessions are the bedrock. Anything new from the Sun says will always be gratefully received, and taken as an invitation to listen again to those masterpieces containing worlds within worlds opening out to the future. It's all here for the Elvis fan. There's too much for the discerning music fan. But such a fan can just listen to disc one, and be as amazed as the rest of us.

"Suspicious Minds - The Memphis 1969 Anthology" (1999)

Wearin' That Loved On Look

Only The Strong Survive

I'll Hold You In My Heart

Long Black Limousine

It Keeps Right On-Hurtin'

I'm Movin' On

Power Of My Love

Gentle On My Mind

After Loving You

True Love Travels On A Gravel Road

Any Day Now

In The Ghetto

Mama Liked The Roses

Suspicious Minds

You'll Think Of Me

Don't Cry Daddy

The Fair Is Moving On

Kentucky Rain

Stranger In My Own Home Town

Without Love (There Is Nothing)

This Time / I Can't Stop Loving You

After Loving You (Alternate Take)

Without Love (Alternate Take)

I'm Moving On (Alternate Take)

From A Jack To A King (Alternate Take)

It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin' (Alternate Take)

True Love Travels On A Gravel Road (Alternate Take)

Power Of My Love (Alternate Take)

You'll Think Of Me (Alternate Take)

If I'm A Fool (For Loving You)

Do You Know Who I Am

A Little Bit Of Green

And The Grass Won't Pay No Mind

This Is The Story

I'll Be There

Hey Jude

Rubberneckin'

Poor Mans Gold (Incomplete)

Inherit The Wind

My Little Friend

Who Am I?

Kentucky Rain (Alternate Take)

Suspicious Minds (Alternate Take)

In The Ghetto (Alternate Take)

The thirtieth anniversary of the American Sound sessions, so we are treated to an issue of the whole collection. And it is a treat, for the fans. But I’m always most interested in Elvis’ critical reputation and standing among non-fans. Elvis’ importance as an artist is vastly underrated and unappreciated, something which is all the more galling when compared to the wild overestimation of some artists based on the meagre handful of their good recordings. As a fan, I would buy this and enjoy this – and did. As a fan concerned to improve Elvis’ standing, I would also be concerned to issue the very best tracks here in one place – 14 to 16 of them. Now that would be ‘essential,’ ‘best,’ ‘greatest,’ ‘definitive,’ and an unarguable case for Elvis Presley as an artist of the highest calibre.

The tracks will all be familiar to Elvis fans. To an outsider, the collection of old country songs, hard driven soul and rhythm & blues, contemporary, lyrical country and social criticism would seem eclectic and formless. Elvis gives it unified shape and form. The range is indeed remarkable. What integrates the material is Elvis’ voice and approach and the American Sound house band, forging a sound that transcends the genres and knits them together, infusing each song and weaving them together to form a collective body of sound that is distinctive and unique.

The most important component of this sound is Elvis, who doesn’t merely sing as invest the songs with a powerful emotional charge. He clearly knows that he is being challenged by the context, the material and the musicians and is enthusiastic to rise to that challenge, pouring his heart and soul into the numbers. Obviously frustrated and despairing over how his career was meandering into inconsequentiality and even ridicule in Hollywood, Elvis seized on the success of the ’68 comeback and determined to make a powerful restatement of his old synthesis of blues/country/gospel/rock/balladry. He was both desperate to survive and eager to succeed, pulling clear of the creative mire into which his career had fallen, and once more create music of substance and consequence, music that made a positive impact, on him, his fans, the general public, the critics, the world at large, history. I can hear the voice of the critics here asking isn’t that what artists are supposed to do all the time, exhibit a commitment to the music in the knowledge that such a commitment constitutes the very quality of their artistry. Yes, that’s true. But try being an artist when swallowed up within a music factory. I wouldn’t want to overdo the claims to great art, either. Elvis was an artist, and a great one. But rock and pop is by definition a fallen world where success depends on artistic compromises and Faustian bargains. And with Elvis’ commercial achievements, appeal and commitments, those bargains were particularly vast and diabolic. Elvis displayed a passionate commitment to the material and the music at American Sound in ’69, but it wasn’t just about art, it was about survival – his very identity was at stake. At times, it sounded like his very soul was at stake. 

And there in a nutshell is the eternal paradox of Elvis, explaining why it was inevitable that his career would wax and wane – he worked better when he was challenged and had something to prove, when he had to carve out a future for himself. Once he had triumphed – Sun, ’56, Elvis is Back ’60, Comeback ’68, American Sound ’69 – he would fall back into ‘business’ and go back to working for the machine. He tried hard again at Stax in ’73, and in my view he succeeded, albeit to a less innovatory extent. It was needed in ’76 but the flesh was weak and wilting. The longer he lived, the most he could do was give his personal expression of his original synthesis. That shouldn't be a criticism. You can reinvent music, and yourself, only so many times. Critics wanted Elvis to do it all the time and were unsparing in their criticism when he failed in meeting this impossible standard. Instead, Elvis did all that he could do, and report back on where his career had brought him. He invested that musical synthesis he fashioned with a wealth and depth of experience. It is that emotional commitment to the music that raised Elvis beyond the good. It also goes some way to explaining why Elvis’ early sixties albums ‘Something for Everybody’ and ‘Pot Luck’ can pass with relative neglect, despite being faultless pieces of pop sophistication. After his hugely successful comeback after the army, with multi-million selling singles and box office film smashes, Elvis was riding so high that there was no-one remotely on his trail, least of all Robert Johnson’s Hellhound. I always thought it interesting that he did ‘Tiger Man’ in the ’68 Comeback. To my ears this song sounds  like a rehash of Howlin’ Wolf’s ‘Meet me in the bottom,’ a song which contains this most apposite lyric:

When you see me streaking by, please don't be late

Well, when you see me moving, though my life is at stake

Well, I hope you'll see me, when I come streaking by

…. you know I'm too young to die

When Elvis sang when he thought something was at stake – and when he had the power to sing with passion and commitment – he blazed a trail. And having succeeded he got mired in the familiar. Here in ’69 he is moving. And it is also worth emphasising that he was getting better and better as a singer, developing an ever more powerful and mature voice with a greater technical range.

