Read that number on the cover, today’s pop stars, and weep. Weep hard. Seventy five tunes in itself is a commendable achievement. But seventy five tunes that were all top 20 hits!? “75 of Elvis’ greatest hits,” chirrups the sticker on the front. 75 of his greatest hits?! Because there are more! Yes sir! SEVENTY FIVE! Kind of puts Robbie Williams into context, doesn’t it. This collection is being released to mark what would have been The King’s, you got it, seventy fifth birthday – which is as arbitrary as reason to release YET ANOTHER anthology of his hits as any, especially when his number ones collection (‘Elvis 30’) of a few years ago was a perfectly concise overview. But the numbers marry up impressively and there are much worse things to have in your collection than over 3 tidy hours of Elvis chart history.
And there is little here that disappoints. His latter-day stuff did get a touch syrupy and the occasional bit of play it safe, factory-line filler does crop up, proving that being blindly in thrall to a star irrespective of their quality at the time is not a merely modern phenomenon. Still, to go from ‘Hound Dog’ and ‘Love Me Tender’ (no introductions necessary) in the early 50s to the peerless performance of ‘Suspicious Minds’ in the late 60s, with the much-covered ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love’ and ‘Viva Las Vegas’ somewhere in the middle, is no mean feat and proves the real value of Elvis the recording artiste, even if you ignore Elvis – The Legacy.
It’s disappointing they’ve again seen fit to include Junkie XL’s 2002 treatment of ‘A Little Less Conversation’ which in some ways sounds more dated than the stuff from half a century earlier, but there are 74 further tracks ripe for exploring or re-discovery.
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