The secrets of Elvis' record collection. The June 2004 issue of Britain's excellent Record Collector magazine featured a very interesting article about what is in Elvis' personal record collection. It provides a great insight into Elvis' eclectic musical interests with many titles sure to surprise fans. The artists featured are a wide variety of names well known to fans and many artists fans will not have heard of before. EIN also checks out some other detailed looks at "Elvis Vinyl crates" and what records he collected...

The full list of Elvis' record collection was supplied by EPE and comprises more than 2,000 items of which more than 1,000 are catalogued in the Record Collector article (review below), meanwhile Michael Lollar from the Memphis Commercial Appeal also examines Elvis record crates.

From Elvis's crates ... Influential singers fill list of vinyl
- By Michael Lollar

But Elvis friends said they did not need to see a list to know that Gospel recordings were Elvis's favorites and the music that Elvis most often played for friends. "He loved close harmony," says former Memphis Mafia member Red West, who lived at Graceland. He says Elvis's favorite groups were the Harmonizing Four and Golden Gate Quartet and his favorite gospel singers included Jimmy Jones, Jake Hess (who sang with the Statesmen and later formed the Imperials) and Mahalia Jackson.

It was that close harmony that also made him a big fan of the Ink Spots and The Platters, especially love songs, says West. But Elvis's tastes were also guided by his personal views, so that the flower-power draw of The Mamas and the Papas, one of the biggest close-harmony groups of the '60s and '70s, was too liberal for his tastes, says West.

Gospel groups in Elvis's collection include the Blackwood Brothers, the Imperials, the Statesmen Quartet, the Stamps, the Harmonizing Four, the Revivalaires, the Jubil-Aires and the Oak Ridge Boys.

Soul and rhythm and blues performers are another major part of the collection, and it was a handful of them who would be at the top of Elvis's all-time favorite solo artists, Klein says. Former church choir singer Roy Hamilton, whose big baritone voice turned him into a major rhythm and blues artist who crossed over into pop in the '50s, may have been Elvis's No. 1 favorite singer. He especially loved Hamilton's version of Unchained Melody and later recorded it himself.

"In Elvis's version you can hear Roy Hamilton (his style) all the way through it," says Klein. Hamilton also influenced Jackie Wilson, Elvis's other all-time favorite, says Klein. Wilson's Night and Lonely Teardrops were two of Elvis's favorite songs.

Memphis Mafia member Marty Lacker, who lived at Graceland and later founded the city's music commission, says singer Jimmy Jones of the Harmonizing Four gospel group was another Elvis favorite. At dinner one night in the Graceland dining room, Elvis told him the people who "really influenced" him were big-band and pop singer Billy Eckstine, rhythm and blues singers Brook Benton and Arthur Prysock and gospel singer Jake Hess.

But Elvis's tastes were always varied, says Memphis Mafia member Jerry Schilling, former head of the Memphis and Shelby County Music Commission. While he owned several Frank Sinatra records, he was an even bigger fan of Dean Martin. Schilling also remembers Hamilton as an all-time Elvis favorite, but also lists Mario Lanza, the Ink Spots, the Blackwood Brothers, the Prisonaires, The Platters, The Drifters and The Jackson 5. "We followed the Jackson 5 in Lake Tahoe once when Lisa (Lisa Marie Presley) was 6 years old. That's when she first met Michael Jackson."

Rock bands are a rarity in the collection. There were four Beatles albums and albums by Chicago and the Turtles, but West says Elvis preferred soloists. West, a songwriter, once tried to turn Elvis on to the song Green, Green Grass of Home, but Elvis wasn't interested. When Tom Jones recorded it, Elvis was returning to Memphis on a tour bus. "When we got within range of Memphis, he kept stopping every few minutes to call George Klein (at WHBQ radio) and got him to play it every few minutes from Little Rock to Memphis.'' Jones and Presley later became good friends, often visiting each other backstage after their Las Vegas shows.