The house band at American Sound Studio was a collection of crack musicians who had worked together with the producer Chips Moman for years, forging their sound through hundreds of sessions. In this process they had developed a connection, a collective musical mind, a distinctive sound of their own. Importantly, Elvis and the musicians were on the same wavelength. Evidently, Elvis’ original blend of country, blues, gospel had in time matured as the rock and soul of the late sixties, and the Sound musicians were exemplars of the genre. Elvis was simply coming home and coming into his own, blending seamlessly into the collective sound. Elvis and the musicians shared the same musical blend and spoke the same language, creating a body of work that stands with the very best. The material was all part of the blend, country and rhythm & blues, old songs but, importantly, new material in this very distinctive genre: 'In The Ghetto', 'Don't Cry Daddy', 'Kentucky Rain', 'Inherit The Wind.' It is testimony to this sound and blend that Burt Bacharach’s ‘Any Day Now’ could be made to sound like a southern soul classic. Soulful, passionate, emotional – and also displaying musicianship of the highest quality and singing of great technical ability. I hate to say this, but I will, given my point earlier about the way critics vastly overrate some singers and scandalously downplay others. The acclaimed ‘white negress’ Dusty Springfield – she ‘sounds black’ (whatever that means, she sounds as white as the whale to me) – recorded an album entitled ‘Dusty in Memphis’ with the same American Sound band. Except that she didn’t, however much critics fawn over the album. She did attempt to record live with the band in the studio. First blast of the musicians and she turned pale and stopped singing. ‘She won’t be here long,’ one of the musicians said to another. She wasn’t. The musicians put down the tracks and Dusty Springfield – being the perfectionist she was, comes the excuse – overdubbed her vocals line by line in New York. 'Dusty in Memphis' is really the band in Memphis and Dusty in New York. You can call it perfection if you like, just don’t call it soul and certainly don’t call it Memphis soul. Elvis sang live in the studio with the American Sound band, and did so with a heavy cold. Now that’s what I call soul. And it's all here. How much reality can any person stand?

"The Home Recordings" (1999)

1 When The Saints Go Marching In

2 I Understand Just How You Feel

3 I Asked The Lord (Alternate)

4 I'm Beginning To Forget You

5 Mona Lisa

6 Hands Off

7 Make Believe

8 If I Loved You

9 What Now My Love

10 Tumblin' Tumbleweeds

11 San Antonio Rose

12 Tennessee Waltz

13 Show Me Thy Ways, Oh Lord

14 After Loving You

15 I've Been Blue

16 Mary Lou Brown

17 It's No Fun Being Lonely

18 Suppose

19 Indescribably Blue

20 Write To Me From Naples

21 My Heart Cries For You

22 Dark Moon

If you want to know what Elvis sang at home, singing for pure pleasure, fun, and enjoyment, then here is the album you need. Although, being Elvis, he would always have an eye on commercial possibilities. He would try things out as potential future singles. This is what an Elvis jam session sounds like. There are also other examples of the same thing out, not only good fun, but revealing Elvis’ innate musicality as well as vocal ability. Elvis once said "I don't know anything about music. In my line, you don't have to," and people who loathe him are happy to quote this as a damning self-confession of musical incomprehension and inability on his part. Don't believe it. Elvis knew music and knew what he was doing musically. He was lousy at management, marketing, taking care of ‘business.’ I’m far from saying Elvis was a saint, because he patently wasn’t. As the recordings make clear, Elvis had an ‘off’ humour and a pretty arrogant approach to the lackeys and flunkeys he surrounded himself with – he’s a bigshot with a mind that mistook little things for big things. He was flawed. As we all are. So I’m not going to exalt the man way above what he was. At the same time I’m not going to damn him for his flaws all the more because in reality he proved to be much less than god-like, and thereby reduce him to something much less than he was. He was simple, he could be dumb. He was the one who paid the price for whatever it was he was. He deserves the credit for his immense achievement by the same token. And it was an immense achievement. My point is that he could be inspired, and to an extent which is far greater than critics allow.

TOMORROW IS A LONG TIME 1999

Too Much Monkey Business

Guitar Man

Tomorrow Is A Long Time

U.S. Male

Big Boss Man

Love Letters (1966)

Indescribably Blue

Fools Fall In Love

Hi-Heel Sneakers (Unedited)

Down In The Alley

Come What May (Take 7)

Mine

Just Call Me Lonesome

You Don't Know Me

Stay Away

Singing Tree

Goin' Home

I'll Remember You

Note to management – this is how it should have been done. When you have good material, you showcase it, you put it with other good material, you don’t let the dross infect it. This is Elvis showing that the remarkable 1969 American Sound recordings should have been done years earlier, and in part were. 

Burning Love 1999

Burning Love

Never Been To Spain (Hilton Hotel, Las Vegas, February 16, 1972, Midnight Show)

You Gave Me A Mountain (Hilton Hotel, Las Vegas, February 16, 1972, Midnight Show)

I'm Leavin'

It's Only Love

Always On My Mind

It's Impossible (Hilton Hotel, Las Vegas, February 16, 1972, Midnight Show)

It's Over (Hilton Hotel, Las Vegas, February 17, 1972, Dinner Show)

Separate Ways

Fool

Hound Dog (Hilton Hotel, Las Vegas, February 14, 1972, Dinner Show)

Little Sister / Get Back (Hilton Hotel, Las Vegas, February 14, 1972, Midnight Show)

Big Hunk O' Love (Hilton Hotel, Las Vegas, February 16, 1972, Midnight Show)

Where Do I Go From Here

For The Good Times

It's A Matter Of Time

American Trilogy (Hilton Hotel, Las Vegas, February 16, 1972, Midnight Show)

Impossible Dream (Hilton Hotel, Las Vegas, February 16, 1972, Midnight Show)

This is an attempt at a proper presentation of Elvis' 1971 and 1972 recordings, the tracks complementing one another around a cohering theme and sound. The original Elvis albums of this period started to die a death not because there was a dearth of good material, but because little thought had been put into them. They come over as laboured and are painful to listen to. This one is better. Play it alongside the original 'Now' and ‘Fool’ albums from 1971 and 1972 and the contrast is palpable. At the same time, the album is still flawed. It isn't quite folk, or ballad, or live, or contemporary. I like the idea of putting live material like 'It's Over' in, but 'It's Impossible' really belongs with a ballad set. The up-tempo 'Polk Salad Annie' would work better with 'Burning Love.' The live versions of the old rock'n'roll hits may give an accurate sense of part of the Elvis as live performer, but the most ephemeral. Overall this is a good concept that is flawed in execution.

"On Stage" (Dennis Ferrante remixes with 6 bonus tracks) (1999)

Disc One - Selections:

1. See See Rider •

2. Release Me •

3. Sweet Caroline •

4. Runaway •

5. The Wonder Of You •

6. Polk Salad Annie •

7. Yesterday •

8. Proud Mary •

9. Walk A Mile In My Shoes •

10. Let It Be Me •

Bonus songs:

11. Don't Cry Daddy •

12. Kentucky Rain •

13. Long Tall Sally •

14. The Wonder Of You

Disc Two –

Selections:

1. Blue Suede Shoes •

2. Johnny B. Goode •

3. All Shook Up •

4. Are You Lonesome Tonight? •

5. Hound Dog •

6. I Can't Stop Loving You •

7. My Babe •

8. Medley: Mystery Train/Tiger Man •

9. Words •

10. In The Ghetto •

11. Suspicious Minds •

12. Can't Help Falling In Love •

Bonus tracks:

13. I Got A Woman •

14. Medley: Jailhouse Rock/Don't Be Cruel •

15. Heartbreak Hotel •

16. Baby, What You Want Me To Do •

17. Reconsider Baby •

18. Funny How Time Slips Away.

Disc one is the original 'On Stage' album from 1970 with excellent additions, disc two is the original ‘Elvis In Person' from 1969 with additions. The original running order is retained. Fans like the familiar. I’m left wondering whether a different order would not have been better. I never cared for 'Runaway' and 'Yesterday' and always thought they bogged a very good set down. I think ‘Kentucky Rain’ and ‘Daddy’ inserted in their place would produce a considerable improvement. It’s the southern-fried sound of ‘Proud Mary,’ ‘Polk Salad Annie,’ and ‘Walk a Mile in My Shoes’ alongside the powerful ballads that impress here. I never cared for when Elvis sounded merely fine and professional, without commitment and interest. That’s Elvis working for the man again, clocking on and doing his job, a puppet on a commercial string. But fans can entertain themselves forever playing these games. It's a high quality document.

