The Sun Sessions

Sixteen tracks cut at Sun Studio between July 1954 and July 1955, with liner notes by Roy Carr of the New Musical Express. Elvis recorded more than 20 songs at Sun, including private recordings. Three tracks, Harbor Lights, Tomorrow Night and When It Rains, It Really Pours, are not here, and the tapes of I Got a Woman and Satisfied were lost. The 1987 set The Complete Sun Sessions added the three missing songs and 14 outtakes. The last six tracks on the original LP were recorded at Sun but were never issued on the Sun label, appearing first on his debut RCA album in 1956.

It reached number 76 in the US, number two on the Billboard country albums chart, number one on the Cashbox country albums chart and number 16 in the UK in 1977. Robert Christgau called it the rock reissue of the year. The Library of Congress added the Sun recordings of 1954 and 1955 to the National Recording Registry in 2002. Rolling Stone ranked the 1999 extended reissue number 11 among the 500 Greatest Albums in 2003 and 2012 and number 78 in 2020, and VH1 ranked it 21st in 2001. AllMusic's Cub Koda wrote that the album shows a young Presley mixing blues, gospel and hillbilly music. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame lists both That's All Right and Mystery Train among the 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.