The Elvis Presley Album by Album thread, revisited

I have decided to start a new Elvis Presley Album thread. The purpose is to discuss the albums but I will also focus on sound quality, and mention album variations, mix variations and list my favorite version of every album on cd. Vinyl and downloads will only be mentioned if they have something special to offer or are vastly superior to their cd counterparts.

I will use the Wikipedia entries as a starting point for each album.

First up: Elvis At Sun.

 

Elvis At Sun - RCA 61205-2
Release date: 22 June, 2004



Track listing:

01. Harbor Lights
02. I Love You Because
03. That's All Right
04. Blue Moon of Kentucky
05. Blue Moon
06. Tomorrow Night
07. I'll Never Let You Go
08. Just Because
09. Good Rockin' Tonight
10. I Don't Care if the Sun Don't Shine
11. Milkcow Blues Boogie
12. You're a Heartbreaker
13. I'm Left You're Right She's Gone (Slow version)
14. I'm Left You're Right She's Gone
15. Baby Let's Play House
16. I Forgot to Remember to Forget
17. Mystery Train
18. Trying to Get to You
19. When It Rains It Really Pours

Singles
SUN 209 That's All Right / Blue Moon of Kentucky
SUN 210 Good Rockin' Tonight / I Don't Care if the Sun Don't Shine
SUN 215 Milk Cow Blues Boogie / You're a Heartbreaker
SUN 217 Baby Let's Play House / I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone
SUN 223 I Forgot to Remember to Forget / Mystery Train

Elvis at Sun is a compact disc compilation of Elvis Presley's studio recordings at Sun Studio from 1954 to 1955, released in June 2004, BMG Heritage 61205. This set features master recordings made by Presley and his accompanists, Scotty Moore and Bill Black, occasionally augmented by other musicians, prior to his arrival on RCA Records in 1956.

Contents
Tapes for at least two songs have been lost, Sun versions of "I Got A Woman" and "Satisfied;" the former would be recorded for Presley during his first RCA session. All of the studio commercial recordings were produced by Sam Phillips, the owner of Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee. Phillips released Presley's recording contract to RCA for the substantial sum, in 1955 dollars, of $35,000. This gave RCA the rights to all of Presley's masters recorded at Sun.
The disc contains a slightly different track list and running order than previous issues of the Sun material, such as the Sunrise double-disc, with the shorter version of "When It Rains It Really Pours" from the fifites box, and an alternate of "I Love You Because." It still presents all eighteen Sun titles from the singer's stay at the label.

"Elvis At Sun" also was released in the vinyl LP configuration.

Importance
The set includes "That's All Right (Mama)", one of candidates for being "the first rock and roll record". Elvis' entire period at Sun is one of the seminal events in the birth ofrock and roll, specifically also the beginning of the subgenre known as rockabilly. In 2001, VH1 named its parent album the 21st greatest album of all time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 11 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Two tracks from the Presley's Sun sessions were included in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll: "Mystery Train," and "That's All Right."
In 2002, given their importance in the development of American popular music, The Sun Sessions were chosen, by the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress, to be kept as a bequeathal to posterity.

For more detailed information on the recording sessions, see Elvis Presley's Sun recordings.

Personnel
Elvis Presley – vocal, guitar
Scotty Moore – guitar
Bill Black – bass
Jimmie Lott – drums on track 8
Johnny Bernero – drums on tracks 9, 18, 19

Elvis at Sun - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia »


An Overview of the Audio Restoration

With all the well known and some less well known problems of lost master tapes and poor digital mastering it is a relief to find that the result of the 'Elvis at SUN' project is much better and more uniform than really ought to be possible to achieve. This is due to mostly lucky circumstances regarding what actually has been found in recent years, combined with some recent, unusually well calibrated tape transfers by Sony and perhaps most important of all, the huge manual restoration effort carried out by Kevan Budd. For those who care, even the relative amplitude in terms of RMS power distribution has been carefully measured and set by hand for consistency and for a uniform impression of vocal amplitude regardless of source. This is very much the opposite direction of normal mastering of vintage music of today, which seems to be focused on pushing up the level as much as possible over the 0 dB limit.

