Customer Reviews

Date With Elvis

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've been collecting elvis music since I was 8 years old ,I'm now 55,I had "a date with elvis" on the original LP record when it came out ,the copy I had was in stereo ,all the releases on cd have been in digitally remastered mono ,and no matter how many times they re-did it ,it pailed in comparison to the original , tll NOW thank you hallmark for putting this issue out , it sounds even better than the original record ,and the price is unbelievably cheap ,for such outstanding quality !I played it back through my surround sound system and was in absolute awe !I don't suppose you'd like to do that with elvis gold hits vol. 1 and 2,I'm so sick of listening to the digetally remastered mono versions of those because they sound flat and lifeless,500.000.000 fans are dying to hear them come back to life too !!

Like its companion release (For LP Fans Only), A Date With Elvis has left varying impressions on different generations of Elvis Presley fans. If you were around in 1959, the first thing you probably noticed was that it was the gatefold jacket, with lots of really cool photos inside and out of Elvis Presley in uniform. Hearing this album - which contained not a word about where or when the music on it was recorded - one would have been struck by just how raw and lively the music was. As they had with For LP Fans Only, RCA had assembled a "new" Elvis Presley album by reaching back to five of the best of his best Sun Records sides, augmented with a few songs left over from the Love Me Tender and Jailhouse Rock soundtrack EPs. The 1954-1955 recordings of "Milkcow Blues Boogie," "Good Rockin' Tonight," "Baby Let's Play House," etc., with their lean textures, frantic sound, and Scotty Moore's slashing lead guitar, were a far cry from anything heard on his recent RCA soundtracks. It was the height of irony that the two "new" Elvis albums of 1959 gave national audiences their first real chance to plunge into the sound of the "old" Elvis of 1954-1955, when he was known as "The Memphis Flash" and "The Hillbilly Cat." A few years later, during the mid-/late-'60s, when some listeners started getting serious about Elvis' music, and others, born too late to have been buying the records in 1956, started discovering his work for the first time, the word got out about A Date With Elvis and For LP Fans Only - that these were the real article, at least as worthwhile as the first two RCA albums and the easiest way to get the King's early Memphis sides. By the second half of the 1960s, A Date With Elvis and its packaging had become irrelevant to 99 percent of rock listeners, but serious fans grabbed up copies - even Rolling Stone magazine recommended A Date With Elvis and For LP Fans Only (especially their mono pressings) in the course of guiding readers through the already confusing maze of his releases. By the late '70s, when the Sun material had been gathered together in a more orderly fashion, A Date With Elvis fell out of favor once again, and it has seemed superfluous for most of the time since, in terms of musical scholarship. But listening to it 40-plus years after its release, one is still hard-put to find too many albums that are more viscerally exciting; what's more, it is a reminder of how those Sun sides were best known for the first two decades after their release, and how they first got out to most of us. It's a keeper in any form. - Bruce Eder, AMG

This is a hodge-podge, but a nice hodge-podge. Released in 1959 while Elvis was still in the Army, Elvis' management pulled together several of his old Sun records and some songs from his movies to be able to release this album. For years this was the only album to include some of his historic Sun recordings like Blue Moon of Kentucky, Baby Let's Play House, and I Forgot to Remember to Forget (which was his first national number 1 single, hitting the top spot on the US country chart in 1955). It also includes a nice rocker, (You're So Square) Baby I Don't Care, which was a hit on the US R&B chart in 1957, peaking at 14. This album was only a modest hit in the US, only reaching 32 on the Billboard album chart, but it was a bigger hit in the UK reaching number 4.

I have loved this album since I was a kid, the mix of early Suns and RCA is great, some of his best songs. This is one of the few rock and roll records that is just a heck of a lot of fun. (check out the Bonzos for some more)

True Elvis fans know what others don't: "A Date with Elvis" was released a few years after Elvis debuted but it contains authentic "early Elvis" tracks from his raw Sun Records days. Here's the deal: It's 1959 & Elvis is just going into the Army. RCA pulls from the King's rich backlog of mid-50's tunes anticipating his time in the service and out of the studio. This album reveals a mature and confident singer. "Blue Moon of Kentucky" may be one of Rock-n-Roll's greatest songs ever. "Young and Beautiful" is a melodic gem comparable to "Love Me Tender" but quite unknown. And the rollicking "You're So Square" will surely be one of your new favorites. This album is vastly underrated by most people except serious Elvis fans. You will find none of these tracks on the soon to be released "Elvis30hits." Therefore, buy them both! Thank you, thank you very much!

This is a hodge-podge, but a nice hodge-podge. Released in 1959 while Elvis was still in the Army, Elvis' management pulled together several of his old Sun records and some songs from his movies to be able to release this album. For years this was the only album to include some of his historic Sun recordings like Blue Moon of Kentucky, Baby Let's Play House, and I Forgot to Remember to Forget (which was his first national number 1 single, hitting the top spot on the US country chart in 1955). It also includes a nice rocker, (You're So Square) Baby I Don't Care, which was a hit on the US R&B chart in 1957, peaking at 14. This album was only a modest hit in the US, only reaching 32 on the Billboard album chart, but it was a bigger hit in the UK reaching number 4.

This is my favorite Elvis album of ALL TIME! It came out when I was 15 and had just become president of the EP Fan Club. It's gritty blues at it's best. Many of my favorite songs are on this album. It's Elvis as we seldom heard him-before the Army. I feel that Elvis was best when he just acted natural and let himself go.

A great variety of songs from the 1950s era of his career. The new edition is not the original album cover but a beautiful picture of him anyway.

Growing up listening to Elvis was an era that I was happy to be a part of. I had the privledge of seeing Elvis in concert many years ago, which was a very great experience. I have been to Graceland and also visited his birth home of Tupelo MS. Great place to visit, met a lot of nice folks there. It was great to find a lot of Elvis's older cd's that I had at one time in LP form and got destroyed in a fire. Thanks for the cd. Steve from Georgia.

Back when Elvis was in the army, RCA Records was deperate for new Elvis albums. So, they threw together a few songs that had never been on an LP before and called it an album. Most of the songs here are from either his Sun Records days or from the Jailhouse Rock soundtrack. This is all great music, but this album has been rendered superfluous by later releases. Why get this when you can just get the complete Sun sessions or the complete Jailhouse Rock soundtrack?