The King is dead, long live The King.
On the 41st anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death, I’ve dug out an album from 1999 which I reviewed for Record Collector magazine in Britain. Enjoy.
RCA Records’ end of the millennium, ‘Artist of the Century’ Elvis repackaging bandwagon goes into overdrive. This is a pretty straightforward proposition, a new collection of 22 original movie soundtrack recordings compiled in (almost) chronological order.
The informative sleeve notes tell us how easy it is “to overlook just how many truly great songs came from Elvis’s movies” – Jailhouse Rock, Teddy Bear, Love Me Tender and, of course, Can’t Help Falling In Love are all here – but completists may also feel a little peeved that it is the label has seemingly found it easy to overlook the fact that Elvis Movies was in fact the title of a UK-only mid price CD issued just the month before, with six of its tracks now reappearing here forthwith.
Steve Pafford
Originally published in Record Collector magazine, December 1999
If Elvis Presley Isn’t The King to Millennials Then Who the Hell Is? is here