'In Person' is from the successful return to live performance at Las Vegas in 1969. It’s a tour de force, with real excitement as Elvis rocks it out, culminating in a towering version of Suspicious Minds, his then current single. The world was new again, and Elvis was on the rise. He is loose and comfortable, but edgy rather than relaxed and complacent. He is a commanding presence on stage. The fire was evidently still burning. Elvis plainly enjoyed the creative space he had managed to carve out of the Hollywood nightmare, and given scope his musical muse took Elvis to great artistic heights. There will always be a relation between money and music in the pop world, so it’s not a case of having any illusions about art here. The problem in the Elvis world is that that relation had come to be completely inverted, with the result that commerce dictated to art, with the music being merely the means to an entirely monetarist end. Finding a little free space away from that commercial straightjacket, Elvis was brought back into direct relation to his musical persona, and he dug deeply into it, rediscovering his true passion. And having succeeded enormously, with success measured in record sales and ticket sales, he was back into the numbers game and commercial imperatives.

"Such A Night - Essential Elvis, Vol. 6" (2000)

1: Such A Night

2: Make Me Know It

3: Stuck On You

4: Fever

5: The Girl Of My Best Friend

6: Soldier Boy

7: Surrender

8: I Believe In The Man In The Sky

9: Give Me The Right

10: I'm Comin' Home

11: There's Always Me

12: Little Sister

13: I Met Her Today

14: Gonna Get Back Home Somehow

15: Night Rider

16: (Such An) Easy Question

17: Suspicion

18: Please Don't Drag That String Around

19: Memphis Tennessee

20: It Hurts Me

Essential for fans, who know and love the songs already, and would be eager to hear the alternates. This is some of the most exceptional material of Elvis’ career and well worth exploring in depth. It is not merely the alternate takes that is the attraction here, but being in the presence of Elvis singing live in top form in the studio. You can hear Elvis the artist at work. There is a great vitality and freshness about the music, so much so that music fans would surely appreciate it.

THE 50 GREATEST LOVE SONGS

Always On My Mind

And I Love You So (Take 2)

Suspicious Minds

Don't Cry Daddy

Are You Lonesome Tonight

Surrender

It's Now Or Never

Wonder Of You

You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'

It's Impossible

Until It's Time For You To Go

You Don't Have To Say You Love Me

For The Good Times

Spanish Eyes

There Goes My Everything

Make The World Go Away

She Wears My Ring

Unchained Melody (Crisler Arena, Ann Arbor, Michigan, April 24, 1977)

It's Only Love

I Just Can't Help Believin'

Let It Be Me

Rags To Riches

I've Lost You

Can't Help Falling In Love

Hawaiian Wedding Song

Fame And Fortune

Good Luck Charm

She's Not You

Suspicion

Girl Of My Best Friend

Thrill Of Your Love

Pocketful Of Rainbows

There's Always Me

Love Letters (1966)

I'll Remember You

It Hurts Me

You Don't Know Me

Love Me Tender

True Love

I Was The One

I Want You, I Need You, I Love You

Loving You

Love Me

Old Shep

That's When Your Heartaches Begin

Young And Beautiful

Don't Ask Me Why

As Long As I Have You

Don't

Fool Such As I

The odd alternate to ensure that the Elvis completists buy everything again to retain their status. For those people who think there can’t be too many compilations in the world. One day, I may go and check how many different compilations of ‘Elvis love songs’ I have. I listen, I enjoy, then I set about compiling my own list. But the claim that these represent Elvis' fifty greatest love songs is undercut as soon as one notes the absence of 'Is It So Strange,' 'Loving Arms,' 'Just Pretend,' and 'The Twelfth of Never,' and the inclusion of 'Old Shep.' You can never hear ‘Old Shep’ too many times, just a boy and his dog, the emotion gets you right there.

"That's The Way It Is - Special Edition" 3-cd (2000)

