Elvis – A Legendary Performer Vol. 1

The first real effort by RCA to exploit the Elvis catalog under the new arrangement. Album compiler Joan Deary assembled a random selection of rarities, outtakes, Sun sides, and Elvis staples, both familiar and unfamiliar, in a deluxe package (including a booklet of memorabilia that for its time and place qualified as lavish packaging). This was the first time – in marketing terms anyway – that his label had ever acknowledged the historical significance of Elvis Presley. The public got it, and bought it – with sales of over half a million in the first few months and more than two million to date.