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.

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.

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.

For many, the raw purity of Elvis' 1950's recordings define his greatness. His post-army work is often relegated to also-ran status. Truly, the early recordings were filled with an overpowering invention that Elvis would never fully recapture. By the time of his return in 1960, numerous changes affected his comeback. First, Elvis himself had matured, and the songs that suited him just a few years earlier didn't fit the same way. Second, the music scene itself had moved along. Third, the 1960s saw Elvis starring in a progressively more mediocre string of films, churning out blander and blander soundtrack material. The dilutive impact of the awkward movie music makes Elvis' 1960's catalog tricky to evaluate as a whole.

Luckily, RCA's sweeping series of box sets provides a clear view of Elvis' mid-period catalog by removing the movie music to its own collection. Although this relegates some fine tracks such as "Return to Sender," "I Can't Help Falling in Love," and "Viva Las Vegas") to reside with a large harvest of lemons, it also cleanses this presentation of his non-movie work. The resulting five-disc "Nashville to Memphis" box set features substantial hit tracks and numerous lesser-known (but no less worthy) album tracks, padded out by a large helping of passable chaff that, sung by someone else, would still be laying in the vault.

By 1960 the galvanic fire of Elvis' early sides was mostly extinct, replaced by a variety of new direction that often bore fruit. Rather than turning himself to '50s anachronism by trying to reproduce his earlier sound (or, worse yet, consigning himself to a follower's role by aping then-current trends), Elvis dug deeply into himself, and especially into the capabilities of his voice, to find new veins of artistry.

Elvis' first post-Army single, "Stuck on You," resounds with the freedom of someone liberated from barracks life. Same for "I Gotta Know," with a backing vocal that playfully tracks Elvis on the later verses. The easy swing and playful growl in Elvis' voice would soon become the province of pretty boys like Bobby Rydell, but heard here, it's a natural maturation from Elvis' earlier years.

The early- and mid-60s served up some fine rock 'n' roll, including Leiber & Stoller's shades-of-the-Coasters' "Dirty, Dirty Feeling," the blazing "Feel So Bad," and Doc Pomus & Mort Shuman's "A Mess of Blues" and "Little Sister." Scotty Moore provided some great guitar riffs on the latter two. Elvis and the band jammed strongly on bluesman Lowell Fulsom's "Reconsider Baby."

Mid-tempo tunes provided Elvis the chance to sing happier pop like "Good Luck Charm," and the dramatic longing of "She's Not You" and "His Latest Flame." The latter, with its loping Bo Diddley beat, piano-charged uptempo chorus and popping bass is a perfect frame for Elvis' voice.

Dramatic ballads like "Fame and Fortune," "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" and "Surrender" introduced a style that would stick with Elvis until the end. More sparely arranged songs like "Fever" and "Starting Today" spotlight the sheer beauty of Elvis' voice.

Elvis visited Country ("Judy" "Just Call me Lonesome" "I'm Movin' On"), gospel ("I Gotta Know"), and covers of Bob Dylan ("Tomorrow is a Long Time"), Chuck Berry ("Too Much Monkey Business") and others. A few covers, such as an oddly orchestrated take of "Suspicion" and a hurried, horn-heavy arrangement of "Fools Fall in Love" miss the mark.

Those interested in the hits and lost gems (and there are plenty, including "Devil in Disguise," "Don't Cry Daddy," "Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers," "It Hurts Me," and "Love Letters") may be overwhelmed by the dross and clunkers. "The Girl of My Best Friend" is too soft for Elvis, and come off as a Brill Building reject. "Girl Next Door Went A'Walking" could have been drawn from one of Elvis' lesser soundtracks, and "Just Tell Her Jim Said Hello" shows that Leiber & Stoller were just as capable of writing duds as hits.

The arc traced by this collection begins in 1960 with an outpouring of Elvis' pent-up artistic expression. By mid-decade the great songs get fewer and further between. You can almost hear the air rushing out of the initial bubble of enthusiasm. As the decade wears on, the productions take on unfortunate contemporary trends (e.g., faux sitars). Their are still high-points at decade's end (the trio of "In the Ghetto," "Suspicious Minds" and "Kentucky Rain," for example), but the material is more uneven and the enthusiasm often wanes.

1969 provided some fine performances, including "Power of My Love," "Without Love There is Nothing," "After Loving You," and a cover of Johnny Tillotson's "It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin'." But the year also produced less successful choices such as the soul-dance "Rubberneckin'" and an overwrought remake of "From a Jack to a King." Covers of "Hey Jude" and "Only the Strong Survive" find Elvis adding little to the originals.

Disc 5 includes several alternate takes (including "In the Ghetto" "Suspicious Minds" "Kentucky Rain") presented in rough form (e.g., no backing singers). The lack of final production leaves the focus on Elvis' vocals, generally reaffirming the producer's choice of take for the hit single. Also included are snippets of studio dialog, and a 1960 Presley/Sinatra live television performance of the duo trading "Love Me Tender" and "Witchcraft."

The sound throughout is superb, mostly the product of RCA's Nashville Studio B. The backing, especially on the early tracks, retains some of the rock 'n' roll group energy from Elvis' early years, but by mid-decade, though all very professionally arranged and played, the songs sound more constructed than evolved. The accompanying liner notes from Elvis biographer Peter Guralnick are top-notch, as is the accompanying discographical information.

The Elvis 60's have been vastly under-rated by critics and supposed fans alike. This collection does not include much, or any, of Elvis's substandard soundtrack work from the 60's and includes many of the excellent Nashville tracks from the end of the decade. The material is not always top-rate in and of itself, but every song on this collection is made great by Elvis. Not only is this collection notable for Elvis's vocal power, but for the use of fuzz-guitar and musical styles that give you an idea of just how up with (and ahead of) the times Elvis was during the 60's. This collection represents some of the best music made in that decade, bar none. If you haven't guessed yet, it was listening to this collection that sent me over the top for Elvis, rather than some of the starter set greatest hits packages RCA has put out in the past. (Well, actually, the real kick over the edge always will be the original Sun Sessions, but that's another story completely.) This set is the ultimate proof of the old adage that it is the singer and not the song that makes a recording great, as Elvis twists some mediocre songs (amidst some great ones, as well) into real rock classics.