PLOT:........ The story behind Elvis's first album features performances from 1955 and '56, interviews with the King and rare home movies of him at play and work. There are also interviews with Sam Phillips, founder of Sun Records, Elvis's sidemen, Scotty Moore and DJ Fontana, as well as his then girlfriend Dixie Locke. ACTORS:........ Elvis Presley, Ernst Jørgensen, D.J. Fontana, Chick Crumpacker, Carl Perkins, Keith Richards, RELEASED:........ 12 March 2001 IMDB:........ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0923636/
"It was like the world went from black & white to Technicolor," says Keith Richards of the emergence of Elvis Presley in the mid-'50s, and this look at the King's first official album (the legendary Sun Sessions weren't issued in album form until well after the fact) backs up that claim. The one-hour program (plus 40 minutes of bonus interview material on the DVD) combines performance footage (the early TV shows are not to be missed), photos, and more to limn Presley's early days, when he combined country, blues, and R&B to forge a unique, galvanizing style. Sun producer Sam Phillips, author Peter Guralnick, Presley's musicians, and others are on hand to provide insight and background. But in the end, of course, it comes down to the music--and when you're talking about the likes of "Blue Suede Shoes," "Tutti Frutti," "Money Honey," and "Heartbreak Hotel" (a single that actually wasn't on the album), "classic" hardly begins to cover it.
