the elvis presley gold standard 45s part 6 (1969)

Es­ti­mated reading time is 23 min­utes.

IN 1969, the Gold Stan­dard Se­ries label was dra­mat­i­cally mod­i­fied, along with the rest of the RCA Victor cat­alog (45s, EPs, LPs, and reel-to-reel tapes). Gone was the fa­miliar glossy black back­ground with “RCA Victor” in tra­di­tional serif type with the big “V” across the top. Gone, too, was the dog, beloved Nipper, cocking his head to his mas­ter’s voice em­a­nating from the horn of an an­tique phono­graph. All gone! And re­placed by what?

The new look was a modern look that gave record buyers an in­sipidly or­ange label with “RCA” in a (ghastly) open-block, san serif type run­ning ver­ti­cally up the left side of the label. The second half of the com­pany name, “Victor,” was moved to the right side of the spindle hole and set in Hel­vetica type, the type­face that con­quered America in the ’60s.

 

This is part 6 of the most com­plete discog­raphy and ac­cu­rate price guide to Elvis’ Gold Stan­dard 45s on the Internet.

 

The term “RCA Victor” was seen by sev­eral gen­er­a­tions of con­sumers as one en­tity: “rcav­ictor.” With the two sit­ting on op­po­site sides of an abyss, that no longer seemed so. It was a now a ‘they.’ While this move may seem self-defeating forty years after the fact, at the time many Amer­ican com­pa­nies were trying to keep up with the times, which were in­deed a-changing. Re­branding it­self as just RCA was hip; the or­ange la­bels were not.

Col­lec­tors had ig­nored these or­ange label GS 45s during the ’70s when Elvis col­lecting was a-building, and even into the ’80s, when col­lecting had ex­ploded in re­sponse to Pres­ley’s death. For rea­sons upon which I will not spec­u­late (as­sume nothing, I am told), these rather rare records were given short shrift even by in-the-know ‘Elvis­dealers’ and the price guides of the time.

This is one of sev­eral ar­ti­cles with discogra­phies and cur­rent market values to be found on the A Touch Of Gold web­site. Refer to the post­script below for more in­for­ma­tion on the other ar­ti­cles. 

 

Elvis GS GoldStandardSeries banner 900

Why are orange Gold Standards so rare?

I have al­ready posted an en­tire ar­ticle ad­dressing the issue of the rarity of these or­ange label GS 45s, “Those bloody Rare Or­ange Label Gold Stan­dard 45s.” It is prob­ably in every read­er’s in­terest to read that piece first, then come back here and read this . . .

Indianapolis pressings

Since the ’60s, RCA’s In­di­anapolis plant man­u­fac­tured the vast ma­jority of GS 45s. In­di­anapolis records are easily rec­og­nized: by the ma­trix num­bers are machine-stamped into the trail-off area (the dead wax around the label).

There should also be a cap­ital ‘I’ with serifs (re­ferred to as a cross-beam ‘I’) stamped into the same area. This marking is rather small and the im­pres­sion is often shallow, so it can be dif­fi­cult to see in some light.

And like its two pre­de­ces­sors, these new-fangled or­ange la­bels made no men­tion of the fact that these GS 45s were, in fact, part of RCA’s Gold Stan­dard Se­ries of (mostly} reis­sues. If you didn’t know that the 447 prefix in the cat­alog number sig­ni­fied reissue then you might have thought you were buying an original.

For the sake of this discog­raphy, I have iden­ti­fied two pri­mary label lay­outs, each based on the in­for­ma­tion printed on the right side of the label. I refer to them simply as Or­ange label 1 and Or­ange label 2.

 

Elvis_GS_0645_dot

Elvis_GS_0616_dos

Elvis_GS_0647_orange_A_full

Above top is the look of the label that rock & roll and Elvis Presley fans know so well from the tens of mil­lions of RCA Victor records that Presley sold with the label be­tween 1955 and 1965! Above middle is the pre­vious look of the mid-’60s: the la­bels were still black label but “RCA Victor” and Nipper had been moved to the side­lines. Above bottom is the look that greeted record buyers in 1968: gone was the black, gone was “RCA Victor” as a two-word unit, and gone was the dog and the phonograph.

