UK 45rpm Singles |
| • | 1956 | • | 1957 | • | 1958 | • | 1959 | • | ||||||||||||
| • | 1960 | • | 1961 | • | 1962 | • | 1963 | • | 1964 | • | 1965 | • | 1966 | • | 1967 | • | 1968 | • | 1969 | • |
| • | 1970 | • | 1971 | • | 1972 | • | 1973 | • | 1974 | • | 1975 | • | 1976 | • | 1977 | • |
• Presley Gold "16 number ones"
• RCA 2694 - RCA 2709
In 1976 RCA UK decided to re-issue all 16 of Elvis' UK number one singles.
Each was given a catalogue number at the time and two things would be different.
Firstly, for those early to make a purhcase of all 16 singles they could get them in a presentation box.
Secondly, all 16 woud feature picture sleeves the same ones that the US releases had had.
Sounds great!
RCA UK sent off to RCA US for the respective artwork, in the meantime they created artwork for the presentation box.
Time dragged on, this was pushing the release window further and further away from where RCA UK wanted to be.
What was the problem, where the heck was the artwork? No problem, there was a simple explanation, RCA US had lost the artwork and it wasn't available.
That's how well they looked after Elvis over there!
A solution was found, but it meant now postponing the release until 1977. In the meantime the artwork created for the presentaion box would be used for the new LP "Elvis In Demand" just in case the singles idea had to be knocked on the head.
The solution RCA UK turned to was to a private collector in the UK who owned the US releases.
They took those and recreated the covers directly from the US covers, hence they dont quite have that sharp edge to them.
It's a full circle kind of thing, RCA US couldn't make singles from Sun master tapes, so they had to use 78rpm records as the source, now they were making RCA UK do the same principle with artwork.