the elvis presley gold standard 45s part 6 (1969)

Es­ti­mated reading time is 23 min­utes.

IN 1969, the Gold Stan­dard Se­ries label was dra­mat­i­cally mod­i­fied, along with the rest of the RCA Victor cat­alog (45s, EPs, LPs, and reel-to-reel tapes). Gone was the fa­miliar glossy black back­ground with “RCA Victor” in tra­di­tional serif type with the big “V” across the top. Gone, too, was the dog, beloved Nipper, cocking his head to his mas­ter’s voice em­a­nating from the horn of an an­tique phono­graph. All gone! And re­placed by what?

The new look was a modern look that gave record buyers an in­sipidly or­ange label with “RCA” in a (ghastly) open-block, san serif type run­ning ver­ti­cally up the left side of the label. The second half of the com­pany name, “Victor,” was moved to the right side of the spindle hole and set in Hel­vetica type, the type­face that con­quered America in the ’60s.

 

This is part 6 of the most com­plete discog­raphy and ac­cu­rate price guide to Elvis’ Gold Stan­dard 45s on the Internet.

 

The term “RCA Victor” was seen by sev­eral gen­er­a­tions of con­sumers as one en­tity: “rcav­ictor.” With the two sit­ting on op­po­site sides of an abyss, that no longer seemed so. It was a now a ‘they.’ While this move may seem self-defeating forty years after the fact, at the time many Amer­ican com­pa­nies were trying to keep up with the times, which were in­deed a‑changing. Re­branding it­self as just RCA was hip; the or­ange la­bels were not.

Col­lec­tors had ig­nored these or­ange label GS 45s during the ’70s when Elvis col­lecting was a‑building, and even into the ’80s, when col­lecting had ex­ploded in re­sponse to Pres­ley’s death. For rea­sons upon which I will not spec­u­late (as­sume nothing, I am told), these rather rare records were given short shrift even by in-the-know ‘Elvis­dealers’ and the price guides of the 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. 

 

Why are orange Gold Standards so rare?

I have al­ready posted an en­tire ar­ticle ad­dressing the issue of the rarity of these or­ange label GS 45s, “Those bloody Rare Or­ange Label Gold Stan­dard 45s.” It is prob­ably in every read­er’s in­terest to read that piece first, then come back here and read this . . .

Indianapolis pressings

Since the ’60s, RCA’s In­di­anapolis plant man­u­fac­tured the vast ma­jority of GS 45s. 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. This marking is rather small and the im­pres­sion is often shallow, so it can be dif­fi­cult to see in some light.

And like its two pre­de­ces­sors, these new-fangled or­ange la­bels made no men­tion of the fact that these GS 45s were, in fact, part of RCA’s Gold Stan­dard Se­ries of (mostly} reis­sues. If you didn’t know that the 447 prefix in the cat­alog number sig­ni­fied reissue then you might have thought you were buying an original.

For the sake of this discog­raphy, I have iden­ti­fied two pri­mary label lay­outs, each based on the in­for­ma­tion printed on the right side of the label. I refer to them simply as Or­ange label 1 and Or­ange label 2.

 

Above top is the look of the label that rock & roll and Elvis Presley fans know so well from the tens of mil­lions of RCA Victor records that Presley sold with the label be­tween 1955 and 1965! Above middle is the pre­vious look of the mid-’60s: the la­bels were still black label but “RCA Victor” and Nipper had been moved to the side­lines. Above bottom is the look that greeted record buyers in 1968: gone was the black, gone was “RCA Victor” as a two-word unit, and gone was the dog and the phonograph.

The basic template for the orange label

RCA had a basic label tem­plate made that was then shipped to the re­gional printers that worked with their pressing plants. These la­bels had only three bits of information:

•  “RCA” in white, open-block let­ters ran ver­ti­cally top-to-bottom on the left side.

•  “Victor” in plain white, san serif type was set hor­i­zon­tally on the right side.

