the elvis presley gold standard 45s part 3 (1958–1965)

Es­ti­mated reading time is 18 min­utes.

IN LATE 1958, the Gold Stan­dard Se­ries of 45 rpm sin­gles was re­leased by RCA Victor in the US market. While it was never stated as such, the se­ries seems to have been launched solely to keep Elvis Presley records in print. The Gold Stan­dard 45s looked iden­tical to the company’s reg­ular cat­alog 45s: they had glossy black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top at 12 o’clock with Nipper-and-gramophone just below it.

These are often ab­bre­vi­ated as “DOT” (dog on top). These records did not have GOLD STAN­DARD printed on the label. There­fore the only way to rec­og­nize them was their cat­alog num­bers: rather than the ’47’ prefix common to the reg­ular 45 rpm sin­gles, these GS 45s had a ‘447’ prefix.

This is part 3 of the most com­plete discog­raphy and ac­cu­rate price guide to Elvis’ Gold Stan­dard 45s on the Internet.

De­ter­mining rarity of each title is dif­fi­cult: the big hits of the ’50s would have had the largest press runs on the orig­inal DOT label. There­fore there may have been plenty of those sit­ting around in stores and ware­houses and there­fore less de­mand for them on the new DOS label.

Hence the biggest hits could have had the smallest press­ings on any given vari­a­tion. The only way we will know short of someone turning up RCA’s files of record or­ders for the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s is through the prices re­al­ized during public auc­tions. This will take a looooooooooong time.

 

447‑0645 is one of three Gold Stan­dard num­bers re­leased in early 1965 with the DOT label. Each is rare, al­though most dealers and col­lec­tors have yet to re­alize ex­actly how rare they are.

Indianapolis pressings

In­di­anapolis press­ings may be the only press­ings most of the Gold Stan­dards most of the time, but not all of the time. Since the be­gin­ning, RCA’s In­di­anapolis plant man­u­fac­tured the vast ma­jority of GS 45s. These 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, but this marking can be dif­fi­cult to see in some light.

Those known press­ings are listed be­neath the record ti­tles and are pre­ceded by a bullet (•). 

•  These records can be found with and without the recording date printed on the left side. The date may be the month/day/year or just the year.

•  All 1958 press­ings have Camden, NJ, in the lower right perimeter print at 5 o’clock. Records without this ad­dress were man­u­fac­tured after mid-1959.

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.

 

Gold Standard company sleeves

For decades, record com­pa­nies used paper sleeves to hold their product so that records did not get scratched, marred, or oth­er­wise dam­aged in transit when stocked, or while han­dled by would-be buyers. Plain white or brown paper sleeves were the most common, but many com­pa­nies had their own brand-name sleeves printed.

These could be of var­ious colors and al­ways car­ried the com­pany name and maybe a logo or an eye-catching de­sign. But these paper sleeves but they did not iden­tify the in­di­vidual record within!

Record col­lec­tors refer to these as fac­tory sleeves and man­u­fac­turers sleeves but most often as com­pany sleeves. For more de­tailed in­for­ma­tion on RCA Gold Stan­dard com­pany sleeves, refer to The Elvis Presley Gold Stan­dard 45s Part 2 here on Elvis – A Touch Of Gold.

Company sleeve design 1

This is the com­pany sleeve that first ap­peared with the orig­inal Gold Stan­dard re­leases in 1958. There­fore, it is the most im­por­tant sleeve to any Elvis Presley Gold Stan­dard col­lec­tion: every GS 45 in your col­lec­tion from 447‑0600 through as late as 447–06246 should be ac­com­pa­nied by one of these sleeves!

There are two vari­a­tions on this sleeve: one is cut straight the across the top on the front and back (top image above). The other is cut straight on the back but is notched in the front (middle image above). The back is the same for both (bottom image above).

These DOT records can be found with later sleeves, as there were years of over­lap­ping. But for the per­fect col­lec­tion, each GS 45 should be housed in a com­pany sleeve that was man­u­fac­tured at the same time as the record.

A tip for collectors

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 an anom­alous sleeve on one of the Presley plat­ters in your collection.

At the time the first Elvis Gold Stan­dard records hit the market, King Creole was one of the hottest movies in the world.

Assigning the values

Each record below is as­signed a value for the record in near mint con­di­tion. Here, NM means that the la­bels and the vinyl on both sides of the record are al­most ‘like new.’ The as­signed value for most records has a gen­erous spread to allow for the di­ver­sity in the prices paid for these records on the In­ternet, where many sellers are clue­less about grading a record correctly.

