the elvis presley gold standard 45s part 5 (1965–1968)

Es­ti­mated reading time is 22 min­utes.

IN 1965, the Gold Stan­dard Se­ries label was changed for the first time. The la­bels re­mained an at­trac­tive glossy black, but “RCA Victor” was moved to the right side of the spindle hole while Nipper was placed on the left side. Again, there was no men­tion of “Gold Stan­dard” any­where on the label; only the 447 prefix iden­ti­fied these records as reissues.

These records did not have “Gold Stan­dard” printed on the label; only those who rec­og­nized the ‘447’ prefix knew that the records were reissues.

These are often ab­bre­vi­ated as “DOS” (dog on side). Some of these may have been is­sued in the latter part of 1964 but I have listed them all with ini­tial dates of 1965 to avoid confusion.

 

This is part 5 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.

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.

 

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.

 

On top is the pre­vious look for their Gold Stan­dard se­ries: black label with “RCA Victor” and Nipper on the side. Below is the new look that greeted record buyers in 1968. I did not see the change until Oc­tober of that year when I duly (no, anx­iously) pur­chased If I Can Dream, the first Elvis single to ex­cite me in years!

RCA’s basic label template

The basic label tem­plate that RCA shipped to the re­gional printers that worked with their pressing plants had only three bits of information:

•  “RCA VICTOR” in plain white let­ters (Hel­vetica?) on the right side be­gin­ning at ap­prox­i­mately 2:30 o’clock.

•  Nipper and the phono­graph are on the left side be­gin­ning at ap­prox­i­mately 9 o’clock.

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

Every label has that in­for­ma­tion in the same style and in the same places. These la­bels were shipped to the re­gional printers who worked with RCA’s plants. The rest of the label data was set by these local shops working with RCA in­struc­tions on the rest of the layout:

•  The song title (all caps)with the song­writer’s credit (upper and low­er­case) was in plain black block type above the spindle hole.

•  The artist’s name in the same type was below the spindle hole but above the TMK(s) data.

•  On the left side, the cat­alog number was above Nipper while the ma­trix number was below.

•  On the right side, “45 RPM” was above “RCA VICTOR.”

The vari­a­tions on RCA-on-right label 1 and RCA-on-right label 2 all take place on the right side of the spindle hole below “Victor.”

RCA-on-right label 1: without publishing data

This label 1 can also be called the simple ver­sion due to its having less in­for­ma­tion than label 2. There is one bit of in­for­ma­tion on one line on the left side below Nipper: 1) the ma­trix number. (The recording date may be on the right side of the spindle hole or the left, but it is not a part of the info bits below Nipper.) Like so:

[ma­trix number]

Note that this simple label de­sign with just the ma­trix number on the left side below Nipper can be found with the recording date on the left side below Nipper (above top) or on the right side below RCA VICTOR (above bottom).

RCA-on-right label 2: with publishing data

This label 2 can also be called the com­plex ver­sion due to its having more in­for­ma­tion than label 1. There are three bits of in­for­ma­tion on at least four lines on the left side below Nipper: 1) the pub­lisher, 2) the ma­trix number, and 3) the side’s run­ning time. Like so:

[pub­lishing data]
[ma­trix number]
[time]

Note that this com­plex label de­sign may or may not have the recording date be on the left side of the spindle hole below the pub­lishing data and the time, or on the right below RCA VICTOR.

A few more discrepancies

There are sev­eral other dis­crep­an­cies with black RCA-on-the-right (dog-on-side) label GS 45s for which I have not found a pat­tern. As noted, copies may be found with or without a recording date above the spindle hole. The date may be the month, day, and year or simply the year. That seems to be the biggest variation.

Designated promos

RCA did not des­ig­nate stock copies for pro­mo­tional use in the ’60s. Any copies found with the tiny white NOT FOR SALE sticker would al­most cer­tainly be copies found some­where and the sticker ap­plied ten or more years later.

 

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.

 

Gold Standard company sleeves

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.

The record com­pa­nies also had spe­cially man­u­fac­tured sleeves that fea­tured the record com­pa­ny’s name, often with a logo or an eye-catching de­sign. These generic sleeves did not iden­tify in­di­vidual records by having ti­tles or cat­alog num­bers printed on them!

That is, these sleeves merely iden­ti­fied the record within as com­pany product without spec­i­fying what the in­di­vidual product was. Record col­lec­tors refer to these by sev­eral terms:

•  man­u­fac­turers sleeves
•  fac­tory sleeves
•  com­pany sleeves

These are ef­fec­tively syn­ony­mous terms but it is com­pany sleeves that I favor and use ex­clu­sively in my ar­ti­cles on record collecting.

