Customer Reviews

Elvis 75

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Probably the most popular Elvis compilation album lately has been Elv1s Elv1s 30 #1 Hits. If you have that album, which is better overall, you may want this one too as the overlap isn't too terrible:

Songs only on "Elvis 75"
------------------------
Always On My Mind
An American Trilogy
Blue Suede Shoes
Guitar Man
How Great Thou Art
I Forgot To Remember To Forget
If I Can Dream (Stereo Mix)
Little Sister
Love Me
Polk Salad Annie
That's All Right
Trouble
Viva Las Vegas


Songs only on "Elv1s"
---------------------
(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear
(Marie's The Name) His Latest Flame
(Now And Then There's) A Fool Such As I
(You're The) Devil In Disguise
A Big Hunk O' Love
A Little Less Conversation (JXL Radio Edit Remix)
Crying In The Chapel
Don't
Good Luck Charm
Hard Headed Woman (from "King Creole")
One Night
Return To Sender
She's Not You (Remastered)
Stuck On You
Surrender
The Wonder Of You
Too Much
Way Down
Wooden Heart


Songs on both
-------------
All Shook Up
Are You Lonesome Tonight? (Remastered on "Elv1s")
Burning Love
Can't Help Falling In Love
Don't Be Cruel
Heartbreak Hotel
Hound Dog
In The Ghetto
It's Now Or Never
Jailhouse Rock
Love Me Tender (Movie Version on "Elvis 75")
Suspicious Minds

This is an excellent collection of some of Elvis' best, and it's enough of a different mix that if you already own something like "Elv1s 30 #1 Hits" you'll still get about a dozen unduplicated songs. If you have $40 or more to spend on an Elvis collection, try the 100 song "Elvis 75 - Good Rockin' Tonight", but for $3.99 this is a great value, and it's a collection that won't be available on CD until January 5, 2010.

Given that there's already an "Elvis 75 - Good Rockin' Tonight" in print, anything other than "Elvis 75" would have been a better title to avoid confusion. Oh, well, we all know that the music industry is full of executives who are as brain-dead as they are greedy. Regardless, $3.99 for 25 great Elvis songs is a deal too good to pass up.

This single CD, issued in celebration of Elvis Presley's 75th birthday anniversary, includes twenty-five tracks selected from the more thorough 4-CD Elvis 75 Good Rockin' Tonight. Much like the box set, this disc covers the length of Elvis' career, including early sides for Sun, incendiary rock `n' `roll for RCA, hits from the movies, post-Army comebacks, gospel, late-60s Memphis gems, live performances and later studio work from 1972. Unlike the box set, you'll miss his pre-Sun acetate and his post-72 recordings. More importantly, each phase of Elvis' career gets only one or a few cuts here, and the lesser known tracks that provide compelling context in the box set are dropped.

Obviously, a career as rich as Elvis Presley's can't be summed up in a single disc. Even his Top 10 hits won't fit on a single CD, and there's so much material beyond the charts that a fair hearing of the King's catalog really takes multiple discs or sets. 30 #1 Hits painted a picture of Presley's career through a recitation of his best-known hits; it's a fair summary, as is the broader 2-1/2 CD Essential 3.0. But none of these short collections, this one included, provide enough depth on Elvis' innovations, failures and resurgences to really essay the full arc of his career. A single disc such as this can serve as a map to an artist's career, but it's no substitute for a more thorough hearing.

What's here is fantastic. From the early rave-up of Arthur "Big Boy" Cruddup's "That's All Right" through the deeply-felt "Always On My Mind," Elvis is nothing less than brilliant. The disc is nicely programmed and plays well, but with so few tracks to provide context, you'll have to figure out for yourself how Elvis got from "Viva Las Vegas" to "How Great Thou Art." If you want to dig deeper, seek out the 4-CD box, or sets that survey his 50s, 60s and 70s masters, soundtracks, sessions at Sun and American Studios, his '68 comeback special, and his numerous live recordings.

The disc is delivered in a two-section digipack featuring a pair of full-panel Presley photos. The 16-page booklet includes a short biographical essay by Billy Altman (seemingly excerpted from his much longer essay in the box set), additional photos, and recording and chart data. If you think you only need one disc of Elvis Presley's music, this isn't a bad place to get an earful, but be forewarned that it's a gateway to a large catalog that you may find yourself unable to resist. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

After listening to this album I don't know how I lived without Elvis in my music collection for so long. 25 perfect two minute Rockabilly gems!

What can you say. Elvis will always be the "King" of rock and roll! And this is another wonderful collect of his songs at a very reasonable price. I would recommend this album to young and old alike!

I have Elvis #1 hits too but am satisfied with purchasing this one as well. The album is well done and wonderful to listen to. A nice tribute for Elvis' 75th birthday.