September 25 - Greatest Albums of All Time

Rolling Stone Magazine updated their '500 Greatest Albums of All Time'. This list was originally published in 2003, with a slight update in 2012. But no list is definitive , tastes change, new genres emerge and the history of music keeps being rewritten. The magazine created a new greatest albums list from scratch. 

Elvis Presley is listed three times:

• 332. Elvis Presley (1956)
• 322. From Elvis In Memphis (1969)
• 78. The Sun Sessions (1976)

Read the full Top 500 at the >>> Rolling Stone Magazine site.

The commends:

332 - Elvis Presley, 'Elvis Presley' (RCA, 1956)

In November 1955, RCA Records bought Elvis Presley’s contract, singles, and unreleased master tapes from Sun Records for $35,000. 

His first full-length album came out four months later, with tracks drawn from both the Sun sessions and from further recording at RCA’s studios in New York and Nashville. 

“There wasn’t any pressure,” guitarist Scotty Moore said. “They were just bigger studios with different equipment.” On tracks such as “Blue Suede Shoes,” that meant revved-up country music with the sexiest voice anyone had ever heard.

323 - Elvis Presley, 'From Elvis in Memphis' (RCA, 1969)

“I had to leave town for a little while,” Elvis Presley sings on the first track. Along with his 1968 TV special, this record announced he was back. 

With help from a crack crew of Memphis musicians, Presley masterfully tackles quality material from country (“I’m Movin’ On”), gospel (“Long Black Limousine”), soul (“Only the Strong Survive”), and pop (“Any Day Now”), as well as message songs (“In the Ghetto”). 

The same sessions also yielded one of Presley’s greatest singles, the towering pop-soul masterpiece “Suspicious Minds.”

78 - Elvis Presley, 'The Sun Sessions' (RCA, 1976)

On July 5th, 1954, at Sun Studios in Memphis, Elvis Presley, guitarist Scotty Moore, and bassist Bill Black were horsing around with “That’s All Right,” a tune by bluesman Arthur Crudup, when producer Sam Phillips stopped them and asked, “What are you doing?” “We don’t know,” they said. Phillips told them to “back up and do it again.” 

Bridging black and white, country and blues, Presley’s sound was playful and revolutionary, charged by a spontaneity and freedom that changed the world. 

He released four more singles on Sun - including definitive reinventions of Wynonie Harris’ “Good Rockin’ Tonight” and Junior Parker’s “Mystery Train” - before moving on to immortality at RCA. They’re all here on a collection that serves as well as anything out there as a definitive chronicle of the birth of rock & roll.

Elvis Love Songs

The Delta (Laserlight) budget label re-issued of the "Elvis Love Songs" compilation once more on vinyl. 

(Source: Rolling Stone Magazine / Amazon)