ALBUMS: Elvis: The Sun Sessions (1979); Elvis Golden Records (1958 RE); Girl Happy (1965); Elvis Pure Gold (1975); Moody Blue (1977); Elvis for Everyone (1965) Blue Hawaii ( 1961); Elvis Country (1971).
MVC Ratings (in order of above): Sun, 5.0/$$$$; Golden Records, 4.5/$$$$; Girl Happy 2.5/$$; Pure Gold, 3.0/$$$: Moody,3.0/$$$; Elvis for Everyone, 2.5/$$; Blue Hawaii 2.5/$$; Country, 2.5/$$.
People looking at my eight Elvis records may think that I’ve got a lot of money tied up in that. I mean Elvis, come on. Got to be worth lots.
Truth is most Elvis albums aren’t worth that much. Coupla reasons. They made a lot of them as, for a time, anything with Elvis’ name and picture flew off the shelves. Secondly they weren’t that good. Elvis made a lot of mediocre to bad movies. He made a lot of mediocre to bad songs that Elvis recorded for these movies.
If you look at my list of albums I have and the photo, the two albums on the far left are the most valuable. The rest you can find at a used record store in the $4-$8 range. Or in a thrift store for $2. The other two go for 5 or 10 times that. Of course there’s other Elvis music that is worth a lot. We sat next to a couple at the Alabama Record Collector’s Association a few weeks ago who had five Sun Label singles by Elvis. He turned down offers that were in the many thousands of dollars. They actually may be headed to a museum.
Elvis had his growth stunted with the movies. I’m sure he made a lot of money and helped Col. Parker make a lot but his best stuff was clearly in his early years, starting out in 1954 when he was a 19-year-old truck driver. up until the time he was drafted in the army. He served two years, came back still putting out hit after hit, but then chose a path that I believe stunted his growth as a musician. By his early 20’s he already had an everlasting discography with classics like Jailhouse Rock, Love Me Tender, That’s All Right, Mystery Train, Don’t Be Cruel and Hound Dog.
I remember when I was high school age we went to visit some cousins, relatively distant I believe and, the one my age they called Twinkle. We watched an Elvis movie marathon and I was drawn by Elvis even if he was cheesy. She seemed to have been interested as well over Elvis. (Or was it me?) I don’t know I was watching Elvis do the ‘Clam.’
He came back and did movie music, silly music like Do the Clam. He felt like an outsider on the whole British invasion with Beatles. He staged a comeback of sorts when in 1968, dressed in all black leather he went on live TV in a performance hailed as a return to form. But while he had some good songs in the later stages of his career, they were mostly Vegas production pieces written by other people (as was the case always with Elvis). In that era came out ‘In the Ghetto,’ ‘Kentucky Rain,’ ‘A Little too Much Conversation, and ‘Fever.’
In my eyes, despite the many things you can find wrong, Elvis was the King who brought R&B to a mass audience under the new name of Rock ‘n Roll. He was talented, charismatic, good looking and could sing and dance a little bt.