Elvis Presley (Elvis Presley - Elvis Presley)

Member Name: sharktrager

Product:	Elvis Presley - Elvis Presley
Date:	17/08/02 (648 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It's Elvis first album!

Disadvantages: None

This was the first album to be released featuring Elvis Presley. I'll start with the sleeve design - this is a picture of Elvis performing in his early days, and is accompanied by 'Elvis Presley' in pink and green lettering. This in itself, before we even get to the music, is famous and influential. Indeed, The Clash used a similar design for their album 'London Calling'.

The music on the album, which originally ran to 12 tracks, was made up of recordings which Elvis made in early 1956 for RCA, the major record label to which he had only recently signed, and also a number of songs recorded for Sun Studios where he had originally recorded from 1954. These early tracks have a real bite to them, and show a young man on the top of his game, before what many people view as his decline. These songs were cover versions of old and not-so-old (at the time) songs, but people who say that Elvis was not a talented musician because he didn't write his own material are deluding themselves. I defy anyone to listen to this album and state the Elvis was talentless. Listen to the original Carl Perkins version of 'Blue Suede Shoes' and then listen to the version on this album and tell me that he was talentless. He takes a really quite bland song and makes it exciting. And that takes talent. My favourite song on the original album though is 'I Got A Woman' - again a cover of an old song, but when you compare it to the original (by Ray Charles), it has a certain 'something' which the original (although an excellent track) just doesn't have. These are songs that Elvis would sing throughout his career.

The CD re-release of the album has the original 12 songs augmented by 6 other songs from the period, including Elvis' first national hit 'Heartbreak Hotel'. This gives the album a somewhat different feel - back in the 1950s singles were not included on albums, very different from the situation today.


This album is a piece of cultural history and belongs in the record collection of ANYONE who has an interest in popular music.

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