If I am cor­rect, the high number in the as­signed values more ac­cu­rately re­flects rarity and real value—and what these records might fetch when sold by a knowl­edge­able dealer to a knowl­edge­able collector.

The low number re­flects what these records might be pur­chased for when sold by someone not aware of the record’s ac­tual worth. (That is, a non-knowledgeable dealer, which is most of the sellers on the Internet.)

The high number in the as­signed values more ac­cu­rately re­flects rarity, while the low number re­flects what these records might be pur­chased for on the Internet.

The num­bers were ar­rived at by hours of re­search on the In­ternet, pri­marily the Pop­sike, Col­lec­tors Frenzy and Grip­sweat web­sites. My own ‘common sense’ based on forty years of ac­tivity in buying and selling records and writing about buying and selling records also came into play.

Please note that copies of these records in less than NM con­di­tion usu­ally sell for sig­nif­i­cantly lower prices. For records in VG+ con­di­tion, start at half the value of a NM copy and work down from there.

Copies of most num­bers in VG con­di­tion have little value.

Many of these num­bers with a black RCA-on-the-right label are rather rare records. Some of the harder-to-find num­bers (and they may be the big hits or the not-so-big hits) are prob­ably un­der­valued below . . .

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.

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.

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 fol­lowed by the ti­tles of the two songs on the record.

•  Line 2 notes that it is, in fact, a black label with “RCA Victor” on the right side, which is fol­lowed by the as­signed value.

•  Line 3 notes that the record was pressed at In­di­anapolis and is iden­ti­fied as such by machine-stamped num­bers in the trail-off vinyl. These are the stamper-numbers (or ‘S’ num­bers for RCA) that in­di­cated the ‘parts’ used to press the records.

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.

 

This is the first Elvis Gold Stan­dard number (447‑0600, I Forgot To Re­member To Forget / Mys­tery Train) as it would have ap­peared in record stores around the country in 1958–59 in a gold com­pany paper sleeve.

1958

 

447‑0600     I Forgot To Re­member To Forget / Mys­tery Train
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top with “Camden, N.J.”                $   40–50
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top without “Camden, N.J.”          $    25–30
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0601     That’s All Right / Blue Moon Of Kentucky
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top with “Camden, N.J.”                $   40–50
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top without “Camden, N.J.”          $    25–30
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0602     Good Rocking Tonight / I Don’t Care If The Sun Don’t Shine
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top with “Camden, N.J.”                $   40–50
                       • Hol­ly­wood pressing with a cap­ital ‘H’ in the trail-off area and “I Don’t Care If The / Sun Don’t Shine” on two lines.

                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top without “Camden, N.J.”          $   20–25
                       • Hol­ly­wood pressing with a cap­ital ‘H’ in the trail-off area and “I Don’t Care / If The Sun Don’t Shine” on two lines.
                        NOTE: This is an early ’60s pressing. (Frank Daniels)

                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top with “Camden, N.J.”                $   40–50
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area and “I Don’t Care If The Sun Don’t Shine” on one line.

                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top with “Camden, N.J.”                $   40–50
                       • Rock­away pressing with a cap­ital ‘R’ in the trail-off vinyl and “I Don’t Care / If The Sun Don’t Shine” on two lines.

 

447‑0603     Milkcow Blues Boogie / You’re A Heartbreaker
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top with “Camden, N.J.”                $   50–60
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top without “Camden, N.J.”          $    30–40
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0604     Baby, Let’s Play House / I’m Left, You’re Right, She’s Gone
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top with “Camden, N.J.”                $   40–50
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top without “Camden, N.J.”          $    25–30
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0605     Heart­break Hotel / I Was The One
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top with “Camden, N.J.”                $   25–30
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top without “Camden, N.J.”          $    15–20
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0607     I Want You, I Need You, I Love You / My Baby Left Me
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top with “Camden, N.J.”                $   25–30
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top without “Camden, N.J.”          $    15–20
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0608     Hound Dog / Don’t Be Cruel
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top with “Camden, N.J.”                $   25–30
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top without “Camden, N.J.”          $    15–20
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0609     Blue Suede Shoes / Tutti Frutti
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top with “Camden, N.J.”                $   35–40
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top without “Camden, N.J.”          $    25–30
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0610 is among the rarest of the GS 45s is­sued prior to the or­ange label press­ings of 1969! It is so rare is this record that no copies have been sold at auc­tion on eBay in ten years!