The basic template for the orange label

RCA had a basic label tem­plate made that was then shipped to the re­gional printers that worked with their pressing plants. These la­bels had only three bits of information:

 “RCA” in white, open-block let­ters ran ver­ti­cally top-to-bottom on the left side.

 “Victor” in plain white, san serif type was set hor­i­zon­tally on the right side.

 “TMK(s)” and other trade­mark in­for­ma­tion in tiny type was on two lines laid across the bottom of the label.

Every label had that in­for­ma­tion in the same style and in the same places. Local printers who worked with RCA’s plants; in the case of most GS 45s, that was one or two shops in the In­di­anapolis area. The rest of the label data was set by these local printers who fol­lowed in­struc­tions on the rest of the layout:

 The artist’s name was in plain black block type (all caps) was above the spindle hole.

 The song title in the same type was below the spindle hole but above the TMK(s) data.

 The song­writer credits ap­pear below the title in low­er­case type.

These three lines of type were flushed left with a hard ver­tical line. There were vari­a­tions on this basic label, which I refer to in this ar­ticle as Or­ange label 1 and Or­ange label 2. These vari­a­tions all take place on the right side of the spindle hole below “Victor.”

Orange label 1: without publishing data

Or­ange label 1 can also be called the simple ver­sion due to its having less in­for­ma­tion than Or­ange label 2. Ba­si­cally, this label vari­a­tion does NOT have any pub­lishing data on it. There are three bits of in­for­ma­tion on three lines on the right side: 1) the 447 cat­alog number above 2) “Victor” with 3) the ma­trix number below. Like so:

   [cat­alog number]
   Victor
   [ma­trix number]

Elvis_GS_0616_orange

These three lines are usu­ally flushed left and usu­ally with a hard ver­tical line. Minor type­set­ting er­rors may exist.

Orange label 2: with publishing data

Or­ange label 2 is a more de­tailed vari­a­tion and in­cludes the song’s pub­lishing in­for­ma­tion (let’s call it the com­plex ver­sion). It has five bits of in­for­ma­tion on at least seven lines of type on the right side: 1) the cat­alog number is above 2) “Victor” but below is very dif­ferent: there we find 3) the song’s pub­lisher with ei­ther ASCAP or BMI taking up two or three lines. Then comes 4) the ma­trix number fol­lowed by 5) the side’s run­ning time (one line). Like so:

   [cat­alog number]
   Victor
   [pub­lishing data]
   [ma­trix number]
   [time]

Elvis_GS_0646_orange

These lines are flushed left with a hard ver­tical line. Again, don’t be sur­prised to find sim­ilar type­set­ting errors.

A few more discrepancies

There are sev­eral other dis­crep­an­cies with or­ange label GS 45s for which I have not found a pattern.

 Copies may be found with a recording date above the spindle hole.
 Copies may be found without a recording date above the spindle hole.

  The recording date may be the month, day, and year.
  The recording date may simply be the year.

 Copies may have “TMK(s) REG­IS­TERED” in upper case at the bottom of the label.
 Copies may have “TMK(s) Reg­is­tered” in upper/lower case at the bottom of the label.

Designated promos

The term des­ig­nated promo refers to a stock copy of a record des­ig­nated for pro­mo­tional use with a NOT FOR SALE sticker af­fixed to the label on one or both sides. I have not seen an or­ange label GS 45 des­ig­nated for pro­mo­tional use in such a manner; the ex­ample below is a computer-created des­ig­nated promo.

 

Elvis_GS_0616_orange+NFS

On red and the newer black label GS 45s, NOT FOR SALE stickers were ap­par­ently placed by hand on the records, as there is nei­ther rhyme nor reason to their place­ment: right side or left, top or bottom. They could be on one side of a record or on both—some are even up­side down! If or­ange label GS 45s were des­ig­nated for pro­mo­tional use, they would look like this image.

Gold Standard company sleeves

The sec­tion is a trun­cated ver­sion of a longer entry on com­pany sleeves that can be found in Elvis’ Gold Stan­dard 45s Part 2. Each GS 45 was shipped in a pro­tec­tive paper sleeve. These sleeves may have been plain white or brown paper with no print what­so­ever; this was the most in­ex­pen­sive way to go and every record com­pany used such sleeves.