For the Per­fect Elvis Col­lec­tion, each GS 45 should be housed in a GS sleeve man­u­fac­tured at the time for use with that record. Of course, over­lap­ping of older sleeves with newer records was common with the Gold Stan­dards, but that should not stop a col­lector from seeking out the cor­rect sleeve for each record in his collection.

For this ar­ticle, I am listing those sleeves that were man­u­fac­tured con­tem­po­ra­ne­ously with the black label records listed below. For more in­for­ma­tion on all Gold Stan­dard com­pany sleeves, refer to “elvis gold stan­dard 45s part 2.”

 

Company sleeve design 1

This is the com­pany sleeve that first ap­peared with the orig­inal Gold Stan­dard re­leases in 1959. There­fore, it is the most im­por­tant sleeve to any Elvis Presley Gold Stan­dard col­lec­tion: every GS in your col­lec­tion from 1959 through 1965 (0600–0650) should be ac­com­pa­nied by one of these sleeves!

Fur­ther re­search may ex­tend this to where it is sug­gested that every GS record with black la­bels with RCA Victor at the top record (0625–0646) 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).

 

Company sleeve design 2

This sleeve de­sign came into play some­time in the early to mid-’60s, but I am un­cer­tain of what year. RCA made a major change in the com­pany sleeves for their reg­ular cat­alog 45s: in 1965 or ’66, they switched from an old-fashioned layout with serif type­face (or ‘font’ to most com­puter users) to a more modern de­sign with sans serif face.

This al­ter­ation is re­flected on the GS sleeve here: the older layout with serif fonts on de­sign 1 was re­placed with a much more modern look fea­turing sans serif type on de­sign 2. This move may have oc­curred si­mul­ta­ne­ously with the label change in the records in 1965: the “RCA Victor” logo along with Nipper was moved from the top of the black la­bels to the right and left sides, respectively.

If that is so, we can as­sume that they were in­tended to ac­com­pany those GS ti­tles is­sued from 1965 on (the dog-on-side num­bers). This was the de­sign that ran through 1973; there­fore, every GS in your col­lec­tion from 1965 through ’73 (0625–0685) should be ac­com­pa­nied by one of these sleeves!

But any guess on when the change was made for the Gold Stan­dard de­sign is just that—a guess.

There are two vari­a­tions on this sleeve: sleeves can be found with the paper on the in­side the same yellow color as the paper on the out­side (bottom image above), or with white paper in­sides (middle image above).

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.

 

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.

 

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 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.

Man 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.

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.

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. 

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.

 

The values listed here are for records with la­bels and vinyl in near mint con­di­tion (NM). Records in a lower grade con­di­tion are worth con­sid­er­ably less.

 

 

1965

 

447‑0600     I Forgot To Re­member To Forget / Mys­tery Train
                      Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                      $   15–30
                      • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0601     That’s All Right / Blue Moon Of Kentucky
                      Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                       $   15–30
                      • 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
                      Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                       $   15–30
                      • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0603     Milkcow Blues Boogie / You’re A Heartbreaker
                      Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                      $   20–40
                      • 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
                      Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                     $   20–40
                      • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0605     Heart­break Hotel / I Was The One
                      Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                       $   15–30
                      • 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
                      Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                      $   15–30
                      • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0608     Hound Dog / Don’t Be Cruel
                      Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                       $   15–30
                      • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area. *

 

While Steve Sholes of RCA kept his promise to Sam Philips not to re­lease Blue Suede Shoes as a single in the US. In sev­eral coun­tries where Sun Records had little or no rep­re­sen­ta­tion, RCA did re­lease it as the second Presley single (after Heart­break Hotel) with Tutti Frutti as the flip-side. In sev­eral coun­tries, it was a double-sided Top 10 hit for Elvis. In Italy, Tutti Frutti reached #1 while Blue Suede Shoes peaked at #2!

447‑0609     Blue Suede Shoes / Tutti Frutti
                      Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                       $   15–30
                      • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0610     I Got A Woman / I’m Counting On You
                      Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right 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)
                     Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right 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
                     Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                      $       ___
                      NOTE: The ex­is­tence of this record is un­ver­i­fied; there is no as­signed value.

 

447‑0613     Blue Moon / Just Because
                     Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                        $   15–30
                     • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0614     Money Honey / One Sided Love Affair
                     Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                       $    15–30
                     • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0615     Shake, Rattle And Roll / Lawdy, Miss Clawdy
                     Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                       $   15–30
                     • 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)
                     Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                       $   15–30
                     • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0617     Too Much / Playing For Keeps
                     Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                        $   15–30
                     • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0618     All Shook Up / That’s When Your Heartaches Begin
                     Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                       $   15–30
                     • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0619     Jail­house Rock / Treat Me Nice
                     Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                       $   15–30
                     • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0620     (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear / Loving You
                      Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                        $   15–30
                      • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0621     Don’t / I Beg Of You
                     Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                        $   15–30
                     • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “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 the right side                                       $   15–30
                     • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0623     Hard Headed Woman/ Don’t Ask Me Why
                      Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                       $   15–30
                      • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area. *

