ELVIS PRESLEY: The 2nd Album

Original released on LP RCA Victor LPM 1382

(US 1956, October 19)

If "Elvis" isn't quite as important historically as the "Elvis Presley" album that preceded it, that's only because it came second - musically, it's a more confident and bolder work than his debut, and in any other artist's output it would have been considered a crowning achievement. At the sessions for his first album, the singer and all concerned were treading into unmapped territory and not sure what they were doing or if they were ready for it - by September of 1956, when the three days of sessions behind the "Elvis" album took place, he was on top, a national phenomenon of a kind that hadn't been seen in music since Frank Sinatra a dozen years earlier, and he had some more experience recording. And with that confidence came better singing. The songs here were, for the most part, material that he knew well, with one new submission by Otis Blackwell. He slides through them seemingly effortlessly, transforming the 1940s country number "When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again" into a smooth rocker; roaring through the Little Richard numbers "Long Tall Sally," "Ready Teddy," and "Rip It Up"; returns to his blues roots with a killer rendition of Arthur Crudup's "I'm So Glad You're Mine" (a leftover, amazingly enough, from his first RCA session); and shows how refined his voice was becoming on the ballad "First in Line" and the sentimental favorite "Old Shep." (Bruce Eder in AllMusic)

ELVIS PRESLEY Debut Album

Original released on LP RCA Victor LPM 1254

(US 1956, March 13)

Today it all seems so easy - RCA signs up the kid from Memphis, television gets interested at around the same time, and the rest is history. The circumstances surrounding this album were neither simple nor promising, however, nor was there anything in the history of popular music up to that time to hint that Elvis Presley was going to be anything other than "Steve Sholes' folly," which was what rival executives were already whispering. So a lot was unsettled and untried at the first of two groups of sessions that produced the Elvis Presley album - it wasn't even certain that there was any reason for a rock & roll artist to cut an album, because teenagers bought 45s, not LPs. The first of Elvis' RCA sides yielded one song, "Heartbreak Hotel," that seemed a potential single, but which no one thought would sell, and a few tracks that would be good enough for an album, if there were one. But no one involved knew anything for sure about this music. Seventeen days later, "Heartbreak Hotel" was released, and for about a month it did nothing - then it began to move, and then Elvis appeared on television, and had a number one pop single. The album Sholes wanted out of Elvis came from two groups of sessions in January and February, augmented by five previously unissued songs from the Sun library. This was as startling a debut record as any ever made, representing every side of Elvis' musical influences except gospel - rockabilly, blues, R&B, country, and pop were all here in an explosive and seductive combination. "Elvis Presley" became the first rock & roll album to reach the number one spot on the national charts, and RCA's first million dollar-earning pop album. (Bruce Eder in AllMusic)

ELVIS: Just Out Of The Army!

Original Released on LP RCA Victor LSP 2231

(US, April 1960)

One of the greatest understatements in the history of rock and roll album titles, "Elvis Is Back!" declared in no uncertain terms that Elvis Presley wasn't as good as he was in the 1950s, he was better. From rock to pop, gospel-tinged ballads to tough Chicago blues, Elvis made magic in less than an hour. Seldom in his career would he be so consistently superb in voice, performance and material. Anyone who said that Elvis was dead after the army could not possibly have heard this album, and the singles that were released around it. The DCC mastering is about as good as it gets. The stuff simply has never sounded better. Anyone who thought Elvis lost his intensity and his feeling for the blues after the army (I have read this) must be deaf!

Just out of the army, and distanced from the new smooth pop of the day, Elvis seems totally at ease whether singing the sublime harmony-laden doo-wop of "Thrill Of Your Love"; cool pop, "Stuck On You"; sultry jazz, "Fever"; steamy blues, "Reconsider Baby" or just plain down-&-dirty rock’n’roll, "Such A Night". Whatever the type of music, Elvis seems totally at home and unstoppable. This album is the most overlooked rock masterpiece in the pop music genre. If there is any doubt as to Elvis's talents as a singer, and any question as to his vocal range, and any wondering as to his depth of feeling, this album eliminates them. Although the album lacks thematic unity, the listener is treated to a wide-range of musical genres, and a close listen shows that Elvis had a knack for making all genres his own. Perhaps the most profound insight one gains from listening to this remarkable album is the utter loss we have all suffered as a result of the poor management he received. No one can ever really know what Elvis could have accomplished had he not languished in Hollywood hell during his prime recording years. This album provides a clue, and it is painful to realize what could have been.

THAT'S THE WAY IT IS!