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

Every label had that in­for­ma­tion in the same style and in the same places. Local printers who worked with RCA’s plants; in the case of most GS 45s, that was one or two shops in the In­di­anapolis area. The rest of the label data was set by these local printers who fol­lowed in­struc­tions on the rest of the layout:

•  The artist’s name was in plain black block type (all caps) was above the spindle hole.

•  The song title in the same type was below the spindle hole but above the TMK(s) data.

•  The song­writer credits ap­pear below the title in low­er­case type.

These three lines of type were flushed left with a hard ver­tical line. There were vari­a­tions on this basic label, which I refer to in this ar­ticle as Or­ange label 1 and Or­ange label 2. These vari­a­tions all take place on the right side of the spindle hole below “Victor.”

Orange label 1: without publishing data

Or­ange label 1 can also be called the simple ver­sion due to its having less in­for­ma­tion than Or­ange label 2. Ba­si­cally, this label vari­a­tion does NOT have any pub­lishing data on it. There are three bits of in­for­ma­tion on three lines on the right side: 1) the 447 cat­alog number above 2) “Victor” with 3) the ma­trix number below. Like so:

   [cat­alog number]
   Victor
   [ma­trix number]

These three lines are usu­ally flushed left and usu­ally with a hard ver­tical line. Minor type­set­ting er­rors may exist.

Orange label 2: with publishing data

Or­ange label 2 is a more de­tailed vari­a­tion and in­cludes the song’s pub­lishing in­for­ma­tion (let’s call it the com­plex ver­sion). It has five bits of in­for­ma­tion on at least seven lines of type on the right side: 1) the cat­alog number is above 2) “Victor” but below is very dif­ferent: there we find 3) the song’s pub­lisher with ei­ther ASCAP or BMI taking up two or three lines. Then comes 4) the ma­trix number fol­lowed by 5) the side’s run­ning time (one line). Like so:

   [cat­alog number]
   Victor
   [pub­lishing data]
   [ma­trix number]
   [time]

These lines are flushed left with a hard ver­tical line. Again, don’t be sur­prised to find sim­ilar type­set­ting errors.

A few more discrepancies

There are sev­eral other dis­crep­an­cies with or­ange label GS 45s for which I have not found a pattern.

•  Copies may be found with a recording date above the spindle hole.
•  Copies may be found without a recording date above the spindle hole.

•  The recording date may be the month, day, and year.
•  The recording date may simply be the year.

•  Copies may have “TMK(s) REG­IS­TERED” in upper case at the bottom of the label.
•  Copies may have “TMK(s) Reg­is­tered” in upper/lower case at the bottom of the label.

Designated promos

The term des­ig­nated promo refers to a stock copy of a record des­ig­nated for pro­mo­tional use with a NOT FOR SALE sticker af­fixed to the label on one or both sides. I have not seen an or­ange label GS 45 des­ig­nated for pro­mo­tional use in such a manner; the ex­ample below is a computer-created des­ig­nated promo.

 

On red and the newer black label GS 45s, NOT FOR SALE stickers were ap­par­ently placed by hand on the records, as there is nei­ther rhyme nor reason to their place­ment: right side or left, top or bottom. They could be on one side of a record or on both—some are even up­side down! If or­ange label GS 45s were des­ig­nated for pro­mo­tional use, they would look like this image.

Gold Standard company sleeves

The sec­tion is a trun­cated ver­sion of a longer entry on com­pany sleeves that can be found in Elvis’ Gold Stan­dard 45s Part 2. 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.

RCA had spe­cially man­u­fac­tured spe­cial sleeves for the GS 45s. They were made of in­ex­pen­sive, un­coated paper that iden­ti­fied the record as being part of the Gold Stan­dard Se­ries but was generic in that they did not iden­tify the record. Each sleeve had a die-cut window on both sides so that the record’s la­bels could be read.

Record col­lec­tors refer to these by sev­eral terms—man­u­fac­turers sleeves and fac­tory sleeves are common—but it is com­pany sleeves that I favor and use ex­clu­sively in my ar­ti­cles on record col­lecting. And there are six major de­signs for the Gold Stan­dard Se­ries generic sleeves.