1-1 I Just Can't Help Believin' 4:34

1-2 Twenty Days And Twenty Nights 3:15

1-3 How The Web Was Woven 3:25

1-4 Patch It Up 3:51

1-5 Mary In The Morning 4:11

1-6 You Don't Have To Say You Love Me 2:29

1-7 You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' 4:22

1-8 I've Lost You 3:30

1-9 Just Pretend 4:02

1-10 Stranger In The Crowd 3:46

1-11 The Next Step Is Love 3:31

1-12 Bridge Over Troubled Water 4:03

1-13 Love Letters 2:49

1-14 When I’m Over You 2:26

1-15 Something 3:40

1-16 I’ll Never Know 2:24

1-17 Sylvia 3:18

1-18 Cindy, Cindy 2:31

1-19 Rags To Riches 1:53

The Concert

2-1 That’s All Right 2:31

2-2 Mystery Train/Tiger Man 3:43

2-3 Hound Dog 2:46

2-4 Love Me Tender 6:55

2-5 Just Pretend 4:12

2-6 Walk A Mile In My Shoes 2:01

2-7 There Goes My Everything 4:11

2-8 Words 2:36

2-9 Sweet Caroline 2:26

2-10 You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling 6:29

2-11 Polk Salad Annie 5:18

2-12 Heartbreak Hotel 1:46

2-13 One Night 1:46

2-14 Blue Suede Shoes 1:31

2-15 All Shook Up 2:01

2-16 Little Sister/Get Back 3:33

2-17 I Was The One 1:11

2-18 Love Me 2:03

2-19 Are You Lonesome Tonight? 1:58

2-20 Bridge Over Troubled Water 4:29

2-21 Suspicious Minds 6:06

2-22 Can’t Help Falling In Love 2:08

The Rehearsal

3-1 I Got A Woman 3:11

3-2 I Can’t Stop Loving You 3:10

3-3 Twenty Days And Twenty Nights 4:00

3-4 The Next Step Is Love 3:30

3-5 You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me 2:32

3-6 Stranger In The Crowd 4:00

3-7 Make The World Go Away 3:01

3-8 Don’t Cry Daddy 2:45

3-9 In The Ghetto 2:42

3-10 Peter Gunn Theme (Instrumental) 1:10

3-11 That’s All Right 2:24

3-12 Cottonfields 1:24

3-13 Yesterday 1:24

3-14 I Can’t Stop Loving You 2:23

3-15 Such A Night 1:34

3-16 It’s Now Or Never 2:19

3-17 (Now And Then There's) A Fool Such As I 2:45

3-18 Little Sister / Get Back 5:45

3-19 I Washed My Hands In Muddy Water 4:42

3-20 Johnny B. Goode 2:33

3-21 Mary In The Morning 4:37

3-22 The Wonder Of You 3:14

3-23 Santa Claus Is Back In Town 2:02

3-24 Farther Along 1:20

3-25 Oh Happy Day 1:54

The thirtieth anniversary of 1970’s That’s the Way it is. So we are treated to what every Elvis fan would want from Elvis, which is everything. It’s just that in being everything it is far too much for those who want to get straight to the point. Issues like this leave the world unmoved, for the simple reason there is too much to digest, unless you are already one of the convinced. And if you are one of the convinced, you will know that you are still shelling out for a lot of material you already have in order to obtain a little bit of material you don’t have but which is well worth having all the same. 

The second CD contains a fantastic concert, I have to say. As the seventies went on, Elvis’ concerts developed a routine character, much as had happened with the films. It was Elvis performing an endless victory tour, a mutual celebration and confirmation between idol and idolaters. In being critical, it remains important to emphasize the point that tends all too easily to be forgotten that Elvis was actually an incredibly powerful, exciting and commanding artist in live performance. The concert here proves it. The many hit singles that came from live performances prove it too. It’s just that having proved it, Elvis needed to move to another creative challenge.

The first CD contains the original album with seven additions. I like additions when they complement and strengthen an album. I think the approach here is cack-handed. 'I'll Never Know' fits well, and 'Love Letters' and 'Something' also fit. 'Rags to Riches' is possibly too strong and dramatic a performance, disturbing the easy feel, whilst 'Sylvia' fits but is weak. 'When I’m Over You' and 'Cindy, Cindy' belong on 'Elvis Country.' 'That's the Way It Is' is already quite a long album, perfectly measured. It doesn't need too much adding. And it ends well on 'Bridge Over Troubled Water.' I'd add a couple of the above, and blend them in the middle somewhere, 'I'll Never Know' and one other, except 'Sylvia.'

TODAY, TOMORROW & FOREVER (2002)

(US) RCA 65115-2 (4 x CD)

Released: June 2002

Disc 1

Harbor Lights (Take 4)

I Got A Woman (Take 6)

Shake Rattle And Roll (Take 1, 2)

I Want You, I Need You, I Love You (Take 13)

Heartbreak Hotel (Live)

Long Tall Sally (Live)

I Was The One (Live)

Money Honey (Live)

I Got A Woman (Live)

Blue Suede Shoes (Live)

Hound Dog (Live)

Rip It Up (Take 12, 13, 14)

Don't Forbid Me - You Belong To My Heart (from Million Dollar Session)

I Beg Of You (Take 5)

Peace In The Valley (Take 1)

Is It So Strange (Take 10)

Got A Lot O' Livin' To Do (Take 17 Movie Master)

Loving You (Take 6 Slow Farm Version)

Treat Me Nice (Take 6)

Young And Beautiful (Take 4, 5)

I Want To Be Free (Take 3, 4 Movie Version)

Steadfast, Loyal and True (Solo Undubbed Master)

Doncha' Think It's Time (Take 48)

I Need Your Love Tonight (Take 4)

I Got Stung (Take 16)

Fool, The (Take 1 from 1959 Home Recording)

Recorded: Robinson Memorial Auditorium, Little Rock, Arkansas, May 16, 1956

Disc 2

Make Me Know It (Take 17, 18)

Are You Lonesome Tonight (Take 1, 2)

G.I. Blues (Take 5)

Pocketful Of Rainbows (Take 3)

Flaming Star (Main and Main Version Take 4 & End Title Version (Take 1)

Swing Down Sweet Chariot (Take 2, 3)

Lonely Man (Solo Version) (Take 1)

There's Always Me (Take 2)

Can't Help Falling In Love (Take 26)

I'm Yours (Take 5)

Follow That Dream (Take 3)

Anything That's Part Of You (Take 8)

King Of The Whole Wide World (Take 1)

Gonna Get Back Home Somehow (Take 2)

Boy Like Me, A Girl Like You (Take 4)

They Remind Me Too Much Of You (Take 4)

Mexico (Take 2)

Witchcraft (Take 2)

Today Tomorrow And Forever (Take 2 Master) (Duet with Ann-Margret)

Ask Me (Take 2)

Roustabout (Take 8)

Puppet On A String (Take 10)

My Desert Serenade (Take 7)

Please Don't Stop Loving Me (Take 10)

This Is My Heaven (Take 7)

Never Say Yes (Take 1, 2)

Hide Thou Me (1966 Home Recording)

Disc 3

Love Letters (1966) (Take 2)

If The Lord Wasn't Walking By My Side (Take 1)

Come What May (Take 3, 4)

Indescribably Blue (Take 1)

Long Legged Girl (With The Short Dress On) (1st Version Take 6)

Love Machine (Take 3)

You Don't Know Me (Take 3 Movie Version)

Big Boss Man (Take 9)

We Call On Him (Take 8)

Stay Away (Take 14)

U.S. Male (Take 7)

Wonderful World (Take 15)

Guitar Man (Take 1)

Where Could I Go But To The Lord (NBC TV 21/6/68 Take 1)

Memories (Unedited Stereo Master)

Almost (Take 6)

In The Ghetto (Take 19)

True Love Travels On A Gravel Road (Take 2)

Let Us Pray (Take 8 from March 5, 1969 with backing vocals overdubbed)

Baby What You Want Me To Do (Live)

Funny How Time Slips Away (Live)

Runaway (Live)

My Babe (Live)

What'd I Say (Live)

Recorded: International Hotel, Las Vegas, Midnight Show, August 22, 1969

Disc 4

See See Rider (Live)

Polk Salad Annie (Live)

Walk A Mile In My Shoes (Live)

Next Step Is Love (Take 6)

Life (Take 2)

Snowbird (Take 2)

For Lovin' Me (Takes 9 & 10)

Until It's Time For You To Go (Take 5)

Fools Rush In (Where Angels Fear To Tread) (Take 9)

Thing Called Love (Rehearsal May 19, 1971 RCA Studio, Nashville)

I'll Be Home On Christmas Day (Remake Take 9)

Where Do I Go From Here (Take 5)

No More (Take 1)

Take Good Care Of Her (Take 3)

I Miss You (Take 1)

I Got A Feelin' In My Body (Take 4)

If You Talk In Your Sleep (Take 5)

Promised Land (Take 2)

Your Love's Been A Long Time Coming (Take 10)

Pieces Of My Life (Take 1)

For The Heart (Take 4)

She Thinks I Still Care (Take 10)

Hurt (Take 5)

This is an overview of Elvis' entire career through outtakes. The alternates keep coming in, allowing us to hear Elvis again, in new voice. It seems, then, that Elvis will always be with us. But we knew that anyway.

