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07/07/2004 Elvis Presley Golden Jubilee
Fifty years ago this week, Elvis Presley's first single, That's All Right Mama, was recorded at Sun Studios in Memphis. Directly as a result, popular music - nay, western culture - underwent a rare paradigm shift. The lover of grown-up music can't afford to ignore Elvis. Fortunately for anyone still to catch up, without becoming a fanatic, only about half a dozen albums from the vast Presley catalogue are essential listening - the mass of Elvis albums are dispensable. The essential albums are: - The Sun Sessions (from 1955), repeatedly repackaged, the 2CD Sunrise being the best compilation (Elvis at Sun is this week's anniversary re-release of this early Memphis material), - and one of the many hits compilations, to catch the innumerable classic singles, such as 50 Greatest Hits, 30 no 1 Hits (2002), or Artist of the Century 3CD. Early Presley is magnificent, but The King rapidly succumbed to show biz values and lost his uniqueness. And Elvis is best listened to in short doses - more than half an hour leaves me grasping for mental stimulation - anything will do, I even start reading the advertising copy on cereal boxes… anything, just as long as it engages the brain a bit more than wall-to-wall Elvis. Great and influential as Elvis undoubtedly was, of the 1950s greats, I now get more from Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly. Their legacies seem more, er, grown-up than Elvis's.
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for Grown-Ups Ltd. 2005
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