Elvis In Rolling Stone Top 500
November 11, 2004 | Music
The latest special edition of Rolling Stone magazine featured a Top 500 of The Best Albums ever. The first Elvis album is listed at #79, "Elvis Presley". At # 206 we find "The Sun Sessions", at # 286 "From Elvis In Memphis" and finally at #435 the "NBC TV Special" from 1968.
Source:Rolling Stone
Jim Semple wrote on
November 11, 2004
I can't beleive there are 285 better albums than The Sun Sessions. Can you ?!?
gribz wrote on
November 11, 2004
No way they can actually ever guage that.. Best in what? sales , rock, pop, and among who? Who's opinion.... 100 years from now, Elvis will be the only one on that list , because nobody voting will know any of the other artists who are on it today, except for Elvis. These are the facts. Elvis is George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Christopher Columbus all in one.
Jefffirmin wrote on
November 11, 2004
I'm surprised that Elvis' earliest releases are not in the top 20 or so purely because of the influence they held. His following albums after weren't nearly as strong and so I'm not surprised they don't figure. Elvis recorded more great tracks than anyone but very few great albums. That's down to poor management, the chasing of money at the sacrifice of quality. Fewer, stronger albums would have left an amazing catelogue.
Renan Augusto wrote on
November 11, 2004
You are right gribz. Nobody will remember these artists. But only Elvis will be remembered because he was good in his job. He had the VOICE.
doctor wrote on
November 12, 2004
elvis was never an "album artist", he was a singles artist, so why even bother trying to compare? As for the Elvis Sun Album--it's just a compilation, which first saw the light of day in 1976. Jefffirmin is right, the record label had no idea how to market elvis as an album artist at that time. By the time the 70s rolled around, elvis' output --beyond Elvis Country-- did not fit the mold of "album artists" either. Surprisingly, as Elvis Country was a great concept album, it didn't even make it to the Rolling Stone list. It's like comparing apples and oranges. Who cares? Elvis' entire musical legacy is eons beyond any other artist's, dead or alive. Let the music play!
MV wrote on
November 12, 2004
Why no Elvis is Back? If you look at the album charts back in 1960 this classic was one of the very few rock'n'roll albums out.Elvis first album shoulda been top 10 on its cover alone.But i agree RCA missed a lot of opportunities to really make Elvis a great album artist.No Jailhouse Rock lp.No Viva Las Vegas.Classic studio recordings dotted about mediocre sountracks.Not to mention shoddy packaging and poor covers(think Aloha)Thankfully now those at BMG in my view give Elvis records the repect they deserve.
data wrote on
November 12, 2004
why is Elvis not an album artist? Simple, because, just like today,one album is out and another is anounced.In the seventies up to more than 5 Lps a year. And look what happens now, just the same. If you look closer into those years then you also have to notice that they even had a bad choice of singles most of the time. Now they do'nt even bother to release one, and was not a little less conversation the motor for a great amound of sales of 30 N° 1 hits. Other artists have one album out or sometimes one in 2 or 3 years. Not so for RCA and now BMG it was always more more more. And they keep on going. Elvis should be one of the top artists in that chart but this is a major reason why he is not.