1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: 25. Elvis Presley – Elvis Is Back! (1960)

Elvis is Back. Yay! But where has he been? In the army, that’s where, doing a tour of duty in Germany. And it’s a much more mature and assured sound compared to the debut album. Although the overall styling is rock and roll, there are elements of do-wop, rockabilly, rhythm and blues, even a bit of atonal jazz elements in Dirty, Dirty Nights.  

Both Presley’s voice and the production are richer than before, with more range and depth. For all that, it’s surprising that this was not critically well received on release, with critics calling it boring. There aren’t many songs on here that a non-Elvis fan is likely to have encountered at some point, apart from perhaps Such a Night, or the pop-rock do-wop ballad My Best Friend’s Girl, which in some ways is to its benefit; it’s not just the same old Elvis songs we’ve all heard a million times before. Presley even does a moody cover of Peggy Lee’s Fever. Yeah, I liked this one. 

If my stats are to believed, it looks like there are actually people following along with this project, which is cool, I thought I'd just be shouting into the void. Feel free to drop a comment - have you heard any of these albums, what memories you have of them, what's your favourite track etc.

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