Wise men say only fools rush in to a debate on Elvis’ oeuvre. The man could, and did, sing just about anything, including the phone book (cue up “Memphis, Tennessee”).
Elvis Presley adopted Mario Lanza-inspired romantic pieces, Arthur Crudup’s down-and-dirty blues, pop tunes from Brill Building wiseacres Leiber and Stoller, Jackie Wilson R&B and several shades of country – and spit them out as rock ‘n’ roll.
Along the way, there would be cool Christmas songs, blue-eyed soul, soundtrack snoozers and enough schlock to make you “Do the Clam.” Plus, he knew gospel, chapter and verse. Lord, could Elvis sing gospel.
He was Americana before we knew the word.
That’s why, when assessing the more than 750 songs Elvis recorded, it’s more useful to appreciate his mastery of multiple styles rather than quibble over whether “How Great Thou Art” was, well, greater than “Hound Dog.”
So to celebrate Baz Luhrmann’s new “Elvis” biopic, put your suspicious minds at ease and savor this survey of the best of his breadth: 20 essential Elvis songs that make you turn your head (and pelvis) toward the speakers.
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Bill Black’s slap-back bass establishes a souped-up tempo, and Scotty Moore chimes in with his bee-sting guitar, sending a jolt to radio listeners in Memphis – and soon around the world. By all accounts, the song sort of fell together as Elvis and mates banged around in the studio, but producer Sam Phillips knew thunder when he heard it. Together, they transformed Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup’s 1946 blues song into their first commercial single – and a cultural milestone.
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Here we get an early taste of the sexual and slightly menacing Elvis as he takes an Arthur Gunter blues song recorded a year earlier and transforms it into a percolating, horn-dog classic. He pants out “baby” 15 times in the opening chorus alone, and his rendering of “I’d rather see you dead, little girl, than to be with another man” was so nervy that John Lennon later stole it for his own purposes. Best of all, Elvis tweaked the lyrics to introduce us to his “pink Cadillac.”
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When Elvis adopts that slight hiccuppy vocal affectation on “16 coaches long,” you immediately grasp his fear and desperation that his baby has left the station and may never return. This is a blues classic by Junior Parker to which guitarist Scotty Moore gives a country feel, and the result is one of the greatest rockabilly performances ever.
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Elvis got a rare songwriting co-credit (with Mae Axton and Tommy Durden) on his first smash hit after moving from tiny Sun Records to major-league label RCA. But it’s the alchemy of guitarists Scotty Moore and Chet Atkins, bassist Bill Black, drummer D.J. Fontana and pianist Floyd Cramer all the way through that sets the tone for this searing blues about a despondent down-and-outer.
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D.J. Fontana’s furious drum roll between the verses caught listeners’ ears, but it was Elvis’ hip-thrusting gyrations during live performances of the song that caused the destruction of American civilization as we then knew it. His version was a goofy (and lyric-mangling) reworking of “Big Mama” Thornton’s original 1952 R&B stomper, written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.
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On the second verse, Elvis raises the intensity and kicks into a full creamy croon, making even musicologists forget momentarily that this song was based on Civil War ballad “Aura Lee.” Elvis sang this on “The Ed Sullivan Show” before the single and movie of the same name were released,…
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