Harbor Lights, I Love You Because, That's All Right and Blue Moon of Kentucky

Being an early take of an abandoned recording, possibly from the first session on July 5, 1954, the opening track Harbor Lights is the weakest performance of Elvis' SUN recordings. Unexpectedly it also stands out as being one of the few recordings where the actual SUN master tape has been recovered. The most audible difference is that the out-of-place 1976 'Legendary Performer' echo is gone. The new straight transfer actually reveals Sam Phillips' own, more subtle use of locally miked tape echo. In this case, a delayed signal from Scotty's guitar is mixed with the live signal coming from all microphones. This leaves the vocal almost dry, but with a touch of leakage into Scotty's microphone. The result is a very full sound overall and a very natural sound of the vocals.

The above is best illustrated by comparison to the second track, thought to be from the same session but recorded dry using just one tape machine.
Recording of country ballad I Love You Because was abandoned after 5 "takes". RCA spliced "takes" 3 and 5 for their LP master in 1956, but the first complete attempt, "take" 2 is the only consistent full take without major errors and therefore appropriate to include on a genuine SUN collection like this. Here we get a very recent Sony transfer of the original SUN tape. The main characteristics seem to be in the 1-track head of the tape recorder picking up signal from the entire width of the tape. This also results in a high signal/noise ratio and may almost be interpreted as truncation of noise, since random noise is likely to vary along the width of the tape. Apart from that, neutral amplifiers and careful NAB tape curve calibration seems to characterize the Sony transfers. The technique is thus optimised for flat transfers of original album masters or anything else that was mastered for release in the first place. I Love You Because is a dry, flat recording and as much as the Sony transfer of theoretically is as good as it gets, some might find it sound a little hard compared to the full sound of Harbor Lights that actually was transferred by BMG.

Sadly, the SUN master tape of That's All Right is lost forever. It was used to produce the original single in July 1954 and then once more in November 1955 when RCA transferred it. Since I Love You Because and That's All right were recorded on a rehearsal or session that had failed so far, there either was no time for Sam to setup or rewind the slapback tape before recording to produce the characteristic SUN echo. (Only the latter would support Harbor Lights actually being the first recording)

The original R&B side of SUN 209 was dry, just as the outtake that survived on the same session reel as I Love You Because. To prepare it for re-release RCA added compression and an entirely different type of echo when SUN Box #2 was played back for the last time in November 1955. Nevertheless, the RCA tape copy that still exists, is by far the best remaining source in terms of signal. The only other option would have been to transfer an inferior source, a 50-year-old SUN 45 or 78 RPM. Something that couldn't be justified on a major release aimed at the general market now that a tape source does exist. Thankfully, That's All Right is the only alien on 'Elvis at SUN' and as such it is considered a slight improvement over what has been released before.

The C&W side of SUN 209, Blue Moon of Kentucky is one of the recordings where no master tape was turned over to RCA in the first place. A November 1955 RCA tape transfer of a SUN 78 RPM has been used up until now. Now, Blue Moon of Kentucky is one of the worst recorded/mastered SUN masters with compression and overdone echo, but it isn't nearly as bad as the RCA tape implied. RCA compressed it further (to death actually) in November 1955. A manually cleaned up, new transfer from a selection of original SUN 78 RPM's has rectified the situation on 'Elvis at SUN' and the improvement should be obvious.

Blue Moon, Tomorrow Night and I'll Never Let You Go

Next up is a group of three recordings that perhaps were considered rejected masters or potential album tracks by Sam Phillips. They ought to have been recorded at the same session some day between August 19 and early-to-mid September 1954 because they share the same ambience and warm, original tube sound, all carefully miked for the reverb chain in a way that can not been identified on other SUN recordings.

As could be heard on the outtake as released on 'Sunrise' back in 1999, the original SUN Blue Moon tape appears to be very worn. It was recorded at lower level as well and this does result in a lot of tape hiss that has been left intact on 'Elvis at SUN' in order to preserve the signal and ambience. On the other hand, the dropouts have been repaired. The result is a big improvement over the 'Sunrise' outtake and of course an even bigger improvement over the previous BMG master.