RCA had spe­cially man­u­fac­tured spe­cial sleeves for the GS 45s. They were made of in­ex­pen­sive, un­coated paper that iden­ti­fied the record as being part of the Gold Stan­dard Se­ries but was generic in that they did not iden­tify the record. Each sleeve had a die-cut window on both sides so that the record’s la­bels could be read.

Record col­lec­tors refer to these by sev­eral terms—man­u­fac­turers sleeves and fac­tory sleeves are common—but it is com­pany sleeves that I favor and use ex­clu­sively in my ar­ti­cles on record col­lecting. And there are six major de­signs for the Gold Stan­dard Se­ries generic sleeves.

For the Per­fect Elvis Col­lec­tion, each GS 45 should be housed in a GS sleeve man­u­fac­tured at the time for use with that record.

 

Elvis_GS_cs3a

Elvis_GS_cs3b

For this eight-part se­ries of ar­ti­cles, I refer to this sleeve as “Gold Stan­dard com­pany sleeve de­sign 2.” Pic­tured above is the front and back of the sleeve. It was in­tro­duced in the mid-’60s and lasted into 1973. There­fore, every or­ange label GS 45 in your col­lec­tion should be housed in one of these sleeves!

Assigning values to these items

The fig­ures should tell you the ap­prox­i­mate range of prices that a buyer should ex­pect to pay a knowl­edge­able seller for a record in near mint (NM) con­di­tion. Of course, you might find any record below for less or have to pay more in a com­pet­i­tive auc­tion, but you get the message.

Records in less than NM con­di­tion are worth con­sid­er­ably less than the values as­signed here!

For more in­for­ma­tion, refer to the sub­heading “A few notes on as­signed values and grading” in Elvis’ Gold Stan­dard 45s Part 1.

 

Elvis_GS_0647_orange_B_label

De­spite being the eas­iest number to find among the or­ange label Gold Stan­dards, 447-0647, Blue Christmas / Santa Claus Is Back In Town, can still sell for three fig­ures if in mint con­di­tion and at­tracting a couple of de­ter­mined collectors.

And now for the discography

The discog­raphy and price guide sec­tion that fol­lows should be self-explanatory. I as­sume that most readers have seen and used some form of price guide for some sort of col­lec­table. Since I know that I should never as­sume any­thing, let’s take a quick walk through it anyway with an ex­ample of the first listing in the discography.

447-0600    I Forgot To Re­member To Forget / Mys­tery Train
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area (3S/4S)

The records are listed in chrono­log­ical order based on the cat­alog num­bers. Each listing has three lines of information:

Line 1 has the cat­alog number (here 447-0600) fol­lowed by the ti­tles of the two songs on the record (here I Forgot To Re­member To Forget / Mys­tery Train).

Line 2 notes that it is, in fact, an or­ange label record, which is fol­lowed by the as­signed value (here $100–150).

Line 3 notes the lo­ca­tion of the pressing plant where the record was man­u­fac­tured (here In­di­anapolis), and that pressing is iden­ti­fied by machine-stamped num­bers in the trail-off vinyl.

Any record with en­graved or etched num­bers in the trail-off area prob­ably in­di­cates an­other pressing plant’s product. These would prob­ably be rather rare records and I would cer­tainly ap­pre­ciate your no­ti­fying me of their existence.

 

My own “common sense” based on forty years of buying and selling records and writing about buying and selling records came into play when as­signing the values.

 

Tips for collectors

A few suggestion/observations: all Gold Stan­dard com­pany sleeves were made equal. These sleeves were used with GS 45s by other RCA artists, most of whom are not very col­lec­table. Should you be flip­ping through stacks of 45s and come across a Gold Stan­dard record by other artists in NM sleeves and the seller wants a couple of quar­ters for the record, buy it! The sleeve can be re­moved and used to re­place a plain paper sleeve on one of the Presley plat­ters in your collection.

Every one of these num­bers with an or­ange label is a rather rare record. Some of the harder-to-find num­bers (and they may be the big hits or the not-so-big hits) are prob­ably un­der­valued below: should you want to buy them and own them NOW, you might have to wait years be­fore finding them for sale.

