ELVIS PRESLEY LOVE ME TENDER ULTRA-RARE PICTURE SLEEVE

$

38

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·       ELVIS PRESLEY – LOVE ME TENDER c/w ANY WAY YOU WANT ME – -RARE ORIGINAL 1957 RCA VICTOR MONO 45 rpm SINGLE RL-47-6643

·       INCLUDES ULTRA-RARE ORIGINAL PICTURE SLEEVE

·       ORIGINAL U.S. PRESSING

·       THIS IS A GREEN & BLACK AND WHITE VERSION OF THE SLEEVE (OTHER COLOR VARIATIONS EXIST)

·       ORIGINAL BLACK RCA VICTOR MONO LABEL WITH "SILVER TOP" [RCA VICTOR’S NAME IS IN SILVER LETTERS], ‘DOGGIE’ LOGO ON TOP CENTER OF THE LABEL, AND ONE SILVER LINE ACROSS THE SPINDLE HOLE

·       THIS IS THE ORIGINAL, AUTHENTIC, FIRST U.S. PRESSING; THIS IS NOT A REISSUE, AN IMPORT, OR A COUNTERFEIT PRESSING.

·       CLEAN, WEAR-FREE LABELS

(►PLEASE SEE THE IMAGE OF THE COVER, LABEL OR BOTH, SHOWN BELOW)

(Note: this is a REAL image of the ACTUAL item you are bidding on. This is NOT a "recycled" image from our previous auction. What you see is what you’ll get.  GUARANTEED!)

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In 1956, Ken Darby was a veteran Hollywood session singer, vocal arranger, songwriter, and composer. When new recording sensation Elvis Presley was signed to a movie contract and cast in a 20th Century Fox film originally called The Reno Brothers, Darby was assigned to write some songs to turn the Western melodrama into a semi-musical. He came up with four numbers, among them the ballad "Love Me Tender," which he based on the Civil War-era song "Aura Lee, or the Maid with the Golden Hair" (music by George R. Poulton, lyrics by W.W. Fosdick). In Darby's version, it became a sober declaration of and request for love. On August 24, Presley, who had begun shooting the film four days earlier, was brought to a soundstage at Fox for a recording session to record the songs for the film. Under the direction of Darby as arranger and Lionel Newman (who wrote the film's score) as producer, he cut the songs, including the ballad, dutifully, if without a lot of enthusiasm. There were two versions of "Love Me Tender," one of which was to be used in the film and the other, with an extra verse, over the closing credits. The film was retitled Love Me Tender. Presley was currently riding high in the charts with his double-sided single "Don't Be Cruel"/ "Hound Dog," and RCA Victor, his record label, didn't expect to need a new single for a while. But on his September ninth debut on the television variety show Talk of the Town, hosted by Ed Sullivan, Presley introduced "Love Me Tender," causing hundreds of thousands of orders to be placed with record stores. RCA's hand was forced, and a single of "Love Me Tender" was rush-released in late September. On the disc, the song, like the other tunes Darby wrote for the film, was credited to Vera Matson, his wife, and to Presley, who was being cut in on the music publishing. The single debuted in the charts in late October while "Don't Be Cruel"/ "Hound Dog" was still number one. Love Me Tender the movie opened November 16, and shortly after, the title song topped the charts, also reaching the Top Five of the country and R&B charts, eventually selling over three million copies. Beyond the statistics, it served the crucial function of expanding Presley's appeal by allowing him to turn in a convincing performance of a ballad after scoring nationally with a series of rock & roll records. At a time when controversy continued to swirl around his provocative television appearances, Presley began to seem more like a safe, all-around entertainer by taking such steps as recording "Love Me Tender." The song has enjoyed a long life beyond its initial success. Just after Presley's hit version, Henri René & His Orchestra recorded an instrumental version that got halfway up the charts before the end of 1956. In the fall of 1962, television actor Richard Chamberlain, the star of Dr. Kildare, revived it for a Top 40 hit. Percy Sledge made the Top 40 of the pop and R&B charts with his version in July 1967. And Linda Ronstadt, who had recorded the song for her chart-topping 1978 album Living in the USA, saw it released as a country single that charted in March 1979. "Love Me Tender" appeared on 11 chart albums by Presley between 1958 and 1992. Other artists putting it on chart LPs over the years include Ray Conniff, Duane Eddy, Mick Ronson, Merle Haggard, Frank Sinatra, B.B. King (who named a 1982 album after it), Nana Mouskouri, and Amy Grant. And there have been scores of other covers by a wide variety of artists, including Floyd Cramer, Freddy Fender, Engelbert Humperdinck, Bert Kaempfert, Albert King, Carmen McRae, Johnny Nash, the Platters, Ray Price, the Residents, Kenny Rogers, and Link Wray.

