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This is the Big Bang of rock & roll, the moments when Elvis Presley, guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black first twanged up their R&B and heated up their C&W, igniting an explosion that created the world we now inhabit. Rock & roll has never been as elemental, as jubilant or desperate, as the versions here of Arthur Crudup's "That's All Right" and Bill Monroe's "Blue Moon Of Kentucky." And just as significantly, on "I Love You Because" and "Blue Moon," The Sun Sessions include the beginnings of Elvis' earnest ballad style that would soon be nearly as influential as his creation of rockabilly. --David Cantwell

User Reviews about Complete Sun Sessions

If you like "early Elvis" you'll loves these recordings. Sam Phillips was a genius with making a great sound with little equipment and just using the musicians own sounds. -- Great CD

I searched for this CD for my husband as a gift. He had the original cassette and we played it many times when dating, and loved it. He has since given me the cassette (fine with me!) and I'm happy he can now enjoy playing this super-sounding CD; actually we both can listen, of course. He's very pleased I got it for him. The songs have that unique, early Elvis blues/rock ("rockabilly") sound that we love. All of the songs bring back great memories. All are individual-sounding and each one is terrific. I highly recommend this CD to anyone who loves Elvis, especially his early music. It's very good quality music as well. Enjoy listening to Elvis's fabulous early music! -- The Sun Sessions CD: Elvis Presley (Commemorative Issue)

This is a music CD for everyone's collection. There's a freshness to the music that makes you want to listen to it again and again. Hearing Elvis in the Studio transforming the songs into what he wanted and changing music into what it will become is fascinating. I highly recommend it. -- Presley Commemorative Issue

Howlin' Wolf, Roscoe Gordon, Rufus Thomas, Little Milton and an assortment of black blues notables in the early days. Elvis, Carl Perkins, Johnnie Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis and an assortment of white rockabilly notables in the mid to late 1950's. What do they have in common? Well, one thing, and make that a decisively important one thing, is that they passed through Mr. Sam Phillips' Sun Records recording studio in Memphis, Tennessee on the way to some kind of career. Amazing. With the possible exception of Chess Records in Chicago, a label that moreover concentrated on the blues no other studio can claim so much as the catalyst for what became rock and roll in the mid- 1950's, the youth of the present writer and of his Generation of `68.

That said, the impetus for this review of a compilation of Elvis's Sun Record sessions is a Public Broadcasting Station's American Masters series that highlighted the ten years existence of that recording studio. There the format included a generous round of ` talking heads' interspersed with some performances, in this case, to honor the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the Sun Records (1950).

This documentary also included many of the old Sun artists who did not attain the stardom of those mentioned in the first paragraph yet who nevertheless had some interesting things to say about the meaning of the Sun Record experience. Those comments and those performances put into dramatic relief why Elvis was the "King", at least in those days. A common theme throughout, and I believe that this applies to Elvis as well, is that mainly the music got them the hell off the farms, out of the fields or out of those dead end transient jobs. And moreover they had fun and got paid for it. And met girls! How can you beat that? My take on this is that they were good old boys, Elvis included, who got more out of the Sun, if not financially then musically, than they had originally bargained for. And this entire trip down memory lane is presided over by the impresario himself, the late Sam Phillips.

As to the present compilation some comments are worth mentioning. As with all such compilations there is some unevenness in the quality of performance, even in the case of Elvis. Some of this is calculated with the use of alternative takes to beef up the size of the compilation. However, any way you cut it these Sun sessions and that studio played to Elvis's strengths musically. Starting with the classics It's All Right, Mama, Blue Moon of Kentucky and Good Rockin', Tonight and through such ballad covers as Blue Moon and Harbor Lights Elvis demonstrates his versatility in song style and that distinctive intonation that no one else in the Sun stable could duplicate (and they tried, believe me). Elvis fanatics will want this one just like every other thing that has been put out in his name. But the real reason to get it is to hear pure Elvis when the man, the moment and the environment all came together at a time when Rock and Roll was young.
-- Once Again, Blame It On Sam Phillips

Elvis Presley-The Sun Sessions *****


Considered by many to be the first sip from the primordial soup that is Rock N' Roll. The Sun Sessions is the first official recording of Elvis Presley. Though it was not released as a whole album until the mid 1970's The Sun Sessions is really the very first recording session of The King with the great Sam Phillips, and not to mention with the fantastic Scotty Moore on guitar.

Some say this was the first official rock recording, that factually is not the case but because it is The King we'll let it slide. Featuring such classic Elvis songs as 'Thats Alright' 'Blue Moon Of Kentucky' 'Good Rockin' Tonight' 'Baby Lets Play House' 'Blue Moon' and 'Mystery Train' this is a must in every collection, regardless if it is mainly covers, because they are some of the very best covers ever recorded!

While this technically isnt an actual album just a collection of singles really and their B-sides this can't be called Elvis first album, the would be his self titled record. But regardless this is a classic from the dawn of rock! -- The Sun Sessions