The Coolest Human Being on the Planet

From 1954, when he first started recording at Sun Studios in Memphis, until 1958 when he entered the army, there was no cooler human being on the planet than Elvis Aaron Presley.
He recorded some fine music in the '60s and '70s, but the most consistent work Elvis ever recorded was in the 1950s, when he was considered dangerous and subversive and a "bad influence" on kids nationwide.
This box set is really worth your while if you have any interest in the King of Rock and Roll (and if you'd like to learn why he's considered the King; he wasn't always the performer of junk like "In the Ghetto").
Even without drums, the first "real" rock 'n' roll song Elvis recorded, a sped-up version of Big Boy Crudup's "That's All Right," is a rocker that will have you swiveling your hips along with the music. Soon after is the equally phenomenal "Blue Moon of Kentucky," which introduces Bill Monroe's bluegrass tune to the world of backbeats, handclaps and dirty dancing.
Just with this pair of tunes--the first Elvis single released by Sam Phillips' Sun Records--you can start to understand the genius that was Elvis. Crudup's tune is blues, and Monroe's tune is bluegrass. Before Elvis, the breach between these worlds was considered insurmountable, but then the King came along and shoved these two worlds together like a pop culture Atlas with sideburns and cool clothes.
Other highlights of the five CD box set are "My Happiness," the first song Elvis ever recorded, and even on it you can hear some of the charisma that would shake the world to its very foundations just three years after it was cut into wax; "One Night of Sin," which blows away the watered down "One Night," with its tales of regret (but probably not really) over one hot night of sin for which the singer still pays to this day; and finally, the fifth CD of the set includes tracks recorded live during Elvis' first appearance in Las Vegas.
Although the King later made Sin City his own, he couldn't get arrested during his first appearance there, at the New Frontier Hotel in 1956. Absent are the shrill and endless screams of prepubescent young things, and in their place are polite and stilted smatterings of applause. Elvis even starts to make fun of his tunes, which were given a hint of Vegas polish by the Freddy Martin Orchestra, calling "Heartbreak Hotel" the "Heartburn Motel," for instance.
It's pricey, but if you are going to own only one representation of the immortal Elvis, then this set of five CD's, spanning his years from "birth" to army enlistment, is the one that should be in your collection.