While we know that Blue Christmas and Kiss Me Quick are the most easily found or­ange label GS 45s, we re­ally don’t know which are the rarest. While In­de­scrib­ably Blue has the highest as­signed value below, that may be­cause of its unique­ness as much as to rarity. Time will tell.

At the same time that these or­ange label GS 45s were man­u­fac­tured, many of EP’s EPs were also pressed with or­ange labels—both the Gold Stan­dard ti­tles and the reg­ular ti­tles. These are also among the rarest com­mer­cially is­sued Elvis records and gen­er­ally sell for $200–400 each!

Both Elvis’ Christmas Album and A Touch Of Gold, Volume 3 with or­ange la­bels may be the rarest of the batch: I watched copies sell for $300 thirty years ago.

The images of the records

I don’t own the records that are il­lus­trated below. I pulled these im­ages off the In­ternet, hence the vari­able quality of those im­ages. They are placed in the discog­raphy below to break up the mo­notony of the list, al­though each image is can be found near its listing.

Newly verified numbers

A few num­bers with or­ange la­bels that were not known to exist to most col­lec­tors in 2014 have been added for this up­date. The new data in­cluding the value is in an orange-brown type (like this).

 

1969–1970

 

Elvis_GS_0600_orange

Elvis’ first RCA Victor was a reissue of his final Sun single: fans and his­to­rians prefer to think of it as Mys­tery Train b/w I Forgot To Re­member To Forget. That way, the A-side is an ex­tra­or­di­nary, scintil­lating blues and one of Pres­ley’s best ever record­ings. Alas, such was not the case: RCA wisely pro­moted the more se­date country side, and it reached #1 on the Bill­board and Cash Box C&W sur­veys in early 1956. That is, the very first RCA Victor Elvis record was I Forgot To Re­member To Forget b/w Mys­tery Train, which is how the record is listed in these ar­ti­cles of mine.

447-0600    I Forgot To Re­member To Forget / Mys­tery Train
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447-0601     That’s All Right / Blue Moon Of Kentucky
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447-0602     Good Rocking Tonight / I Don’t Care If The Sun Don’t Shine
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                              $    ____
                      NOTE: The ex­is­tence of this record is un­ver­i­fied; there is no as­signed value.

 

447-0603     Milkcow Blues Boogie / You’re A Heartbreaker
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 150–200
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447-0604     Baby, Let’s Play House / I’m Left, You’re Right, She’s Gone
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $   ____
                      NOTE: The ex­is­tence of this record is un­ver­i­fied; there is no as­signed value.

 

Elvis_GS_0605_orange_cs

Finding an or­ange label GS 45 from 1969 in a com­pany sleeve man­u­fac­tured al­most ten years ear­lier is not that un­usual when col­lecting Elvis Gold Stan­dards. The sticker stuck in the upper left corner of the sleeve shows a re­tail price of 98¢, a price common to 45s from the ’50s into the ’70s. For some col­lec­tors, the sticker mars the beauty of the item; for others, it adds a patina of age and even nos­talgia to the record. As these com­pany sleeves are of nom­inal value, sellers rarely men­tion them in their advertisements—hence they are under no oblig­a­tion to men­tion the sticker in their ads.

447-0605     Heart­break Hotel / I Was The One
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447-0607     I Want You, I Need You, I Love You / My Baby Left Me
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447-0608     Hound Dog / Don’t Be Cruel
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447-0609     Blue Suede Shoes / Tutti Frutti
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447-0610     I Got A Woman / I’m Counting On You
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $   ____
                      NOTE: The ex­is­tence of this record is un­ver­i­fied; there is no as­signed value.

 

447-0611     I’ll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin’) / I’m Gonna Sit Right Down And Cry (Over You)
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                              $   ____
                      NOTE: The ex­is­tence of this record is un­ver­i­fied; there is no as­signed value.

 

447-0612     Tryin’ To Get To You / I Love You Because
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                              $   ____
                      NOTE: The ex­is­tence of this record is un­ver­i­fied; there is no as­signed value.