Original Released on LP RCA-VICTOR LSP 4445

(US, December 1970)

On July 31, 1969, after appearing in the acclaimed NBC-TV show, "Elvis" - affectionately known as the "68 Comeback", ­Elvis returned to the stage in Las Vegas. Physically and mentally, he was at his peak and doing what he loved best: performing live! The audience and critics were mesmerized as he commanded the stage with a panther-like prowess and sang live for the first time in eight years! The International Hotel in Las Vegas had never seen anything like it. The many fans who were unable to experience this special occasion would have to wait until the film "That's The Way It Is!" was released in December 1970, to appreciate the charisma and energy of Elvis, live in concert. The deal was signed with MGM on May 22, 1970 and provided for a rock-u-mentary to be filmed at Elvis' "Summer Festival" in Las Vegas which commenced on August 10. RCA and MGM recorded eight shows that week and the film and accompanying soundtrack were an instant success.

Ironically, the album only contained 4 live songs. The remaining performances were taken from the June sessions in Nashville. Two singles were released to promote the soundtrack; "I've lost You" (studio version) / "The Next Step Is Love" and "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me" / "Patch It Up". They reached #32 and #11 respectively on the Billboard charts. In England, both singles reached #9 and in December '71, "I Just Can't Help Believing" was released by public demand and reached #6! The album enjoyed a long chart run on both sides of the Atlantic and reached #21 and #12 respectively. "That's The Way It Is!" was certified gold and represents Elvis at his best. This was an important landmark in the multi-faceted career of the world's greatest recording artist of all time.

ELVIS: "ON STAGE, FEBRUARY 1970"

Original Released as LP RCA Victor LSP 4362
(US, June 1970)

This was the album that made me “discover” the King. Until then I was more a Cliff & The Shadows fan and Elvis was just the guy who used to sing some nice songs in movies I had seen. It was early April, 1971, and I was enjoying some holidays in Johannesburg, S.A.. A theatre called “Metro” was showing “That’s The Way It Is”, a Presley show filmed by director Dennis Sanders and I went to see it just because the publicity announced the excitement of the “6 Stereophonic Channels”, something completely new in those days. When the session reached its end, the first thing I’ve done was to run to the nearest record shop and buy this album. And the day after I was again at the same theatre to buy another ticket ...

"On Stage" was Elvis second live album. It was released in June 1970, almost one year after his triumphant return to perfoming and seven months after his first double album, "From Memphis To Vegas / From Vegas To Memphis", half of which had been his first-concert recording. As he began to consider perfoming again, Elvis realized that he could no longer depend wholly upon original songs generated by his publishing movies a year. Instead, he revisited some of his fifties hits, usually at a considerably faster tempo, while passing over almost all of his sixties hits. He rounded out the shows with his latest hits, other peoples’ hits and songs that held personal significance for him. Not since his earliest days had he incorporated so many cover songs into his act. Elvis wove these vert different songs into a new tapestry of American music. Six songs have now been added to the original program: “In The Ghetto”, “Don’t Cry Daddy”, “Kentucky Rain”, “Suspicious Minds”, “I Can’t Stop Loving You” and “Long Tall Sally”. In retrospect, we can see that Elvis was giving us his new vision of music for a new decade. Every one of these sixteen songs had some significance or meaning for him, and, as was always the case, he forged them into a uniquely personal statement. Six months after, by Christmas, appeared the second live album from the same shows. It was called, like the movie, "That's The Way It Is".

ELVIS In Person At The International Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada (+ 6 bonus tracks)

Original Released as the first disc of a double-set LP RCA LSP6020 "From Memphis To Vegas/From Vegas To Memphis" 

(US, November 1969)

When Elvis and the Colonel decided it was time to start appearing live again, they assembled a crackerjack band (featuring James Burton) and took on Vegas full-bore. Easily the King's best live album, "In Person at the International Hotel" featured a slew of hits, including "Johnny B. Goode," "My Babe," the "Mystery Train/Tiger Man" medley, and "Suspicious Minds." If the album had a flaw, it was its skimpy running time (36 minutes). We now know, from the unissued tracks from these same performances that were added to the remastered "On Stage" (1970), that there was more to the repertory of those five days of August 1969 shows than is represented here; but the producers, limited to a single LP, faced a major problem: Should they weigh the tracks more toward his current repertory and recent singles, or toward his classic songs? The classic songs sort of won out, but in the decades since, those then-recent singles have risen in stature. Regardless of what they're playing, the band really rock throughout, and that's not just Burton — who sounds like he's wearing his fingers ragged as he puts a new edge on "Hound Dog," coming up with something different than, yet vaguely similar to, Scotty Moore's approach to the song in concert 14 years earlier — but also the entire guitar contingent of John Wilkinson and Charlie Hodge (not to mention Elvis himself, who strums along here and there) and the muscular rhythm section of bassist Jerry Scheff and drummer Ronnie Tutt. The vocal support by Hodge, Millie Kirkham, the Sweet Inspirations, and the Imperials is soaring and tasteful, never more so than on the album's seven-minute version of "Suspicious Minds" and the soaring finale, "Can't Help Falling in Love." (Cub Koda & Bruce Eder in AllMusic)

