Pay Tray's Elvis Mix

One reason I haven't gotten around to writing Part 2 of the Michael Jackson post is that I've been listening to too much Elvis. If you look at any popular Elvis youtube video right now, you'll notice that it's covered with comments from typically idiotic youtube commenters arguing over who was better, Elvis or Michael Jackson. Dumb argument, but I do think the two belong together in many ways. Putting that aside, I'm not sure how highly Elvis is rated these days, don't read enough (or any) rock criticism to know, but it strikes me he's underrated, mostly because I've always underrated him myself. And that's because his best-known songs, the ones I knew - 'Hound Dog,' 'Love Me Tender,' 'Jailhouse Rock,' 'Don't Be Cruel,' 'All Shook Up' - aren't anywhere close to being his best stuff. Not to go all "so and so's major label recordings aren't any good, you have to go back to his early independent work to hear him in his pure, raw form" on you, but Elvis's early independent work really is that good. As are his famed late-60s comeback recordings. Anyway, you probably know all that, but in case you, like me a couple short weeks ago, are sadly Elvis-ignorant, or if you just want a pretty decent 1-disc Elvis compilation, I'm posting the Elvis mix I've been playing in my car the last few days so as to offer a very quick and dirty primer on yes, the finest American recording artist of the past half-century. Sort of a Greatest Hits without any of the Mega Hits and a bunch of the merely huge ones, along with a few unhearalded B-sides and album cuts. It's all in roughly chronological order, from his first single to one of his last, except for the live recordings, which are all from the same 1969 performance in Vegas and are inserted in suitable spots.

1. That's All Right. (Elvis's first single.)
2. Blue Moon of Kentucky.
3. My Happiness. (This is the first song Elvis ever recorded, ostensibly as a birthday present for his mother.)
4. Blue Moon.
5. Milkcow Blues Boogie.
6. Mystery Train.
7. Mystery Train/Tiger Man (Live).
8. Heartbreak Hotel.
9. I Got A Woman.
10. I Gotta Know.
11. That's Someone You Never Forget.
12. Suspicious Minds.
13. Suspicious Minds (Live).
14. Wearin' That Loved On Look.
15. Any Day Now.
16. You'll Think Of Me.
17. My Little Friend.
18. Kentucky Rain.
19. Long Black Limousine.
20. Stranger In My Own Home Town.
21. I Got A Feelin' In My Body.
22. Moody Blue.
23. Can't Help Falling In Love (Live).

Pay Tray Does Elvis.