 

447-0613     Blue Moon / Just Because
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

Elvis_GS_0614_orange

No matter which Gold Stan­dard label style one dis­cusses, 447-0614 is al­ways one of the hardest num­bers to find. This is a shame, as Money Honey may be the standout track on Elvis’ first long-playing album, ELVIS PRESLEY (LPM-1254). Hell, it’s one of the stand-outs of 1956, a year full of ex­cep­tional record­ings! He re­tains the machismo and the sassy nudge-nudge-wink-wink know­ing­ness of Clyde McPhat­ter’s orig­inal but turns the whole into a swinging piece of rock­a­billy that echoes the sound and feel of his ear­lier Sun sides.

447-0614     Money Honey / One Sided Love Affair
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 150–200
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447-0615     Shake, Rattle And Roll / Lawdy, Miss Clawdy
                      Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                      •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447-0616     Love Me Tender / Any Way You Want Me (That’s How I Will Be)
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447-0617     Too Much / Playing For Keeps
                      Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                      •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447-0618     All Shook Up / That’s When Your Heartaches Begin
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447-0619     Jail­house Rock / Treat Me Nice
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447-0620     (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear / Loving You
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

Elvis_GS_0621_orange

Gold Stan­dard 447-0621 is one of the more dif­fi­cult of the #1 hits from the ’50s to find with an or­ange label, no doubt due to a large in­ven­tory of un­sold copies from the pre­vious black label press­ings. While I Beg Of You is hardly one of Elvis’ best sides, it is lik­able and in­fec­tious; had it been is­sued sep­a­rately as an A-side, it might have been yet an­other #1 while Elvis was in the Army.

447-0621     Don’t / I Beg Of You
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 150–200
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447-0622     Wear My Ring Around Your Neck / Doncha Thinks It’s Time
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447-0623     Hard Headed Woman/ Don’t Ask Me Why
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447-0624     I Got Stung / One Night
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447-0625     (Now And Then There’s) A Fool Such As I / I Need Your Love Tonight
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447-0626     A Big Hunk O’ Love / My Wish Came True
                      Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 150–200
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447-0627     Stuck On You / Fame And Fortune
                      Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447-0628     It’s Now Or Never / A Mess Of Blues
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447-0629     Are You Lone­some Tonight / I Gotta Know
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 150–200
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

Elvis_GS_0645_orange

When strong, non-soundtrack sin­gles were needed to offset the im­pact of the ini­tial on­slaught of Beat­le­mania, Such A Night was pulled from the ex­tra­or­di­nary ELVIS IS BACK album of 1960 and is­sued as Pres­ley’s fourth single of 1964. A fan­tastic workout, Elvis out­per­forms both Clyde McPhat­ter’s and Johnny Ray’s hit ver­sions of the ’50s. Un­for­tu­nately, it was wasted in ’64, where it failed to reach the Top 10. Had this been an A-side in 1960, it would have been a #1 hit here and abroad. (PS: This is the type of recording where Elvis fans shake their heads in dis­be­lief that non-Elvis people don’t get it.)

447-0630     Sur­render / Lonely Man
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 150–200
                     
  •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447-0631     I Feel So Bad / Wild In The Country
                      Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 200–300
                      •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447-0634     Little Sister / (Marie’s The Name) His Latest Flame
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 150–200
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447-0635     Can’t Help Falling In Love / Rock-A-Hula Baby
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447-0636     Good Luck Charm / Any­thing That’s Part Of You
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

Elvis_GS_0636_orange

As al­most all the at­ten­tion and air­play was fo­cused on Good Luck Charm. the flip-side was over­looked (it peaked at #31 on Bill­board and only reached #55 on Cash Box). That said, Any­thing That’s Part Of You is a gor­geous recording, al­though as a song it feels un­re­al­ized, es­pe­cially in the bridge. Pres­ley’s voice here is damn near per­fect and this is one of the rea­sons that I think of the early ‘60s as his best pe­riod for bal­lads.

447-0637     She’s Not You / Just Tell Her Jim Said Hello
                     Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                            $ 200–300
                      NOTE : The only copy of this record auc­tioned on eBay sold for $280 in 2014.