There are relatively few female singers in the record collection, but Elvis's friends say his favorites included Anne Murray (for her "clear and distinctive voice"), Vikki Carr (It Must Be Him), Mahalia Jackson, Della Reese, Dionne Warwick, Bobbie Gentry, Leslie Uggams, Timi Yuro, the Andrews Sisters, the McGuire Sisters and his former backup group The Sweet Inspirations. His record collection includes a duet album between Memphis father and daughter Rufus and Carla Thomas.

Elvis, the rocker and balladeer, was not a fan of jazz , but he had an album by Duke Ellington, Newport 1958, in the collection. There was also only a small sampling of classical music - Brahms's Symphony No. 1, Beethoven's Konzert Fur Klavier Und Orchestra No. 5 and Mozart's Requiem Mass in D Minor.

Graceland TV room with Elvis' Hi-Fi & vinyl collection on the far left - check out the stack of 45rpms

Some of the highlights listed in the Record Collector article (there are many more) include:

• Jingle Bells by Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters is the earliest released (1943) single in the collection

• the collection includes significant numbers of R&B but remarkably few seminal rock & roll releases. The large catalog of artists included Johnny Ace, Ray Charles, Faye Adams, Joe Turner, Little Walter and Ivory Joe Hunter

• similarly, 'white' gospel recordings are well represented by names such as The Blackwood's, the Speer Family, The Statesmen, the Higher Ground and the Brock Brothers, while 'black' gospel hardly gets a look in, with only a handful of singles and LPs by artists including the Soul Stirrers, Golden Gate Quartet and the Rance Allen Group

• Ballad recordings by The Clovers, the Crickets, The Platters, the Spiders, the Dominoes, Pat Boone and Glenn Miller/The Ink Spots

• The Country music genre is well represented through recordings by Jimmy Little, Bobbie Gentry, Eddy Arnold, Rita Coolidge, Jim Reeves and Ray Price

• soul recordings by Smokey Robinson, Etta James, Sam Cooke, Clyde McPhatter and Ben E. King among many others

• Orchestral records by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra

• Choral recordings by the Bethany First Church of the Nazarene and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir

• Movie themes by Leonard Bernstein, Marty Gold and the Manhattan Pops

• Then contemporary rock sounds - The Allman Brothers Band , Free and Mott The Hoople records

• Then contemorary pop sounds - Jose Feliciano, Nilsson, Gilbert O'Sullivan, Tom Jones, Englebert Humperdinck, Dionne Warwick and Anne Murray

• Collection of speeches (In Search of Freedom) by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King

• Charles Boyer's LP of spoken love songs (Where Does Love Go)

• The (symbolic single) I Can Make It With You by Jackie DeShannon

• Several comedy albums including The First Family by Robert Kennedy impersonator, Vaughn Meader, and Laugh...Live from Jonathan Winters

• Red West's acetate of If Everyday Was Like Christmas (a festive theme recurred throughout Elvis' large collection with dozens of yuletide season titles)

• 
  

The list of artists Elvis listened to is particularly broad. Apart from those mentioned above, others signifying an interesting cross-section of the musical rainbow are: Marty Robbins, Frank Sinatra, Brownie McGee, the Sunshine Sisters, Mac Davis, Rex Allen Jr., the New York Philharmonic, J.J. Cale, Glen Campbell, Bobby Bare, Bonnie Guitar, Wanda Jackson, Brenda Lee, The Statesmen, Buck Owens, the North Cleveland Church of God, The Supremes, Jackie Wilson, Johnny Cash, Harry Belafonte, Dean Martin, Roy Hamilton, Adam Wade, Billy Vaughn, Della Reese, Jerry Lee Lewis, Eddie Fontaine, Cliff Richard and Carla Thomas.

Of special mention has to be Elvis' possession of "Ballads of The King (Songs of Elvis Presley)" by the Johnny Mann Singers.