The 50's Box digital masters of the nice 1956 RCA tape copies of Tomorrow Night and I'll Never Let You Go have been replaced by flat Sony transfers on 'Elvis at SUN'- well suited here since these masters were finalized by Sam Phillips in the first place. This new transfer lacked a little high end and this was only compensated for by as much as the source could handle.

Just Because, Good Rockin' Tonight and I Don't Care if the Sun Don't Shine

A completely different sound was recorded on the September 1954 session that produced the second SUN single Good Rockin' Tonight (R&B side), I Don't Care if the Sun Don't Shine (C&W side) and the rejected master Just Because, to be used for the first RCA LP in 1956. The early generation master tape of I Don't Care if the Sun Don't Shine has finally been identified as a recovered master this time of course and the glitch is repaired as good as could be done. A pitch analysis implies that the recovered tape runs a little too slow on 'Sunrise', according to Scotty Moore's highly accurate guitar tuning during the SUN days. This observation is in accordance with the pitch of original SUN single, but yet Elvis' vocals may sound slightly too fast. On 'Elvis at SUN' the pitch has been set to that of the original SUN single and the tuning of Scotty's guitar since most threads point in that direction.

On 'Elvis at SUN' Good Rockin' Tonight is from a new Sony transfer from the recently found RCA 30 ips tape. Just Because is a Sony transfer as well, but from the only, badly filtered, 1956 RCA copy that exists, apart from the album master of LPM 1254. Regardless of the now existing, best sources of each of these songs, traces of the same original tape curve problems are evident on all the three uptempo September 1954 recordings. They were recorded with way too much signal in the high end, especially in the 16 kHz region and with too little signal in the lower, so important 100-200 Hz region. Possibly a noise reduction curve on top of the NAB curve, or simply poor calibration, but it should be pointed out that this 16 kHz peak can be identified on some other SUN artists recordings between late 1954 and early 1955.

RCA must have detected this but missed the target a little and filtered more in the 14-15 KHz region instead on Good Rockin' Tonight, which is close actually and not a problem today. On Just Because, RCA filtered out just about everything in the 9-10 kHz region, where there were no problems at all, leaving a black hole sacrificing much of the damped acoustic guitar that was recorded via the reverb tape machine. On 'Elvis at SUN' all three songs have been calibrated with 16 kHz reduction and just a slight lift of the 100-200 Hz to compensate a little for what is considered to have been lost in the first place due to the wrong tape curve calibration. The black hole on Just Because has been carefully raised, but not all the way of course, while the 14-15 kHz reduction on Good Rockin' Tonight was found best left untouched after several blind A-B tests.

Milkcow Blues Boogie, You're a Heartbreaker, I'm Left You're Right She's Gone (slow) and
I'm Left You're Right She's Gone (master)

The recording sessions that produced the third SUN single Milkcow Blues Boogie (R&B side) and You're a Heartbreaker (C&W side) are likely to also have resulted in the final master of I'm Left You're Right She's Gone (C&W side of fourth single) as well as the slow, rejected bluesy version of the same song.

The master tapes for Milkcow Blues Boogie and You're a Heartbreaker were never turned over to RCA, possibly because they had been recorded over by mistake. RCA made dubs of a Mint 78 RPM copy that were used to produce replacement masters for a late 1955 single re-release and for future use by RCA. Both were processed during this process and many artifacts from the shellac source have remained. All restoration efforts for later CD releases have been extremely poor and actually mainly had the opposite effect with introduction of extra distortion and elimination of ambiance. It is therefore a relief that it has been possible to replace both masters of the third single with fresh transfers from a huge selection of other 78 RPM's. If anybody thought that restoring old sources like this is equivalent to sitting in a nice air-conditioned office being served grapes and dinners while pressing buttons of a lot of luxury software to automate the process, think again. The result from a tedious, manual job on Milkcow Blues Boogie is stunning and simply has to be heard to be believed.

The pitch is not that easy to solve, with guitar tuning in contradiction with original 78 RPM pitch and the 60 cycle hum distribution over time (such low frequencies needs ridiculously high FFT values to even measure with decent accuracy). It is presented at original speed, which if correct, could be the only SUN recording where Scotty's guitar wasn't carefully tuned. Going by guitar tuning only, the pitch would have had to be set slightly slower.

