Elvis Costello (The Costello Show) — King of America

Hoo boy. Back when I first got into my Elvis Costello vinyl, I talked about how I really missed him in his early hit-making years. I wasn’t hearing him on radio, wasn’t very trendy, was (once I got to college) very, very into the Beatles and the British Invasion – and then there was that thing where someone whose musical taste I completely did not trust was very into Elvis. So, for a long time, I passed. Then my college roommate sent me “The Best of Elvis Costello and the Attractions,” a fabulous summary, a 19-song CD compilation that covered from “My Aim is True” through “Goodbye Cruel World,” and I was just stunned by what I had missed. Soon came “King of America,” and my fandom was solidified.

But of course, coming in 1986, I was already transitioning to mostly CD buying at that point. I picked up a whole bunch of earlier Elvis albums at a discount, but this one, being new, wasn’t let go at a bargain rate, so I only ever had this album on CD until this spring, when I ran across a copy that had just flown into Forever Changes – I don’t think I had even given him a chance to price it before i grabbed it and said “Mine!”

This is a work of goddamned genius, beginning to end, top to bottom, T to B, as they say. I wouldn’t change a note, leave a single song off, wish for anything else.