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The Best Of British

By ElvisNews.com/ Lex, April 13, 2013 | Book

FTD issued this book subtitled The HMV Years 1956-1958 recently. Is it worth buying?

Design

The design is very tastefull. A good balance between text and pictures makes it very easy on the eye and fontsize keeps the average age of an Elvis fan in mind.

Content

I must admit I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I expected merely a photobook with some notes. It is far from that. Of course the 438 pages are stuffed with photos, memorabilia, pictures of labels, covers, sheetmusic and so on. Besides that the book is extremely informative. The history of the HMV label is nicely documented and all releases on the label are present. Not only with numbers, dates and such, but also all songs are tackled with extensive background information. Who else recorded them, information about the recording by Elvis, about the authors… again, a wealth of information.

Two CDs with Elvis' music of those early years are always a pleasure to listen to, the demos on it being a nice bonus.

Conclusion

If the book had its own page on facebook I wouldn’t hestitate to hit that ‘Like-button’ big time! Both thumbs up!

 

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Buy at OEPFC
marty wrote on May 20, 2013
Surprised no one has commented yet. I agree that this is a superb book with a lot of very interesting information about the songs and the songwriters. Glad to hear there is going to be a reprint! Well-deserved indeed! PS Still haven't finished reading it...
TheMemphisFan wrote on December 16, 2013
The shops across the street from Graceland still have this book and at a better price than what was available online! Even though I haven't bought it (yet), I was recently looking through a store copy, and the photos are fabulous with very informative text! Highly recommended!
TheMemphisFan wrote on December 29, 2013
I gave myself a Christmas present by purchasing this book on Christmas Eve, along with 3 other FTD sets... G.I. Blues Volume 2, Elvis at American Sound Studio, and Moody Blue.