The problem with compiling an essential best-of compilation covering the phenomenon that was (and is)
Elvis Presley
is the very man himself, who has passed from this mortal coil into the iconic pop culture stratosphere where even his own death is questioned and
Elvis
sightings are as frequent as fleas. Then there are the thousands of performers who daily dress up as
Presley
himself and sally forth into the world like perfectly gyrating replicas of either the early or later
(body physics dictate that you can't be both).
may have left the building, but not really. His image is everywhere, and his fans are legion and devout. So how does one pick his essential sides when
"Do the Clam"
is a classic in the Kingdom of
simply because
did it? He recorded
Tony Joe White
's
"Polk Salad Annie"
in 1970. It was hardly the best version ever of
but it was
' version of
"Polk Salad Annie,"
which puts it in rarefied class of its own, and making it, like
"Do the Clam,"
absolutely essential in some quarters. When you're larger than life, words like essential have to expand or be left wanting.
The Essential Elvis Presley
boils this imposing legacy down to two discs of 20 tracks each, and approaches the problem of what is truly essential by choosing to compile all of
' significant charting hits, beginning with his 1954 cover of
Arthur Crudup
"That's All Right"
from
Sam Phillips
'
Sun Records
and continuing chronologically through
's long association with
RCA Records
through the year 1976. That means, while there's no version of
(
is here, though), there are classic sides like 1956's
"Heartbreak Hotel,"
"Don't Be Cruel,"
"Hound Dog,"
and
"Love Me Tender,"
1957's
"Jailhouse Rock,"
1961's
"Little Sister,"
and 1969's
"In the Ghetto,"
"Suspicious Minds,"
"Kentucky Rain."
There are 17 number one hits and a whole lot more.
fanatics are going to complain about what isn't here, of course.
is the King, after all, and therefore by definition everything he recorded ought to be essential. And everything he recorded is indeed essential on some level. But these are the sides that broke through to the deepest level of the world pop culture that
helped create. These are the songs that broke him and then sustained him on radio and television and at the movie theaters. Die-hard
fans will undoubtedly already have everything collected here. This is a set instead for folks who want to have at least one
anthology in their collections, and want the hits they remember and don't much care if those hits are from the early
or the later
or the dear departed
. Just the hits, bartender, shaken not stirred. That means no version of
singular as it is. ~ Steve Leggett