Recorded in the same one-day session that produced classic versions of "Hound Dog" and "Don't Be Cruel," "Anyway You Want Me" is a standout urgent ballad that demonstrates a young singer hitting his stride; 21-year-old Elvis Presley sounds absolutely authoritative on the track. In Peter Guralnick's biography -Last Train to Memphis, The Rise of Elvis resley, Gordon Stocker (of Presley's classic backing vocal group, the Jordanaires) recalled his feelings upon hearing Presley sing the song: "I wasn't all that impressed with him, as a singer. I mean, I kind of got a kick out of "Don't Be Cruel"...but then with "Anyway You Want Me," all of a sudden I took a different attitude, the feeling that he had on that particular sound made the hair on my arm come up. I said to the guys, 'Hey men, this guy can sing!'" The song begins with a wily guitar line and Shorty Long's steady, studied "Heart and Soul"-inspired piano rhythm. Accompanied by his legendary backing musicians, Scotty Moore on guitar, D.J. Fontana on drums, Bill Black on bass, and the Jordanaires, as well as Long on piano and Chet Atkins on guitar (two sidemen and producers who became stars in their own right), Presley does a slow-burning croon to start the verses, finishing off the refrains with a powerful bellow. Presley, one of the great song interpreters, inhabits the lyric, singing behind the beat, as would a jazz or R&B singer. He breathlessly climbs the steps of the line "And in your arms I will stay-ay-ay," until finishing it off with a falsetto into the next verse: "I'll be a fool or a wise man...." Written by Cliff Owens with Aaron Schroeder (a Brill Building producer/composer who also co-wrote "Good Luck Charm" and "Big Hunk o' Love" for Presley), the lyric of "Anyway You Want Me" is a typical pledge of love: "I'll be as strong as a mountain/Or weak as a willow tree/Anyway you want me/Well, that's how I will be/I'll be as tame as a baby/Or wild as the raging sea/Anyway you want me." On the page, these lines may seem banal and clichéd, yet Presley's phrasing and inflection make all the difference and, along with his reading of the song's soulful melody, add depth to the sentiment.

(EXCERPTS FROM THE REVIEWS BY WILLIAM RUHLMAN AND BILL JANOWITZ, RESPECTIVELY, ALL MUSIC GUIDE  /ALLMUSIC.COM/)

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THIS IS A NO-RESERVE AUCTION!

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·       CONDITION:

·       45-RPM SINGLE RECORD:

(IMPORTANT NOTE: unless otherwise noted below, ALL records are graded visually, and NOT play-graded!; we  grade records under the normal room light or discrete sunlight)

(a)          WE GRADE THE VINYL AS STRONG VERY GOOD+ . CAUTION: The vinyl is NOT MINT or NEAR MINT, but is nevertheless in a very nice and clean condition. There are some surface marks and abrasions, mostly light and superficial, although some may be longer than 1.1/4 inches (1 inch = 2.5 centimeters)

We could not "feel" these abrasions with our fingertip, and we suspect that these abrasions ARE NOT audible.

(b)          PLEASE NOTE:  This - of course - is an ANALOG recording, and not an inferior, digital recording!!!

(c)           Two small stickers (a name sticker and a filing code sticker) noted on one of the records labels; this may be possible to remove but we did not attempt to.

(d)          Stereo copies of this 45 single are NOT known to exist.

·       PICTURE SLEEVE

THE SLEEVE IS NICE --- ABOUT EXCELLENT OR VG++.

-        Sleeve has a few "wrinkles" along the edges

-         Sleeve has JUST A HINT of ring wear (nothing significant); On the scale from 1 to 10 (1 being the least, and  10 being the most severe), we assess the severity of ring wear as 1.

-         Sleeve has a visible wrinkle (crease) in the paper on the front panel

NO OTHER IMPERFECTIONS ON THE SLEEVE:

-        No split seams

-        No cut-out holes

-        No cut-out corners

-        No drill marks or indents

-        No dirt or dust spots

-        No chipping or denting

-        No stains

-        No writing

-        No yellowing from age

-        No mold or mildew spots

-        No water damage

-        No stamps

-        No bar codes

-        No peel-off marks

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POSTAGE & SHIPPING:

We offer THREE postage rates for both Domestic and International Mail: Media Mail, Priority Mail and Express Mail for domestic, and First Class, Priority International Mail, and Express International Mail for international orders. INTERNATIONAL CUSTOMERS PLEASE NOTE: WE RECOMMEND that you pay for USPS International Priority Mail OR International Express mail when making a payment in order to obtain tracking information, which is NOT available for First Class International shipments.

INTERNATIONAL POSTAGE rates vary from country to country. For SPECIFIC international and domestic postage rates ►click here. While you can be rest assured that ►our packaging is careful, sturdy and impact-proof, please note that damage, loss or theft in transit is always possible, and in the case of some countries even PROBABLE. To discuss this potential problem and ensure flawless delivery, please contact us thru eBay BEFORE placing a bid.

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