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The year 2010 marks the occasion of the Hillbilly Cat’s 75th birthday (how hard is it to imagine a 75-year-old Elvis Presley?), and with it comes a proper salute: four CDs (100 songs) of career overview, from the 1953 self-financed demo of “My Happiness” that caught the attention of Sam Phillips’ assistant Marion Keisker, to a gospelized, booming treatment of “Unchained Melody” from the last concert in 1977. In between is unsullied magnificence, from the Sun and early RCA sides to the riveting craftsmanship of the enduring 60s and 70s hits penned by rock and roll’s finest songwriters commingled with—and this is the Elvis fan’s biggest secret—the outstanding interpretive performances released only as album tracks. Oddly, and truly puzzling, is the inclusion of the entirely predictable “How Great Thou Art” as the lone representative from the extensive outpourings of one of the greatest gospel singers ofour time. However, the relatively lesser known fare on Discs 3 and 4 (the piercing country melancholy of “Loving Arms,” for instance) is a sharp rebuke to those who say Elvis’s post-comeback years were dross. Remastered by Vic Anesini, the sound is phenomenal—full, crisp, with great punch on the rockers, dramatic stillness on the ballads, all admirably framing vocal art of the first rank.
By David McGee
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