Elvis Presley
Elvis! His Greatest Hits (Reader’s Digest)
by Laura Joyce
If, in the wake of the often tawdry hype-fest that marched through the 20th anniversary of Elvis Presley‘s untimely death on August 16, 1977, you’re left with a lingering itchin’ for some Presley product of quality that celebrates rather than exploits his legend, look no further than Reader’s Digest’s new box set, Elvis: His Greatest Hits. Four CDs break up 84 classics into six epochal groups: songs released between 1956-’58, ’58-’61, ’62-’69, and ’69-’77, which also includes six early Sun recordings (1954-’55), and six “Country Classics.”
Basically, you’ve got every essential Presley hit in one place. You’ll be hard pressed to find his live version of “My Way” (which puts Sinatra’s to shame) included in a collection with “Mystery Train” and “Viva Las Vegas” and “Treat Me Nice” and “Rock-a-Hula Baby” and “Love Me,” anywhere else. Harder to find songs sit alongside the more obvious well-worn classics. So forget that he couldn’t have written a song if his life depended on it, and forget about the girdles and the peanut butter and whether or not he died on the toilet. Listen to the songs that created the myths. Listen to the man who had greater impact upon popular music, and perhaps even popular culture at large, than any other single artist ever.
Eighty-four songs, the overwhelming majority of which were recorded before his 30th birthday – the wealth of material boggles the mind, as does his unearthly ability to wrap his vocals around a song, making it uniquely his own. Thirty-eight gold singles, thirty gold albums, and eighteen American No.1s from the son of a sharecropper who never learned to read music. He was a great musical interpreter, a blues genius who fused Country and Western, popular, Gospel and R&B music on a broader scale and with more success, and a great deal more honest raunch, than anyone who preceded him or has come since, simultaneously transcending all formats, becoming the first of what we now call rock and roll stars. Elvis: His Greatest Hits provides the finest examples of Presley’s mastery and majesty – Long live the King!
Elvis: His Greatest Hits is not available in stores. To order the set, call the Reader’s Digest Music toll-free number: 1-888-RD-MUSIC.
