Elvis Presley

The quintessential one-star album. A talentless predator riding on the coat-tails of better men and better artists.

0.5/5.0: Unlistenable

Elvis is nostalgia for me; having been something my parents introduced me to. Despite this, and my love for this era of rock n roll, he is NOT my favorite. His debut LP showcases his voice quite well, and the cover image alone probably helped draw countless young people to this new form of music, whose roots were firmly in the taboo. And that's about where it ends. Elvis only plays guitar on a couple of tracks here, and piano on only one. Not a single song is written by him. This is the beginning of a 70+ year long music industry practice of taking a pretty face, and selling pop records with it. The music here is well played (great session players on here) but it lacks the raw power, energy, and innovation of artists like Chuck Berry or Little Richard. It's a fun listen and a historic artifact, but it's hard for me to not contextualize it as the colonization of rock n roll

Elvis, before getting chewed up by the mainstream American entertainment industry, had an astonishing sound. The Sun Records rockabilly cuts are historic for a reason and there are some fine examples here. Scotty Moore, Bill Black, and DJ Fontana are present on most of the songs. After this Elvis got manufactured by Colonel Tom Parker and apparently sold his soul, but at least some of the early stuff like this is here to remind us all what a big deal this dude was at the time. What a voice. Okay song selection, but I think Tutti Frutti was swing and a miss, while Blue Suede Shoes is inevitably the more well known version but lacks Carl Perkins' edge. Absolutely an album you should here before you die. Really enjoyable for me as a big rockabilly fan.

Bij een ander album schreef ik al mijn bewondering als de allereerste klanken van jouw allereerste album bijna 70 jaar later de wereld over blijven gaan. Dat geldt natuurlijk ook voor dit album. Ik zou dit dan ook heel hoog willen geven. Maar als ik heel eerlijk ben kan ik slechts wat meedeinen met de grootste hits en vind ik veel ander werk op dit album erg gemaakt. Vooral bij de rustige nummers past dat niet. Dan heb ik het liefst een nummer als Money Honey. Niet uniek wellicht, wel swingend en weinig overdreven.

Much like Jerry Lee Lewis, the cloud of "white man popularising the black man's music" hangs heavy here. Classic rock & roll, albeit distilled.

not an impressive debut, also im not too fond of elvis' music in general idk why

but yeah his debut album wasn't much

I like that it inspired the cover for London Calling! It's not bad at all. Not my thing but it's enjoyable.

Short but good. I recognized a few of these and enjoyed most of the rest. I guess there was a reason Elvis was such a bit back in the day. 4/5

Hard to imagine what the cultural impact of this must have been. Judging it purely on the musical merits, it's good not great. Extra star for the Las Vegas era jumpsuits though

This is my second Elvis album reviewed on this generator. Just like my first review (Elvis is Back!) this one takes place prior to Elvis selling his soul to Las Vegas. Before he became a circus act with all the hair and hip gyrating his music was quite good. He is known as the king of rock 'n' roll for a reason.

Going into this listen I only knew a few songs on this album (Blue Suede Shoes and Tutti Frutti), both of which are excellent songs! There were a lot more fantastic songs on this album though.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed today's album. It being Elvis' debut album, there were no simplistic theatrics to his performance. It was just him and his backing band playing good ol rock 'n' roll and blues music. I would definately listen again. The only thing I am not a fan of is his moany slow songs. All of his upbeat stuff though is gold.

Favourite songs: Blue Suede Shoes, Money Honey, Tutti Frutti, One-Sided Love Affair, Just Because, I Got A Woman, I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Cry (Over You)

Least favourite songs: I Love You Because, Blue Moon - Take 9/M

4/5

I much prefer the more somber sounding Presley songs, because his voice benefits a lot more from those than him trying to do a bad impression of black artists from the era. Luckily, there are a few of said somber songs on this album, and it makes it so those songs are really quite enjoyable, even if they still aren't his own works, then again is anything by him really? You can also hear some Lennon-like vocals in I'll Never Let You Go, but I have no clue if John Lennon actually took any inspiration from Presley at all. Overall, some good, and some pretty whatever for a decent album all together.

