The Sun Sessions

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The Sun Sessions
The Sun Sessions cover
Compilation album by Elvis Presley
Released March 22, 1976
Recorded July 1954-July 1955
Genre Rock
Length 39:47
Label RCA Records
Producer Sam Phillips
Professional reviews
Elvis Presley chronology
Elvis: A Legendary Performer Volume 2
(1976)		 The Sun Sessions
(1976)		 From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee
(1976)

The Sun Sessions is a compilation of Elvis Presley recordings at Sun Studios in 1954 and 1955. It was released in 1976. It had been issued (and charted) as "The Sun Collection" in the United Kingdom the previous calendar year.

Contents

[edit] Making of the album

It features most of the tracks recorded 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 (Mama)" one of the many recordings regarded by some as "the first rock and roll record."

Phillips said that Presley was rehearsing with his band, Scotty Moore and Bill Black, when Presley started singing the song, a blues song written by Arthur "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.

All in all Elvis recorded more than 20 songs at the Sun studio, plus some private recordings (Before his professional recordings for Sun, they were, "My Happiness", "That's When Your Heartaches Begin", "I'll Never Stand in Your Way", and "It Wouldn't Be The Same Without You".Of these more than 20 songs, 15 ended up on this album.

Missing songs:

  • "Harbor Lights"
  • "Tomorrow Night"
  • "When It Rains It Really Pours"
  • "I Got a Woman" (tape lost)
  • "Satisfied" (tape lost)

[edit] Chart success

The Sun Sessions was released in March 1976 and reached #76 on the pop and #2 on the country charts.

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 Records 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 United States national music chart when released in 1954, furthermore the song was never issued as a single in the Great Britain during Presley's lifetime, but it became the focus of a great deal of attention fifty years after it was first issued in 2004 when it was the subject of a great deal of publicity. There was a special ceremony on 6 July 2004 featuring Isaac Hayes, Justin Timberlake, Moore which was beamed live to 1200 radio stations. The song now went top 5 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.

[edit] Importance

In 2003, the album was ranked number 11 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.. In 2001, the TV channel VH1 named it the 21st greatest album of all time (in the book version it is replaced by Sunrise). 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?"

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has selected The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. There are two tracks from the album listed: "Mystery Train" and "That's All Right."

In 2002, and given their importance in the development of American popular music, The Sun Sessions were chosen, by the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress, to be kept there, for posterity.

This album is also important for being 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.

[edit] Track listing

  1. "That's All Right" (Arthur Crudup) – 1:57 (from single, 1954)
  2. "Blue Moon of Kentucky" (Bill Monroe) – 2:04 (from single, 1954)
  3. "I Don't Care If the Sun Don't Shine" (Mack David) – 2:28 (from single, 1954)
  4. "Good Rockin' Tonight" (Roy Brown) – 2:14 (from single, 1954)
  5. "Milkcow Blues Boogie" (Kokomo Arnold) – 2:39 (from single, 1955)
  6. "You're a Heartbreaker" (Jack Sallee) – 2:12 (from single, 1955)
  7. "I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone" (Stan Kesler, William Taylor) – 2:37 (from single, 1955)
  8. "Baby Let's Play House" (Arthur Gunter) – 2:17 (from single, 1955)
  9. "Mystery Train" (Herman Parker Jr., Sam Phillips) – 2:26 (from single, 1955)
  10. "I Forgot to Remember to Forget" (Kesler, Charlie Feathers) – 2:30 (from single, 1955)
  11. "I'll Never Let You Go (Lil' Darlin')" (Jimmy Wakely) – 2:26 (RCA 1956)
  12. "Trying to Get to You" (Rose Marie McCoy, Charles Singleton) – 2:33 (RCA 1956)
  13. "I Love You Because" (Leon Payne) – 2:33 (RCA 1956)
  14. "Blue Moon" (Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart) – 2:41 (RCA 1956)
  15. "Just Because" (Sydney Robin, Bob Shelton, Joe Shelton) – 2:34 (RCA 1956)
  16. "I Love You Because" (Second version) (Payne) – 3:25 (RCA 1956)

Note: Last six tracks are original Sun recordings, but were not released until 1956 on Elvis' first album by RCA. Never released on Sun.

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Charts

Album

Year Chart Position
1976 Billboard Country Albums 2
1976 Billboard Pop Albums 76

[edit] External links