It’s easy to see why live performance of rock ‘n’ roll took over the world, but Elvis Presley the album is tinny and odd, feeling more like a collection of alternate takes than a produced album. The book admits this, implying that they didn’t know as much about album-crafting back then. The 1999 CD release adds various extra tracks, including hits from the same time such as “Heartbreak Hotel,” but I didn’t listen to them because they’re not actually on the album. An album is not just a way to get a bunch of songs on your computer; it’s a work of art that a large number of people have put hard work into creating. For this reason, I really don’t like the all too common practice of adding bonus tracks to a CD. If they were somehow demarcated from the actual album, as the special features are on a DVD, that way you could experience the journey of the album as it was intended, and then later, if you want, listen to dodgy live recordings and songs that didn’t make it on the album (often with good reason). Also, only hardcore fans will care about that stuff, so much better to release a separate B-sides and rarities CD, like The Beatles Anthology.
RCA Victor, 1956. Produced by Sam Phillips.
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