Elvis Presley

Each musical anthologyof Elvis Presley, and one has been released every few years since his deathmore than 30 years ago, feels more and more like a referendum on the relevanceof the man’s work. True, he altered the pop music landscape in the 1950s andmay be the biggest-selling act in his label’s catalog. But times have changedplenty since the revolution he helped to spearhead, not to mention his demise.And commercial radio isn't exactly clamoring for the buying power of those whoremember him in his prime.

Yet, the 100 trackscomprising Elvis 75 (the age he wouldhave turned in 2010) demonstrate why Presley continues to be the onlypre-British Invasion rocker so highly and internationally revered. Beyond thesvelte and sexy ideal of his early yearsand the drug-addled, obese figure oftragedy he became toward the endexists a multicultural artist and lyricalinterpreter with an often worthwhile, strangely fascinating career trajectory.To the credit of this four-CD, five-hour set, it could leave one wanting tohear more.

Presley's gentlemanlySouthern humility balanced with a libidinal quality to find an audience in timefor the birth of the teenager as social and commercial demographic. With thatmix of swagger and decorum in his voice, he could span the wildest rockabillyand dirty (but not filthy) blues to faux Italian pop and orchestralproductions. The generous, judicious track selection allows nary a misstep,even as his handlers routed him around the trippier aspects of ’60s rock(perhaps thankfully).

After a triumphantreturn to more adult sounds in the late ’60s, however, the ’70s became, asmight be said of other aspects of his life, more inconsistent. For this era, 75 puts live album tracks and remakes ofother artists’ recent hits on nearly equal footing with his still respectablycharting singles. Some of those cuts sound like they were selected not only forthe better qualities of his aging voice, but as premonitions of his passing.