You're a Heartbreaker is a big improvement as well, but not quite as good as Milkcow Blues Boogie. The reason for this is that few copies were pressed, as it was the least successful SUN single and that the You're a Heartbreaker side appears to have been played a lot more than the R&B side by the few people who bought a copy. If an Unplayed/Mint copy of this side could be located, You're a Heartbreaker could have been presented with slightly less surface noise.

The rejected, slow I'm Left You're Right, My Baby's Gone is of course improved here as well with dropout repairs and absence of the digital BMG mastering with filtering and added echo that has haunted us until now. The other outtake that was released on 'Sunrise' merely suffered from dropouts and poor eq resulting in a 'hard' sound.

I'm Left You're Right, She's Gone, the C&W side of the fourth single that wasn't released until 5 months after being recorded has never sounded anywhere near this good before. The main source was a Sony transfer of the recently found 30 ips RCA master tape that is at least one generation down, but not subjected to any bad processing at all. Since the song on the best tape isn't complete (last song on compilation tape), it was necessary to combine more than one source to produce the best result throughout. The now restored and beautifully matched original uncut ending is a thrill to hear - a personal favorite on 'Elvis at SUN' considering the final, uniform result from combined sources.

Baby Let's Play House

The February 1955 session that produced the R&B side of the fourth SUN single, Baby Let's Play House comes from the same Sony transfer of the recently recovered RCA 30 ips master compilation tape and there certainly were a few problems with this recording in the first place. The overall high-end had been reduced in three steps soon after the start of the song. This is something that can be traced back to the original SUN single, but is not as evident behind Bill Putnam's high end dynamic processing of the original single. It was possible to compensate a little, but perhaps not all the way within the strict, but necessary rules set out for 'Elvis at SUN'.

I Forgot to Remember to Forget, Mystery Train and Trying to Get to You

There exists a fantastic original 15 ips SUN tape copy for the masters of the fifth and last SUN single I Forgot to Remember to Forget (C&W side) and Mystery Train (R&B side). This tape was handed over by Sam in January 1956 and is therefore referred to as the 16th SUN Tape Box. The tape was first used for the 50's Box, but has now been retransferred flat by Sony with even better results in spite of the flat, original, unprocessed sound. This is partly due to better NAB calibration.

The new transfer of I Forgot to Remember has already found its way to two recent releases. First the 2003 upgrade of 'Great Country Songs' and later the same year it was used for 'Second to None'. The introduction of noise-shaping when converting back to 1-bit DSD native after first converting to 8-bit PCM-narrow in the Sonoma environment to allow equalization isn't very impressive on either one of them, especially considering the result was aimed at 16 bit PCM only. However, the slight above 10 kHz raise done by Sony for these two releases isn't considered out of place at all - it's right on target actually. It's just the method that seems a little complicated. The distorted clipping of vocal peaks on 'Second to None' is simply devastating since this source has so much dynamic range. The 'Great Country Songs' version was clipped as well, but not nearly as much. The 'Elvis at SUN' version of I Forgot to Remember is a slight improvement with total absence of clipping being the only major audible difference compared to 'Great Country Songs'.

The equally great new Sony transfer of the unprocessed, dynamic Mystery Train makes its debut here on 'Elvis at SUN'. The original, full-ending-to-the last-note version derived from lost Sun Tape Box #1 (that was reported to us by Sven Adamski in 1999) has been recovered from the best available source (tape copy with compression and severe generation loss) and matched with precision during the fade-out, using all the tricks in the book and for once stretching all the 'Elvis at SUN' restoration rules. The result of this impossible task is stunning considering the circumstances.

According to Sam Phillips Trying to Get to You would have been the R&B side of Elvis' sixth SUN single. Unfortunately the surviving RCA copies suffer from more compression than usual and not even this Sony transfer of the recovered RCA 30 ips tape can do anything about that. It is a shame how the compression takes over during the loud vocal parts, but apart from that the new source and version isn't all that bad, at least not compared to what has been released before.

