Elvis Presley's debut album on Sun Records

Besides four self-financed demos, Elvis Presley is known to have recorded 20 songs at Sun Records studio in Memphis, Tenn. Sun issued half of those as A and B sides of five singles. Soon after the issue of the last single, Sun Records owner Sam Phillips sold Elvis' contract to RCA in late 1955. As part of the deal, RCA obtained all of the tapes of Elvis' recordings. Of the other 10 tunes, two are apparently lost forever, and the rest have been released on various albums over the years.

This is an attempt to look at what a full album might have been had it been issued on Sun.

Sun didn't actually issue an album until Johnny Cash's With His Hot and Blue Guitar in 1956 or 1957 (there's contrasting information). Sun issued a Carl Perkins LP, Dance Album in 1957, and a Jerry Lee Lewis self-titled album in 1958. In creating a Sun album for Elvis, I wanted it to similarly match those three.

Both Cash's and Lewis' albums have a dozen tracks, and both are about 27 and a half minutes long. Perkins' album has only 11 tracks but is about six minutes longer than either of his label mates.

With Elvis' singles, we have 10 tracks, but it comes out to be less than 25 minutes long. So I decided to add two more tracks -- but which of the eight available songs to use? "When It Rains, It Really Pours" was the last song Elvis recorded at Sun, but it's apparent that no one seemed really happy with the result. In fact, Elvis re-recorded the song in 1957. I feel that the best choices of the leftovers are "Trying to Get to You" and "Just Because." The 12 songs come to a little more than 28 minutes, a little longer than either Cash's or Lewis' albums, but still shorter than Perkins'. So my track list is as follows:

SIDE A
1. Mystery Train
2. Blue Moon of Kentucky
3. I Forgot to Remember to Forget
4. You're a Heartbreaker
5. Just Because
6. That's All Right

SIDE B
1. Baby, Let's Play House
2. Milkcow Blues Boogie
3. I Don't Care If the Sun Don't Shine
4. I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone
5. Trying to Get to You
6. Good Rockin' Tonight

I started off the album with "Mystery Train," the A side of Elvis' last single for Sun. Plus it goes with the cover (which I discuss below). The first side ends with the song that started it all. The second side is bookended with "Baby, Let's Play House" and "Good Rockin' Tonight." Overall, this is a rockin' LP -- short by today's standards, but average for the time.

For the cover, I took artwork from the box set A Boy from Tupelo. I think it's great, and it looks a lot like the album covers Sun used for Cash, Lewis and Perkins. I Photoshopped some extra stars for additional song titles and made some other modifications.

Thank you very much.