ELVIS DIED WITH ONLY 28 GOLD RECORDS. That is, he collected only twenty-eight official RIAA Gold Record Awards during his career. He also moved to that mansion on the hill without a single Platinum Record Award on his wall! Neither he nor Colonel Parker nor RCA Victor showed any real enthusiasm for the awards while he was alive. Since his death, the Presley People have done an admirable job in getting RCA and the RIAA to make things right.
Working with the vast personal files of Colonel Parker, the RIAA certified and awarded 110 Gold and Platinum Record Awards to the Presley estate in 1992. Since then, another eighty-eight Awards have been added to the list. 1
There is a follow-up to this article titled “About Those Elvis Gold And Platinum Record Awards,” which you should also read.
There are many reasons for RCA’s lackadaisical attitude towards these awards, an attitude apparently shared by Elvis and his manager. And looking at the history of the Awards, this perspective was also shared by most of the record industry’s movers and shakers.
When the RIAA launched its “official” Gold Record Awards program in January 1958, it opened its doors to the American record industry. Any company could submit records for independent auditing and receive RIAA certification for a Gold Record Award. They offered the industry access to awards that were standardized and independently authenticated. 2
There is a follow-up to this article titled “About Those Elvis Gold And Platinum Record Awards,” which can be found here.
Gold record awards since the ’40s
Individual record companies had been handing out gold records since the ’40s, so there wasn’t a big rush to get records to the RIAA for their blessing. In fact, the industry essentially ignored the RIAA Awards for years. They picked up a little steam in the late ’60s; albums appeared with RIAA Gold Record stickers affixed to their covers. But the Awards didn’t really catch on until the ’70s. 3
At that point, record companies realized that the awards could be used promotionally: a Gold Record was proof that “millions” of people had already bought an album, so why shouldn’t you buy it?
But for the first ten years, most companies just didn’t see the awards as a big deal and didn’t actively participate. For example, in early 1958 RCA Victor could have immediately requested certification for Gold Record Awards for the following Elvis titles:
Heartbreak Hotel / I Was The One
I Want You, I Need You, I Love You / My Baby Left me
Hound Dog / Don’t Be Cruel
Love Me Tender / Any Way You Want Me
Too Much / Playing For Keeps
All Shook Up / That’s When Your Heartaches Begin
Teddy Bear / Loving You
Jailhouse Rock / Treat Me Nice
RCA Victor could have also submitted the extended-play album ELVIS, VOLUME 2, the only EP to sell more than a million copies in the US! Elvis’ JAILHOUSE ROCK would follow suit later in ’58. Several LPs probably qualified.
They could have.
But they didn’t.
And we will probably never know why.
Qualifying a 45 for a Gold Record
A 45 rpm single had to sell 1,000,000 (one million) copies within the United States.
That’s it.
Qualifying an LP for a Gold Record
A 33⅓ rpm LP album had to sell $1,000,000 (one million dollars) at the manufacturer’s wholesale price. The number of copies that an LP sold was irrelevant to the Award but was slightly more than 700,000 copies for a normal LP.
As the price of records rose, the number of records required to reach the million-dollar gold standard declined. In 1974, new standards for an album were established and an album had to meet two criteria:
• An album must sell $1,000,000 at the wholesale level, plus
• an album must sell at least 500,000 units.
By this time a “unit” consisted of either an LP or tape. While reel-to-reels and 8-tracks were still manufactured, they sold little and had a minuscule impact on sales tallies. But the cassette tape was catching on fast with music-lovers across the country.
Elvis’ RIAA Gold Records 1958-1975
Here are the records certified Gold by the RIAA prior to Elvis’ death in 1977. As noted, there were only twenty-eight, and this teeny-weeny figure had tongues a-wagging for years after Presley’s passing about how RCA must have lied about his sales through the years to account for so low a tally. This would be put to rest in 1992 with the aforementioned certification of 110 Gold and Platinum Record Awards.
The titles below are listed chronologically as they received their certification. Within each year, titles are listed chronologically based on their original release date. Album titles are in bold print.
1958
47-7280 Hard Headed Woman / Don’t Ask Me Why
1960
LPM/LSP-1382 Elvis
1961
LPM/LSP-1707 Elvis’ Golden Records
LPM/LSP-2426 Blue Hawaii
1962
47-7968 Can’t Help Falling In Love / Rock-A-Hula Baby
1963
LPM/LSP-1951 Elvis’ Christmas Album
LPM/LSP-2256 G.I. Blues
LPM/LSP-2621 Girls! Girls! Girls!
1966
LPM/LSP-1254 Elvis Presley
LPM/LSP-2075 Elvis’ Gold Records, Volume 2
LPM/LSP-2765 Elvis’ Golden Records, Volume 3
1968
LPM/LSP-1515 Loving You
LPM/LSP-3758 How Great Thou Art
1969
LPM/LSP-2328 His Hand In Mine
LPM-4088 Elvis (NBC-TV Special)
47-9741 In The Ghetto / Any Day Now
47-9764 Suspicious Minds / You’ll Think Of Me
LSP-6020 From Memphis To Vegas/From Vegas To Memphis
1970
LSP-4155 From Elvis In Memphis
47-9768 Don’t Cry, Daddy / Rubberneckin’
47-9835 The Wonder Of You / Mama Liked The Roses
1971
LSP-4362 On Stage – February 1970
1972
74-0769 Burning Love / It’s A Matter Of Time
LSP-4776 Elvis As Recorded At Madison Square Garden
1973
LPM-6401 Worldwide 50 Gold Award Hits, Volume 1
LSP-4555 That’s The Way It Is
VPSX-6089 Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite
1975
CPL1-0341 A Legendary Performer, Volume 1
Exactly why RCA Victor, Colonel Parker, and Presley balked at building an impressive catalog of RIAA Awards through the years will probably never be known. Due to the auditing and certifications of 1992, we know that had RCA been diligent about the Awards (and about maintaining proper records about their records), Elvis might have left this mortal coil with 50-60 official Gold Records on his walls.
