Elvis Presley's 100 Greatest Hits: The Ultimate Countdown of His Best Songs | Perfect for Parties, Road Trips & Music Lovers

This book by Mark Duffett is one of the most interesting and informative books on Elvis Presley that I have in my collection of well over fifty. I have well known books by biographer Peter Guralnick and record producer Ernst Jorgensen that I treasure, but this book may end up being my favorite one that I pick up and scan often even though it includes no pictures as it is well researched, thoughtful and offers a different prospective on his greatest songs than you usually get with most modern music critics.Part of the sheer fun of this book is debating which songs Mr. Duffett picks in his top 100 that you would include in your list and which ones you feel he should have included, but did not. On top of a detailed one to four page analysis of every Elvis song in his top 100, you get an additional list of "And 100 more" that makes for great debate as well. Which songs do you think in his second top 100 should be in his first top 100 and which great Elvis songs do you think are missing in action on both lists.Mr. Duffett has earned a PhD from the University Of Wales and he is far more intelligent, thoughtful and well researched on Elvis music than I expected. His footnotes alone are magnificent and number over 500. They include great tidbits such as which songs or singles where actually in Elvis's personal record collection that he chose to cover in his own iconic version. His taste in the Elvis songs he chooses is rather stupendous and shows he has broad and eclectic taste and is not bound by the limited views of many popular music critics who try too hard to be "hip" or rock oriented with their reviews of Elvis's broad song catalogue. I found his song choices, though obvious in some cases, like Suspicious Minds,Heartbreak Hotel or If I Can Dream, to be magnificent and unexpected.How many current pop music critics of today would pick American Trilogy, Bridge Over Troubled Water or Elvis stupendous version of Unchained Melody in their top 12 Elvis songs ever? Mr. Duffett has the guts and expertise to make those choices and gives you a very good argument why for each choice he makes in his top 100, including which exact version he picks of a song if Elvis recorded more than one version be it live or a studio version. He picks Elvis's live Aloha From Hawaii version of Fever over the great 1960 version on the fantastic Elvis Is Back album version. Do I agree with this choice, absolutely not, but that is part of the fun of this book as he modestly points out himself with this great quote from the introduction:"I was lucky to be asked to write this book. I had to skip a lot of gems. I'm not going to pretend to claim some kind of superior status as a devotee or critic. There are always other ways to hear Elvis's music. There is much, much more to learn.This is my personal 100 countdown," the author goes on to explain, "If you are a dedicated fan, part of the fun will be in deciding how much it resembles yours.All I ask is that you listen."This is one of the very best books on Elvis's music that I have ever read and I cannot stop myself from picking it up constantly to re-read his list or the great reasoning behind the stellar choices he makes. I cannot recommend this book enough to any Elvis fan that has ever been touched by the man I consider to be the greatest singer ever in the history of popular music.