The Sun Sessions:Elvis Presley

The Sun Sessions is a compilation of Elvis Presley recordings at Sun Studios in 1954 and 1955. It was issued by RCA Records in 1976, and had been issued and charted as The Sun Collection in the UK the previous year. It features liner notes by Roy Carr of the New Musical Express.



Contents
[hide]  *1 Making of the album  ==Making of the album[ edit] == Main article: Elvis Presley's Sun recordingsThe album features most of the tracks recorded at Sun studio by Sam Phillips, the head of Sun Studios. Phillips signed Presley after hearing a song that he had recorded for his mother on his birthday. It includes "That's All Right" one of the few recordings regarded as "the first rock and roll record."
 * 2 Chart success
 * 3 Importance
 * 4 Track listing
 * 5 Personnel
 * 6 Charts
 * 7 References
 * 8 External links

Phillips said that Presley was rehearsing with his band, Scotty Moore and Bill Black, when Presley started singing the song, a blues song written byArthur "Big Boy" Crudup. Phillips said that the version of the song was what he was looking for when he signed Presley, and turned the tape recorder on.

Elvis recorded more than 20 songs at the Sun studio, including some private recordings. Of these, 15 appear on this album.

Missing songs:

==Chart success[ edit] == The Sun Sessions was released in March 1976 and reached #76 on the pop and #2 on the country charts.
 * "Harbor Lights"
 * "Tomorrow Night"
 * "When It Rains It Really Pours"
 * "I Got a Woman" (tape lost)
 * "Satisfied" (tape lost)
 * The earlier private recordings

The single "Baby, Let's Play House" combined with "I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone" reached #5 on the country charts in 1955. Also, RCA Victor saw that Elvis was rapidly building a reputation for his live performances. They offered Sun Records $35,000 to buy out Presley's contract, and the rest is history.

The single "That's All Right" did not chart in the US when released in 1954, and it was never issued as a single in Great Britain during Presley's lifetime. In 2004, the song became the focus of attention when it was the subject of a great deal of publicity because of the 50-year anniversary. There was a special ceremony on July 6, 2004 featuring Isaac Hayes, Justin Timberlake, Moore which was beamed live to 1200 radio stations. The song went top five in the UK and Canada and also charted in Australia. The Sun Sessions was also re-released in 2004 (in Japan only) to celebrate the anniversary. ==Importance<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:inherit;">In 2003, the album was ranked #11 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:10.9090909957886px;">[1]  In 2001, the TV channel VH1 named it the 21st greatest album of all time.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-2" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:10.9090909957886px;">[2]  Allmusic rates it as five stars, saying "it collects his first, and arguably most important, recordings into one convenient package. Who doesn't need this in their record collection?"

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:inherit;">The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll included two tracks from the album: "Mystery Train" and "That's All Right."

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:inherit;">In 2002 The Sun Sessions were chosen by the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress to be included in its archives given their importance to the development of American popular music.

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:inherit;">This album is the very first Elvis album to feature "I Don't Care If The Sun Don't Shine", which was only previously issued as a single. After more than 20 years, The Sun Sessions marked the song's official debut on LP. ==Track listing<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:inherit;">Note: The last six tracks are original Sun recordings, but were not released until 1956 on Presley's first album by RCA. They were never released on Sun. ==Personnel<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == ==Charts<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] ==
 * Elvis Presley - vocals, acoustic guitar, piano on "Trying to Get to You"
 * Scotty Moore - electric guitar
 * Bill Black - double bass
 * Jimmie Lott - drums on "I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone" (erroneously attributed to D.J. Fontana)
 * Johnny Bernero - drums on "I Forgot to Remember to Forget" and "Trying to Get to You" (erroneously attributed to D.J. Fontana)