When It Rains, It Really Pours

We've had it for years without being able to tell! Exceptionally poor compression has hidden the fact that When It Rains, It Really Pours actually is from the dry reverb tape source. On this recording only Elvis' vocals and acoustic guitar were miked and sent to the mounted tape machine to produce the typical SUN echo on the other tape. The electric guitar didn't have to take this path in late 1955 and the echo of Scotty's Echosonic, purchased on May 24, 1955 (www.scottymoore.net), can be heard leaking into the dry reverb channel, as can Johnny Bernero's drums and Bill Black's bass. They certainly were miked through and recorded directly on the primary console machine, mixed with the delayed signal of what we have here. It is a revelation to hear it as it is. Since it is the last recording its inclusion does not distract the overall impression at all. The unfinished dry reverb tape recording of When It Rains, It Really Pours can be considered a bonus track more than anything else.

If Sam Phillips were alive he might have called this a chronological collection of 11 Masters, 5 rejected master takes or potential album fillers, 2 abandoned recordings and 1 unfinished recording. To the rest of us this is an important piece of 20th Century history.

ELVIS AT SUN: An Overview of the Audio Restoration »
_______________________________________

This is perhaps the cleanestm least processed cd of the historic Sun recordings. Dry versions of Elvis' first single That's All Right and Blue Moon Of Kentucky, transferred from an original mint 45 rpm Sun single are available on the FTD book/cd release A Boy From Tupelo (2012). Also available on A Boy From Tupelo is a repaired Just Because. The repair was done by taking a snippet of Good Rockin' Tonight.

 

I have all these songs on the 5CD box set "The King of Rock 'n' Roll: The Complete 50's Masters" (1992). I played it so much and I've never thought that I would need another version. Jerry Lee Lewis on the other hand... I have just a ho-hum CD compilation from the late 80s with his Sun recording sessions. But, I guess that's another story.

 

For the best and up to date info on the above and more ...

Recording Sessions 1950s »


Kevan Budd interview - Elvis Information Network »

EIN- Kevan what was the very first Elvis project you got to work on?

Kevan Budd: `Elvis at sun` and the `that’s all right` single release were the first.

EIN- Do you consider 'Elvis At Sun' as you best or most important release and what track stands out to you as the most memorable to work on?

KB: It was probably the toughest so far, and it could be seen as the most important, though I do feel every Elvis project `no matter what` is important.
Most memorable would probably be `milkcow blues boogie` as I traveled everywhere making transfers of original Sun records trying to improve on the old RCA copy, eventually I found a copy which would be good enough to use in part, once restored. Though it almost got overlooked as the start and end were a complete mess. In the end the track was made from 3 separate parts pieced together. `Blue moon` also sticks in my mind as it was the most badly damaged tape.

 

Great post. One of the best Elvis Presley posts on this forum, thanks for compiling the information.

 

Fantastic post, @ClausH

Thanks!

 

Great idea! I am still quite new to Elvis's music. I look forward to learning a lot.

 

Great post Elvis At Sun is my go-to version when I listen to the Sun recordings. Great sound

 

Wow, awesome post ClausH! Thanks for all that info.

I knew many preferred this particular version/comp of his Sun Sessions -- but didn't realize all the reasons why (Kevan Budd's name not withstanding). So cool to have the whole story here. (And for only $6.99 on Amazon US, I figured -- why not add yet another copy of these historic sessions to my ridiculous Elvis collection! ).

I have these songs in various forms and configurations, but most notably, I have the monumental FTD collection, A Boy From Tupelo and the 2 disc Sunrise set, so it will be great to compare.

 

Elvis at SUN? If you don't have it already, correct that at the first opportunity.

Here's a little information about the audio restoration on this set.
ELVIS AT SUN: An Overview of the Audio Restoration »

 

Elvis Presley - LPM 1254
Release date: March 23, 1956
Peak chart position: #1



Blue Suede Shoes
I'm Counting On You
I Got a Woman
One-Sided Love Affair
I Love You Because
Just Because

Tutti Frutti
Tryin' to Get to You
I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You)
I'll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin')
Blue Moon"
Money Honey

Singles
20/47-6420 Heartbreak Hotel / I Was The One
20/47-6540 I Want You, I Need You, I Love You / My Baby Left Me

Elvis Presley (released in the UK as Elvis Presley Rock n' Roll) is the debut studio album by Elvis Presley. It was released on RCA Victor, in mono, catalogue number LPM 1254, in March 1956. The recording sessions took place on January 10 and January 11 at the RCA Victor recording studios in Nashville, Tennessee, and on January 30 and January 31 at the RCA Victor studios in New York. Additional material originated from sessions at Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, on July 5, August 19 and September 10 of 1954, and on July 11, 1955.

