332. Elvis Presley, "Elvis Presley"

 


This came out in 1955 and is obviously not the first "rock and roll" record, but it was the first one to sell a million copies and to reach #1 on Billboard's Top Pop albums chart.  It's a mix of stuff Elvis recorded for Sam Phillips at Sun in Memphis and later recordings done at RCA Studios in New York.  Although I doubt this distinction existed at the time, it's all "covers," in that Elvis didn't write a single song on this record, and in fact, as far as I can tell, all the songs had been previously recorded.  In fact, "Blue Suede Shoes" had already been a regional hit for Carl Perkins.  

(In fact, if Wikipedia is to be believed, Elvis wrote or co-wrote a total of nine - nine! - songs in his career.  I've written more than nine songs and I never had a Vegas revue.  And even those nine are in doubt, since he got co-writing credit for doing basically nothing.  I'm not saying every performer has to be a songwriter, but it's just wild that one of the biggest figures in rock music couldn't put a C, G, A minor, F together into something usable.)

This album sounds like the mashup of genres that early rock really was.  The aforementioned "Blue Suede Shoes" and "Just Because" and "Money Honey" are essentially early rockabilly, while "I'm Counting on You" sounds like country crossed with Perry Como or something like that.  

When I was listening to this I was trying to pretend I'd never heard Elvis's voice before, and it's really something.  He's got an almost preternatural ability to control the tone and warble and impart unexpected emotion to an otherwise bland weeper like "I'll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin')."

I'm guessing this isn't the last Elvis Presley album we'll see.  

Does this album deserve to be in the Top 500? Yes, if for historical importance alone.

Comments

  1. StephenJuly 8, 2021 at 7:12 PM

    My favorite Elvis song is "Little Sister." Whatever album has that on it should be on this list.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. TKJuly 9, 2021 at 9:43 AM

      It was only released as a single, so I have some bad news.

      Delete

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