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elvis’ 50 worldwide #1 chart-topping hits

Lawdymiss­clawdy, but I ac­ci­dental like pushed “Pub­lish” in­stead of “Save Draft” and so I sent this ar­ticle out onto the world­wide web well be­fore it was com­pleted. So I have to apol­o­gize and tell you that I’ll finish it lickety-split and get it back up here where it belongs! [Read more] “elvis’ 50 worldwide #1 chart-topping hits”

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the elvis presley gold standard 45s part 8 (1976–2000)

THE GOLD STAN­DARD SE­RIES was re­vamped for the fourth and final time in 1976 with a new look. Along with the rest of the RCA cat­alog, the modern look and layout of the pre­vious or­ange and red la­bels was jet­ti­soned and the com­pany opted for a retro look: black was back and so was Nipper! [Read more] “the elvis presley gold standard 45s part 8 (1976–2000)”

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the elvis presley gold standard 45s part 7 (1969–1976)

IN 1969, the Gold Stan­dard Se­ries was changed for the third time: the vi­su­ally life­less or­ange label was re­placed by a more at­trac­tive bright red label. (The or­ange label re­main as the pri­mary label for RCA’s stan­dard cat­alog sin­gles and al­bums.) Oth­er­wise, the layout and the type­face re­mained the same from the pre­vious to the newest.  [Read more] “the elvis presley gold standard 45s part 7 (1969–1976)”

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

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.  [Read more] “the elvis presley gold standard 45s part 6 (1969)”

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

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. [Read more] “the elvis presley gold standard 45s part 5 (1965-1968)”

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the elvis presley gold standard 45s part 2 (company sleeves)

SOME­WHERE ALONG THE WAY, the powers-that-be at RCA Victor de­cided that the record­ings that Elvis Presley la­bored over in the studio were not up to snuff. You know, the ones that sold a ba­jil­lion copies and al­most single-handedly jus­ti­fied the in­ven­tion of the 45 rpm single as a medium. [Read more] “the elvis presley gold standard 45s part 2 (company sleeves)”

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the elvis presley gold standard 45s part 1 (foreword)

THE GOLD STAN­DARD SE­RIES of reis­sues of Elvis Pres­ley’s 45 pm sin­gles ran for more than forty years. During this time, ninety-five records were re­leased, in­cluding thir­teen unique pic­ture sleeves! Some of these records went through five label changes, meaning each has five major vari­a­tions of in­terest to must-have-it-all Elvis col­lec­tors, of which there are more than a few. [Read more] “the elvis presley gold standard 45s part 1 (foreword)”

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the elvis presley gold standard 45s part 4 (1964)

IN 1964, the Gold Stan­dard Se­ries was used by RCA to ex­pose the old Elvis to the new and younger record buyers brought to the stores by the Bea­tles and the rest of the British Invasion—which in early 1964 was ba­si­cally the Fab Four and the Dave Clark 5. [Read more] “the elvis presley gold standard 45s part 4 (1964)”

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those bloody rare orange label gold standard 45s

WHY ARE THEY SO RARE? When were these records re­leased with these bloody or­ange la­bels? How many ti­tles were re­leased? How many copies of each were man­u­fac­tured? These ques­tions have puz­zled Elvis col­lec­tors for years—they cer­tainly baf­fled me as ed­itor of the O’­Sul­livan Wood­side record col­lec­tors price guides way back when. [Read more] “those bloody rare orange label gold standard 45s”