Personnel: Elvis Costello (vocals, guitar, piano); John McFee (guitar, pedal steel); Alex Call (guitar); Sean Hopper (piano, organ, background vocals); Steve Nieve (piano, organ); Nick Lowe (piano, bass, background vocals); Stan Shaw (organ); John Ciambotti (bass, background vocals); Bruce Thomas, Andrew Bodnar (bass); Michael Shine, Steve Goulding, Malcolm Dennis, Ian Powling (drums); Dickie Faulkner (percussion).

Recorded at Pathway Studios, Islington, United Kingdom from 1976 to 1977. Originally released on Stiff (UK SEEZ 3)/Columbia (US 35037). Includes liner notes by Elvis Costello.

Personnel: Elvis Costello (vocals, guitar, piano, background vocals); Elvis Costello; Andrew Bodnar, Bruce Thomas (bass guitar); Pete Thomas (drums); John McFee (guitar); Sean Hopper (piano, organ, background vocals); Nick Lowe (piano, background vocals); Steve Nieve (organ, keyboards); Stan Show (organ); Micky Shine, Steve Goulding (drums); John Ciambotti (background vocals).

Audio Mixer: Suha Gur.

Recording information: Pathway Studios, Islington, England (1976-1977); The Nashville Room, London, England (1976-1977).

Photographers: Chris Gabrin; Paul Slattery.

Elvis Costello was as much a pub rocker as he was a punk rocker and nowhere is that more evident than on his debut, My Aim Is True. It's not just that Clover, a San Franciscan rock outfit led by Huey Lewis (absent here), back him here, not the Attractions; it's that his sensibility is borrowed from the pile-driving rock & roll and folksy introspection of pub rockers like Brinsley Schwarz, adding touches of cult singer/songwriters like Randy Newman and David Ackles. Then, there's the infusion of pure nastiness and cynical humor, which is pure Costello. That blend of classicist sensibilities and cleverness make this collection of shiny roots rock a punk record -- it informs his nervy performances and his prickly songs. Of all classic punk debuts, this remains perhaps the most idiosyncratic because it's not cathartic in sound, only in spirit. Which, of course, meant that it could play to a broader audience, and Linda Ronstadt did indeed cover the standout ballad "Alison." Still, there's no mistaking this for anything other than a punk record, and it's a terrific one at that, since even if he buries his singer/songwriter inclinations, they shine through as brightly as his cheerfully mean humor and immense musical skill; he sounds as comfortable with a '50s knockoff like "No Dancing" as he does on the reggae-inflected "Less Than Zero." Costello went on to more ambitious territory fairly quickly, but My Aim Is True is a phenomenal debut, capturing a songwriter and musician whose words were as rich and clever as his music. [Ryko/Demon's 1993 reissue contained several bonus tracks, including the country B-sides "Radio Sweetheart" and "Stranger in the House," plus demos of his first group, Flip City.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

When MY AIM IS TRUE was released in 1977, no one knew that the character on the cover, with coke-bottle glasses, ill-fitting clothes, and Jerry Lewis posture would become a pop-culture icon. Elvis Costello arrived as the uber-geek, hell-bent on blowing away years of macho rock posturing with his revenge-of-the-nerds image and sharp, snappy sound, instantly defining New Wave. In retrospect, the songs--with echoes of everything from the Band ("Blame It on Cain") to the Byrds ("[The Angels Wanna Wear My] Red Shoes")--owed more to rootsy pub-rock than it did to punk, but it was still miles beyond the hairy-chested blues-rock theatrics bogging down the airwaves in the mid-'70s.

While Elvis hadn't hooked up with the Attractions yet, he's ably backed on most of the album by Californian pub-rockers Clover (who would eventually become--shhh--Huey Lewis & the News), and crucially, on the white-reggae "Watching the Detectives," by Steve Goulding and Andrew Bodnar, on loan from key Costello influence Graham Parker. None of this would have mattered had Costello's melodic knack not been so crafty and his lyrics so trenchant, immediately establishing him as the premier singer/songwriter of the post-hippie era.

Given that Universal's 2007 deluxe edition is the third expanded reissue of My Aim Is True, it is a reasonable question to ask whether hardcore fans need to bother with buying the album for a fourth time (or a fifth or sixth, depending how many LPs wore out before CDs) -- to ask whether this double-disc reissue offers anything that the previous double-disc reissue on Rhino, released just six years before, does not, since that Rhino edition had only four cuts on it that weren't on the first expanded edition from Demon/Rykodisc in 1993, suggesting that there might not be much in the vaults that Elvis Costello wanted to release. As it turns out, Universal's 48-track deluxe edition of Elvis' 1977 debut has a whopping 29 unreleased tracks, most of them coming in the form of a concert at the Nashville Rooms on August 7, 1977, the entirety of which is on the second disc, along with five songs from the soundcheck, four of which they didn't play in the main gig. The other unreleased cuts are demos recorded at Pathway Studios before the debut album was cut. There are eight of these, all but one previously unreleased ("Welcome to the Working Week" surfaced on the Rock and Roll Music comp released earlier in 2007), among them are four previously unheard tunes: "Blue Minute," "Call on Me," "I Don't Want to Go Home," and "I Hear a Melody." None of these are forgotten classics, but none of them are bad -- they're solid, tuneful, clever pub rock that share the same sound and sensibility of the 13 songs that made the finished album, but they're just not as good. They are certainly worthwhile additions to this expanded edition, as is the excellent live second disc, an energetic, thoroughly entertaining show that contains most of My Aim Is True and a good chunk of tunes that would show up on This Year's Model the following year. Appropriately, the concert serves as a bridge between the two albums: it's rougher and rowdier than the debut, but it's not nearly as frenzied, frazzled, and furious as Model -- the sensibility is much closer to the pumped-up pub rock of My Aim Is True, only without the polish it received in the studio. So there's plenty of new music here, all of it good-to-excellent -- so what is there to complain about? Mainly, that there are nine songs orphaned on the Rhino expanded edition, including all the "Honky Tonk" demos Elvis recorded in his bedroom that were later aired on Charlie Gillett's BBC show Honky Tonk. Among these are four songs not available elsewhere -- "Cheap Reward," "Jump Up," "Wave a White Flag," "Poison Moon" -- and their absence is regrettable, but they're not as lamented as the lack of the B-side "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself," the alternate "Dallas Version" of "Less Than Zero," and the Flip City demo "Imagination (Is a Powerful Deceiver)," which is among the best of his early material not cut for My Aim Is True. Although these two discs are packed -- and they do include the early alternate versions of "No Action" and "Living in Paradise," plus "Radio Sweetheart" and "Stranger in the House," two flat-out classics that weren't on the debut because they were too country -- it's hard not to be a bit irked that this deluxe edition falls just short of being definitive because of their absence (and the absence of any new or recycled liner notes, for that matter; maybe Costello is tired of writing liners, or saving all future reminiscences for a memoir), because that means any hardcore fan will need to keep two double-disc versions of My Aim Is True in their collection. And let's face it, hardcore fans are the audience that would buy a double-disc reissue of an album, whether it's once or twice. And this 2007 deluxe edition has enough great unheard music to make it worth the investment for hardcore fans, since there is no question at all that they will enjoy this second disc immensely, but whether they enjoy it enough to purchase the album all over again? That's all a matter of personal taste, really, or perhaps personal finances. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine