Rock Bands & Pop Stars
Elvis Presley Pictures
Artist:
Elvis Presley
Origin:
United States, Memphis - Tennessee (Born in Mississippi)United States
Born date:
January 8, 1935
Death date:
August 16, 1977
Elvis Presley Album: «Elvis 56»
Elvis Presley Album: «Elvis 56» (Front side)
    Album information
  • Customers rating: (4.9 of 5)
  • Title:Elvis 56
  • Release date:
  • Type:Audio CD
  • Label:
  • UPC:
Customers rating
Track listing
Review - Product Description
22 tracks including the best of the post-Sun rockers. Heartbreak Hotel (alternate take 5 - previously unreleased). Very light scuff on disc will not affect play. Small drill hole near barcode. SM.
Review - Amazon.com
The organizing principle of Elvis 56 is simple: 1956 is the year Presley recorded these 22 tracks (including an alternate take of "Heartbreak Hotel," the opening track, recorded January 10). It's also the year that Presley became the biggest pop phenomenon since Frank Sinatra after kicking up a fuss on Milton Berle's and Steve Allen's TV variety shows. In the studio, Presley's first recordings for RCA drew from the same pool of rhythm & blues tunes that he'd been interpreting at Sun Records. 1956 was the year Presley sang great songs by Otis Blackwell ("Don't Be Cruel," "Paralyzed," "Ready Teddy") and the Leiber-Stoller team ("Hound Dog," "Love Me"). He also essentially swiped Carl Perkins's "Blue Suede Shoes" and tried to do the same with such other contemporary hits as "Lawdy, Miss Clawdy" and "Shake, Rattle, and Roll." Note that on the same day he recorded the galvanizing "Heartbreak Hotel," Presley also cut a most Sun-like (and wholly appropriate) "Money Honey." The compilation chronicles a remarkable year in which every song rang true; the booklet includes exquisite period photos of Presley taken by Alfred Wertheimer. A video of the same title that chronicles the year in pictures is highly recommended. --John Milward
Customer review
13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
- The pure stuff

This is why Elvis is still the king of Rock and Roll and why he caused so much controversy in 1956. The raw sensuality of Elvis' voice is richly captured on this compliation. Makes me want to travel back in time and see him as he was, at his best!

Customer review
12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
- Excellent music, a bit of a superflous collection

This album collects most of what Elvis Presley committed to tape during his first full year as a recording artist with RCA.

"Elvis 56" is filled with classics like "Heartbreak Hotel", "Hound Dog", "Shake, Rattle & Roll", "Don't Be Cruel" and "Love Me", as well as several equally excellent, if somewhat lesser-known songs ("Paralyzed", "Any Way You Want Me", "One-Sided Love Affair", and covers of Lloyd Price's "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" and Arthur Crudup's "So Glad You're Mine").

This is a very enjoyable collection filled with good pop hooks and some fine musicianship (would have been nice with some more insightful liner notes and recording information). The only problem is that most Elvis fans probably already have most or all of this music.

Customer review
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
- The REAL Elvis

It's wonderful to hear these early Elvis recordings, when he was still raw and new and amazing, when he was still singing real music, before The Colonel turned him into a movie star singing songs like "Do The Clam". Even if you've heard all these before, and even if you already have most of them, this is still a great collection. Everything on this CD was recorded in the same year, and all I can say is that 1956 must have been amazing! (I was only 6 years old, so I can't really say much from personal experience.)

My only complaint isn't with the music, only with the liner notes, or rather the lack of liner notes. The booklet that comes with the CD is beautifully designed, with some very evocative photgraphs by Alfred Wertheimer - LordyLordy, Elvis was certainly somethin' to look at back then! But I would have enjoyed a little more discussion about the music - who wrote it, who recorded some of it before Elvis, how he took some of the repertoire of the black blues and R&B artists of the time and made it accessible to the white audiences of the time, what the rest of the popular music world was like at the time and how Elvis totally changed the landscape, and how that all really started in 1956. But unfortunately, that one run-on sentence I just wrote is more information than you'll get with this CD.

Yeah, well, liner notes would have been nice, but really it's all about the music. And the music on this CD is awesome!

Customer review
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
- A Great CD!!!

For any Elvis fan that loves his music from his earlier years will love this CD. I highly recommend this CD.

Customer review
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
- Amazing Food for the Soul

I have never been a big Elvis fan so to speak. But any serious fan of popular music has to give the man his due, and this album is as fresh as anything I have ever heard. Simply put: this is rock n roll.

There are many gigantic hits here: 'Heartbreak Hotel,' Tutti Frutti,' and 'Hound Dog' are just a few. But even the lesser known songs shine, and listening to these 22 tracks together is a glimpse into an historic period in recorded music, on par with the Beatles early work.

Elvis paved the path for a lot of artists, and rock as we have come to know could never have happened without Elvis. These songs won't make you think hard, but man do they make you feel too good!