I have to end here, for reasons of time and space.

Conclusions?

It being Elvis, it is excess all areas. I started writing this in an idle moment, with a view to making some brief personal statements on my Elvis collection. I now see that in demanding a lean and concise presentation of Elvis' music I have written nearly 40,000 words. Oh well. I’ll make a final effort to state the point clearly – we don’t need collections of 'greatest hits' and 'best ofs' nor everything, but clearly defined concise documents that concentrate a particular musical identity at each time. A proper album from Elvis as every year goes by, rounding up the hits and songs that got lost somehow, and throwing out the filler to create a strong profile.

Which brings me to a fitting conclusion – Elvis Presley: Artist of the Century.

2000 Artist of the Century

Disc: 1

1. That's All Right

2. Good Rockin' Tonight

3. Baby Let's Play House

4. Mystery Train

5. Trying to Get to You

6. Heartbreak Hotel

7. Blue Suede Shoes

8. My Baby Left Me

9. Lawdy, Miss Clawdy

10. Hound Dog

11. Any Way You Want Me

12. Don't Be Cruel

13. Love Me Tender

14. Love Me

15. Anyplace Is Paradise

16. All Shook Up

17. Got A Lot O' Livin' To Do!

18. Teddy Bear

19. One Night

20. Jailhouse Rock

21. Baby I Don't Care

22. Treat Me Nice

23. Don't

24. Santa Claus Is Back in Town

25. Trouble

26. Hard Headed Woman

27. Wear My Ring Around Your Neck

28. A Big Hunk O' Love

29. A Fool Such As I

Disc: 2

1. Stuck On You

2. It's Now Or Never

3. Are You Lonesome Tonight

4. A Mess of Blues

5. Like a Baby

6. The Girl of My Best Friend

7. Such a Night

8. Reconsider Baby

9. Surrender

10. Can't Help Falling in Love

11. That's Someone You Never Forget

12. Little Sister

13. His Latest Flame

14. Anything That's Part of You

15. Good Luck Charm

16. She's Not You

17. Return to Sender

18. Devil in Disguise

19. Memphis Tennessee

20. It Hurts Me

21. Down in the Alley

22. Run On

23. Tomorrow Is a Long Time

24. Big Boss Man

25. Guitar Man

26. Tiger Man

Disc: 3

1. If I Can Dream

2. In the Ghetto

3. Suspicious Minds

4. Don't Cry Daddy

5. I'll Hold You in My Heart

6. Stranger in My Own Home Town

7. After Loving You

8. Only the Strong Survive

9. The Wonder of You

10. Polk Salad Annie

11. I've Lost You

12. You Don't Have to Say You Love Me

13. I Just Can't Help Believin'

14. Merry Christmas Baby

15. I'm Leavin'

16. An American Trilogy

17. Burning Love

18. Always On My Mind

19. Promised Land

20. For the Heart

When I heard the proposed title I had to admit to wincing. It makes a claim that was certain to annoy and irritate those who admire other artists, and immediately sets up debate and controversy over something that, in terms of a genuine love of music, is a complete and total irrelevance. Was Elvis an artist? Yes. Was he, or anyone, the artist of the century? No. If you are interested in the idolatry rather than the artistry, then you are the mugs who bear some responsibility for the inflated impossibilities and unrealities which finally swallowed Elvis up. Elvis needed a reality check. He had the money and power to keep hiding from reality and postponing having to face realities, and the stage and the adulation was the place where he could happiness and confirmation of a kind, for a while. The longer you put reality off, the bigger the challenge becomes until, one day, it becomes impossible to meet.

To the music.

Thinking I had to choose seventy five tracks rather than just three, I spent so long working out my votes for this album that I ran out of time and missed the deadline. And so, a lifelong Elvis fanatic as I may be, (let’s be honest, an Elvis obsessive who watched all the films even while complaining about them), my votes, hard won by all those hard-saved pennies invested in the albums as they came out, were never counted. I agree with very many of the selections here. I think there is a consensus on very many of the essential Elvis tracks. But there is still room for profound disagreement. Immediately, I can see some remarkable omissions in this selection. I should take the time, having taken the trouble, to give my own seventy five selections. And then get down to some arguing. Inviting even more argument was the further reduction of this seventy five to twenty five.

"Best of Artist Of The Century" (2000)

Disc: 1

1. That's All Right

2. Baby, Let's Play House

3. Heartbreak Hotel

4. Hound Dog

5. Don't Be Cruel

6. All Shook Up

7. One Night

8. Jailhouse Rock

9. Trouble

10. It's Now Or Never

11. Are You Lonesome Tonight?

12. Reconsider Baby

13. Can't Help Falling In Love

14. Little Sister

15. Return To Sender

16. (You're The) Devil In Disguise

17. It Hurts Me

18. Big Boss Man

19. In The Ghetto

20. Suspicous Minds

21. Only The Strong Survive

22. Polk Salad Annie

23. An American Trilogy

24. Burning Love

25. Promised Land

I see some remarkable omissions, but also some welcome inclusions, like ‘It Hurts Me,’ a classic from the mid-sixties that was scandalously overlooked at the time.

Let’s add the number one hits while we are here.

30 #1 HITS (2002)

(US) RCA 68079-2 (CD)

Released: September 2002

Heartbreak Hotel

Don't Be Cruel

Hound Dog

Love Me Tender

Too Much

All Shook Up

Teddy Bear

Jailhouse Rock

Don't

Hard Headed Woman

One Night

Fool Such As I

Big Hunk O' Love

Stuck On You

It's Now Or Never

Are You Lonesome Tonight

Wooden Heart

Surrender

His Latest Flame

Can't Help Falling In Love

Good Luck Charm

She's Not You

Return To Sender

Devil In Disguise

Crying In The Chapel

In The Ghetto

Suspicious Minds

Wonder Of You

Burning Love

Way Down

Little Less Conversation (JXL Radio Edit Remix)

