a blog about elvis presley's music and the records it can be found on
MY BABYBOOK states that my favorite song in 1956 was “Sh-Boom.” As I turned 5-years-old that year, that makes sense. But I don’t remember it that way: My aging gray matter tells me that “Hound Dog” has been my favorite record as long as it has translating my experiences into memories and storing them within its folds. [Continue reading]
SOME COPIES OF “BURNING LOVE” may be the most valuable commercially-issued Elvis single of the ’70s! Despite its last sale on eBay for almost a thousand dollars, many collectors are unaware of this record’s value or its origin. [Continue reading]
SO I OPEN UP MY EMAIL and there’s a notification telling me that someone requests my answer to a question on Quora. I tend to ignore these questions as many are idiotic and are just a means for the asker to get some attention on Quora. [Continue reading]
EXPORT-ONLY RECORDS ARE NOT COMMON in the record business. But in 1974, RCA in the US had to manufacture records by several artists to be exported to England for sale in the UK. Why this occurred while there were British pressings of the same records being manufactured at the same time remains a topic of discussion among record collectors. [Continue reading]
ELVIS AS A MYTHIC FIGURE has played a part in many Hollywood movies since his death in 1977. Most of these movies treat the man and the myth with respect, humor, and even irony. I am not referring to movies where a Presley track is used as part of the background music but where the “essence” of the Elvis myth/legend is integral to the plot. [Continue reading]
RCA 2458EX IS AN ODD RECORD, one of the oddest in the vast catalog of Elvis records. It was manufactured in the US expressly to be exported to the UK and sold there in 1974. Instead of the usual creamsicle orange label that was the standard for RCA records at the time, this weird record had labels that were as grey as the Incredible Hulk was in 1962! [Continue reading]
I AM THE BEARER OF BAD TIDINGS: My friend and co-author John Walker Ross passed away on February 9, 2021, and this is an obituary of sorts and a tribute. I stumbled over John’s blog The Round Place In The Middle several years ago and spent the day reading his articles. [Continue reading]
A SPECIAL EXPORT-ONLY pressing of the “My Boy” single was manufactured in the US expressly for sale in the UK. RCA Victor 2458EX was shipped to England in late 1974, apparently because British plants were unable to meet the demand for new product on their own. [Continue reading]
“FROM ELVIS WORMS to the Milky Way’s edge, these science stories sparked joy in 2020.” How could I resist that headline? Even though the tagline to this website is “a blog about Elvis Presley’s music and the records it can be found on” and this article has absolutely nothing to do with music or records, they had me at “Elvis worms.” [Continue reading]
FOLLOWING HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION in June 1953, Elvis Presley set his sights on becoming a recording artist. On July 18, he visited the Sun Records studio on Union Avenue in Memphis. There he paid $4 for the privilege of recording two songs onto one disc. [Continue reading]