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Elvis' Golden Records

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Elvis' Golden Records is the fifth album by Elvis Presley issued on RCA Records, LPM 1707, in March 1958, recorded mostly at Radio Recorders in Hollywood, with one session at RCA Studios in New York on January 30, one at 20th Century Fox Stage One in Hollywood on August 24, and three at in January and April 1956 at RCA Studios in Nashville. It is a compilation of hit singles released in 1956 and 1957, and is widely believed to be the first greatest hits album in rock and roll history. It is the first of five Elvis' Golden/Gold Records compilatons, four of which would be released during Presley's lifetime. It peaked at #3 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart.

Content

Golden Records comprises eight #1 A sides along with five b-sides, "Hound Dog," "Loving You" "That's When Your Heartaches Begin," "Treat Me Nice, "Anyway You Want Me," and one album track, "Love Me," originally issued on the 1956 LP Elvis. Every flip-side also hit the chart separately from its parent hit side, with four making the Top 40 and "Hound Dog" also topping the chart; chart positions noted for those tracks individually.

In the 1950s, a gold record awarded for a single referred to sales of one million units, different from the definition in use by the late 1970s for albums, where a gold record came to mean sales of 500,000 units. Exact figures from the RIAA are difficult to confirm, but in the press conference from September 22, 1958, originally released on the EP Elvis Sails in 1958 and included on disc four of the 1950s box set, the interviewer asks Presley for a tally of his gold records. Presley responds, saying "I have 25 million sellers, and two albums that have sold a million each."

The July 15, 1997 reissue added six tracks, with "Blue Suede Shoes" an unusual release in that it was issued simultaneously in conjunction with every track from Elvis' debut LP Elvis Presley in singles form, more than five months after the release of the album on March 23. Two more charting RCA b-sides, "I Was the One" and "My Baby Left Me," and three Sun Records tracks rounded out the compact disc. RCA had purchased the rights to reissue Sun material when buying Elvis' contract from Sam Phillips in 1955, using Sun recordings to fill out album tracks throughout the decade.

Although RCA executive Steve Sholes was the in-house A&R man for Presley, and nominally in charge of his recording sessions at RCA, accounts by Presley historian Peter Guralnick and Presley discographer Ernst Mikael Jorgensen indicate that Presley himself acted as the producer for his RCA sessions in the 1950s.

The unified Billboard Hot 100 singles chart was not created until August, 1958, after the release of this compilation, and of course after the release of all of these singles. Chart positions referenced would be taken from the Best Sellers In Stores chart, although early measurement of rock and roll records also came from the Most Played In Jukeboxes chart.

Track listing

Chart positions for singles taken from Billboard Pop Singles chart except as indicated.

Side One

Track Recorded Catalogue Release Date Chart Peak Song Title Writer(s) Time
1. 7/2/56 47-6604b 7/13/56 #1 Hound Dog Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller 2:15
2. 2/24/57 47-7000b 6/11/57 #20 Loving You Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller 2:12
3. 1/12/57 47-6870 3/22/57 #1 All Shook Up Otis Blackwell and Elvis Presley 1:57
4. 1/10/56 47-6357 1/27/56 #1 Heartbreak Hotel Mae Axton, Tommy Durden, Elvis Presley 2:09
5. 4/30/57 47-7035 9/24/57 #1 Jailhouse Rock Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller 2:27
6. 9/1/56 LPM 1382 10/19/56 Love Me Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller 2:43
7. 9/2/56 47-6800 1/4/57 #1 Too Much Lee Rosenberg and Bernard Weinman 2:31

Side Two

Track Recorded Catalogue Release Date Chart Peak Song Title Writer(s) Time
1. 7/2/56 47-6604 7/13/56 #1 Don't Be Cruel Otis Blackwell and Elvis Presley 2:02
2. 1/13/57 47-6870b 3/22/57 #58 That's When Your Heartaches Begin Fred Fisher, Billy Hill, William Raskin 3:21
3. 1/24/57 47-7000 6/11/57 #1 (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear Kal Mann and Bernie Lowe 1:45
4. 8/24/56 47-6643 9/28/56 #1 Love Me Tender Vera Matson and Elvis Presley 2:41
5. 9/5/57 47-7035b 9/24/57 #18 Treat Me Nice Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller 2:10
6. 7/2/56 47-6643b 9/28/56 #20 Anyway You Want Me (That's How I Will Be) Cliff Owens and Aaron Schroeder 2:14
7. 4/11/56 47-6540 5/4/56 #1 I Want You, I Need You, I Love You Lou Kosloff and George Mysels 2:40

1997 Reissue Bonus Tracks

Track Recorded Catalogue Release Date Chart Peak Song Title Writer(s) Time
1. 1/30/56 47-6540b 5/4/56 #31 My Baby Left Me Arthur Crudup 2:12
2. 1/11/56 47-6357b 1/27/56 #19 I Was The One Aaron Schroeder, Claude DeMetrius, Hal Blair, Bill Peppers 2:34
3. 7/5/54 Sun 209 7/19/54 That's All Right Arthur Crudup 1:55
4. 2/5/55 Sun 217 4/10/55 C&W #5 Baby, Let's Play House Arthur Gunter 2:16
5. 7/11/55 Sun 223b 8/6/55 Mystery Train Herman Parker Jr. and Sam Phillips 2:24
6. 1/30/56 47-6636 8/31/56 #20 Blue Suede Shoes Carl Perkins 1:59
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