A Dozen Stars Conduct an Elvis Revival

VARIOUS ARTISTS “Honeymoon in Vegas” soundtrack

Epic Soundtrax * * 1/2

Now more than ever, you can learn a lot about folks by finding out how their world view incorporates the concept of . . . Elvis. Does he represent innocence corrupted or kitsch personified? Smoldering, inarticulate rebel or Nixon-lovin’ pill-popper?

The litmus test can also be applied to his pop descendants and how they interpret him. On this collection, where six rock and six country artists have their way with his hits, only one of 12 celebrity Elvis impersonators fails outright: Billy Joel, whose “All Shook Up” is a camped-up, affected impression of the King, all tics and no heart. The country artists fare better playing this material close to the vest. Listen to Travis Tritt’s soulful “Burning Love,” especially, and how he gets it in a way Joel never could.

Others go further out on an interpretive limb: John Mellencamp inexplicably takes “Jailhouse Rock” into a doleful minor key. Dwight Yoakam experiments with a strange guitar riff and a mechanical-sounding rhythm, turning “Suspicious Minds” both gutsier and uneasier.

Best, though, is Bono’s short, simple “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” in which the U2 singer starts low and glides into a surprisingly pure falsetto, backed by a low-rumbling tape of an Elvis press conference. It’s like listening to a Christmas song where the voice of the Savior has subliminally snuck onto the track, and it easily transcends everything else here.