447‑0610     I Got A Woman / I’m Counting On You
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top with “Camden, N.J.”                $  75–100
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top without “Camden, N.J.”          $    40–50
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0611     I’ll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin’) / I’m Gonna Sit Right Down And Cry (Over You)
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top with “Camden, N.J.”                $   50–60
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top without “Camden, N.J.”          $    30–40
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0612     Tryin’ To Get To You / I Love You Because
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top with “Camden, N.J.”                $  75–100
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top without “Camden, N.J.”          $    40–50
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0613     Blue Moon / Just Because
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top with “Camden, N.J.”                $   30–40
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top without “Camden, N.J.”          $    20–25
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area. 

 

447‑0614     Money Honey / One Sided Love Affair
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top with “Camden, N.J.”                $   50–60
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top without “Camden, N.J.”          $    30–40
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0615     Shake, Rattle And Roll / Lawdy, Miss Clawdy
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top with “Camden, N.J.”                $   25–30
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top without “Camden, N.J.”          $    15–20
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0616     Love Me Tender / Any Way You Want Me (That’s How I Will Be)
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top with “Camden, N.J.”                $   25–30
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top without “Camden, N.J.”          $    15–20
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

       

447‑0617     Too Much / Playing For Keeps
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top with “Camden, N.J.”                $   25–30
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top without “Camden, N.J.”          $    15–20
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0618     All Shook Up / That’s When Your Heartaches Begin
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top with “Camden, N.J.”                $   25–30
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top without “Camden, N.J.”          $    15–20
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

 

As ei­ther a 78 or a 45 on ei­ther Sun or RCA and even as a Gold Stan­dard reissue, Milkcow Blues Boogie / You’re A Heart­breaker is al­ways the most dif­fi­cult of Presley’s first five records to find. Con­se­quently, I have as­signed it a rather high value: in the past ten years, only five copies 447‑0603 have sold at auc­tion on eBay, and only one of them was a DOT pressing.

1959

 

447‑0619     Jail­house Rock / Treat Me Nice
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top                                                       $     25–30
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0620     (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear / Loving You
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top                                                       $     25–30
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0621     Don’t / I Beg Of You
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top                                                       $     25–30
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0622     Wear My Ring Around Your Neck / Doncha’ Thinks It’s Time
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top                                                       $     25–30
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0623     Hard Headed Woman/ Don’t Ask Me Why
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top                                                       $     25–30
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0624     I Got Stung / One Night
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top                                                       $     25–30
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

 

Stuck On You / Fame And For­tune is a per­sonal fave among all of the Elvis records. Aside from the ex­cel­lence of the per­for­mance on each recording (and I think that Fame And For­tune is an under-appreciated mas­ter­piece), this was one of the first records that Aunt Judy gave me from her col­lec­tion when I was 10-years old.

1960

 

447‑0625     (Now And Then There’s) A Fool Such As I / I Need Your Love Tonight
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top                                                       $     25–30
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

 

1962

 

447‑0626     A Big Hunk O’ Love / My Wish Came True
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top                                                       $     25–30
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area. *

 

447‑0627     Stuck On You / Fame And Fortune
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top                                                       $     30–40
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0628     It’s Now Or Never / A Mess Of Blues
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top                                                       $     15–20
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0629     Are You Lone­some Tonight / I Gotta Know
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top                                                      $     15–20
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0630     Sur­render / Lonely Man
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top                                                      $     15–20
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0631     I Feel So Bad / Wild In The Country
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top                                                     $     30–40
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0634     Little Sister / (Marie’s The Name) His Latest Flame
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top                                                       $     25–30
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0635     Can’t Help Falling In Love / Rock-A-Hula Baby
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top                                                       $     15–20
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0636     Good Luck Charm / Any­thing That’s Part Of You
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top                                                      $     30–40
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area. *

 

1963

 

447‑0637     She’s Not You / Just Tell Her Jim Said Hello
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top                                                      $     40–50
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0638     Re­turn To Sender / Where Do You Come From
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top                                                      $     15–20
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

 

1964

 

447‑0639 was the first Elvis Gold Stan­dard orig­inal, pairing two sides pre­vi­ously un­re­leased on a single. Both of these tracks were pulled from the POT LUCK album of 1962. This was also the first GS 45 is­sued with a pic­ture sleeve, one of five such sleeves is­sued for the 1964 Summer Spe­cial. (Refer to The Elvis Presley Gold Stan­dard 45s Part 4)

 

 

Sus­pi­cion was one of Presley’s finest record­ings of the early ’60s. Why it hadn’t been se­lected as a single in 1962 or ’63 is un­known. A sounda­like ver­sion by Terry Stafford was re­leased in early 1964, peaking at #3 on Cash Box. This in­spired RCA to issue Elvis’s ver­sion as a GS 45.