For the Per­fect Elvis Col­lec­tion, each GS 45 should be housed in a GS sleeve man­u­fac­tured at the time for use with that record.

 

For this eight-part se­ries of ar­ti­cles, I refer to this sleeve as “Gold Stan­dard com­pany sleeve de­sign 2.” Pic­tured above is the front and back of the sleeve. It was in­tro­duced in the mid-’60s and lasted into 1973. There­fore, every or­ange label GS 45 in your col­lec­tion should be housed in one of these sleeves!

Assigning values to these items

The fig­ures should tell you the ap­prox­i­mate range of prices that a buyer should ex­pect to pay a knowl­edge­able seller for a record in near mint (NM) con­di­tion. Of course, you might find any record below for less or have to pay more in a com­pet­i­tive auc­tion, but you get the message.

Records in less than NM con­di­tion are worth con­sid­er­ably less than the values as­signed here!

For more in­for­ma­tion, refer to the sub­heading “A few notes on as­signed values and grading” in Elvis’ Gold Stan­dard 45s Part 1.

 

De­spite being the eas­iest number to find among the or­ange label Gold Stan­dards, 447‑0647, Blue Christmas / Santa Claus Is Back In Town, can still sell for three fig­ures if in mint con­di­tion and at­tracting a couple of de­ter­mined collectors.

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 with an ex­ample of the first listing in the discography.

447‑0600    I Forgot To Re­member To Forget / Mys­tery Train
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area (3S/4S)

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 (here 447‑0600) fol­lowed by the ti­tles of the two songs on the record (here I Forgot To Re­member To Forget / Mys­tery Train).

Line 2 notes that it is, in fact, an or­ange label record, which is fol­lowed by the as­signed value (here $100–150).

Line 3 notes the lo­ca­tion of the pressing plant where the record was man­u­fac­tured (here In­di­anapolis), and that pressing is iden­ti­fied 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.

 

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.

 

Tips for collectors

A few suggestion/observations: 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 a plain paper sleeve on one of the Presley plat­ters in your collection.

Every one of these num­bers with an or­ange label is a rather rare record. Some of the harder-to-find num­bers (and they may be the big hits or the not-so-big hits) are prob­ably un­der­valued below: should you want to buy them and own them NOW, you might have to wait years be­fore finding them for sale.

While we know that Blue Christmas and Kiss Me Quick are the most easily found or­ange label GS 45s, we re­ally don’t know which are the rarest. While In­de­scrib­ably Blue has the highest as­signed value below, that may be­cause of its unique­ness as much as to rarity. Time will tell.

At the same time that these or­ange label GS 45s were man­u­fac­tured, many of EP’s EPs were also pressed with or­ange labels—both the Gold Stan­dard ti­tles and the reg­ular ti­tles. These are also among the rarest com­mer­cially is­sued Elvis records and gen­er­ally sell for $200–400 each!

Both Elvis’ Christmas Album and A Touch Of Gold, Volume 3 with or­ange la­bels may be the rarest of the batch: I watched copies sell for $300 thirty years ago.

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.

Newly verified numbers

A few num­bers with or­ange la­bels that were not known to exist to most col­lec­tors in 2014 have been added for this up­date. The new data in­cluding the value is in an orange-brown type (like this).

 

1969–1970

 

Elvis’ first RCA Victor was a reissue of his final Sun single: fans and his­to­rians prefer to think of it as Mys­tery Train b/w I Forgot To Re­member To Forget. That way, the A‑side is an ex­tra­or­di­nary, scintil­lating blues and one of Pres­ley’s best ever record­ings. Alas, such was not the case: RCA wisely pro­moted the more se­date country side, and it reached #1 on the Bill­board and Cash Box C&W sur­veys in early 1956. That is, the very first RCA Victor Elvis record was I Forgot To Re­member To Forget b/w Mys­tery Train, which is how the record is listed in these ar­ti­cles of mine.

