Elvis Presley - Elvis 56

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 Amazon.com

Sorry Elvis fans.

To be honest, I do enjoy Elvis and have to admit that he influenced the true innovators. However, it was Sam Phillips who discovered him, and honestly, Sam Phillips was searching for someone to do the things that Elvis did. I haven't heard all of the music that Elvis did with Sun Records, but of the stuff I've heard with Sun Records, it's far better than anything else that Elvis ever did in his career. Sam Phillips never regretted selling Elvis to RCA because his contract was almost up, and Sam Phillips needed the money. The result was the tracks on this album, which are more recognized than anything else that he had ever done.

I have to admit that I do somewhat enjoy this album, but even with other people doing the creative work, Elvis didn't do anything that great. It's all decent, but it's not great. From the point when Elvis signed with RCA, I feel that he kept getting worse and worse. To be honest about something else, I think that Elvis actually is a good pop singer, and when I'm in the mood for something a bit cheesy, Elvis can be perfect. Also, Scotty Moore's guitar playing has always been a plus in my book, but I think that his guitar playing was better back during the Sun Records years.

Another thing is Elvis isn't the rightful king of rock. If you ask most rock musicians who the true king of rock is, the names Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, Jim Morrison, and Kurt Cobain will probably come up a bit more. I am aware that Elvis had an influence on some of these people, but as innovators, these people were much more innovative. I personally believe that Sam Phillips is the true innovator, and artists such as Carl Perkins deserve just as much recognition as Elvis, if not more. Carl Perkins was the one who wrote and originally performed "Blue Suede Shoes." Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and Bo Diddley were did much more than Elvis. What Elvis did was he took what these artists did, and brought it to the mainstream with these recordings.

I've gone through a couple of Elvis loving phases, so I might find myself eating these words, but after a few months, I'll probably find myself eating the fact that I'll have eaten these words. All in all, I have to say that if you're an Elvis fan, you'll probably enjoy it more than me.

By the way, if you think that I'm just very negative about things, look at the other reviews I've written. August 28, 2008

A Monumental Year Indeed

It's not surprising to me that RCA/BMG decided in 1996 to put out a CD simply titled Elvis 56, because that was the year R&R firmly established its roots after a stuttering start in 1954/55. And, just as The Beatles dominated 1964, the year 1956 belonged to The King.

Seventeen songs on the pop singles charts, nine of which crossed over to the Country charts and eight to the R&B charts, not to mention millions in EP/LP sales.

What makes the CD so pleasurable for me is the fact I saw him perform many of the songs live at the old Ottawa Auditorium on April 3, 1957 in one of just three concerts he performed outside the U.S. [the others were in Toronto and Vancouver].

The sound quality is fantastic, and although the insert contains no liner notes, as such, there is a neat Elvis 56 Chronology listing the locations of his various performances that year, along with other information such as the signing of a seven-year contract with Hal Wallis and Paramount Pictures on April 6.

Truly essential for any Elvis fan.
September 3, 2007

Taking Rock and Roll to the next level!

These historic recordings are the ones that not only made Elvis THE superstar of the era, but also helped to establish Rock and Roll as the dominent pop music form for decades to come. This collection includes not only the hits from 1956, like Heartbreak Hotel, Don't Be Cruel, and Hound Dog, but also many forgotten classics like Ready Teddy and my favorite Money Honey! A must for Elvis fans and students of Rock and Roll!
August 9, 2006

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! February 22, 2006

Elvis's Best Year in the 1950's

This CD is a good sample of much of the best of 1950s Elvis. Though it covers only 1956, that was his biggest year in that decade. This is mostly a combination of his original albums ELVIS PRESLEY and ELVIS, minus the Sun Studio recordings of 1954-55 that were on those albums (which you can get separately). At 22 tracks it's quite sizable, and emphasizes rock and blues along with a few slower ballads. It's also got a nicely-done booklet with many photos. There's not a lot of unusual material here if you've already got most of his '50s stuff, but of the alternate takes of "Shake, Rattle, and Roll" and "Heartbreak Hotel," the latter is especially interesting. Sound quality is unusually clear, and the packaging is attractive. This album gives good evidence why the Beatles were huge Elvis fans in the '50s. November 28, 2005

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