a blog about elvis presley's music and records
MEMORABILIA collects articles addressing the staggering array of products that have been manufactured to promote or exploit Presley’s fame during his life. I tend to focus on the ads and items that RCA Victor made to promote or exploit Elvis’ records, and the studios made to promote his movies.
Of course, the most collected memorabilia are the toys, trinkets, photos, dolls, and bubblegum cards manufactured in the 1950s and authorized by Elvis Presley Enterprise.
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AN ELVIS REISSUE may be one of the rarest and most valuable Elvis records of the past fifty years. Or, it may be another fake collectible deserving no better status than that of a cleverly-made-yet-unnecessary bootleg. And it’s tied in with a fooked-up but very interesting picture cover and—get this—an illuminating turntable! [Read more] “elvis and the illuminating turntable”
THE HANDWRITTEN LYRICS to Heartbreak Hotel by Mae Boren Axton from October 1955 were up for sale recently. There are few songs in the history of rock & roll that are more important to the genre’s development as the world’s most popular music during the post-war 20th century and none have a better origin story. [Read more] “mae boren axton’s handwritten lyrics to “heartbreak hotel””
THE EXPLOITATION OF ELVIS PRESLEY began in 1956. Elvis Presley Enterprises was established to authorize the manufacturing of novelty items about “the most talked about new personality in the last ten years of recorded music” to be sold to fans. RCA Victor also capitalized on their singer’s popularity by manufacturing a pair of Elvis Presley phonographs. [Read more] “the highly collectible elvis presley phonographs of 1956”
IT’S NOT JUST ELVIS! Jeff Jampol is an estate representative who handles the “brands” and assets of such stars as Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, and the Ramones. He tells a story of having dinner with friends in their thirties and forties and asking them to name the titles of three Beatle songs. [Read more] “probably the biggest year in the history of elvis!”
THE PRIVATE LIVES of other human beings rarely interest me. This includes the people I deal with every day along with the people I enjoy as artists, athletes, entertainers, and even politicians. Consequently, I don’t read many biographies and rarely write about people’s lifestyles. 1
When I write biographically about a musician on my Rather Rare Records blog, their sex lives or the drugs they used only interest me to the degree that it affected their music and creativity. [Read more] “elvis as don juan, cad, and womanizer (but not a hound dog)”
COUNTERFEITING ELVIS ITEMS has been going on since at least the early ’60s when the FBI believes that mob-related organizations printed millions of copies of several best-selling albums from the 1950s and early ’60s. Other records include fine reproductions of the Sun 45s and 78s, various pieces of memorabilia, and fake sets of the 1956 Topps bubble gum cards. [Read more] “fake elvis autographs on records and memorabilia”