447‑0600    I Forgot To Re­member To Forget / Mys­tery Train
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0601     That’s All Right / Blue Moon Of Kentucky
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  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
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                              $    ____
                      NOTE: The ex­is­tence of this record is un­ver­i­fied; there is no as­signed value.

 

447‑0603     Milkcow Blues Boogie / You’re A Heartbreaker
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 150–200
                       •  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
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $   ____
                      NOTE: The ex­is­tence of this record is un­ver­i­fied; there is no as­signed value.

 

Finding an or­ange label GS 45 from 1969 in a com­pany sleeve man­u­fac­tured al­most ten years ear­lier is not that un­usual when col­lecting Elvis Gold Stan­dards. The sticker stuck in the upper left corner of the sleeve shows a re­tail price of 98¢, a price common to 45s from the ’50s into the ’70s. For some col­lec­tors, the sticker mars the beauty of the item; for others, it adds a patina of age and even nos­talgia to the record. As these com­pany sleeves are of nom­inal value, sellers rarely men­tion them in their advertisements—hence they are under no oblig­a­tion to men­tion the sticker in their ads.

447‑0605     Heart­break Hotel / I Was The One
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  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
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0608     Hound Dog / Don’t Be Cruel
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0609     Blue Suede Shoes / Tutti Frutti
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

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

 

447‑0613     Blue Moon / Just Because
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

No matter which Gold Stan­dard label style one dis­cusses, 447‑0614 is al­ways one of the hardest num­bers to find. This is a shame, as Money Honey may be the standout track on Elvis’ first long-playing album, ELVIS PRESLEY (LPM-1254). Hell, it’s one of the stand-outs of 1956, a year full of ex­cep­tional record­ings! He re­tains the machismo and the sassy nudge-nudge-wink-wink know­ing­ness of Clyde McPhat­ter’s orig­inal but turns the whole into a swinging piece of rock­a­billy that echoes the sound and feel of his ear­lier Sun sides.

447‑0614     Money Honey / One Sided Love Affair
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 150–200
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0615     Shake, Rattle And Roll / Lawdy, Miss Clawdy
                      Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                      •  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)
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0617     Too Much / Playing For Keeps
                      Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                      •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0618     All Shook Up / That’s When Your Heartaches Begin
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0619     Jail­house Rock / Treat Me Nice
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0620     (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear / Loving You
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

Gold Stan­dard 447‑0621 is one of the more dif­fi­cult of the #1 hits from the ’50s to find with an or­ange label, no doubt due to a large in­ven­tory of un­sold copies from the pre­vious black label press­ings. While I Beg Of You is hardly one of Elvis’ best sides, it is lik­able and in­fec­tious; had it been is­sued sep­a­rately as an A‑side, it might have been yet an­other #1 while Elvis was in the Army.

447‑0621     Don’t / I Beg Of You
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 150–200
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0622     Wear My Ring Around Your Neck / Doncha Thinks It’s Time
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0623     Hard Headed Woman/ Don’t Ask Me Why
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0624     I Got Stung / One Night
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  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
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0626     A Big Hunk O’ Love / My Wish Came True
                      Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 150–200
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0627     Stuck On You / Fame And Fortune
                      Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0628     It’s Now Or Never / A Mess Of Blues
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0629     Are You Lone­some Tonight / I Gotta Know
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 150–200
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

When strong, non-soundtrack sin­gles were needed to offset the im­pact of the ini­tial on­slaught of Beat­le­mania, Such A Night was pulled from the ex­tra­or­di­nary ELVIS IS BACK album of 1960 and is­sued as Pres­ley’s fourth single of 1964. A fan­tastic workout, Elvis out­per­forms both Clyde McPhat­ter’s and Johnny Ray’s hit ver­sions of the ’50s. Un­for­tu­nately, it was wasted in ’64, where it failed to reach the Top 10. Had this been an A‑side in 1960, it would have been a #1 hit here and abroad. (PS: This is the type of recording where Elvis fans shake their heads in dis­be­lief that non-Elvis people don’t get it.)

