A companion to last year's very successful '50 Greatest Hits' set, this album collates live renditions of some of the King's biggest hits from right across his career.
Plucked from concerts recorded during his live peak between 1969 and 1973, it opens with the rock'n'roll of 'Blue Suede Shoes' and 'Heartbreak Hotel', as captured during his 'comeback' Vegas season of 1969.
Presley is on playful form, as he is when he confronts much of his early material, treating them as his playthings, teasing and tussling them like favourite nephews as 'Jailhouse Rock' segues into 'Don't Be Cruel'.
Then it's onto the ballads, and 'Are You Lonesome Tonight' and 'One Night' are belted out with the customary gusto, while contemporary tracks 'In The Ghetto' and 'Don't Cry Daddy' are also heartbreakers of the highest order.
The 1970 highlights also find him dipping into country territory with 'Kentucky Rain' and 'Polk Salad Annie', making good use of his oil-tight backing band. On the latter, Presley leads from the front as the tempo rises and falls - the master whipping up a frenzy as only he knew how.
'Suspicious Minds' gets a sprightly treatment, with the lyrics mischievously altered to "wipe the sweat from your eyes" and featuring some pantomine heavy breathing, much to the audience's delight.
After that titillation, it's off to 1972 and another rollercoaster version of a 50s classic - in this case 'All Shook Up' - before he teases the crowd with the opening lines of 'Hound Dog'. When it eventually begins, it's as a mid-paced, funk version before it fires into full speed.
By contrast, Dusty Springfield's 'You Don't Have To Say You Love Me' and Buffy Saint Marie's 'Until It's Time For You To Go' are less successful treatments of contemporary material, their maudlin arrangements robbing them of any poignancy.
Those criticisms are negated, though, by the closing four tracks from the 1973 'Aloha From Hawaii' show. 'Burning Love' smoulders before rising to a magnificent crescendo, there's a tender 'An American Trilogy', then it's back to the 50s for 'A Big Hunk O'Love' before perennial set-closer 'Can't Help Falling In Love'.
What this album emphasises is that, aside from his voice and on-stage power, Presley was an incredibly charming and charismatic performer. The audience came first, he knew his job was to entertain and enthrall, and this album does both those things in abundance. If you don't own a Presley live album, this should be your first port of call.
by Simon P Ward