Most of you have your favorite era of his music. I like them all in different ways, but I like the sixties best, and this box shows why. There were many aspects to his music, but this set focuses on those secular recordings that were made in the studio and which were not connected to a movie. The best of the movie music is available on Command performance - Essential sixties masters volume 2, which I've already reviewed, while the gospel and live recordings are also available separately.

With those exceptions, every song Elvis recorded during the sixties is here. These include most of his big hits from the period, among them It's now or never, Are you lonesome tonight, Surrender, His latest flame, Good luck charm, Suspicion, She's not you, Don't cry Daddy, In the ghetto and Suspicious minds. Of course, there are a few missing, because they were from the excluded categories, but anybody who wants a Greatest hits collection will find plenty to choose from.

Apart from the hits, you get all the album tracks, many of them long forgotten except by fans of Elvis. These include covers of Fever (Peggy Lee), Memphis Tennessee (Chuck Berry), And the grass won't pay no mind (Neil Diamond), Just call me lonesome (Eddy Arnold), Gentle on my mind (Glen Campbell), I'm movin' on (Hank Snow) and I'll hold you in my heart (Eddy Arnold) among them.

Among the songs written for Elvis but which remain obscure to all but his fans, there are many good songs, any of which might one day be rediscovered and used in a movie or TV advertisement. The song Gently, from one of his early sixties albums, was translated into French and recorded by Petula Clark. I can't ever remember another cover of this song in any language, though there probably is one somewhere - just one of many great songs in this set that you're not likely to hear on the radio.

The last half of the final CD is made up of selected alternate takes of some of the songs, although the most famous alternate take, his laughing version of Are you lonesome tonight, is not among them. Nevertheless, this is a fine collection which will appeal to a far wider public than just his dedicated fans.

Of any CD I own (and I own a ton of CDs), I listen to any of the five discs that make up this CD collection the most. If you're considering getting an Elvis collection that includes music from the 60s, you're short changing yourself if you pass this collection up for a single disc comp. There are too many Great songs in this boxed set to pass up. Along with absolutely incredible songs, you'll find that this box guides you through the maturation of Elvis. It's really remarkable listening to the set slowly move from the cute songs of the early 60s to the more mature songs with his changing, mature voice that started taking over in the later 60s. Starting around the second quarter of Disc 3 (and the incredibly beautiful "Tomorrow is a Long Time", you really see the change in Elvis starting to take effect. By Disc 5, you're hearing Elvis sing "Kentucky Rain"...a far cry from "Soldier Boy" on the first disc. Only two movies are (slightly) represented in this movie: Tickle Me, which is his only movie that contains songs that aren't centered around the plot of the movie, and Clambake...one of his last movies, and songs from this movie appear near the end of Disc 3.

Listening to this collection is really like listening to 5 different shades of Elvis....all of them spectacular in their own way. Listening to this collection is like listening to Elvis grow up through his music.

Too many excellent songs in this collection to name. Before I bought this collection, I probably knew about 30 of the songs that made up this 5 disc set. Now that I've been listening to this collection for several years, there are very few songs that I don't absolutely love, and I can honestly say that Elvis' best songs have never received radio airplay.

If you know Elvis only by single CD collections and by what you've heard on the radio, then this boxed set, a perfect collection of Elvis music, will take you to a whole new Elvis world. Get it and enjoy some of the greatest music you never knew existed.

The "Nashville to Memphis" box set represents the essential Elvis Presley - from "Reconsider Baby" in 1960 to "Stranger in My Home Town" in 1969. Despite the plethora of movie soundtracks, Elvis continued to rock in the studio. However, he also matured as an artist and his versatile talents can be heard in classic tracks such as "Little Sister," "It Hurts Me," "Love Letters," "Tomorrow Is a Long Time" and "U.S. Male." Overall, a superb collection of Presley's finest studio work - more insightful and revelatory than the 1950s or 1970s box sets.

Elvis' 1960's work, especially his movie soundtracks which are not on here, gets mostly unfairly overlooked and dismissed. Sure, after coming home from the army in 1960, his style changed to a more pop sound with an occassional dip into the blues, (most of disc 1) and was and still is criticized for not continuing his 50s mastery of rock n roll. However, while Elvis was on his two year hitch, music changed. The rockers like Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and Chuck Berry gave way to Frankie Avalon, Bobby Rydell, Bobby Darin, Fabian and in all a more pop sounding version of rock n roll. So when Elvis started cutting records in 1960 his sound changed also. Sure, "Stuck On You" was a leftover sound of the late 50s, but new sounds like "It's Now Or Never", "Make Me Know It" and others made the transition for Elvis and he was never more popular. His first four single releases went to #1 in the US with many more following through 1962. This box, which runs in chronological order, gives you every studio master that Elvis cut (minus gospel and movie tunes). Disc one is an absolute masterpiece which covers his first studio album of the 1960s, "Elvis Is Back" as well as other classic tracks from early 1961 such as "I Feel So Bad", "Give Me The Right", and a personal favorite "I'm Coming Home". Disc 2 bridges his '61 work with 1962 and part of 1963 and features excellent tunes such as "His Latest Flame", "Little Sister", "Kiss Me Quick", "She's Not You" and another personal favorite "Witchcraft". If there was to be a "weak disc" in the set, it would be disc 3. It's not really weak, (it's rather good) but not nearly as good as the others. It features great tunes such as "It Hurts Me", "Memphis", "Down In The Alley", "Ask Me", "US Male" plus more. These were recorded between 1964 and 1967 which was probably the lowest point of Elvis' career. Disc 4 contains the legendary 1969 material which cemented Elvis' comeback. While Elvis' hitmaking was as prolific as it was 9 years before, he still enjoyed a handful of top ten hits and his first #1 with "Suspicious Minds" since 1962's "Good Luck Charm". Highlights on disc 4 are "Suspicious Minds", "In The Ghetto", "Don't Cry Daddy", "Rubberneckin'" and another personal favorite "Power Of My Love". Disc 5 is a mixed bag of goodies which features the last of the 60s masters, several alternate takes and the awesome live duet performance of "Love Me Tender"/"Witchcraft" with Frank Sinatra. Wrapped up in an attractive box and an excellent booklet filled with pictures, stories and session notes, this set if the perfect set for the Elvis completist to go along with the excellent 50s and the 70s boxes.

I'm a relatively new Elvis fan and I didn't know where to begin because there are so many albums and hit collections... I decided on starting with this box set because it spanned so much of his career and because it included an alternate version of my favorite song of his - Suspicious Minds.

The sound remastering is excellent and the packaging is great. Well worth the $$.

This is a must have for the long-time Elvis fan or the new fan like me! I'm definitely hooked on Elvis now and I plan to follow up this purchase with his 50s and 70s box set.