FEATURED IMAGE: Here is Elvis with former producer Steve Sholes showing off the RIAA Gold Record Award for the 1972 album ELVIS AS RECORDED AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN. Presley looks trim and fit, if over-tanned. Of course, there are those eyes . . .
POSTSCRIPTUALLY, I have to stress that the RIAA Awards did not carry a lot of weight in the industry until the mid-’70s, by which time Elvis wasn’t racking up the sales figures that he had previously. It’s possible that Elvis was prouder of getting a gold record from Argentina or South Africa, where people didn’t have the money to buy large quantities of records than he did from getting a redundant RIAA Award for a title that he already had an RCA award hanging on his wall. We’ll never know.
FOOTNOTES:
1 The stories of RCA’s “misplacing” thousands of pieces of paper documenting Presley’s sales through the year have been around since Elvis was alive! Apparently, most of the paperwork from the years following his death (1977-1979) are missing—years in which hundreds of millions of Elvis records were selling around the world! 4
2 Record companies could join the RIAA and pay membership dues and separate fees for the auditing and the actual physical Awards. Non-member record companies also had access to the Awards, but with significantly higher auditing fees.
3 These awards presented by a record company to one of its artists are now called in-house awards and for many records, these are all we have to go on.
4 RCA also “misfiled” all of the master tapes to Presley’s recordings of the 1950s. But that’s another story . . .
That’s a lot of hard info I’ve never seen put together in one place and much appreciated. I always assumed RCA was just under-reporting for tax purposes, hiding profit like the movie companies (supposedly) did. My guess on Elvis’s indifference is that once he had a few for the walls at home it just wasn’t that big a deal, but as you say, we’ll probably never know.
Interesting!
Hi Neal,
There are a few things wrong with this article from a factual standpoint. First of all, the photo of Elvis receiving the in-house gold record for “Heartbreak Hotel” at the Nashville recording session for “I Want You, I Need You, I Love You” was done on April 14, 1956, not April 11, 1956. Elvis was later photographed with this gold record back home in Memphis at the Audubon Drive home with his parents and local DJ Dewey Phillips. Later that month, Elvis was photographed again in Las Vegas with Colonel Parker and an assortment of individuals on stage. This photo was used for the cover of Cashbox magazine at some point in late May, 1956.
Also the photo of Elvis with a heavy set gentleman from August 1, 1972 is wrong. The guy in the photo beside Elvis is not Steve Sholes. The guy in the photo is George Parkhill, who worked for RCA. Steve Sholes had died in 1968, four years prior to the photo being taken.
As to your question regarding why more RIAA awards weren’t issued during Elvis’ lifetime. The answer is pretty easy. RCA was already issuing in-house gold records in most cases, so there really wasn’t any need to pursue the RIAA awards, although, at times it would seem that they were pursued. I should also point out that although you don’t show photographic evidence of it, Elvis did receive some RIAA gold records from Steve Sholes in late 1963 while Elvis was filming “Kissin’ Cousins.” These gold records would have been for the Christmas album and the soundtrack to “Girls!, Girls!, Girls!” I am aware of at least two photos taken. There are several more photos taken of the Houston event from March, 1970 when Elvis received his gold records for the three singles and the two albums. There is also a photo of Elvis’ producer Felton Jarvis, Chet Atkins and RCA executive Harry Jenkins holding gold records. Felton is holding a gold record for the “How Great Thou Art” LP, while Felton is holding one for “In The Ghetto” and Harry Jenkins is holding one for “Suspicious Minds.” I would imagine this photo also dates from sometime around 1970.
Hi Neal, thanks for the articles on RIAA Certifications, they are very helpful and appreciated.
1. The Hound Dog/Don’t Be Cruel single is certified at 4million. There is an in-house award at Graceland for Don’t Be Cruel engraved with “Special Award for 5 million seller” containing 5 actual records pressed in Gold and framed. Is this for Worldwide Sales or USA Sales? I am unaware of the issue date for the award.
2. Are in-house awards for worldwide or USA sales?
3. The Elvis For Everyone LP rear cover contains the albums that have sold over $1million, is this worldwide sales or USA sales?
Thank you in advance for your answers - Anthony
Hi Neal
help unconfuse me please.in one response above you mention,“I am not aware of there being any criteria nor any awards for EPs prior to those given Presley’s estate in 1992. Since then, they use the same standard as singles: 500,000 for Gold and 1,000,000 for Platinum.”
then within another response you wrote, “The first time I saw EPs addressed at all was for the 1992 awards ceremony for Elvis Presley in 1992. At that time, EPs were certified as you surmised:
250,000 for Gold
500,000 for Platinum
1,000,000 for Multi-Platinum”
are you saying that if Elvis had been certified for a GOLD EP when he was alive a GOLD EP was 250,000? but when he did receive GOLD certifications for an EP in March 1992 the criteria was 500,000? thank you again, Anthony