eMusic Review
This 100-song extravaganza, released a month before Presley's 75th birthday (January 8, 2010), is not all the Elvis you could possibly want: there's way too much out there for any normal person to take in completely. But anyone seeking a decent understanding of the enormity of the man's musical facets, and is confused or flustered by the enormous number of compilations, overviews, box sets and best-ofs, has found their ideal road map. There's a lifetime's worth of great music on Elvis 75— his and yours.
What's probably most impressive is that it's still possible to listen to this most overexposed of pop-culture figures and hear his artistry as plainly as ever. The early Sun Records singles are some of the most mythologized music ever recorded. But in the verve and snap of "Mystery Train," "That's All Right (Mama)," and especially "Blue Moon of Kentucky," you can still hear Elvis, guitarist Scotty Moore, and bassist Bill Black reaching for something beyond themselves. It's not even that the trio melded black and white music in ways no one else quite had — though they did; it's that they sounded weirdly ageless, and still do. Much was made during the '50s about rock and… read more »
