Classic Albums - Elvis Presley- Elvis Presley

Product Description THIS FILM TELLS THE STORY THAT LIES BEHIND THE MAKING OF ELVIS PRESLEY'S FIRST ALBUM FOR RCA RECORDS IN 1956, AND HIS METEORIC RISE TO SUPERSTARDOM. Amazon.com "It was like the world went from black & white to Technicolor," says Keith Richards of the emergence of Elvis Presley in the mid-'50s, and this look at the King's first official album (the legendary Sun Sessions weren't issued in album form until well after the fact) backs up that claim. The one-hour program (plus 40 minutes of bonus interview material on the DVD) combines performance footage (the early TV shows are not to be missed), photos, and more to limn Presley's early days, when he combined country, blues, and R&B to forge a unique, galvanizing style. Sun producer Sam Phillips, , Presley's musicians, and others are on hand to provide insight and background. But in the end, of course, it comes down to the music--and when you're talking about the likes of "Blue Suede Shoes," "Tutti Frutti," "Money Honey," and "Heartbreak Hotel" (a single that actually wasn't on the album), "classic" hardly begins to cover it. --Sam Graham From the Back Cover This film tells the unusual story that lies behind the making of Elvis Presley's first album for RCA Records, in 1956, and his meteoric rise to superstardom. In Memphis, Sam Phillips, founder of Sun Records, gives the inside story of those groundbreaking days when he auditioned, produced, and befriended Elvis. Scotty Moore (guitar) and D.J. Fontana (drums) describe how they helped Elvis record the album in Nashville and New York, aiming for "feel, not perfection." They recall, with rare home movie footage, how they toured 400 miles a day in Elvis's Pink Cadillac, rehearsing the songs that Elvis would immortalize in that first album. Dixie Locke, then Elvis's steady girlfriend, describes how shy, mercurial, and glamorous the young Elvis appeared, and how he coped with his newfound stardom. Record producer/historian Ernst Jorgensen and biographer Peter Guralnick describe the shock impact of 20-year-old Elvis and the astonishing simplicty of this album's execution. Musicians B.B. King and Keith Richards tell us what made Elvis the King of Rock 'n' Roll. The film is filled with performances from '55 and '56, interviews with Elvis, and rare home movie footage of him at play and work, offering fresh insights into his life and his rec