Search - Elvis Presley :: Elvis Presley (Spkg)

Classic Elvis album beautifully restored

Marc Haegeman | Gent, Belgium | 07/28/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A key reissue of a key album: Elvis Presley's first LP (with the black and white photo and the lilac and green fonts, and succinctly named "Elvis Presley") was released in March 1956 to spend, to everybody's surprise, ten weeks on the number 1 spot on the album charts - the first rock 'n' roll album ever to reach that spot. Listening to it now, five decades after date, it proves still revelatory by its raw energy, uncouth sound, and Elvis' sheer vocal range. Combining in its original guise five songs cut at the Sun Studios with seven new numbers recorded during Elvis' first studio sessions for RCA in January/February 1956, there wasn't a weak moment on the album. Drawing on Elvis' various musical influences and having sterling songs like "Trying To Get To You" or the haunting "Blue Moon" together with "Blue Suede Shoes", "Money Honey" and "I Got A Woman" was as hard to beat an act as any.



For this reissue the original album has been augmented with six singles released in those genuinely inspired months of early 1956 when Elvis was unleashing his own musical revolution and possibly couldn't do no wrong: the unsurpassed "Heartbreak Hotel", "I Was The One", "Lawdy, Miss Clawdy", "Shake, Rattle and Roll", "My Baby Left Me", and "I Want You, I Need You, I Love You" are all among the most significant early rock 'n' roll recordings. The producers have chosen to include all outtakes (known at this date) of the Jan/Feb. 1956 sessions, and they prove fascinating from start to end. From Floyd Cramer's still hesitant piano solo in the earlier takes of "Heartbreak Hotel" to the evolving phrasing in "I Was The One" and "I Want You, I Need You, I Love You". Disc two is concluded by a short interview with Elvis by Don Davis probably from early 1956 about how it all started.



To make the feast complete the sound has been most beautifully restored and mastered by Kevan Budd for this reissue. Andreas Meyer took care of the DSD transfers. The clarity and presence of Elvis' voice obtained from these 50-years old tapes, plus the detail in instruments and background voices is nothing short of miraculous and puts all previous efforts to shame.



Two discs running 70 and 63 min, presented in the now classic 7'' format, with a handsome booklet full of info, photos and memorabilia. Indispensable.

"

A MUST BUY

T. Earle | Wallingford, VT United States | 09/03/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the first Elvis Presley album I purchased, it is quite apparent if Elvis only recorded and released this one album this would have placed him in history as the greatest talented, creative & innovative entertainer of all time, but we all know Elvis continued well beyond this in fact the amount of material this man has recorded good and bad is beyond the capability of any human being on the planet today. How did he do it? For those who want to experience the phenomenal abilities of Elvis Presley listen to this first, you will be amazed."