Jack White paid $300,000 for Elvis’ first recording, which he plans to reissue

By Marah Eakin  |  March 6, 2015 | 5:33pm
Aux Features Music
Jack White paid $300,000 for Elvis’ first recording, which he plans to reissue

Jack White’s newish pompadour is beginning to make more sense. In a new interview with Billboard, the singer revealed that he recently purchased Elvis Presley’s first-ever vinyl recording for a tidy $300,000. He’s not keeping that old, hip-shaking goodness to himself, though: White plans to reissue the single via his own Third Man Records this Record Store Day, April 18.

The split acetate 10-inch contains covers of both “My Happiness” and “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin” and was recorded in 1953. Third Man says its reissue will use “the actual unrestored audio as it currently exists,” crackles and all, and that the label has paid “the utmost attention to detail… in order to create an object so close to the historic original as to almost be indistinguishable from one another,” right down the “plain, nondescript, of-the-era sleeve.”

For those not willing to wait in line next month, the label will also reissue a 7-inch version of the tracks later this year. That version will have undergone restoration by the Country Music Hall Of Fame, meaning the audio will sound cleaner and more palatable to modern listeners without losing what Third Man says is “the feeling and the soul that makes these two songs both haunting and breath-taking.”

 
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