The album spent ten weeks at number 1 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart in 1956, the first rock and roll album ever to make it to the top of the charts, and the first million-selling album of that genre. In 2003, it was ranked number 56 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Elvis Presley was also one of three Presley albums accoladed in the reference book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, the others being Elvis Is Back! and From Elvis in Memphis. It was certified Gold on November 1, 1966 and Platinum on August 8, 2011 by the Recording Industry Association of America.

Content
By the second half of 1955, singles on Sun Records by Presley began making the national country and western singles chart, "Baby Let's Play House" and "I Forgot to Remember to Forget" going to number 5 and number 1 respectively. Colonel Tom Parker, the new manager of Presley, had extensive dealings with RCA through his previous client, singer Eddy Arnold, especially with the head of the Country and Western and Rhythm and blues division, Steve Sholes. At the urging of Parker, on November 21, 1955, Sholes bought Presley's contract from Sam Phillips, the head of Sun Records and Studio, for the unprecedented sum of $35,000. Presley and rock and roll were still untested properties for the major labels in the music business, but this album, along with the number 1 single "Heartbreak Hotel", proved the selling power of both: it was RCA's first pop album to earn more than $1,000,000, and in 1966 it had sold over one million units.

Presley made appearances in four consecutive weeks on the Dorsey Brothers television program Stage Show in early 1956, on January 28, February 4, February 11, and February 18. RCA wanted an album in the stores fast to capitalize both on the nationwide TV exposure and the success of his first hit single on the pop charts with "Heartbreak Hotel", swiftly climbing to the top after its release on January 27. At the same time, there had only been two series of Presley recording sessions for RCA Victor by the end of the Dorsey stint, after which Presley and his band were back on the road. Those two sessions yielded an additional eleven tracks, almost enough to fill an entire LP, although some tracks had singles potential. In the 1950s, general practice dictated tracks having greater commercial potential to be released as singles, with tracks of lesser appeal placed on albums; as such, RCA Victor neither took all eleven tracks and simply made an album, nor placed the already released and briskly-selling "Heartbreak Hotel" on it. The rights to the Sun Studio tapes had transferred to RCA with the sale of his contract, so five previously unreleased Sun songs, "I Love You Because", "Just Because", "Tryin' to Get to You", "I'll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin')", and "Blue Moon" were added to seven of the RCA sessions tracks to bring the running time of the album up to an acceptable length. Phillips produced the sessions at Sun, and no producer was officially listed for the RCA Victor sessions, leading to the belief that Presley himself produced them.

As the Sun tracks were mostly country-styled, Elvis and RCA leavened the selections with covers of recent rhythm and blues songs. Two of these, "Money Honey" by Jesse Stone, known to Elvis from a version by Clyde McPhatter, and Ray Charles' 1955 hit "I Got a Woman", had been in Presley's live act for a year. A third was the frenetic announcement to the world of the existence of Little Richard in 1955, "Tutti Frutti". A rockabilly number that was believed to be a potential hit and could hold its own with the R&B material, "Blue Suede Shoes", was not initially released as a single from a promise by Sholes to Sam Phillips to protect the career of another Sun artist, Carl Perkins, the author of the song. Instead, it was diverted into being the opening track on the album.