 

447‑0624     I Got Stung / One Night
                      Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                       $   15–30
                      • 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
                      Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                       $   15–30
                      • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0626     A Big Hunk O’ Love / My Wish Came True
                      Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                       $   15–30
                      • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0627     Stuck On You / Fame And Fortune
                     Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                        $   15–30
                     • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area. *

 

447‑0628     It’s Now Or Never / A Mess Of Blues
                      Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                        $   15–30
                      • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0629     Are You Lone­some Tonight / I Gotta Know
                      Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                       $   15–30
                      • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0630     Sur­render / Lonely Man
                      Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                       $   15–30
                      • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0631     I Feel So Bad / Wild In The Country
                     Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                        $   15–30
                     • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area (1S-A5/3S).
                     • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area (1S-A5/5S).

 

447‑0634     Little Sister / (Marie’s The Name) His Latest Flame
                      Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                      $   20–40
                      • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0635     Can’t Help Falling In Love / Rock-A-Hula Baby
                      Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                       $   15–30
                      • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0636     Good Luck Charm / Any­thing That’s Part Of You
                      Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                       $   15–30
                      • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0637     She’s Not You / Just Tell Her Jim Said Hello
                      Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                       $   15–30
                      • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0638     Re­turn To Sender / Where Do You Come From
                       Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                       $   15–30
                      • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0639     Kiss Me Quick / Suspicion
                       Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                      $       ___
                       NOTE: The ex­is­tence of this record is un­ver­i­fied; there is no as­signed value.

 

447‑0640     One Broken Heart For Sale / They Re­mind Me Too Much Of You
                       Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                       $   15–30
                      • 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
                      Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                       $   15–30
                     • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0642     Bossa Nova Baby / Witchcraft
                       Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                       $   15–30
                      • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

447‑0720     Blue Christmas / Wooden Heart
                       Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                     Not re­leased

 

447‑0643     Crying In The Chapel / I Be­lieve In The Man In The Sky
                       White label promo                                                                                            $   25–50
                       • Rock­away pressing with “Not For Sale” on one line.
                       Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                       $   10–20
                       • Hol­ly­wood pressing with an “H” in the trail-off area. I Be­lieve In / The Man In The Sky is on two lines. “I Be­lieve In The Man In The Sky” is on one line with song­writer “(Richard Howard)” above the spindle hole.
                      • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area. I Be­lieve In The Man In The Sky is on one line with song­writer “(Richard Howard)” below the spindle hole.
                       • Rock­away pressing with an “R” in the trail-off area. I Be­lieve In The Man In The Sky is on one line with song­writer “(Richard Howard)” above the spindle hole.
                       Pic­ture sleeve with gold tinted photo                                                           $   20–40
                       Pic­ture sleeve with gray tinted photo                                                          $   15–30

 

447‑0644     Kissin’ Cousins / It Hurts Me
                      Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                       $   15–30
                      • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area (5S-B2/8S-A3).

 

447‑0645     Such A Night / Never Ending
                      Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                       $   15–30
                      • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0646     Viva Las Vegas / What’d I Say
                       Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                      $   30–60
                      • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0647     Blue Christmas / Santa Claus Is Back In Town
                      White label promo                                                                                            $   30–60
                      • Hol­ly­wood pressing with “Not For Sale” on two lines.
                      • Rock­away pressing with “Not For Sale” on one line.
                      Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                        $   15–30
                      • Hol­ly­wood pressing with an “H” in the trail-off area, and Santa Claus Is Back / In Town on two lines.
                      • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area, and Santa Claus Is Back In Town is on one line.
                      • Rock­away pressing with an “R” in the trail-off area, and Santa Claus Is Back In Town is on one line.
                      • Uniden­ti­fied pressing with an “H” in the trail-off area, and Santa Claus / Is Back In Town on two lines.
                      Pic­ture sleeve with “Gold Stan­dard Se­ries” in the upper left                 $   30–60

 

This sleeve fea­tures a photo of Elvis from 1969 and was is­sued in 1987; it is in­cluded here to il­lus­trate the dif­fer­ences be­tween it and the orig­inal sleeve from 1965 above. For more in­for­ma­tion, refer to Elvis’ Gold Stan­dard 45s Part 8.

