Elvis Records "That's All Right" (1954)

David marks the 70th anniversary of Presley's debut single, lists his favorite Elvis eras and studio albums, and appears on an Elvis podcast

Seventy years ago today, Elvis Presley recorded “That’s All Right” at Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee, with guitarist Scotty Moore and standup bassist Bill Black, and with producer Sam Phillips. The recording was not, as legend has it, The Big Bang of Rock & Roll. In 1954, hardly anyone outside of Memphis even heard the thing—though Marty Robbins, who had a Top Ten country hit with a version of the song early the following year, had clearly spun it a couple dozen times at a minimum. Besides, when Elvis cut “That’s All Right,” and its B-side “Blue Moon of Kentucky” the next day, rock & roll was already around and gaining steam in all manner of varieties. Pre-Elvis, the new sound was already loud and fast as the white boys still like to go on and on about, in both jump bluesy varieties, such as “Rocket 88,” by Presley’s Memphis Recording Service predecessors, Jackie Brentson and Ike Turner, and country blues styles, as in Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup’s pricklier original “That’s All Right” all the way back in ‘46. Far less heralded, still, but perhaps even more importantly, rock & roll was already around in all-slow-and-swoony Rhythm & Blues, thanks to any number of doo-wop and other black vocal groups, not to mention in the balladry of any number of R&B and/or gospel singing black women. Elvis joined a program already in progress. By the time the kid made the national country charts a year later, with a cover of Arthur Gunter’s “Baby, Let’s Play House,” Fats Domino and Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Bill Haley, had already scored major pop hits. But Elvis’s first Sun sides were the big bang of Elvis—which, after he took his additions to rock and roll nationwide in 1956, would prove plenty big enough. (They were also the big bang of rock and roll’s short-lived but consequential subset, rockabilly.)

In acknowledgement of Elvis’ anniversary today, and in an ongoing acknowledgement of my own longstanding Elvis fandom, I thought I’d share a couple of quick and (I hope) fun lists. First, I rank my faves among the various eras of Presley’s career. I would stress here that, excepting his soundtrack years, I think each of these eras is great. However: I do tend to think grown-ass Elvis is a superior artist to kid Presley and that balladeer Elvis is better than rocking Elvis. And people: Rocking Elvis rocks! Mainly, I’d just say, not for the first time, that I think Presley has been, and continues to be, terribly overrated and criminally underrated at once.

My sense of Elvis’s strengths can be observed again in the second list below, a ranking of my favorite Presley studio albums, no compilations allowed—with the necessary exception of The Sun Sessions, sides never collected until 1976. Again, I dig all of these, would rate them all as five stars, and so the rankings are an attempt to make fine distinctions for myself and, honestly, can change for me season to season, even week to week. Your mileage may, and likely will, vary wildly. The takeaways for me, though, are consistent: Elvis was both the Nashville Sound’s protype and its acme; his ballad singing, particularly his gospel singing, is his greatest work.

One more thing: I was so happy awhile back to join Micajah Henley and Rob Stone, on their You Forgot One podcast, to discuss The Sun Sessions and to talk all things Elvis more generally. You can listen to that here.

Elvis Eras, Ranked:

6. 1960s movie music

5. Sun

4. pre-Army RCA

3. The Seventies

2. Early Sixties (Elvis Is Back, etc.)

1. Late Sixties (American Studios + ’68 Comeback + return to touring)

Greatest Elvis Albums

13. Elvis Presley (1956)

12. His Hand in Mind (1960)

11. Promised Land (1975)

10. Elvis (1956)

9. From Vegas to Memphis (1969)

8. Elvis’ Christmas Album (1957)

7. The Sun Sessions (1976)

6. How Great Thou Art (1964)

5. Elvis Country (1971)

4. That’s the Way It Is (1970)

3. From Elvis in Memphis (1969)

2. Elvis Is Back (1960)

1. He Touched Me (1972)

If you like what you’re reading here, please think of subscribing to No Fences Review! It’s free for now, although we will be adding a paid tier with exclusive content soon. Also, if you’d like to support our work now, you can hit the blue “Pledge” button on the top-right of your screen to pledge your support now, at either monthly, yearly, or founding-member rates. You’ll be billed when we add the paid option. Thanks!