I’m not interested in pressing the case for Elvis as the artist of the (20th) century. There are too many great artists for claims like that to have any meaning. They settle nothing and provoke ill-feeling. I’m interested in getting people to appreciate Elvis’ musical abilities and achievements a little more. This box set is no more definitive than any of the many other ‘best of’ Elvis collections. It has most of the essentials, and also a few tracks which are normally overlooked. In being selective, of course, the inevitable result is that other classics get overlooked. By asking how you can squeeze a pint into a quart pot, I hope the point is made that Elvis delivered performances of very high quality in great quantity. It’s a mistake, then, to read the tragedy of Elvis’ career in terms of quantity against quality. He delivered quality in quantity. Most other artists would struggle to stretch their best material over twenty five tracks. Elvis can go to seventy five, and quality material will still be left on the sidelines. If I was aiming at a ‘definitive’ collection I would seek to present Elvis’ genuine multiplicity in music. There’s a deficiency of country in this collection, and a dearth of those sentimental, string-drenched ballads that upset the critics, but which the fans loved in droves. There is also a complete absence of gospel, which was actually the root of Elvis’ music, from where he drew his emotional charge, and for which he won his only Grammy awards. That is a scandalous oversight, frankly, and again fails to do justice to Elvis’ remarkable stylistic range. Elvis embraced multiplicities in music. A definitive presentation should avoid imposing taste. Elvis was about a blend of styles that ought not to have been blended and ought not to have worked. It was Elvis’ achievement to have made the unworkable not only workable, but a new pop form that anyone could inhabit from any part of the world, without racial and national implication. Elvis’ remarkable stylistic versatility was not just about the rhythm and country/blues/gospel but also about the ballads and pop, not just about the stripped down folk primitivism of the Sun sides but also the sentimentality that struck a human chord. From eerie minimalism of ‘Blue Moon’ to the melodramatic orchestral pomp of ‘An American Trilogy,’ Elvis blended the different genres and proceeded to blow them, and himself, out of all proportion, for both good and ill. The good remains the blend, and the fact that it took Elvis as this larger-than-life figure to break the stranglehold on pop music exercised by a certain class of folk. If you want to know what I’m getting at there, recall how Little Willie John’s ‘Fever’ made no headway in the charts, how country music was filtered through the voices of established artists, and find, if you can, the patronising middle-brow Steve Allen reciting the lyrics to Gene Vincent’s ‘Be-Bop-a-Lula’ to belittle rock’n’roll and its practitioners and consumers as dumb. It took an Elvis to smash it all apart, to not be satisfied with being an ethnic artist on the margins, but to enter that pop arena and stand toe-to-toe with its giants and slay them in one go. Elvis opened the world up to all who had the talent and the ambition to follow, black and white. And the Steve Allen’s of this world were exposed as hollow and mediocre.

Larger than life. It took an Elvis to invest the music with a fantastical element that, in making it more than it ever was or could be, broke the old order apart, but created a new order that could never be anything other than unstable, inflated and imbalanced. It’s not healthy, it’s not sane, and the rock’n’roll lifestyle proved dangerous, indeed fatal, for many. It’s a world of misplaced hopes, excess in all areas, indulgence of desires, licence, false freedom. Elvis embodied the overscale and the disproportion, and his bloated catalogue came to be matched by his bloated body. You can only keep feeding a monster, you can never satisfy it. You end up trapped on the hedonistic treadmill. Elvis is the true king of our commercial republic, the eternal paradox of how democracy can be corrupted by yearnings for royalty and divinity. But it’s not a paradox at all, it stems from powerlessness and inequality, the commonality that feeds us being denied and projected outwards and upwards to idols and hierarchies, Elvis the poor country boy who became king.

Collecting Elvis is addictive, as is aiming at definitive collections. The machine knew that from the first, and is indeed thrives on the addiction. The sheer volume of Elvis material gives the game away. We keep buying in the hope of completion. But it never happens. And in the process, Elvis’ music continues to be buried deeper under the weight. It’s not that the material is bad, it is that it is endlessly repeating itself. I knew very early on, when I started to count how many times I had ‘Hound Dog’ and ‘Don’t be Cruel’ in my collection, (going well past ten), that I seemed destined to be forever buying a lot of the same things in order to track down the few things I needed for completion. Completion never came. With collections, I am always looking to present the familiar with a lot of the yet-to-be discovered classics that populate the Elvis catalogue. My hunch on this was proven big time when ‘A Little less conversation’ became a global smash in the 2000’s. I always thought it was a decent track, just not one of the lost classics I was thinking of. My eyes from that time were always on ‘Clean up your own backyard.’ We have all the time in the world to make the right discoveries. In passing, it does strike me that we are all putting much more thought into showcasing Elvis’ music than Elvis himself ever did, and therein the problem always lay – Elvis never had what it took to stand up to his management, namely the crook that was Tom Parker. And the rest of us are left picking over the mess. In truth, Elvis’ music has anthologized to death. I’ve got the collections and the boxes, complete with rarities and alternatives (the fifties, sixties and seventies boxes, (Platinum: A Life in Music, that kind of thing). Artist of the Century isn’t one of those, but is an attempt to give a good overview for those who may be interested in having something with more depth than a simple single album ‘best of,’ but who are overfaced with the sheer volume of material that is out there, The Complete Sun Sessions, ’56 sessions, ’68, From Elvis in Memphis, That’s the Way Is Is. Elvis in all his huge excessiveness.

As for omissions … we have to accept that that is the way it is bound to be. Seventy tracks may seem more than enough, until you realize that Elvis had well over one hundred hit records and over one hundred gold records. And you also have to bear in mind the quality of Elvis’ flip sides (Any day now as the flip to In the Ghetto, for instance). Elvis’ catalogue, even stripped down to the quality, is immense, and far greater than his critical reputation would indicate.

You get a good overview here, with five Sun recordings, most of the top ten hits from the 50s and 60s, his final two hit singles before his death in 1977, and a good smattering of the singles that should have been smashes but weren’t as well as classic album tracks to give a fair indication of how substantial an artist actually was beyond the fan hysteria and hyperbole. It’s representative … but not definitive, for the reason that nothing could be. You have to take Elvis whole. It’s just that it’s only the fanatics who will have the enthusiasm and patience enough to do that. The fanatics will know that the definitive and essential Elvis can’t actually be parcelled up and sent out. Some of my most favourite Elvis tracks are not hits, not classics, not great songs, just simple, fairly insubstantial, light, but incredibly touching little masterpieces. But as I said, I was raised on the ‘budget’ albums whose price range brought rock royalty within touching distance.

As for Elvis and the sixties, I have emphasized the waste of time and talent that the films increasingly represented for Elvis. I hope I have also made it clear that Elvis continued to record songs of high quality in that period. The Beatles took the world by storm, with the result that Elvis’ quality output was pushed to the margins. I’d say the problem here was entirely due to the fact that the films fixed Elvis’ public image, and it was an image that made Elvis look utterly irrelevant to the musical revolution underway in the sixties. It was not so much that his good music was being eclipsed by The Beatles as being negated by the film soundtracks. Proof? The awesome ballad ‘It Hurts Me’ was put out as the B-side to the film song Kissin’ Cousins. Elvis seemed dumb, dull and out-of-date, lost in Hollywood and far, far away from where it was at.

The ‘Artist’ nails the myth that Elvis died in the army by making it crystal clear that Elvis actually developed as a singer and expanded his range. Of course, the nature of Elvis’ demise in 1977 tells us to look more deeply into where Elvis went wrong, because that decline and fall was indeed a long term process that by the end had become hardwired into Elvis’ life as fate. There was a continuous corruption in which the democratic sensibility gave way to pretensions of royalty and divinity.