447‑0630     Sur­render / Lonely Man
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 150–200
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0631     I Feel So Bad / Wild In The Country
                      Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 200–300
                      •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0634     Little Sister / (Marie’s The Name) His Latest Flame
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 150–200
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0635     Can’t Help Falling In Love / Rock-A-Hula Baby
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0636     Good Luck Charm / Any­thing That’s Part Of You
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

As al­most all the at­ten­tion and air­play was fo­cused on Good Luck Charm. the flip-side was over­looked (it peaked at #31 on Bill­board and only reached #55 on Cash Box). That said, Any­thing That’s Part Of You is a gor­geous recording, al­though as a song it feels un­re­al­ized, es­pe­cially in the bridge. Pres­ley’s voice here is damn near per­fect and this is one of the rea­sons that I think of the early ‘60s as his best pe­riod for bal­lads.

447‑0637     She’s Not You / Just Tell Her Jim Said Hello
                     Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                            $ 200–300
                      NOTE : The only copy of this record auc­tioned on eBay sold for $280 in 2014.

 

447‑0638     Re­turn To Sender / Where Do You Come From
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 100–150
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0639     Kiss Me Quick / Suspicion
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 60–120
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0640     One Broken Heart For Sale / They Re­mind Me Too Much Of You
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 150–200
                       •  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
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 150–200
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0642     Bossa Nova Baby / Witchcraft
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 150–200
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0720     Blue Christmas / Wooden Heart
                      Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               Not re­leased

 

447‑0643     Crying In The Chapel / I Be­lieve In The Man In The Sky
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                                $   ____
                      NOTE: The ex­is­tence of this record is un­ver­i­fied; there is no as­signed value.

 

In early 1964, I Want To Hold Your Hand sat atop all the charts in America and the rest of the civ­i­lized world for weeks on end. And how did Elvis Presley greet the British In­va­sion? With the poorest ex­cuse for a rock & roll single in his ca­reer: Kissin’ Cousins made the track that pre­vi­ously held that honor, Rock-A-Hula Baby, sound like a mas­ter­piece! But the flip-side was an­other story: It Hurts Me is prob­ably the finest recording that he made be­tween 1962 and 1966; it re­mains a pow­erful and ne­glected side al­most fifty years later. Had it been an A‑side on its own, it would have been an­other world­wide hit, even during Beat­le­mania. ¹

447‑0644     Kissin’ Cousins / It Hurts Me
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 150–200
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0645     Such A Night / Never Ending
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 150–200
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0646     Viva Las Vegas / What’d I Say
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 150–200
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

Viva Las Vegas was a dud as an A‑side in 1964—a ter­rible choice for a single during the height of the British In­va­sion. It was al­most im­me­di­ately chal­lenged for AM radio air-time by its flip-side, a re­make of Ray Charles’ mas­ter­piece What’d I Say. But Viva Las Vegas has achieved a life of its own: since Pres­ley’s death,it has be­come syn­ony­mous with Elvis in Las Vegas if not with Vegas it­self! It has ap­peared in a host of Vegas-based movies in the past few decades and will prob­ably find its way into a few more! ³

447‑0647     Blue Christmas / Santa Claus Is Back In Town
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 60–120
                       •  Rock­away pressing with an “R” in the trail-off area.
                       NOTE: Very weirdly, there are no In­di­anapolis press­ings known to exist for this record.

 

447‑0648     Do The Clam / You’ll Be Gone
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 150–200
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0649     Ask Me / Ain’t That Loving You, Baby
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 150–200
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0650     Puppet On A String / Wooden Heart
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $   ____
                      NOTE: The ex­is­tence of this record is un­ver­i­fied; there is no as­signed value.

 

447‑0651     Joshua Fit The Battle / Known Only To Him
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $   ____
                      NOTE: The ex­is­tence of this record is un­ver­i­fied; there is no as­signed value.

 

447‑0652     Milky White Way / Swing Down, Sweet Chariot
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $   ____
                      NOTE: The ex­is­tence of this record is un­ver­i­fied; there is no as­signed value.

 

447‑0653     (Such An) Easy Ques­tion / It Feels So Right
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $   ____
                      NOTE: The ex­is­tence of this record is un­ver­i­fied; there is no as­signed value.

