When we first heard Elvis Costello it was 1977 and the radio station was WBCN in Boston.

With the crazy name and Buddy Holly retro look, Costello was an outlier. His debut album, “MY Aim is True,” had provocative lyrics, abrupt new wave music, and right away he made a name for himself with songs like “Blame it on Cain” and “Watching the Detectives.”

Of course, there was disconcerting hit ballad, “Alison,” that sounded threatening — a total change for FM Radio especially after the era of James Taylor and Jackson Browne. What was this guy implying in these songs? WTF was going on? It was so cool, you just wanted more.

That album, and the many singles and albums that followed over the first five years of Costello’s now 49 year career, meant so much to me, as they did to others. I used to hang around at Bleecker Bob’s waiting for the next single, or outtake, or demo, or live single. It was a dizzying time because he just got better and better.

So now comes a box set for the album’s 49th anniversary — you knew Elvis wouldn’t succumb to “50th anniversary” syndrome. The 5 CD set features 52 unreleased tracks including a whole disc of gems from Costello’s recordings at Pathway Studios. These songs wouldn’t have fit into the very curated “My Aim is True,” that became famous. But now they are gifts to loyal fans.

I already wrote about a song called “I Turn Around.” But now there’s “I Hear a Melody,” which would never have mixed in with “Sneaky People” and “The Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes.” But we didn’t know in 1977 that Costello’s dad was a jazz musician, that Elvis (real name Declan McManus) loved R&B, country, and jazz or that he could write or cover anything.

“I Hear a Melody” is no surprise given what we know now, but back in ’77 we might have been shocked by the gorgeous Burt Bacharach type melody juxtaposed with the singer’s biting lyrics. Some of the other songs on the box set we got to know eventually — like my favorite, “Radio Sweetheart,” and the country song “Stranger in the House,” which his 16 year old Stiff Records labelmate Rachel Sweet turned into a hit.

Some box sets of expanded albums are not that interesting, or useful. But “My Aim is True” turns out to be of canonical importance. It’s not just those 52 songs, or the demos, remixes, remasters, etc. There’s also an abundance of paperwork — lyrics, notes, essays by people like Elvis’s longtime collaborator, Nick Lowe. I will be awash in this stuff for months to come. So nice that my investment with an artist from age 20 has turned out to be a goldmine.

PS Nice to see included “Crawling to the USA,” from a movie no one ever saw, which I’ve been humming for 49 years. And the original speeded up “Losing You,” which no less than Dusty Springfield covered later. Also, the unexpected and delightful cover of Bacharach and David’s Dionne Warwick hit “I Just Don’t Know What to Do with Myself.” The latter came on a live Stiff Records album, and was like a lightning strike at the time because who knew Elvis’s career would head in this direction.

Here’s the whole dang thing, after “I Hear a Memory”:

Paul McCartney gave us “The Boys of Dungeon Lane” earlier this spring.

The raved about new album, produced by Andrew Watt, went straight to number 1. It also got Paul nominated for a Mercury Prize.

“Dungeon Lane” should be a Grammy nominee for Best Traditional Pop or Rock Album. Two of its tracks– “Days We Left Behind” and “Home to Us” — could be nominees, too.

But it turns out Paul’s been holding back on us. He had three more songs he didn’t release, plus a flipped version of “Home to Us,” his duet with Ringo Starr.

So he’s re-releasing the album next week with all four tracks. The other ones are called “City Fox,” “One Night Stand,” and “Chelsea Boots.” The new version of “Dungeon Lane” will come on LP and CD, with some cool new art, as well.

I still think Paul missed the boat by not releasing “Lost Horizon” as a single. But McCartney has never been wise about singles or outtakes. Don’t get me started…

What a Fool Believes: Michael McDonald — a solo star and member of the Doobie Brothers — has surprise news for us. Back in 1966, when he was 14, he got a 14 year old girl pregnant. It’s always the quiet ones, right? Very precocious, I’d say.

Well, now the “kid” has turned up and it’s quite a story. Apparently he matched with one of McDonald’s other kids on 23andMe. Michael Goessling knew he was adopted, but didn’t know that his biological dad was a rock star — or that he was from the same generation age wise.

There’s a happy ending. You can read about it here. But really, who knew Michael McDonald was literally takin’ to the streets at such a young age? By the way, Goessling seems like a great guy, but why wouldn’t he take after his father? (He also says he had a terrific childhood and life.)

PS MM first became known to us in 1973 on Steely Dan’s first album, “Can’t Buy a Thrill.” I don’t know which song to use for a pun — “Do it Again,” or “Reeling in the Years.”

The Beatles are dropping the extraordinary 50th anniversary box set of “Rubber Soul” at midnight Thursday.

Giles Martin has remixed the original album, and the team also salvaged a bunch of demos and rehearsals. That disc, in particular, of the four CDs, is of the most interest.

Plus, there’s an unreleased John Lennon recording of his song, “Little Girl,” from that early era.

The collection comes in several configurations in CD, LP, and so on. They all contain lavish books and all kinds of artifacts.

Paul McCartney explains how the band chose the title “Rubber Soul”:

“As we always did, the four of us would sit around
and discuss what we should call the new album.
We would go through many possibilities before we landed on something that we all felt summed up our mood at the time. Because we had always
been interested in double meanings – like the name
of our group, The Beatles – we hit upon Rubber
Soul. We liked that it mentioned the modern music
trend and at the same time had a tongue-in-cheek
reference to the bottom of a shoe.”

It’s kind of mindblowing that this was the turn The Beatles took in 1965 after three years of unprecedented success as a pop band. McCartney refers to it as “our new music.” And this was after all those hits, from “I Want to Hold Your Hand” to “Help!” and “A Hard Days Night.”

What I found impressive, as usual, is the remix is absolutely sterling. Fanatics will nitpick but the clarity and richness of the sound gives “Rubber Soul” a new life. There will be some who prefer the 2009 version but I appreciated what Giles Martin did here. Part of this set is a mono recording of “Rubber Soul,” which I dare say most aficionados will prefer.

Each Beatles box set has a surprise disc that I put into heavy rotation, like the Esher recordings from The White Album or the Glyn Johns remix of “Let it Be.” The new mono “Rubber Soul” separate from the 2009 one in the mono box) goes right into heavy rotation.

Come back tomorrow night at midnight for the premiere of “Little Girl.”