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Elvis Presley (album)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Elvis Presley | |||||
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| Studio album by Elvis Presley | |||||
| Released | March 23, 1956 | ||||
| Recorded | July 1954-April 1956 | ||||
| Genre | Rock | ||||
| Length | 28:03 (original) | ||||
| Label | RCA LPM 1254 | ||||
| Producer | Sam Phillips (Sun recordings only) | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
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| Elvis Presley chronology | |||||
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Elvis Presley is the self-titled debut album by Elvis Presley on RCA Records, catalogue number LPM 1254, released in March 1956, recorded at Sun Studio in Memphis, two mid-January sessions at RCA Studios in Nashville, and two in late January at RCA Studios in New York. It spent ten weeks at #1 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart that year. The "Elvis Presley" title and photo were also used on RCA-issued Extended Play and 2x Extended Play records released at the same time. [1]
Contents |
On November 21, 1955, RCA Records bought Presley's contract from Sun Records for $35,000, thanks to RCA executive Steve Sholes. Presley and rock and roll were still untested properties in the music business, but this album, along with the concurrent #1 single "Heartbreak Hotel," proved the selling power of both: it was the first rock album to hit number one, and RCA's first million selling pop album. In 2003, the album was ranked number 55 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Presley had three appearances on the Dorsey Brothers television show on January 28, February 4, and February 11, and RCA wanted an album in the stores fast to capitalize both on the nationwide TV exposure and the success of the his first hit single on the pop charts with "Heartbreak Hotel," swiftly climbing to the top after its release on January 27. At the same time, there had only been two series of Presley recording sessions for RCA by the end of the Dorsey stint, after which Presley and his band were back on the road. Those two sessions yielded an additional eleven tracks, just about enough to fill an entire LP, although some tracks had singles potential. In the 1950s, general practice dictated tracks having greater commercial potential to be released as singles, with tracks of lesser appeal placed on albums; as such, RCA neither took all eleven tracks and simply made an album, nor placed the already released and briskly-selling "Heartbreak Hotel" on it. The rights to the Sun Studio tapes had transferred to RCA with the sale of his contract, so five previously unreleased Sun songs, "I Love You Because," "Just Because," "Trying to Get to You," "I'll Never Let You Go (Lil' Darlin')," and "Blue Moon" were added to seven of the RCA sessions tracks to bring the running time of the album up to an acceptable length.
As the Sun tracks were mostly country-styled, Elvis and RCA leavened the selections with covers of recent rhythm and blues songs. Two of these, "Money Honey" by Jesse Stone, known to Elvis from a version by Clyde McPhatter, and Ray Charles' 1955 hit "I Got A Woman," had been in Presley's live act for a year.[1] A third was the frenetic announcement to the world of the existence of Little Richard in 1955, "Tutti Frutti." A rockabilly number that had hit record written all over it, and could hold its own with the R&B material, the anthemic "Blue Suede Shoes," was not initially released as a single from a promise by Sholes to Sun Records owner Sam Phillips to protect the career of another Sun artist, Carl Perkins, the author of the song.[2] Instead, it was diverted into being the opening track on the album.
On August 31, 1956, RCA took the unusual step of releasing the entire album as singles in tandem with a new Presley 45, "Shake, Rattle & Roll" b/w "Lawdy Miss Clawdy." The new single did not chart, but "Blue Suede Shoes," released as a 45 by Presley after Perkins' career stalled due to a car accident, made it to #20 on the singles chart. "Money Honey" charted as well, #76 as a b-side.
The cover is ranked number 40 on Rolling Stone's list of 100 greatest album covers. The photograph was taken at the Fort Homer Hesterly Armory in Tampa, Florida on January 31, 1955. The design was borrowed, and commented on, by The Clash for the front of their 1979 album London Calling; that cover is number 39 on the list. Other acts of cover homage include Tom Waits' Rain Dogs in 1985, and the 2006 album by k. d. lang, Reintarnation.
The album was reissued for compact disc in an expanded edition on May 18, 1999, and again on January 11, 2005. For the 1999 reissue, the "Heartbreak Hotel" single and its b-side started off the disc, followed by the album proper, and ending with four more bonus tracks also taken from contemporaneous singles. The 2005 reissue appended the bonus tracks to the end of the running order in standard fashion. A two-disc set was released on the Follow That Dream collectors label on August 15, 2006, with the bonus tracks and numerous additional takes. In 2006 Sony BMG Music Entertainment reissued the album again, with the six bonus tracks.
