Roots of Elvis

During Elvis Presley's career, he recorded some 800 songs in studio conditions, meant for release on record. In addition, many informal recordings were made of Elvis singing numbers that were never intended for record release. Such recordings were made at home, whilst visiting friends, during his stay in Germany, or even as one-liners or brief extracts during concert performances. Of all of these songs, David Neale has identified some 450 different titles that were recorded by someone else before Elvis got around to recording them. Roots of Elvis lists each of these songs, identifying the original recording artist and when the original was made (some date back to the 19th century!), as well as providing fascinating background to the numbers. Readers will be surprised to learn of Elvis's link with Ignacy Paderewski, for example, the man who prepared USA President Wilson's Treaty of Versailles. The range of music represented is quite extraordinary and is testimony to Elvis's versatility: rock'n'roll, blues, rhythm and blues, gospel, folk, and even a bit of classical: who would have thought that names such as Bach, Beethoven and Brahms would appear in a book about the music of Elvis Presley!