 

447-0638     Re­turn To Sender / Where Do You Come From
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447-0639     Kiss Me Quick / Suspicion
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 60–120
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447-0640     One Broken Heart For Sale / They Re­mind Me Too Much Of You
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 150–200
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447-0641     (You’re The) Devil In Dis­guise / Please Don’t Drag That Skin Around
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 150–200
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447-0642     Bossa Nova Baby / Witchcraft
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 150–200
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447-0720     Blue Christmas / Wooden Heart
                      Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               Not re­leased

 

447-0643     Crying In The Chapel / I Be­lieve In The Man In The Sky
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                                $   ____
                      NOTE: The ex­is­tence of this record is un­ver­i­fied; there is no as­signed value.

 

Elvis GS 0644 orange

In early 1964, I Want To Hold Your Hand sat atop all the charts in America and the rest of the civ­i­lized world for weeks on end. And how did Elvis Presley greet the British In­va­sion? With the poorest ex­cuse for a rock & roll single in his ca­reer: Kissin’ Cousins made the track that pre­vi­ously held that honor, Rock-A-Hula Baby, sound like a mas­ter­piece! But the flip-side was an­other story: It Hurts Me is prob­ably the finest recording that he made be­tween 1962 and 1966; it re­mains a pow­erful and ne­glected side al­most fifty years later. Had it been an A-side on its own, it would have been an­other world­wide hit, even during Beat­le­mania. 1

447-0644     Kissin’ Cousins / It Hurts Me
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 150–200
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447-0645     Such A Night / Never Ending
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 150–200
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447-0646     Viva Las Vegas / What’d I Say
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 150–200
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

Elvis_GS_0646_orange

Viva Las Vegas was a dud as an A-side in 1964—a ter­rible choice for a single during the height of the British In­va­sion. It was al­most im­me­di­ately chal­lenged for AM radio air-time by its flip-side, a re­make of Ray Charles’ mas­ter­piece What’d I Say. But Viva Las Vegas has achieved a life of its own: since Pres­ley’s death,it has be­come syn­ony­mous with Elvis in Las Vegas if not with Vegas it­self! It has ap­peared in a host of Vegas-based movies in the past few decades and will prob­ably find its way into a few more! 3

447-0647     Blue Christmas / Santa Claus Is Back In Town
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 60–120
                       •  Rock­away pressing with an “R” in the trail-off area.
                       NOTE: Very weirdly, there are no In­di­anapolis press­ings known to exist for this record.

 

447-0648     Do The Clam / You’ll Be Gone
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 150–200
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447-0649     Ask Me / Ain’t That Loving You, Baby
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 150–200
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447-0650     Puppet On A String / Wooden Heart
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $   ____
                      NOTE: The ex­is­tence of this record is un­ver­i­fied; there is no as­signed value.

 

447-0651     Joshua Fit The Battle / Known Only To Him
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $   ____
                      NOTE: The ex­is­tence of this record is un­ver­i­fied; there is no as­signed value.

 

447-0652     Milky White Way / Swing Down, Sweet Chariot
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $   ____
                      NOTE: The ex­is­tence of this record is un­ver­i­fied; there is no as­signed value.

 

447-0653     (Such An) Easy Ques­tion / It Feels So Right
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $   ____
                      NOTE: The ex­is­tence of this record is un­ver­i­fied; there is no as­signed value.

 

Elvis_GS_0654_orange

What­ever pos­sessed RCA to cham­pion I’m Yours as the hit side of this record es­capes me: it’s a rather staid ballad, rather life­lessly sung by Elvis. While It’s A Long Lonely Highway is far from a great rocker, it would have been in­fi­nitely prefer­able on the radio in the same year as Ticket To Ride and Mr. Tam­bourine Man and Sat­is­fac­tion and etcetera. (Even if it was as­so­ci­ated with the ex­tra­or­di­narily lame Tickle Me movie, no­table only for the lovely pres­ence of Julie Adams and Jo­celyn Lane.) 4

447-0654     I’m Yours / (It’s A) Long Lonely Highway
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 150–200
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447-0655     Tell Me Why / Blue River
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $   ____
                      NOTE: The ex­is­tence of this record is un­ver­i­fied; there is no as­signed value.

