a blog about elvis presley's music and records
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]
WHEN REQUIRED TO POST A PROFILE on the internet, I usually write, “Mystical liberal likes long walks alone at night in the dark in the city in the rain with an umbrella and a flask of 10-year-old Laphroaig.” While this bit of irony works for some readers, others want a little more in terms of personal background information. [Continue reading]
I WAS SITTING AT THE BAR ALONE, sipping bourbon. It was the middle of August, so normally I would be at my job with Luzerne County Roads & Bridges, patching potholes on the county road in Sweet Valley. [Continue reading]
MY NEWEST ENDEAVOR is writing a column for another blog! The blog is Sixties Music Secrets, an informative audio/visual blog with insight-filled conversations between knowledgeable, curious, and nostalgic readers regarding all things musical from the 1960s. The column is “The Avid Record Collector.” [Continue reading]
IT’S NOT JUST ELVIS! Jeff Jampol is an estate representative who handles the “brands” and assets of such stars as Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, and the Ramones. He tells a story of having dinner with friends in their thirties and forties and asking them to name the titles of three Beatle songs. [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]