Elvis #1 Singles
RCA Records introduced the 45 record format in 1949, but it took six years for the seven-inch, two-sided single to gain popularity. And, coincidentally, it was soon after Elvis Presley signed with the label and released "Heartbreak Hotel," the first of his 21 chart-topping hits over the next 16 years. To celebrate the half-century since that hip-quaking debut, this tidy box set repackages every song--with its original B-side--on 20 CD singles, each designed to look like a 45 record and tucked into a colorful cardboard picture sleeve that closely replicates the original single. Elvis rocks ("All Shook Up," "Jailhouse Rock") and croons ("Love Me Tender," "Teddy Bear") through the early years, all chronicled with dates and credits in an accompanying booklet, and reinvents himself for late-‘60s hits ("In the Ghetto," "Burning Love" and the still-fresh "Suspicious Minds"). Grouped with such star power, the B-sides could get overlooked. But mostly undiscovered jewels like "That's When Your Heartaches Begin" (1957), "Lonely Man" (1961) and "Any Day Now" (1969) provide bonus tracks to casual fans of the King, and remind his greatest devotees that the Elvis legacy looms far deeper than his #1 singles.--Scott Holter