 

447-0656     Frankie And Johnny / Please Don’t Stop Loving Me
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 150–200
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447-0657     Love Let­ters / Come What May
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 150–200
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447-0658     Spinout / All That I Am
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 150–200
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447-0659     In­de­scrib­ably Blue / Fools Fall In Love
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 200–300
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

Elvis_GS_0659_orange

RCA Victor 447-0659, In­de­scrib­ably Blue / Fools Fall In Love, is the only Gold Stan­dard re­lease for which the or­ange label is the first pressing! For years, its ex­is­tence was un­known to most col­lec­tors! When more buyers and sellers re­alize this, its value should go—especially as it is also one of the rarest of the or­ange label GS 45s.

 

Elvis 1969 Vegas 1 1500

HEADER IMAGE: Elvis and band on stage at the In­ter­na­tional Hotel in Las Vegas in Au­gust 1969. For his first en­gage­ment, Presley wore a black stage outfit that was based on a karategi. For his next ap­pear­ance, he ap­peared in a one-piece, white jump­suit, which would be­come as­so­ci­ated with his live shows for the 1970s.

Elvis_GoldSuit_1959

POST­SCRIP­TU­ALLY, this ar­ticle “The Elvis Presley Gold Stan­dard 45s Part 6 (1969)” is the sixth of a planned eight ar­ti­cles ad­dressing the com­plete run of Gold Stan­dard sin­gles as col­lec­table records. When it is com­pleted, I will in­clude a list of the ar­ti­cles with hy­per­links here at the bottom of each ar­ticle for easy access.

Now, here are all the ar­ti­cles on the Elvis Gold Stan­dard 45s listed in the sug­gested reading order:

1. The Elvis Presley Gold Stan­dard 45s Part 1 (Fore­word)
2. The Elvis Presley Gold Stan­dard 45s Part 2 (Com­pany Sleeves)
3. The Elvis Presley Gold Stan­dard 45s Part 3 (1958–1965)
4. The Elvis Presley Gold Stan­dard 45s Part 4 (1964)
5. The Elvis Presley Gold Stan­dard 45s Part 5 (1965-1968)
6. Those Bloody Rare Or­ange Label Gold Stan­dard 45s
7. The Elvis Presley Gold Stan­dard 45s Part 6 (1969)
8. The Elvis Presley Gold Stan­dard 45s Part 7 (1969–1976)
9. The Elvis Presley Gold Stan­dard 45s Part 8 (1976–2000)

 


FOOT­NOTES:

1  It is in­ter­esting to note that while Elvis and da Colonel and RCA all seemed to have se­lected Stay Away as the A-side of the record. As the front and back covers of the pic­ture sleeve make ev­i­dent, the fea­tured side was Stay Away and the record was is­sued to pro­mote Elvis’s new movie. But the DJs flipped the record over and played U.S. Male. 

Elvis_GS_StayAway_ps_250

Elvis_GS_StayAway_ps2_250

And U.S. Male is the record that record-buyers bought and the side that marched up the charts: on Bill­board, U.S. Male reached #28 while Stay Away stayed at #67. On Cash Box, it was #26 and #50, re­spec­tively. De­spite this, the RCA Listing No­tice for the first re­lease of this record as Gold Stan­dard 447-0646 lists Stay Away as the A-side. Go figure . . .

2   I didn’t want to in­ter­rupt the flow of the discog­raphy above with an em­bedded video, but that’s what foot­notes are for on this site. Enjoy!

3   Since we are on the topic, it’s Movie Rec­om­men­da­tion Time: give a loo-see to 3000 Miles From Grace­land, where Kurt Rus­sell (who played Elvis as a rather angry person in the first movie bio on Presley) leads a pack of thieves all dressed as Elvis into a Vegas casino during Elvis Im­per­son­ator Week in­tended to rob the place. The film is stolen by a bril­liant per­for­mance by Kevin Costner as a psy­chopath who may be Elvis’ bas­tard son. 3000 Miles From Grace­land also fea­tures Chris­tian Slater, Kevin Pollak, David Ar­quette, Jon Lovitz, Howie Long, Bo­keem Wood­bine, Ice-T, Thomas Haden Church ( a per­sonal fave of mine ever since George Of The Jungle), and Courteney Cox Arquette—who is so damn sexy when she isn’t Monica Geller.

 

 

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