Can you imagine a better introduction to the Era of Rock and Roll than the beginning of Elvis Presley’s recording of “Blue Suede Shoes”? I cannot. Elvis Presley has never been an all-time favorite of mine – I’ve always connected more with his contemporaries, such as Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry. Nevertheless, in spite of it all, there’s a strange, wonderful power behind the sheer charisma of Presley’s stage presence that comes through in the recordings. Whether we’re thick in the rockabilly jams of “Blue Suede Shoes” or the slow-burn swing of “I’m Counting on You”, Elvis Presley delivers in every way on his self-titled album.

               Take yourself back to 1956. This is a year during which few people were familiar with rock and roll, and absolutely no one took it for granted. There was no industry, no big hair, no long guitar solos, no power chords. You used the guitar mainly to play country music and the blues, two very different genres. Nevertheless, in 1955, a label known as Sun Records began to release recordings of Presley singing classic country and rhythm-and-blues standards in a new style – a style known as “rock and roll” to some. When “Heartbreak Hotel” proved to be a total smash hit, resulting in several television appearances, the executives decided to capitalize on the situation and release a full-length debut studio album. The foremost of those executives was Sam Phillips, who had a primary goal in which he had been long interested: bring black music to a wider audience. Phillips, who had signed on the nineteen-year-old Elvis to Sun Records, saw something in him that was evocative of the rebelliousness and bombast that could start something akin to a revolution in the music industry. Presley had a bravado and a stage presence that connected with audiences in an unheard-of way. Bruce Springsteen later described Presley as a “new kind of man”. There had been rock music and rock songs, but Presley and Phillips together had forged a new beast: the rock star. People have been aping this for decades.

               These days, I would say that Elvis Presley’s debut album sounds a little old-fashioned to ears so accustomed to heavy metal, indie rock, and the myriad of other sub-genres that have come along since. It’s very much the album for its time and works as a capsule that perfectly evokes the period and music of the day. Every single track is a cover of a previously written country or blues song – Elvis transformed them into rock and roll. As an interesting exercise, I listened to a song’s earliest recorded version side by side with Elvis’. Some songs already have the taste of rock built in – such as Carl Perkins’ version of “Blue Suede Shoes”. “Blue Moon” was originally written as an Irving Berlin-style tune for the Great American Songbook, but Elvis’ version – surprisingly soft with delicately music chords – is my favorite. “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry” was originally performed by Roy Hamilton as a mid-tempo swing jam. Elvis cranks the tempo up at least three times as fast. All these examples show how Elvis combined, invented, and changed the current music to spread rock and roll across America.

               The image of Elvis Presley on the cover is not exactly the typical photoshoot image of Elvis in sleek suit, sunglasses, with hair slicked back. On this cover, Elvis is lost in the joyous fury of rock and roll. There’s no thought or cool rationality. There’s just the emotional roar that exploded across the world, the world we still very much live in today.