- Elvis Presley – vocal, guitar, piano
- Scotty Moore – guitar
- Chet Atkins – guitar
- Floyd Cramer – piano
- Shorty Long – piano
- Marvin Hughes - piano
- Bill Black – bass
- D. J. Fontana – drums
- Johnny Bernero – drums on "Trying to Get to You"
- Gordon Stoker - backing vocals
- Ben Speer - backing vocals
- Brock Speer - backing vocals
| Track | Recorded | Song Title | Writer(s) | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 1/30/56 | Blue Suede Shoes | Carl Perkins | 1:58 |
| 2. | 1/11/56 | I'm Counting on You | Don Robertson | 2:24 |
| 3. | 1/10/56 | I Got A Woman | Ray Charles and Renald Richard | 2:23 |
| 4. | 1/30/56 | One-Sided Love Affair | Bill Campbell | 2:09 |
| 5. | 7/5/54 | I Love You Because | Leon Payne | 2:42 |
| 6. | 9/54 | Just Because | Sydney Robin, Bob Shelton, Joe Shelton | 2:32 |
| Track | Recorded | Song Title | Writer(s) | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 1/31/56 | Tutti Frutti | Dorothy LaBostrie and Richard Penniman | 1:58 |
| 2. | 7/11/55 | Trying to Get to You | Rose Marie McCoy and Charles Singleton | 2:31 |
| 3. | 1/31/56 | I'm Gonna Sit Down and Cry (Over You) | Howard Biggs and Joe Thomas | 2:01 |
| 4. | 9/10/54 | I'll Never Let You Go (Lil' Darlin') | Jimmy Wakely | 2:24 |
| 5. | 8/19/54 | Blue Moon | Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart | 2:31 |
| 6. | 1/10/56 | Money Honey | Jesse Stone | 2:34 |
Chart positions for singles from Billboard Pop Singles chart
| Track | Recorded | Catalogue | Release Date | Chart Peak | Song Title | Writer(s) | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 1/10/56 | 47-6357 | 1/27/56 | #1 | Heartbreak Hotel | Mae Axton, Tommy Durden, Elvis Presley | 2:08 |
| 2. | 1/11/56 | 47-6357b | 1/27/56 | #19 | I Was The One | Aaron Schroeder, Claude DeMetrius, Hal Blair, Bill Peppers | 2:34 |
| 3. | 2/3/56 | 47-6642b | 8/31/56 | Lawdy Miss Clawdy | Lloyd Price | 2:08 | |
| 4. | 2/3/56 | 47-6642 | 8/31/56 | Shake, Rattle & Roll | Charles Calhoun | 2:37 | |
| 5. | 1/30/56 | 47-6540b | 5/4/56 | #31 | My Baby Left Me | Arthur Crudup | 2:12 |
| 6. | 4/11/56 | 47-6540 | 5/4/56 | #1 | I Want You, I Need You, I Love You | Lou Kosloff and George Mysels | 2:40 |
| Track | Song Title | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Blue Suede Shoes | 2:01 |
| 2. | I'm Counting on You | 2:24 |
| 3. | I Got a Woman | 2:25 |
| 4. | One-Sided Love Affair | 2:11 |
| 5. | I Love You Because | 2:40 |
| 6. | Just Because | 2:33 |
| 7. | Tutti Frutti | 1:59 |
| 8. | Trying to Get to You | 2:33 |
| 9. | I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You) | 2:04 |
| 10. | I'll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin') | 2:25 |
| 11. | Blue Moon | 2:43 |
| 12. | Money Honey | 2:36 |
| 13. | Heartbreak Hotel | 2:09 |
| 14. | I Was the One | 2:33 |
| 15. | Lawdy, Miss Clawdy | 2:10 |
| 16. | Shake, Rattle and Roll | 2:27 |
| 17. | My Baby Left Me | 2:13 |
| 18. | I Want You, I Need You, I Love You | 2:44 |
| 19. | I Got a Woman (Incomplete Unknown Take Number) | 1:32 |
| 20. | I Got a Woman (Unknown Take Number) | 2:26 |
| 21. | Heartbreak Hotel (Incomplete Take 4) | 1:07 |
| 22. | Heartbreak Hotel (Take 5) | 2:17 |
| 23. | Heartbreak Hotel (Take 6) | 2:16 |
| 24. | Money Honey (Fragments) | 0:08 |