On August 31, 1956, RCA Victor took the unusual step of releasing the entire album as singles, which undoubtedly kept the new single released simultaneously, "Shake, Rattle and Roll" backed with "Lawdy Miss Clawdy," from reaching the charts. However, "Blue Suede Shoes", released in single form as a part of this experiment by RCA, kept the promise to Phillips and Perkins by waiting over eight months since the song's release on Sun, and made it to number 20 on the singles chart. RCA first issued the original 12 track album in reprocessed (fake) stereo on compact disc in 1984. This issue was quickly withdrawn and the album was reissued in original monophonic sound. On May 18, 1999, it was reissued with an altered running order, adding on six bonus tracks from three non-album singles, including the chart-toppers "Heartbreak Hotel" and "I Want You, I Need You, I Love You." On January 11, 2005, Sony BMG reissued the album again, remastered using DSD technology with the six bonus tracks appended in standard fashion. A two-disc set was released on the Follow That Dream collectors label on August 15, 2006, with bonus tracks and numerous alternate takes.

Album cover
The cover is ranked number 40 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 greatest album covers, published in 1991. The photograph was taken at the Fort Homer Hesterly Armory in Tampa, Florida, on July 31, 1955. Initially it was thought that Popsie Randolph took the iconic image featured on the front cover, due to the fact that the album only credited one photographer. However, in August, 2002, Joseph A. Tunzi documented that the actual photographer was William V. "Red" Robertson of Robertson & Fresch. The Popsie credit attributed to the album only applied to a series of photos featured on the back cover, taken in New York City in early December, 1955, shortly after Presley had signed with RCA Victor. Tunzi was quoted in the Tampa Tribune as saying, "Forget about Popsie. Popsie did not take that photo."

The graphic and photo were also used on an EP and a double-EP comprising songs from this album, also released in March 1956.

The design was echoed by The Clash for the front of their 1979 album London Calling; that cover is number 39 on the list. Other acts of cover homage include Tom Waits' 1985 Rain Dogs, Distorted Dimensions by Mad Sin in 1990, F-Punk by Big Audio Dynamite in 1995, and Reintarnation in 2006 by k.d. lang. Chumbawamba's controversial single "Tony Blair" takes homage too.

Personnel
Elvis Presley – vocals, acoustic guitar, piano
Scotty Moore – electric guitar
Chet Atkins – acoustic guitar on January 10–11 (except "I Got a Woman" )
Floyd Cramer – piano on January 10–11
Shorty Long – piano on January 30–31
Bill Black – bass
D. J. Fontana – drums
Johnny Bernero – drums (on "Trying to Get to You")
Gordon Stoker – backing vocals
Ben Speer – backing vocals
Brock Speer – backing vocals

Elvis Presley (album) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia »

The Album has been re-released several times on cd. The 2005 re-release (mastered by Kevan Budd) comes highly recommended. It contains Lawdy, Miss Clawdy, Shake, Rattle And Roll and the two singles as bonus tracks. For those who want a more insightful look at these sessions, the FTD (released in 2006) is highly recommended both for content and sound. It contains outtales of several songs thought to be long lost as well as an interview from March 1956 - The month the album was released.

 

It don't get much better than this one. As an album, it's not only extremely consistent but very emblematic of its artist -- where he was at that moment in time. Echoing the iconic photograph on the cover -- it's a musical picture, capturing the artist at that very moment. Explosive. Wild. New. Youthful. Passionate. Rockin. It doesn't feel contrived, rushed, programmed, produced -- it does nothing but give you an honest snap-shot of Elvis Presley.

The impact of the album is well documented -- but it's worth stating; it's were it all began. But like many "important" albums this one doesn't weigh on you or exceed any of its purported merits. It still warrants its place and pole position as the The King's first (and one of his finest) and as the album-representative of the "big bang" of rock n' roll.

 

Elvis At Sun should be arriving tomorrow, btw. We're not even a page in and this #$!@ thread has cost me money.

I deserve some kind of award, people.

 

One of the most important albums in rock and roll history. It was never the same after "Elvis Presley" and its associated singles were released. Arguably the very first rock and roll LP ever released, it hit number one on the charts and stayed there for roughly 10 weeks, and sold over a million copies. It was a game-changer. Oh, and the music was sublime -- from the ferocious rock and roll of Tutti Frutti and Blue Suede Shoes, to the rollicking Money Honey and I Got A Woman, to the haunting ballads of I'll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin') and Blue Moon, the dazzling guitar work of Scotty Moore as one of rock and roll's first guitar heroes, and the dynamic and versatile vocals of Elvis Presley -- the album was a burst of perfection.