The collection gathers the well-known tracks and adds the lesser known ones to them, and so is a good way of drawing the casually interested in and encouraging them to investigate further.

I bought the ‘Artist’ collection, even though I had everything on there. Such is the nature of addiction and the obsession with a completion, despite recognition that such a thing is neither possible nor, even, desirable (remember my little tale of keeping ‘City by Night’ in reserve as a great Elvis song that will forever be to come). I don’t bother counting how many times I have ‘Love me Tender’ and ‘Teddy Bear’ any more. A lot. By this stage of fandom I am more interested in associating the known and the familiar with tracks that deserve a wider hearing. Some of these are on here, no doubt showing a side of Elvis unknown to non-Elvis fans. So this box is a good mix in that sense. Overall, the box offers a good middle way between those who want a fairly comprehensive Elvis collection, with a little more depth than the usual ‘greatest hits’ packages, something which is satisfying in itself, but which may also serve as a bridgehead into the massive song sets that are out there specialising in different periods of Elvis’ career. This box does that. You can stick here and be more than satisfied. But I’d guess more than a few would be interested in exploring further the depths of Elvis’ catalogue. I’m just thankful that the fans who voted seem finally to have realized that the laughing version of ‘Are you lonesome tonight?’ is just not funny anymore.

It’s a strong collection, and we just have to accept that an awful lot of quality was bound to be excluded. It’s seventy five quality tracks from a short list of … whatever number of quality tracks you would consider to lie in Elvis’ catalogue. I’m going to be very conservative and say two hundred, and I’m willing to bet I could produce a list of three hundred easily. That leaves us with well over one hundred candidates for inclusion. Life is too short for me to spend any time complaining about the songs that should have been included, because it was inevitable that plenty of quality would have to be excluded. I am, however, interested in a breakdown of the periods the included songs come from.

Sun 54-55, 5 tracks

1956, 10 tracks.

1957-58, 14 tracks

1960, 9 tracks

1961-64, 11 tracks

1966-68, 7 tracks

1969, 7 tracks

1970, 5 tracks

1971-73, 6 tracks

1976, 1 track

The 70's are underrepresented, serving to reinforce the critical and popular neglect of that period when Elvis was developing a mature blend of his original rhythm and country/blues/gospel/pop synthesis.

Rather than give my own seventy five tracks, I shall give an alternate seventy five, recognizing that arguments over omissions are pointless – for every one that goes in, one has to go out.

1. Blue Moon of Kentucky

2. Milkcow Blues Boogie

3. I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone

4. Blue Moon

5. I Was the One

6. Money Honey

7. I Want You, I Need You, I Love You

8. So Glad you’re mine

9. Paralyzed

10. Ready Teddy

11. Peace in the Valley

12. Loving You

13. Mean woman blues

14. Party

15. I Need you So

16. Is it so strange

17. Blue Christmas

18. Young and Beautiful

19. I want to be free

20. Jailhouse Rock

21. I beg of You

22. King Creole

23. Crawfish

24. I Got Stung

25. I Need your Love Tonight

26. Make me know it

27. Fever

28. It feels so right

29. Pocketful of Rainbows

30 Wooden Heart

31. I Gotta Know

32. Known only to Him

33. Lonely Man

34. I Feel so Bad

35. Wild in the Country

36. There’s always me

37. I’m comin’ home

38. In your arms

39. No More

40. Follow that Dream

41. Suspicion

42. Just tell her Jim said hello

43. I Got Lucky

44. They remind me too much of you

45. Please don’t drag that string around

46. Witchcraft

47. Long Lonely Highway

48. Viva Las Vegas

49. Ask Me

50. I met her today

51. Where no one stands alone

52. So High

53. Trouble/Guitar Man

54. Any Day Now

55. Long Black Limousine

56. I’m Movin’ On

57. Gentle on my Mind

58. True Love Travels on a Gravel Road

59. Clean up your own back yard

60. You’ll think of me

61. Kentucky Rain

62. Change of Habit

63. Walk a mile in my shoes

64. Just Pretend

65. Stranger in the Crowd

66. I really don’t want to know

67. I washed my hands in muddy waters

68. It’s only love

69. Until it’s time for you to go

70. We can make the morning

71. Early Mornin’ Rain

72. Lead Me, Guide Me

73. Polk Salad Annie (1972)

74. Separate Ways

75. I’m so lonesome I could cry

76. Steamroller Blues

77. I Will be True

78. For Ol’ Times Sake

79. If that isn’t love

80. Loving Arms

81. Good time Charlies got the blues

82. You asked me to

83. Pieces of my Life

84. T-R-O-U-B-L-E

85. Hurt

86. Danny Boy

87. Way Down

88. Moody Blue

89. Unchained Melody

90. The twelfth of never.

So there it is, after careful consideration and selection, I am still fifteen over. And I’ve left many personal favourites out. The way to take it down to eighty is to take the last twenty and halve them (my recommendation is to remove the odd numbers after 70 and leave the even numbers). I’ve gone over the top at the end to make the point that Elvis made some fine music in the 1970s.

The Elvis releases don’t end here. But I’m afraid I do. I started writing this as a quick personal guide and recollection, and it kind of built momentum as it went along. I’ve been collecting Elvis records since I was seven, when my mother bought me my very first Elvis album ‘Separate Ways.’ And many years on Elvis and I are still together. And I still have my old vinyl records, and cassettes, and videos, and posters, one from 1970 (we bought it in 1972).

By now, I’m all out of argument. I’ll complete the list of Elvis albums before returning to the main business of the definitive Elvis selection.

CLOSE UP (2003)

(US) RCA 50537-2 (4 x CD)

Released: July 2003

Disc 1

Peace In The Valley (Take 9 Binaural)

I Beg Of You (Take 11)

That's When Your Heartaches Begin (Take 2)

It Is No Secret (What God Can Do) (Take 13 Binaural)

Blueberry Hill (Take 9 Binaural)

Have I Told You Lately That I Love You (Take 15 Binaural)

Is It So Strange (Take 12 Binaural)

Loving You (Take 5 Fast Version)

Loving You (Take 15 Fast Version)

Jailhouse Rock (Take 6 Binaural)

Treat Me Nice (Take 19 1st Movie Version)

Young And Beautiful (Take 21, 22 Binaural)

Young And Beautiful (Take 3 Binaural)

Young And Beautiful (Take 7 Florita Club Version)

I Want To Be Free (Take 12 Movie Version)

I Want To Be Free (Take 11 Binaural)

Treat Me Nice (Take 13 2nd Movie Version)

Don't Leave Me Now (Unused Elvis Piano Version)

Don't Leave Me Now (Movie Version)

Baby I Don't Care (Take 1)

Disc 2

G.I. Blues (Take 6)

Doin' The Best I Can (Take 10, 11, 12)

Wooden Heart (Take 1)

Pocketful Of Rainbows (Take 15, 16)

Shoppin' Around (Take 4, 5)

