Elvis Presley: Elvis Presley [LEGACY/RCA]

Why you'll love it

This 180g mono edition adds both sides of three 1956 singles, "Heartbreak Hotel" among them, to the original album. Elvis Presley was the first rock and roll album to reach No. 1 on Billboard's pop albums chart, and it stayed there for ten weeks.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Mono
• Bonus tracks from the 1956 singles
• Pressed in the EU
• Download card included

About the album

RCA signed Elvis in November 1955, and by early 1956 he had a hit on his hands and needed an album to go with it. The label took five of his Sun recordings, cut with Sam Phillips in Memphis in 1954 and 1955, and added a fistful of new sides from January 1956 sessions in Nashville and New York.

Scotty Moore's electric guitar, Bill Black's slapping bass and D.J. Fontana's drums are the engine, with Floyd Cramer and Chet Atkins dropping in and the Jordanaires on backing vocals. "Blue Suede Shoes" and "Tutti Frutti" are pure adrenaline, "I Got a Woman" and "Money Honey" show how deep his R&B roots ran, and "Blue Moon" and "I Love You Because" bring out the crooner. Here the album sits alongside "Heartbreak Hotel," "I Was the One" and "My Baby Left Me."

It became the first million-selling rock and roll album, with a cover shot by William "Red" Robertson at a Tampa armory in 1955. The Clash borrowed the design for London Calling 23 years later, which is the punk-rock equivalent of a thank-you card.

Also at Kops: more Elvis Presley on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On RCA / Legacy (cat# 88875111951), a reissue of the 1956 album.