And yes, for those of you wondering, Elvis' personal record collection included several of his own releases. Titles found included Elvis Is Back (reportedly well worn), Peace In The Valley (EP), A Date With Elvis (LP) and Jailhouse Rock (45rpm). However, Cairns and White state that it is "nothing like the full set".

In the book 'Elvis The Rough Guide' author Paul Simpson lists some of the highlights of interest from Elvis' record collection..

21. "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" - The Righteous Brothers
22. "It's a Man's Man's World" - James Brown
23. "Spanish Flea" - Herb Alpert
24. "Ode to Billy Joe" - Bobby Gentry
25. "Baby I Love You" - Aretha Franklin
26. "Light My Fire" - Jose Feliciano
27. "Everybody's Talkin'" - Nilsson
28. "I Hear You Knocking" - Dave Edmunds.
29. "You Don't Mess Around With Jim" - Jim Croce
30. "My Way" - Frank Sinatra

ALBUMS
1. "Every Time I Feel the Spirit" - Mahalia Jackson
2. "Dino's Italian Love Songs" - Dean Martin
3. "Piano in the Foreground" - Duke Ellington
4. "The First Family" - Vaughn Meader
5. "Greatest Hits" - Chuck Berry
6. "The Greatest Live Show on Earth" - Jerry Lee Lewis
7. "Where Does Love Go" - Charles Boyer
8. "Crying Time" - Ray Charles
9. "Live in Las Vegas" - Tom Jones
10. "Cherish" - David Cassidy. (Presumably bought for, or by, Lisa Marie)

If you want to know more about Elvis' Record Collection the extremly detailed 2004 article "The King and Hi-Fi" from the Record Collector magazine is a valuable entry in our understanding of Elvis Presley the person. Until EPE releases a definitive catalog, The King and Hi-Fi is likely to stand as the most comprehensive examination of what is a most interesting subject. We recommend it to all serious Elvisphiles.

(Original EIN Review, Source: EIN, 3 August 2004)

None of those surprise me.

I think Sam Cooke, Jim Croce and Jose Feliciano surprised me because I'm a fan and never heard he liked them. David Cassidy too although it said Lisa Marie might have liked him nd bought for her.

Cool article, a few artists on the list which surprised me were the J5 and Cliff Richard (although I'm guessing he was aware of Cliff being a fan of his music and Cliff himself has stated he was the UK's equivalent to Elvis). Also thought Roy Orbison would be included as I've read that Elvis was a fan of Roy's.

Good article; thanks for sharing. I'm surprised some of Elvis' crew is still kicking. So, Lisa Marie first met MJ at the age of six...

I knew this lol

EP's taste was similar to mine with the exception that I dig jazz more than he did. And other musical forms that he never got a chance to hear (and probably didn't want to if you know what I mean. ).

Timmy84 said:

I knew this lol

EP's taste was similar to mine with the exception that I dig jazz more than he did. And other musical forms that he never got a chance to hear (and probably didn't want to if you know what I mean. ).

Rap? Yeah the J5 records were for Lisa I guess. I wonder if he ever met the Jacksons in Vegas? The other records don't surprise me too much, since I heard interviews or friends say he liked them. Elvis is Back LP had Jazz elements though. Boot Randolph who played sax on that LP I think was a jazz artist?

[Edited 4/5/14 5:38am]

Jackie Jackson talked about how Elvis's bodyguard almost threw him out the elevator in Las Vegas but Elvis reconigzed who he was and told them to leave him alone

JoeBala said:

Timmy84 said:

I knew this lol

EP's taste was similar to mine with the exception that I dig jazz more than he did. And other musical forms that he never got a chance to hear (and probably didn't want to if you know what I mean. ).

Rap? Yeah the J5 records were for Lisa I guess. I wonder if he ever met the Jacksons in Vegas? The other records don't surprise me too much, since I heard interviews or friends say he liked them. Elvis is Back LP had Jazz elements though. Boot Randolph who played sax on that LP I think was a jazz artist?