 

What­ever pos­sessed RCA to cham­pion I’m Yours as the hit side of this record es­capes me: it’s a rather staid ballad, rather life­lessly sung by Elvis. While It’s A Long Lonely Highway is far from a great rocker, it would have been in­fi­nitely prefer­able on the radio in the same year as Ticket To Ride and Mr. Tam­bourine Man and Sat­is­fac­tion and etcetera. (Even if it was as­so­ci­ated with the ex­tra­or­di­narily lame Tickle Me movie, no­table only for the lovely pres­ence of Julie Adams and Jo­celyn Lane.) ⁴

447‑0654     I’m Yours / (It’s A) Long Lonely Highway
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 150–200
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0655     Tell Me Why / Blue River
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $   ____
                      NOTE: The ex­is­tence of this record is un­ver­i­fied; there is no as­signed value.

 

447‑0656     Frankie And Johnny / Please Don’t Stop Loving Me
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 150–200
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0657     Love Let­ters / Come What May
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 150–200
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0658     Spinout / All That I Am
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 150–200
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

447‑0659     In­de­scrib­ably Blue / Fools Fall In Love
                       Or­ange la­bels with “RCA” on the left side                                               $ 200–300
                       •  In­di­anapolis pressing with an “I” in the trail-off area.

 

RCA Victor 447‑0659, In­de­scrib­ably Blue / Fools Fall In Love, is the only Gold Stan­dard re­lease for which the or­ange label is the first pressing! For years, its ex­is­tence was un­known to most col­lec­tors! When more buyers and sellers re­alize this, its value should go—especially as it is also one of the rarest of the or­ange label GS 45s.

 

HEADER IMAGE: Elvis and band on stage at the In­ter­na­tional Hotel in Las Vegas in Au­gust 1969. For his first en­gage­ment, Presley wore a black stage outfit that was based on a karategi. For his next ap­pear­ance, he ap­peared in a one-piece, white jump­suit, which would be­come as­so­ci­ated with his live shows for the 1970s.

POST­SCRIP­TU­ALLY, this ar­ticle “The Elvis Presley Gold Stan­dard 45s Part 6 (1969)” is the sixth 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)

 

---

FOOT­NOTES:

1  It is in­ter­esting to note that while Elvis and da Colonel and RCA all seemed to have se­lected Stay Away as the A‑side of the record. As the front and back covers of the pic­ture sleeve make ev­i­dent, the fea­tured side was Stay Away and the record was is­sued to pro­mote Elvis’s new movie. But the DJs flipped the record over and played U.S. Male. 

And U.S. Male is the record that record-buyers bought and the side that marched up the charts: on Bill­board, U.S. Male reached #28 while Stay Away stayed at #67. On Cash Box, it was #26 and #50, re­spec­tively. De­spite this, the RCA Listing No­tice for the first re­lease of this record as Gold Stan­dard 447‑0646 lists Stay Away as the A‑side. Go figure . . .

2   I didn’t want to in­ter­rupt the flow of the discog­raphy above with an em­bedded video, but that’s what foot­notes are for on this site. Enjoy!

3   Since we are on the topic, it’s Movie Rec­om­men­da­tion Time: give a loo-see to 3000 Miles From Grace­land, where Kurt Rus­sell (who played Elvis as a rather angry person in the first movie bio on Presley) leads a pack of thieves all dressed as Elvis into a Vegas casino during Elvis Im­per­son­ator Week in­tended to rob the place. The film is stolen by a bril­liant per­for­mance by Kevin Costner as a psy­chopath who may be Elvis’ bas­tard son. 3000 Miles From Grace­land also fea­tures Chris­tian Slater, Kevin Pollak, David Ar­quette, Jon Lovitz, Howie Long, Bo­keem Wood­bine, Ice‑T, Thomas Haden Church ( a per­sonal fave of mine ever since George Of The Jungle), and Courteney Cox Arquette—who is so damn sexy when she isn’t Monica Geller.