 

The promo at the top is from Hol­ly­wood: note “ELVIS PRESLEY with The Jor­danaires” above the spindle hole and “NOT FOR SALE” on one line on the right. The bottom promo is from Rock­away: the artist credit is below the hole and “NOT FOR SALE” is on two lines.

447‑0639     Kiss Me Quick / Suspicion
                        White label promo with “RCA Victor” on top                                          $     40–50
                       • Hol­ly­wood pressing with “Elvis Presley” below the spindle hole.
                       • Rock­away pressing with “Elvis Presley” above the spindle hole.

447‑0639     Kiss Me Quick / Suspicion
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top                                                       $     15–20
                       • Hol­ly­wood pressing with a cap­ital ‘H’ in the trail-off area.
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.
                       • Rock­away pressing with an “R” in the trail-off area.

447‑0639     Kiss Me Quick / Sus­pi­cion pic­ture sleeve                                        $     40–50

 

447‑0640     One Broken Heart For Sale / They Re­mind Me Too Much Of You
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top                                                      $     40–50
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0641     (You’re The) Devil In Dis­guise / Please Don’t Drag That String Around
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top                                                      $     40–50
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0642     Bossa Nova Baby / Witchcraft
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top                                                      $     40–50
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0720 was the second Elvis Gold Stan­dard orig­inal with two sides that had not been re­leased pre­vi­ously on a single in the US. It was in print for a short time, and in 1965, Blue Christmas was cou­pled with the more ap­pro­priate Santa Claus Is Back In Town and is­sued as 447‑0647. Note that this sleeve makes it clear that Blue Christmas was the fea­tured side.

 

Wooden Heart had been a #1 record when is­sued as a single in the UK and Ger­many in 1961. Alas, the powers-that-be ruled that it was not to be is­sued as a single in the States, al­though it would turn up twice as a Gold Stan­dard B‑side! This was the only Presley GS 45 re­leased in the 0700 se­ries. (Why?)

 

White label promos: the pressing op top is from Hol­ly­wood, the pressing on the bottom from Indianapolis.

 

447‑0720     Blue Christmas / Wooden Heart
                        White label promo with “RCA Victor” on top                                            $   50–60
                       • Hol­ly­wood pressing with “Not For Sale” on two lines.
                       • Rock­away pressing with “Not For Sale” on one line.

447‑0720     Blue Christmas / Wooden Heart
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top                                                     $      25–30
                       • Hol­ly­wood pressing with a cap­ital ‘H’ in the trail-off area.
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

447‑0720     Blue Christmas / Wooden Heart pic­ture sleeve                       $      50–60

 

1965

 

447‑0644 is one of three Gold Stan­dard num­bers re­leased in early 1965 with the DOT label. Each is rare, al­though most dealers and col­lec­tors have yet to re­alize ex­actly how rare they are.

 

447‑0643     Crying In The Chapel / I Be­lieve In The Man In The Sky
                        NOTE: The cat­alog number in­di­cates that RCA planned on is­suing this ei­ther 1) for the Christmas season of 1964, or 2) early in ’65. Crying In The Chapel was an un­re­leased side from four years ear­lier while the B‑side had been on the HIS HAND IN MINE album of 1961. For un­known rea­sons, 447‑0643 was not re­leased until the Easter season of 1965 and is listed in The Elvis Presley Gold Stan­dard 45s Part 5.

 

447‑0644     Kissin’ Cousins / It Hurts Me
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top                                                     $ 100–200
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0645     Such A Night / Never Ending
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top                                                      $   50–75
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0646     Viva Las Vegas / What’d I Say
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on top                                                  $ 300–500
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with a cap­ital ‘I’ in the trail-off area.
                        NOTE: Based on the only sale of this record on eBay in 2013, the as­signed value may be very conservative.

 

HEADER IMAGE: Sgt. Presley ap­pears to be signing au­to­graphs for fellow mem­bers of the US Army in 1960. By this time, his en­tire cat­alog of ’50s sin­gles had been reis­sued as part of RCA Victor’s Gold Stan­dard Se­ries of 45 rpm singles.

 

POST­SCRIP­TU­ALLY, “The Elvis Presley Gold Stan­dard 45s Part 3 (1958–1965)” is the third 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)