Elvis in the '50s

ELVIS IN THE ’50s col­lects ar­ti­cles and es­says that focus on Pres­ley’s ac­tiv­i­ties in that decade or music recorded be­tween 1953 and 1959. Most of the ar­ti­cles will be the latter, but pieces on his con­certs, his ap­pear­ances on tele­vi­sion, or his movies may also be found here.

Ar­ti­cles that cover a longer ex­panse of time—like a piece on all his #1 hits from around the world from 1956 into the 21st century—will be placed in the more gen­eral Elvis on Record category.

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Elvis SPD

is the “country & western jukebox promotion kit” for spd-15 more fake news?

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RCA VICTOR SPD-15, a col­lec­tion of ten un­ti­tled records, were known only by their group cat­alog number for decades. The ten 45 rpm extended-play (EP) records con­tain forty tracks by ten country artists, in­cluding four by Elvis Presley. The records were made for juke­boxes and are now in­cor­rectly re­ferred to as the “Jukebox Pro­mo­tion Kit.” [Read more] “is the “country & western jukebox promotion kit” for spd-15 more fake news?”

Elvis SPD 15 record grey Side7 600

was SPD-15 the first EP album to feature an elvis track?

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ELVIS PRESLEY ON EX­TENDED PLAY! Was the all-Elvis record in the un­ti­tled SPD-15 col­lec­tion the first ap­pear­ance of an Elvis track on an extended-play record? RCA Victor SPD-15 is a set of ten EPs by ten of the company’s country & western artists. Intended for juke­boxes, it re­mains a mys­te­rious record even sixty years later. [Read more] “was SPD-15 the first EP album to feature an elvis track?”

Elvis 1955 E ZPopProgramming 5 Side1 600

was “e‑z pop programming 5” the first LP to feature an elvis track?

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E‑Z POP PRO­GRAM­MING was the title of a se­ries of pro­mo­tional LPs man­u­fac­tured by RCA Victor in the 1950s. Each record col­lected sides from cur­rent sin­gles by var­ious pop artists. One of these records fea­tured “I Forgot To Re­member To Forget” and “Mys­tery Train” by Elvis Presley. [Read more] “was “e‑z pop programming 5” the first LP to feature an elvis track?”

Elvis Luhrmann movie BabyLetsPlayHouse 1500 crop2

a new kind of hit re-run with elvis presley

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AFTER AC­QUIRING ELVIS in No­vember 1955, RCA Victor set about reis­suing the five sin­gles that Presley had re­leased on Sun Records. Reis­suing the then-current hit re-run “I Forgot To Re­member To Forget” / “Mys­tery Train” was the company’s top pri­ority. Exactly when those four records were is­sued has long been a matter of debate. [Read more] “a new kind of hit re-run with elvis presley”

ToniArden photo 1500 crop

did rca release other versions of elvis’ songs to compete with elvis’ records?

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DID RCA RE­LEASE OTHER VER­SIONS of ‘Mys­tery Train’ and ‘I Forgot To Re­member To Forget’ by other Victor artists at the same time they re­leased Elvis Presley’s ver­sions of those songs as his first RCA record?” Why would they do that? Were they hedging their $40,000 bet on pur­chasing the con­tract of the fledg­ling singer? [Read more] “did rca release other versions of elvis’ songs to compete with elvis’ records?”

Elvis 1956 fans close up 1500 crop

the “record bulletin” picture sleeve for rca’s first elvis record is fake

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A REL­A­TIVELY RE­CENT AD­DI­TION to the world of Elvis col­lectibles is the “Record Bul­letin” pic­ture sleeve, re­put­edly made for 47–6357 from 1955. It doesn’t look like any­thing as­so­ci­ated with Elvis or RCA Victor and comes with an origin story as odd as its ap­pear­ance. [Read more] “the “record bulletin” picture sleeve for rca’s first elvis record is fake”

Elvis photo publicity 1955 600 trim

rca victor 47–6357 bootleg picture sleeves

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THERE ARE FOUR PIC­TURE SLEEVES as­so­ci­ated with RCA’s first Elvis record, “I Forgot To Re­member To Forget” / “Mys­tery Train.” One is a le­git­i­mate item while an­other is of ques­tion­able au­then­ticity; they are cov­ered sep­a­rately in their own ar­ti­cles. There are also a pair of RCA Victor 47–6357 bootleg pic­ture sleeves ad­dressed in this article. [Read more] “rca victor 47–6357 bootleg picture sleeves”

the elvis “this is his life” cartoon picture sleeve

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RCA’S CAR­TOON PIC­TURE SLEEVES of the ’50s fea­tured a “bi­o­graphy” that summed up each artist’s life in a few comic strip-like panels. While rather rare, these sleeves are not very col­lectible and there­fore are not valu­able, ex­cept for one: the Elvis “This Is His Life” sleeve is among the rarer Presley items of that time. [Read more] “the elvis “this is his life” cartoon picture sleeve”

Elvis ThisIsHisLife PS yellow f 600 repair

rca victor cartoon picture sleeves of the ’50s

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FOR A SHORT TIME IN 1955–1956, RCA Victor man­u­fac­tured a se­ries of car­toon pic­ture sleeves for 45 rpm records. Each sleeve had a “This Is His Life” theme that summed up the artist’s life in a few comic strip-like panels. These sleeves were prob­ably shipped to radio sta­tions to catch the at­ten­tion of the DJs. [Read more] “rca victor cartoon picture sleeves of the ’50s”

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