- Included among the Record Descriptions of Favorite Albums (Part 1).
- Quite simply, Elvis Presley was the first and probably still the greatest rock and roll star, certainly among individual performers.
Elvis Presley – Elvis’ Worldwide Gold Award Hits, Parts 1 & 2 (1974): Quite simply, Elvis Presley was the first and probably still the greatest rock and roll star, certainly among individual performers. Having sold over 500 million records worldwide, and nicknamed “the King of Rock and Roll”, Elvis Presley is recognized as the best-selling solo music artist of all time by Guinness World Records. More than 40 years after his premature death in 1977, Elvis still ranks high among popular musicians, having the most RIAA-certified Gold and Platinum albums, the most albums charted on the Billboard 200, the most number-one albums by a solo artist on the U.K. Albums Chart, and the most number-one singles by any act on the U.K. Singles Chart. In 2018, Elvis Presley was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Besides his own world-changing songs, the impact in England of Elvis’s first hit single for RCA Victor Records, “Heartbreak Hotel” (1956) is likely the primary impetus for the British Invasion several years later. “Heartbreak Hotel” was Elvis Presley’s first chart-topping hit and his first million-selling single, and also one of the largest selling records of 1956. Before that, Elvis Presley was the biggest star at Sam Phillips’ Sun Records and pioneered the rockabilly style along with others at the label, particularly Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash. Sun Records was even able to show off by hosting an impromptu concert in late 1956 by the four of them, dubbed “The Million Dollar Quartet”, although Elvis had by that time already signed with RCA. Elvis Presley’s two dozen or so recordings for Sun Records have a raw rockabilly flavor that helped establish the basic sound of rock and roll; and his later records incorporated blues, country, soul, and gospel influences. Besides Elvis’s many gospel albums, beginning with His Hand in Mine (1960) – released not long after his stint in the U.S. Army – many of his songs were recorded with a gospel quartet, the Jordanaires, including 15 of the 24 songs in this collection. Elvis’ Worldwide Gold Award Hits, Parts 1 & 2 is one of several albums released by RCA Victor Records over the years having a similar name. Presumably, these are all Gold records, though these two dozen songs are certainly not all of Elvis’s Gold records through 1974. For one thing, as far as I can tell none of Elvis Presley’s early hits on Sun Records are included in this collection. But this double album covers many of the best-known Elvis songs, including “Don’t be Cruel (to a Heart that’s True)”, “Hound Dog”, “Love Me Tender”, “I’m All Shook Up”, “Jailhouse Rock”, “Hard Headed Woman”, and “It’s Now or Never”, among many other classics.