Räng-däng-däng ja tutti frutti vaan. merkityksellinen levy mut en ihan kauheen usein jaksais ehkä kuunnella, joten 3/5

Blue Suede Shoes is a perenial hit. His vocal delivery is both iconic and divisive. Its a little too artificial and forced for me. So he just took the blues and played it faster and boom: Rock and Roll. Yea this sucks as an album but important as a museum piece.

It's quite easy-listening I guess, but it feels a bit anaemic. If you take away the force that is Elvis and his whole persona and fame, and just listen to it fresh on its own merits, I don't think there's that much there to really get excited about. I appreciate I'm saying this from the year 2023 of course.

I like Elvis' Sun Sessions material, some of which is used here. It has a raw vitality and moodiness to it that he never quite captured again as he became a more polished pop act. This album was an absolute phenomenon, which, as we move further away from its release, becomes harder to understand the true depth of its significance. I know that culturally this should be a 5 for its impact. It's one of the keystones of rock and roll, upon which everything else is built, and sort of tipping point for the genre, but the thing that really gets to me is when he covers things like "I Gotta Woman" or "Tutti Frutti," and they just pale in comparison to the originals. Drags the whole thing down. Also, mixing the Sun and RCA material gives it a weird, unbalanced feel. I will give him one thing though; he is a hell of an emotive singer. As a purely subjective listening experience this is a 3 for me (though the Sun material is more of a 4-5).

I don't really know how to rate this album. On the other hand, apart from Blue Suede Shoes, I found most of it boring and unrelatable. I can't decide whether I love or loathe Blue Moon, the guy sounds like he's singing from the bottom of a well. On the other hand, it's the debut of ELVIS and was undeniably influential.

Still not a huge Elvis fan, but I appreciated how fast this moves.

Wonderful

This review took me a while because I kept feeling like I was missing something. It could be generational, but I haven't been blown away by much of what I've heard. His version of Hound Dog is a sloppy non-sensical mess next to Big Mama Thornton's. I thought Elvis is Back! (our previous pick) was boring. At least I thought this debut album was better, but I still was having a hard time seeing what was GREAT. So, I did a real deep dive. I compared Elvis's versions of these songs to the previous versions (only 2 songs on the album are debuts, although Elvis didn't write anything - that wasn't a "thing" back then). I also watched some videos to compare. Here are my two main takeaways:

1) In almost all cases, Elvis's version is faster and wilder. In some cases that made the song more exciting, but it wasn't always a better thing.

2) You can't fully appreciate Elvis without the visual part. Elvis had moves and charisma and style. I watched various early performances, focusing on videos around the time this album came out. That's really what I think grabbed people. For example, Carl Perkins' original Blue Suede Shoes is a good track. Slower, but basically the same song. I watched a video of Carl Perkins and he was clearly the superior musician - great voice and really good guitar playing. But then I watched Elvis perform it and he was in a different league when it came to energy and charisma (and I guess sex appeal if that's your thing).

So, I think to understand why Elvis was considered GREAT you can't just listen, you have to watch. I'm giving this album a 4 not a 5 because the album is just the music, not the entire package. It's really enjoyable but a lot of the individual tracks are done better by others (for example, Little Richard's original Tutti Frutti is so much better. Then again, Little Richard IS rock & roll). The only track on this debut album I didn't like was Blue Moon. I listened to the first recorded version of this Rodgers & Hart standard (recorded by Ted Fio Rito and His Orchestra) and that was much better than the Elvis version (incidentally, the definitive version of Blue Moon is the later doo wop version by the Marcels with the famous doo wop line that I won't even attempt to type - just go listen).

Favorite Tracks: Blue Suede Shoes, I Got a Woman (but go listen to the Ray Charles version!), One-Sided Love Affair (Elvis's singing style on this song is very entertaining), I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You), I'll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin'), Money Honey.

Never been a huge fan of the old Elvis sound. In terms of formative rock I like Bill Haley and the Comets much better. I appreciate this for what it is though. Didn't realize until this play through that he didn't really write any of his original hits. 2/5