Elvis Presley: 30 #1 Hits

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Now - what Elvis phases float my boat? Rockin' Elvis and seventies white-suited Elvis, that's what. I have no time for those early sixties syrupy, slow ballads, I'm afraid. It is the presence in his canon of stuff like that which leaves Elvis below Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Buddy Holly and even Larry Williams as a rock 'n' roller, for me.

It will be no surprise, with that in mind, then, when I list my favourites from this collection - Heartbreak Hotel, Hound Dog, Too Much, All Shook Up, the magnificent Jailhouse Rock, Hard Headed Woman, A Big Hunk O' Love, Can't Help Falling In Love (a ballad, I know!), the soulful, moving In The Ghetto, the hammy but appealing Suspicious Minds, the sensual rock of Burning Love and the last big one, Way Down.

It is the early sixties Are You Lonesome Tonight?/Wooden Heart US Army demob period that doesn't really do it for me. For me, the essential Elvis is when he rocked at the beginning, when he wore a leather jump suit, gyrating in front of women in horn-rimmed spectacles in the late sixties and when he stuffed himself with cheeseburgers and owned three TVs in the seventies. 

It is pretty pointless for me to review all the tracks in my usual fashion, because everyone knows them. So I've just told you a bit of what I like. Despite there being 30 songs on here, a few of favourites of mine in Guitar Man, Mystery Train, Polk Salad Annie and Let's Have A Party are neither on this collection or the 2nd To None follow up, because they didn't reach number one or number two. 

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