Elvis Presley Enterprises and Graceland have both catalogued The King's record collection with over 1000 singles and albums that fill up a list of 24 pages.
When he was alive, Elvis Presley loved listening to opera stars such as Enrico Caruso and Mario Lanza. However, there is only one Lanza recording in Elvis' collection. The record is black rhythm and blues and a bit of black and white gospel.
For the fans benefit, Elvis Presley Enterprises has catalogued the recording collection by title and alphabetically arranged it based on the last name of the artists. The exact number for every category may not be available instantly though. This is because a lot of the solo and group artists who started out as gospel singers have crossed over into other genres such as rhythm, blues and pop.
Friends Know Best
However, Elvis' friends commented that they had no need for the list in order for them to know that his favorites were gospel recordings simply because this is what he loved to play to them. He preferred close harmony above all.
Elvis favorite groups included the Harmonizing Four and Golden Gate, Jimmy Hones, Mahalia Jackson and Jake Hess (who later formed the Imperials.) That close harmony was what made him a fan of The Platters and Ink Spots. He also favored love songs.
In his album collection, rock bands are quite rare. There were four albums by the Beatles and albums from the Turtles and Chicago but Elvis preferred soloists over groups.
Favorite Women Singers
There are few female singers in Elvis Presley's album collection but his friends claimed that his favorites were Anne Murray (because she had a distinctive and clear voice), Vicki Carr, Della Reese, Mahalia Jackson, Bobbie Gentry, Dionne Warwick, Leslie Uggams, the Andrews Sisters, the McGuire Sisters, Tim Yuro and the Sweet Inspirations, who were once his back-up group.
Elvis was a balladeer and a rocker but he wasn't much of a jazz fan but he owned a Duke Ellington album in his collection. There are classical music albums from Beethoven, Brahms and Mozart.
It's interesting to know that an artist who has influenced contemporary artists was also influenced by artists of his own time. He was also influenced by those who came before him. Art truly surpasses time and through this Elvis Presley album collection, we got into the inner workings of The Kings ears.