[Edited 4/5/14 5:38am]

According to one biography, they did but it was quite brief. More like "my daughter loves your stuff" kind of thing.

Larry King Live: January 9, 2003

Caller: Hey, Jeremy, one question I've had is Elvis Presley. Is Michael a fan of his? Because they're so much alike.

Jermaine Jackson: Yes, very much. We're fans of Elvis, too. We grew up watching his movies, everything. We like him.

Larry King: Did you ever meet him?

Jermaine Jackson: We met him one time in the elevator in...

Larry King: Vegas?

Jermaine Jackson: I think it was Tahoe. And he came and we were doing a show there. And he came in and we were coming down or some were going up. And he said -- something like, Oh, yeah, you Jackson boys.

But we were in awe because it's Elvis.

Larry King: Michael was there, too?

Jermaine Jackson: Yes.

Larry King: It's Elvis. So it's the Jackson 5 and Elvis on this elevator? Just an ordinary little elevator trip.

Jermaine Jackson: Yes.

From Elvis's crates ...
Influential singers fill list of vinyl
Michael Lollar, Memphis Commercial Appeal
Sunday, June 8, 2003

Don't look for a Robert Goulet album in Elvis Presley's record collection. It was Goulet who once inspired Elvis to shoot out a TV set at Graceland. But, from Chuck Berry to Bobbie Gentry to Beethoven, Presley was a fan.

It was Presley's synthesis of gospel, blues, soul, country and rhythm and blues that helped construct rock and roll in the 1950s, and his record collection reflects the far-ranging tastes that followed him into the 1960s and 1970s.

Graceland and Elvis Presley Enterprises have cataloged the collection with 1,000 albums and singles filling up a 24-page list top-heavy with the "big voices" and "clear and distinctive" styles that were a magnet for Presley.

Elvis Presley Enterprises, which owns the rights to all things Elvis in the United States, allowed only a cursory look at the list. "We do not release archival lists in their entirety," said Graceland spokesman Todd Morgan. A partial copy of the list will be released this month as a perk for members of the Elvis Presley Collector's Club, formed by Graceland as an insider's view of the King's things.

"He used to say, 'I can appreciate the best of everything,' " says Elvis friend and disk jockey George Klein, who once asked Elvis why he liked opera stars Mario Lanza and Enrico Caruso.

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2003/jun/08/from-elviss-crates

Thanks for sharing this. Very cool insight into Elvis musical inspirations.

Awesome article. I always love hearing what kinds of records artists have in their collections.

Cool glad you guys are enjoying it. Here is another article:

http://www.mabroselviswor...sue298.htm

This is pretty cool...

here is a story Billy Stanley(Elvis's stepbrother) recently told on facebook...

Here's a cool memory... I remember one night I was down stairs in the den listening to this album, (KISS ALIVE) I was acting like I was playing the guitar, I had the music turned up, loud... While I was playing, Elvis walked in... He laughed at what he saw, then asked me to turn it down a little bit... As I was turning it down, the song "Let Me Go, Rock And Roll" came on... Elvis said, turn it back up, I like that... I turned the volume up again and showed him the album cover... He looked at the cover and smiled, then said, Kiss uh??? I guess that means Keep It Simple Stupid... I laughed and said, I never thought of that, but I like it... After the song was over, Elvis surprised me by telling me to play it again, so I did... He just kept looking at the album... Each time the song ended he asked me to play it again, he did this 6 times... I asked him what he thought about the band, he laughed and said, well they have nerve, that's for sure... Wearing makeup like that takes nerve... Then Elvis said, I really like the guitar work on that song, it has a 50's groove to it, only it's on steroids, that guy is really good... I met the guitar player for Kiss last year and told him this story... Ace freaked out, he said I just made his life complete, because he has been an Elvis fan all his life and to know Elvis actually heard him play really made him feel good... Ace also said, it was his dream to play guitar for Elvis, he wanted to do a record session with him... That would have been cool if it could have happened, I told him... ~Billy Stanley