Frankfort Special (Take 4, 5)

Big Boots (Fast Version Take 1)

Tonight's All Right For Love (Take 14, 15)

Summer Kisses, Winter Tears (Takes 1 & 2)

Flaming Star (Take 2)

Lonely Man (Solo Version) (Take 3)

In My Way (Take 2)

Forget Me Never (Take 1)

Wild In The Country (Take 1, 14)

Lonely Man (Take 1)

I Slipped, I Stumbled, I Fell (Take 14, 15, 16)

Aloha-Oe (Take 1)

Hawaiian Sunset (Take 3)

Ku-U-I-Po (Take 6, 7)

No More (Take 11)

Slicin' Sand (Take 6, 7)

Steppin' Out Of Line (Take 15)

Almost Always True (Take 3)

Moonlight Swim (Take 4 Edited)

Can't Help Falling In Love (Take 14, 15, 16)

Disc 3

Make Me Know It (Take 1)

Soldier Boy (Take 10)

It Feels So Right (Take 1)

Girl Of My Best Friend (Take 9)

Surrender (Take 5, 6)

Working On The Building (Take 4)

Starting Today (Take 1)

Kiss Me Quick (Take 4)

That's Someone You Never Forget (Take 7)

His Latest Flame (Take 12)

I Met Her Today (Take 16)

Night Rider (Take 1)

Just Tell Her Jim Said Hello (Take 4)

Echoes Of Love (Take 8)

Ask Me (Take 7)

Stand By Me (Take 10)

Somebody Bigger Than You And I (Take 15)

Without Him (Take 8)

Mine (Take 8, 9)

Singing Tree (Take 4 1st Version)

U.S. Male (Take 10)

Disc 4

Also Sprach Zarathustra (Live)

See See Rider (Live)

Proud Mary (Live)

Never Been To Spain (Live)

You Gave Me A Mountain (Live)

Until It's Time For You To Go (Live)

Polk Salad Annie (Live)

Love Me (Live)

All Shook Up (Live)

Teddy Bear / Don't Be Cruel (Live)

Heartbreak Hotel (Live)

Hound Dog (Live)

How Great Thou Art (Live)

I Can't Stop Loving You (Live)

Love Me Tender (Live)

Suspicious Minds (Live)

Introductions By Elvis

For The Good Times (Live)

Burning Love (Live)

American Trilogy (Live)

Funny How Time Slips Away (Live)

Can't Help Falling In Love (Live)

Closing Vamp (Live)

Alternates and unreleased, fifties, films, sixties, and live. How much Elvis does any one person need? I want it all.

2ND TO NONE

(US) RCA 51108-2 (CD)

Released: October 2003

That's All Right

I Forgot To Remember To Forget

Blue Suede Shoes

I Want You, I Need You, I Love You

Love Me

Mean Woman Blues

Loving You

Treat Me Nice

Wear My Ring Around Your Neck

King Creole

Trouble

I Got Stung

I Need Your Love Tonight

Mess Of Blues

I Feel So Bad

Little Sister

Rock-A-Hula Baby

Bossa Nova Baby

Viva Las Vegas

If I Can Dream

Memories

Don't Cry Daddy

Kentucky Rain

You Don't Have To Say You Love Me

American Trilogy

Always On My Mind

Promised Land

Moody Blue

I'm A Roustabout

Rubberneckin' (Paul Oakenfold Radio Remix)

Rubberneckin' (Paul Oakenfold Remix - 12")

Rubberneckin' (Original)

ELVIS BY THE PRESLEYS

(US) RCA 82876 67883-2 (2 x CD)

Released: May 2005

Disc 1

Trying To Get To You

Heartbreak Hotel

I Want You, I Need You, I Love You

I Got A Woman

Got A Lot O' Livin' To Do

Peace In The Valley

Trouble

Hawaiian Wedding Song

Indescribably Blue

In The Ghetto

Suspicious Minds

I'll Hold You In My Heart (Till I Can Hold You In My Arms)

Bridge Over Troubled Water

You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'

It's Over (from Aloha From Hawaii)

Separate Ways

Always On My Mind

My Way

Burning Love

Welcome To My World (from Aloha From Hawaii)

Steamroller Blues (from Aloha From Hawaii)

I Got A Feelin' In My Body

If I Can Dream

Little Less Conversation (JXL Remix)

Disc 2

It Wouldn't Be The Same Without You (1954 Acetate)

Jailhouse Rock (Take 3, 4, 5)

Anything That's Part Of You (Take 9)

You'll Be Gone (Take 2)

Too Much Monkey Business (Takes 4, 10)

Baby, What You Want Me To Do (Private Recording, Memphis, November 3-4, 1973)

I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry (Private Recording, Memphis, November 3-4, 1973)

Blue Christmas (Live Norman, Oklahoma, March 26, 1977)

The second CD is the attraction for me, for the alternate takes, yes, but most of all for the beautiful version of 'I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry' sung in private. 

HITSTORY

(US) RCA 73176-2 (3 x CD)

Released: May 2006

Disc 1

Contains the 2002 CD of Elvis 30 #1 Hits

Disc 2

Contains the 2003 CD of 2nd To None minus the 12" remix and the original release of Rubberneckin'

Disc 3 Titled "The Story Continues"

Blue Moon

Mystery Train

Rip It Up

Got A Lot O' Livin' To Do

Trying To Get To You

Lawdy Miss Clawdy

Paralyzed

Party

I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone

Girl Of My Best Friend

Wild In The Country

One Broken Heart For Sale

Kiss Me Quick

Kissin' Cousins

Such A Night

Ain't That Loving You Baby

Tell Me Why

Frankie And Johnny

All That I Am

Guitar Man

U.S. Male

I've Lost You

There Goes My Everything

Rags To Riches

I Just Can't Help Believin'

Until It's Time For You To Go

My Boy

Suspicion

My Way

Are You Lonesome Tonight (Laughing Version)

THE ESSENTIAL ELVIS PRESLEY

(US) RCA 89048-2 (3 x CD)

Released: January 2007

Disc 1

That's All Right

Baby Let's Play House

Mystery Train

Heartbreak Hotel

I Was The One

Blue Suede Shoes

Hound Dog

Don't Be Cruel

Love Me Tender

All Shook Up

Peace In The Valley

Jailhouse Rock

Trouble

Fever

It's Now Or Never

Reconsider Baby

Are You Lonesome Tonight

Little Sister

Follow That Dream

Can't Help Falling In Love

Disc 2

Return To Sender

Devil In Disguise

Bossa Nova Baby

Viva Las Vegas

Big Boss Man

Little Less Conversation

If I Can Dream

Memories

In The Ghetto

Suspicious Minds

Don't Cry Daddy

Kentucky Rain

Polk Salad Annie

Wonder Of You

I Just Can't Help Believin'

Burning Love

Always On My Mind

Steamroller Blues

Hurt

Moody Blue

Just what is the essential Elvis Presley?