| 25. | Money Honey (Take 6) | 0:24 |
| 26. | Money Honey (Incomplete Take 10) | 1:27 |
| 27. | I'm Counting on You (Take 1) | 2:20 |
| 28. | I'm Counting on You (Take 13) | 2:33 |
| 29. | I'm Counting on You (Incomplete Take 14) | 2:19 |
| 30. | I Was the One (Take 1) | 0:13 |
| 31. | I Was the One (Take 2 - False Start) | 0:11 |
| 32. | I Was the One (Take 2) | 2:32 |
| 33. | I Was the One (Take 3 - False Start) | 0:12 |
| 34. | I Was the One (Take 3- Incomplete) | 0:56 |
| 35. | I Was the One (Take 7A - Not Master) | 2:41 |
| 36. | I Was the One (Incomplete Unknown Take) | 1:31 |
| Track | Song Title | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | I'm Counting on You (Take 1) | 0:37 |
| 2. | I'm Counting on You (Incomplete Take 2) | 1:35 |
| 3. | Lawdy, Miss Clawdy (Take 1) | 2:40 |
| 4. | Lawdy, Miss Clawdy (Take 3) | 2:21 |
| 5. | Lawdy, Miss Clawdy (Take 4) | 2:17 |
| 6. | Lawdy, Miss Clawdy (Take 5) | 2:20 |
| 7. | Lawdy, Miss Clawdy (Take 6) | 2:19 |
| 8. | Lawdy, Miss Clawdy (Take 7) | 1:52 |
| 9. | Lawdy, Miss Clawdy (Take 8) | 0:59 |
| 10. | Lawdy, Miss Clawdy (Take 9) | 2:16 |
| 11. | Lawdy, Miss Clawdy (Take 10) | 2:27 |
| 12. | Lawdy, Miss Clawdy (Take 11) | 0:13 |
| 13. | Lawdy, Miss Clawdy (Take 12) | 2:20 |
| 14. | Shake Rattle and Roll (Take 1) | 0:38 |
| 15. | Shake Rattle and Roll (Take 2) | 2:34 |
| 16. | Shake Rattle and Roll (Take 3) | 0:19 |
| 17. | Shake Rattle and Roll (Take 5) | 0:47 |
| 18. | Shake Rattle and Roll (Take 6) | 0:34 |
| 19. | Shake Rattle and Roll (Take 7) | 2:41 |
| 20. | Shake Rattle and Roll (Take 8) | 2:34 |
| 21. | Shake Rattle and Roll (Take 9) | 0:20 |
| 22. | Shake Rattle and Roll (Take 10) | 0:12 |
| 23. | Shake Rattle and Roll (Take 11) | 0:14 |
| 24. | Shake Rattle and Roll (Take 12) | 1:41 |
| 25. | Shake Rattle and Roll (Take 12 - Undubbed, Unedited Master) | 2:36 |
| 26. | I Want You, I Need You, I Love You | 0:07 |
| 27. | I Want You, I Need You, I Love You (Take 3) | 3:05 |
| 28. | I Want You, I Need You, I Love You (Take 4) | 2:56 |
| 29. | I Want You, I Need You, I Love You (Take 5 - Fragment) | 0:14 |
| 30. | I Want You, I Need You, I Love You (Take 13) | 2:57 |
| 31. | I Want You, I Need You, I Love You (Take 14 - Incomplete) | 1:50 |
| 32. | I Want You, I Need You, I Love You (Take 15) | 2:55 |
| 33. | I Want You, I Need You, I Love You (Take 16) | 2:54 |
| 34. | I Want You, I Need You, I Love You (Take 17) | 2:49 |
| 35. | Don Davis Interviews Elvis Presley | 3:53 |
Album
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1956 | Billboard Pop Albums | 1 |
Single
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1956 | "Blue Suede Shoes" | Billboard Pop Singles | 20 |
| 1956 | "Money Honey" | Billboard Pop Singles | 76 |
| Organization | Level | Date |
|---|---|---|
| RIAA – USA | Gold | November 1, 1966 |
- ^ Guralnick, Peter. The King of Rock 'n' Roll: The Complete 50s Masters, 1992, insert booklet, p. 20.
- ^ Guralnick, Peter. The King of Rock 'n' Roll: The Complete 50s Masters, 1992, insert booklet, p. 24.
- Jorgenson, Ernst (1998). Elvis Presley: A Life In Music - The Complete Recording Sessions. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-18572-3
- Elvis Presley Special Edition FTD CD Information: http://shop.elvis.com.au/prod1462.htm