Rare
Elvis Presley Recordings Go Up for Auction
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Some
of Elvis Presley's first RCA recordings from nearly
50 years ago, including never-before-heard takes of
"All Shook Up" and "Jailhouse Rock," will be put up
for bid on Sunday at an auction of show business memorabilia.
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The
six unedited reel-to-reel tapes -- "pre-master" originals from
the private collection of the studio engineer who recorded them,
are valued at between $30,000 and $50,000, according to international
auction house Bonhams & Butterfields. Highlights will be played
on Saturday for potential bidders at the Bonhams gallery in
Los Angeles, marking their first public exhibition, auction
spokesman Erik Simon told Reuters.
The
more than two hours of audio consist of 57 musical tracks,
including multiple takes of songs Presley performed in the
studio, as well as casual banter between Presley, members
of his band and the engineer, Thorne Nogar. It was Nogar,
working under contract for RCA at Radio Recorders studios
in Los Angeles, who ended up in possession of the reels and
whose family has put them up for bid through Bonhams & Butterfields.
"We've
had them for a lot of years, and I think the people should
enjoy them," said Nogar's son, Stephen, 57, a retired trucker
who now resides in Kentucky. "And frankly, we could use the
money." Because they do not hold the underlying copyright
to Presley's music, Nogar said his family may sell the physical
recordings to another party for "personal enjoyment" only.
The tapes cannot be copied for commercial gain, he said.
The
tapes were made from September 1956 through September 1957
during the singer's initial sessions at RCA, which had bought
out Presley's contract from Sun Records for $35,000. Nogar,
who died in 1994 at age 72, made a habit of rolling two tapes
simultaneously as he recorded Presley so he would have a backup
of the sessions in case RCA producers changed their minds
about which version of a song they preferred after the master
was cut. It was the backup that Nogar kept.
"He
called them his ass-saver tapes," his son said, adding that
the quality is noticeably crisper than even a new vinyl record,
which is four "generations" removed from sound made in the
studio. "You ought to hear a first-generation tape. It's so
much fresher," Nogar said. When bidders here the playback
on Saturday, he said, "They're going to find out what a 22-year-old
Elvis sounds like." The recordings include such early Presley
hits as "Jailhouse Rock" and "All Shook Up," all the material
he recorded for his original Christmas album and a batch of
religious tunes.
Stephen
Nogar said his personal favorite is a ballad titled "Have
I Told You Lately That I Love You." The Presley tapes are
part of a larger auction being held by Bonhams, which also
will include the original suits worn by the Beatles on their
first album cover, a guitar owned by rock legend Jimi Hendrix,
rare Disney animation celluloids and a collection of more
than 300 vintage movie posters. (News, Source:
Reuters)
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