447‑0648     Do The Clam / You’ll Be Gone
                        Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                    $   30–60
                        • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0649     Ask Me / Ain’t That Loving You, Baby
                       Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                    $   30–60
                      • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0650     Puppet On A String / Wooden Heart
                       White label promo                                                                                            $   30–60
                       • Hol­ly­wood pressing with “Not For Sale” on two lines. *
                       Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                       $   15–30
                       • Hol­ly­wood pressing with an “H” in the trail-off area. On the B‑side, “Gladys Music / Inc. / ASCAP / L2PW-3681” is on four lines .
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area. On the B‑side, “Gladys Music / Inc., ASCAP / L2PW-3681” is on three lines, and “Recorded July 19, 1960” is at ap­prox­i­mately 8 o’clock.
                       • Rock­away pressing with an “R” in the trail-off area. On the B‑side, “Gladys Music / Inc., ASCAP / L2PW-3681” is on three lines, and “Recorded July 19, 1960” is at ap­prox­i­mately 8:30 o’clock.
                       Pic­ture sleeve                                                                                                   $   20–40

 

1966

 

447‑0651     Joshua Fit The Battle / Known Only To Him
                      White label promo                                                                                           $  50–100
                      • Rock­away pressing with “Not For Sale” on one line.
                      Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                      $     15–30
                      • Hol­ly­wood pressing with an “H” in the trail-off area.
                      • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.
                       Pic­ture sleeve                                                                                                 $ 100–200

 

The record at the top with NOT FOR SALE on the right side of the spindle hole and the recording date on the left side is from Rock­away. The middle record is more or less iden­tical to the Rock­away pressing but does not have NOT FOR SALE on the side; it may be from Rock­away or In­di­anapolis. The record on the bottom with NOT FOR but without a recording date is from Hollywood.

447‑0652     Milky White Way / Swing Down Sweet Chariot
                      White label promo                                                                                         $   50–100
                       • Hol­ly­wood pressing with “Not For Sale” but without the recording date.
                       • In­di­anapolis (?) pressing without “Not For Sale” and with the recording date.
                       • Rock­away pressing with “Not For Sale” and with the recording date.
                      Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                     $     15–30
                       • Hol­ly­wood pressing with an “H” in the trail-off area, but without the recording date. Swing Down Sweet / Chariot is on two lines.
                       • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area, and with the recording date. Swing Down Sweet Chariot is on one line.
                       • Rock­away pressing with an “R” in the trail-off area, and with the recording date. Swing Down Sweet Chariot is on one line.
                       Pic­ture sleeve                                                                                                $ 100–200

 

447‑0653     (Such An) Easy Ques­tion / It Feels So Right
                      Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                      $   20–40
                      • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0654     I’m Yours / (It’s A) Long Lonely Highway
                       Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                      $   25–50
                      • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

1968

447‑0655     Tell Me Why / Blue River
                      Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                      $   25–50
                      • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0656     Frankie And Johnny / Please Don’t Stop Loving Me
                      Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                     $   40–80
                      • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area (?S/?S).

 

447‑0657     Love Let­ters / Come What May
                      Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                      $   20–40
                     • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0658     Spinout / All That I Am
                      Black la­bels with “RCA Victor” on the right side                                      $   15–30
                     • In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

While Viva Las Vegas is rec­og­nized as a minor gem among Pres­ley’s sound­track record­ings of ’60s, such was not the case upon its re­lease. Frankly, it was a ter­rible choice as a single in 1964, al­most laugh­able during the height of the British In­va­sion. And so it was that many radio sta­tions flipped the record over and played the other side, a rea­son­ably ex­citing reading of Ray Charles’s What’d I Say. This split the air-time and af­fected var­ious fac­tors in how the mag­a­zine sur­veys at the time ranked records on their charts. (Check out the video of EP per­forming the song in the movie at the bottom of this page.)

 

On Bill­board, What’d I Say reached a very dis­ap­pointing #21, while Viva Las Vegas only pe­tered out at #29. On Cash Box there was a very dif­ferent story: both sides were con­sid­er­ably bigger hits than ei­ther side were on Bill­board! What’d I Say spent four weeks in the Top 20, peaking at #13, and Viva Las Vegas spent a week in the Top 20 at #16. So, had RCA pro­moted the B‑side as the A‑side from the be­gin­ning, it seems likely that What’d I Say would have been the second Top 10 hit of the year for Elvis on at least one na­tional Top 100 survey! (Check out the video of EP per­forming the song in the movie at the bottom of this page.)

 

HEADER IMAGE: The photo at the top of this page is from the 1968 movie Live A Little, Love A Little. The movie fea­tured Michele Carey as Elvis’s love in­terest and she brought a more adult and ob­vious sex­u­ality to the movie than many of the young women cast op­po­site him in re­cent years. The movie ac­tu­ally has a dumb but lik­able pseudo-psychedelic dream, scene where Elvis sings Edge Of Re­ality while both the beauty and the beast in the pic­ture above tease him. By this time in ’68, sales of Presley Product had reached its nadir; even the Gold Stan­dard cat­alog was mori­bund in terms of gen­er­ating income.

 

POST­SCRIP­TU­ALLY, “The Elvis Presley Gold Stan­dard 45s Part 5 (1965–1968)” is the fifth 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)