 

Not much to add about the music on Elvis at Sun. Peerless. That said, having the 50s box first and now Boy from Tupelo box, I'm so used to hearing to hearing it chronologically that the slow songs and ballads distort the impact a bit. The first time I made a playlist of only the 5 singles plus Trying to get to you , that was a revelation. The other songs then we're just experiments and trying stuff out. Those 11 songs were IT. Well matched a and b sides.
The first album works great with the first two singles as bonus tracks. BUT without those singles, without the sun material, it's merely pretty good, a bunch of filler like tutti frutti and only money honey having a dangerous sun edge to it. I'm counting on you is beautiful too

 

Iconic album cover. Revolutionary music.

I always found it interesting that all of the songs on this album were available as the a- or b-sides of singles. And that's not counting the various EP releases of this material. I remember reading an interview with the Colonel where he said something to the effect of he wanted to make sure everyone - even kids with portable record players that couldn't play albums - had access to the songs. Smart move.

 

The first album has a well-deserved place in rock history, but it also unfortunately sets the template for how most of Elvis' records would be assembled: in a haphazard manner with whatever is lying around at the time. I think the Sun material sticks out like a sore thumb and a couple of the recordings (I Love You Because and Just Because) are decidedly inferior... I can see why they were outtakes. Even the better Sun material doesn't really blend with the RCA stuff.

For my money, the stuff Elvis recorded from January-July 1956 (hit singles included) is the best work he did in the 50s, period. It's not as revolutionary as the Sun sides, but it has a harder-rocking, more confident sound. I remember finding this album in the import bin in the late 80s, and I still rank it among my top three Elvis records:

 

Great point! As much as I enjoy the sun stuff as the 5 singles plus trying to get to you, for the early 56 stuff I much prefer playing it as it was chronologically recorded. Much stronger impact and fun to listen to.

 

Ugh, this thread is going to finally make me get that 60 cd box despite having the complete masters, I just know it. (Oh I'm just looking for any excuse really )

 

Interesting cover art, I've never seen this one before.

I agree with your point about many early Elvis albums being a mishmash of material. But, I think that was a pretty common practice at the time, at least for rock and roll.

I know that Sinatra, for example, was releasing cohesive albums on Capitol during this period.

 

The artist made a notable mistake, though. Bill is shown playing a 6-string guitar, when in 1956 he would not yet have even had an electric bass. There's also a Volume Two. Those two records were my introduction to listening to Elvis in chronological order by the session, which I'm convinced is the superior way to hear his work.

Yep, in 1956 all rock 'n' roll albums were generally a mishmash. The unfortunate thing is that they kept assembling Elvis' albums this way when other artists moved beyond that approach. As early as 1958, peers like the Everlys and Johnny Cash were starting to put out albums that were thoughtfully sequenced and had a cohesive theme, but Elvis rarely did this throughout his entire career.

 

My avatar should have spotted that...

 

I've got the Young Man With a Big Beat box (compact version) which gets you a ton of stuff (5 discs) recorded for this album and more and it's all remastered by Vic Anesini. I paid £10 for this box new, that's got to be a bargain for one of the most important albums of all time. Brilliant stuff.

@ClausH, once again a fantastic write up, you've put some real effort into this, great work!

 

I didn't write most of it. I wrote it all in the old thread but that was a lot of work, so I've decided to use Wikipedia.

Elvis Presley Album by Album Thread »
Elvis Presley Album by Album Thread, Part 2 »

 

I'm a huge fan of the "Young Man With a Big Beat" box set, too. I have the fullsize (12x12) version. For one, it's gorgeous (it's on full-time display duty!). But two, it's also a lot like the "Boy From Tupelo" in its focus and approach -- zeroing in on 1956. It's obviously the key year in Elvis' story -- but also in rock history. It just deserves this level of attention.

The FTDs that deal with his first two albums are deep dives into those albums -- but this box covers the whole span and impact of that year. Redundant material of course, but put together like this; with the singles, live stuff, outakes, day-by-day notes, beautiful photos and large FTD-size scale -- really puts it all together and tells the story of the birth of rock and roll and the cultural explosion that arrived with its initial messenger.