There are several books that supposedly introduce the uninitiated to the King--including Elvis for Beginners and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Elvis--and this 1958 compilation (his first) is an aural equivalent, spotlighting the initial post-Sun '56 and '57 hit singles that originally transformed the King into...well, the King! If you're not yet ready to invest in the King of Rock 'n' Roll box set, this makes for an excellent alternative. After all, it's awfully hard to go wrong with tracks like "Heartbreak Hotel," "Don't Be Cruel," "Hound Dog," and "Jailhouse Rock"--although they're now so overly familiar to most of us that they might as well be the national anthem. Nevertheless, rock & roll as we know it--and the very concept of "rock star"--essentially began here. --Bill Holdship
Review by Bruce Eder
This was rock & roll's first greatest-hits album, and it set the standard for all others to follow. As originally conceived, it was a 14-song collection of most of the King's biggest hits up to that time, released on the eve of his start of military service -- a dearth of material being in the offing, it seemed only logical to assemble these hits. Each of the 14 songs had earned a gold-record award for a million sales, a record unequaled at that time by anyone else in rock & roll. The album wasn't intended as a history lesson, so "Hound Dog" and "Loving You" precede "Heartbreak Hotel" -- the 1997 remastering also tampers with the concept a bit, adding six bonus tracks. Elvis' singing never sounded richer or more expressive, and one can fully appreciate in vivid detail the delicate nuances of his phrasing on songs like "Too Much." On the downside, the remastering has made the sound so clean on some of the harder songs that some of the raw, "dirty" ambience that characterized this stuff on the radio and the original 45s is lacking. Still, Scotty Moore's groundbreaking lead guitar part on "Hound Dog" and the Jordanaires' backup singing never came through more sharply or cleanly, and the all-important rhythm section is almost up front in the mix. Those who own the first Elvis box from RCA, covering the '50s masters, may hesitate to pick up this or the other parts of this latest remastered series, but the sound has been upgraded one more level, and Golden Hits does give a bite-sized glimpse of where Elvis had come from and where he was going (for better or worse) musically on the eve of heading into the Army.
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