Elvis Costello is, without a doubt, one of the greatest singer songwriters of the 20th (and 21st) centuries, and while a complete list of Elvis Costello discography highlights would take more room than we've got here, a quick look at the top three albums should give you plenty to listen to.
1) Born Declan MacManus in 1954, Elvis was transformed overnight from a mild-mannered computer programmer into the spastic, sneering, bespectacled super-ego of London's punk-rock underbelly with the 1977 release of his debut album, My Aim Is True.
One of the most assured debuts in rock history, My Aim Is True is stuffed full of both future greatest hits ("Red Shoes", "Allison", "Watching The Detectives") and the kind of album tracks that delight obsessive superfans ("Blame It On Cain", "Mystery Dance").
Contrary to popular belief, My Aim Is True was recorded not with the band most often associated with Elvis Costello, The Attractions, but rather with a studio crew consisting mostly of the members of a band from Northern California called Clover.
Clover was to become a little better known as the launching pad for an affable singer/harmonica player named Huey Lewis.
2) Next on the list would have to be Elvis' very next album, the LP that really broke him into the new wave stratosphere, This Year's Model.
Produced by fellow up-and-comer Nick Lowe, This Year's Model bristled with energy and contempt channeled into terse, melodic bursts of song.
"Little Triggers", "(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea" and "No Action" are the standouts, but there really isn't a dull moment to slow the record's amphetamine rush.
This Year's Model is also famous, of course, for Elvis' bait-and-switch performance of the closing track, "Radio, Radio" on Saturday Night Live, which got him tossed off the show and banned for decades.
3) Elvis switched styles and bands (again) for the next record on the list, 1986's King of America.
Working with producer T-Bone Burnett and an A-list group of his musical heroes (including James Burton on guitar and Ray Brown on bass), Elvis cut a set of folk-rock classics ranging from the spare "Indoor Fireworks" to a bluesy rendition of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood".
True to the album's name, Elvis really lets his affection for American music and encyclopedic knowledge of the idiom show, bouncing from the acoustic power of "Brilliant Mistake" to the idiosyncratic country of "Our Little Angel", and even tossing in some ripsnorting rockabilly on "Glitter Gulch".