ELVIS '69

This collection reunites, in my opinion, the best songs Elvis recorded in the beginning of 1969. After his comeback special in 1968, it was time to record new songs in Memphis studios, before the shows on Las Vegas will begin in July. It was a long time that Elvis didn't recorded in Memphis (since 1955) and these sessions will be regarded as some of the finest of his career. His friends and associates encouraged him to record at American Sound because Nashville would yield nothing for him at this time. Elvis has excellent material to choose from and pours his heart and soul intro the sessions. He works with a lot of top-notch Memphis musicians, and the sound is fresh and gutsy. On every track one can sense his creative excitement and energy. This is joyful work after years of movie boredom.

In March 5, Elvis returns to Hollywood to film and record the soundtrack music for his 31º and what will turn to be his last acting role in a motion picture. It is "Change Of Habit", co-starring Mary Tyler Moore. The few songs in the movie are good and they're performed in natural, rather than the usual badly contrived situations. Starting July 31, Elvis is booked for a 4-week, fifty-seven show engagement at the International Hotel in Las Vegas, which has just been built and has the largest showroom in the city. A new phase will begin in the King's career. He is 34 years old, and this final period will last until his death, eight years later.

"Polk Salad Annie" By ELVIS PRESLEY

A Tribute To The King

Elvis Presley became a one-man industry during his lifetime. He continues to be a one-man industry 30 years after his death (more Elvis’ records have been sold after he died than when he was alive). It’s well over half a century since he made his first commercial recording, for Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee, and Elvis’ voice and image are still two of the hottest properties on Earth.

When Elvis recorded his hit tunes the CD had not even been invented, but record shops are full of them now. Even 30 years after his death, the idiolization of the King shows no signs of slowing down. Life can be cruel. He was the original rock and roll outlaw. But they didn’t allow him to play himself. They package him as the boy next door just as all the other rockers were becoming bad boys…, thanks to him.

When I see the footage of his last concerts I can imagine how humiliated he must have been to be fat, sweating like a pig, and stoned out of his mind. When once he made girls scream. But does the monstrosity of Elvis really matter? He remained a great artist and a professional performer to the end. Not a god or a true king. He was just an explorer of vast new landscapes of dream and illusion. He was a man who refused to be told that the best of his dreams would not come true, who refused to be defined by anyone else’s conceptions. That Elvis made so much of the journey on his own is reason enough to remember him with the honor and love we reserve for the bravest among us. Such men made the only maps we can trust.

And forty years later his fans (older and new) still remember him, still carry him in their hearts. The man has certainly died on that August 16. But the myth is alive and kicking between us and will remain that way forever. And now, once more, it’s time to celebrate his contribution to music. Years ago Rato Records has assembled this unique collection of some of the best covers of the classic songs he made famous all around the world. Once more this CD is available again 'cause of the many requests I still have. Hope you like it. Then you can hurry and go listen to the originals.

The ELVIS PRESLEY Movie Collection - 7

Original released on LP RCA Victor LPM 2621

(US 1962, November 2)

"Blue Hawaii" was such a big hit that it only made sense to bring Elvis back to the islands for 1962's "Girls! Girls! Girls!" Thankfully, everybody involved with the production of the film decided that its soundtrack didn't need to be loaded up with Hawaiian-themed exotica - they couldn't, however, resist the nautical-themed "Thanks to the Rolling Sea" and "Song of the Shrimp" - but that is also an indication of how Col. Tom Parker and RCA chose to channel all their recording energy into soundtracks and singles. "Blue Hawaii" sold considerably more than "Pot Luck", the Presley album from the summer of 1962, so everybody chose to pour all their efforts into the soundtracks, a move that made "Girls! Girls! Girls!" slightly more musically diverse than either "G.I. Blues" or "Blue Hawaii", but the album still found plenty of space for trifle - not just the aforementioned songs of the sea but the Eastern-tinged "Earth Boy" and flamenco-flavored "Walls Have Ears." That said, there was also room for two Otis Blackwell numbers - the standard "Return to Sender" overshadowing the quite excellent "We're Coming In Loaded" - and there are other inspired bits of pizzazz, ranging from Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller's rampaging title track to the swinging defiance of "I Don't Wanna Be Tied," numbers that lack the rawness of rock & roll but play off Presley's swagger. He also gets plenty of space to indulge in his softer side: "Where Do You Come From" attempts to rewrite "Can't Help Falling in Love" to no avail, but "I Don't Want To" isn't a bad slow dance number and "Because of Love" floats on an appealing shuffle. It all adds up to a pretty enjoyable record, one that perhaps doesn't capture Presley at his best but nevertheless finds an effective way to package and polish his charm for the silver screen. (Stephen Erlewine in AllMusic)

