Sure, there are more than a few Elvis anthologies out there and, yes, there is nothing on this set that isn't readily available on a few hundred other compilations, but this one is noteworthy in its own way, and a great collection as well. Focusing less on hits than on great performances, "Essential Elvis" gathers a handful of Sun sides, the best of his early RCA output and acclaimed sides from throughout his career. You get the best of Elvis' many hits as well as critically-acclaimed album tracks ("Reconsider Baby", "Trouble", the live "Polk Salad Annie"), and that, for once, is a unique concept in Elvis reissues. Everyone will have differing opinions on what should or shouldn't have been included, and tob sure sure some great tracks have been left out, but this is a whale of a great collection of "essential" Elvis.

Good CD to buy. Remastering is great, the third disc is a nice addition. Everyone knows the songs, you may have them, but this is a very well mastered CD and if you have the older Elvis stuff from the 80's-90's this will be a jaw dropping improvement over the poorly mastered RCA days. Avoid all of them!

Good job Sony Music.

I looked all over for a CD set that would have darn near every hit of Elvis', and this seems to be it (better than the "official" "Elvis #1 Hits", as that one for some reason doesn't have "Viva Las Vegas" (!?)).But, get the 3.0 edition of this (golden cover, eco-friendly cardboard packaging), because that has a third disc with "Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear", among others.

This CD has all or most all of Elvis's hits from the early days to later days. The sound quality and mix was very good and up to modern standards.

Listening to it took me back to my youth when I remember Elvis performing Hound Dog on the Ed Sullivan show - If anyone is old enough to remember that on this website.

This is a great collection of songs from probably the most famous and influential rock star of all time. It includes many hits, several groundbreaking recordings from his Sun days, and a few lesser known songs. While this is a great set of music, I can't help but ask why was this released? These songs have been released numerous times through the years and most avid Elvis fans already have them. Casual fans would probably appreciate the "Elvis 30 Number 1 Hits" CD better.

Don't get me wrong, this is another great collection of Elvis songs, but nothing that you can't already get on other collections. If you want an "essential" 2 CD Elvis set you can get both "Elvis 30 Number 1 Hits" and "2nd to None" for almost the same price that you can get this collection, and you would get 61 songs instead of just 40. Or if you wanted to spend a few more bucks, you could get the 3 CD "Hit Story" release.

Instead of coming out with "new" compilations every few months, I think BMG/RCA would do better by pushing some of the excellent releases they already have on the market and re-releasing some of his albums that are out of print domestically with some rare bonus tracks. Or why not release the next "Gold Records Volume 6" to catch the songs that were left off the first 5 volumes of that series? If they want to keep releasing compilations, they should at least include a remix of a song to try to attract the interest of potentially new and younger fans. Just re-releasing "new" collections of the same songs that have been released numerous times is not cutting it. They need to come up with a better marketing strategy for Elvis' outstanding library of music! It appears some of the poor management practices that hurt his career and legacy have continued after his passing!