The ELVIS PRESLEY Movie Collection - 6

Original releaes on LP RCA Victor LPM 2426

(US 1961, October 1)

Elvis movies never came bigger than "Blue Hawaii", the 1961 romantic musical comedy whose success helped push Presley into near full-time filmmaking for the bulk of the '60s. Not only was the flick a hit but so was the soundtrack, going Gold by the end of 1961, a success partially fueled by the ballad "Can't Help Falling in Love," a song so good it suggests the rest of the record might contain other gems. That's not the case. The record has its moments, including the dreamy title track, but as an album, "Blue Hawaii" is undone by a film that demands a good chunk of its tunes carry a Hawaiian flavor. Often, this mid-century Polynesian exotica has its charms - Elvis croons sweetly on the swaying luaus and everybody involved has the good sense to embrace the project's inherent silliness, letting themselves josh around on deliberate fluff like "Rock-A-Hula Baby" and the vaudevillian rhumba that's "Beach Boy Blues." Both of these are ridiculous but on record, they're slightly preferable to the steady march of island tunes ("Aloha Oe," "Ku-U-I-Po," "Island of Love," "Hawaiian Love Song"), all silver screen corn performed with a bit more panache than they deserve. (Stephen Erlewine in AllMusic)

The soundtrack was recorded at Radio Recorders, Hollywood, California, in March 1961. The sound engineer was Thorne Nogar, and the musicians were:
Guitar: Scotty Moore, Hank Garland and Tiny Timbrell
Bass: Bob Moore
Drums: D.J. Fontana, Hal Blaine and Bernie Mattinson
Piano: Floyd Cramer
Piano & Celeste: Dudley Brooks
Sax: Boots Randolph
Steel-guitar: Alvino Ray
Harmonica: George Fields
Ukulele: Fred Tavares and Bernie Lewis
Vocal accompaniment: The Jordanaires and The Surfers

"Welcome To My World" By ELVIS PRESLEY

"Unchained Melody" By ELVIS PRESLEY

ELVIS PRESLEY: EP "The Real Elvis"

Original released on EP RCA Victor EPA 940
(US, 1956)

ELVIS PRESLEY: EP "A Big Hunk O'Love"

Original released on EP RCA Victor EPA 9673

(GERMANY, 1959)

The ELVIS PRESLEY Movie Collection - 5

"FLAMING STAR"

Original released on EP RCA EPA 9009 (US, 1960)

"FOLLOW THAT DREAM"

Original released on EP RCA EPA 4368 (US, 1962)

"KID GALAHAD"

Original released on EP RCA  EPA 4371 (US, 1962)

The ELVIS PRESLEY Movie Collection - 4

Original released on LP RCA Victor LPM 2256

(US 1960, October 1)

"G.I. Blues" marks the point when Elvis Presley's '60s begin. It's the first film he made after leaving the Army - parts of the production were shot in Germany just prior to his release. "G.I. Blues" is nowhere near as tacky as some of the soundtracks that arrived later, but it nevertheless makes clear Col. Tom Parker's desire to move Presley from rock & roll and into the show biz middle of the road. Only a bold, rollicking run-through of Carl Perkins' "Blue Suede Shoes" could be called rock & roll, although "Shoppin' Around" also swings to a bluesy backbeat and there's a bit of a spark to the title track, a song that's cleverly perched between rock and show tunes without explicitly reworking previous Elvis recordings the way that "Tonight Is So Right for Love" or "Frankfort Special" do (the former kicks off with a rhythm out of "Such a Night," the latter "Mystery Train"). Most of "G.I. Blues" belongs firmly to the song-and-dance camp and for good reason: the film is a musical comedy, so the songs should be effervescent trifles, which they are. Elvis handles them admirably, never sounding embarrassed and often lending them a considerable amount of charm, a quality that when combined with a crackerjack band makes "G.I. Blues" an amiable lark. (Stephen Erlewine in AllMusic)