Sun Promos For Auction

On AmericanMemorabilia.com you can buy the complete set of Sun singles from The Matt Wanhala Collection until September 21. The description below is taken from the auction site:

In 1952 Memphis businessman, Sam Phillips, founded the Sun Record label. Two years later, and still languishing in obscurity, Sam encountered what would be his greatest discovery -- Elvis Presley. The multi-talented Presley had all the tools -- a captivating stage presence, a genuinely novel sound uniting pop and soul, and a voice uniquely spellbinding. To promote this talent, Sam recorded and then distributed promo records to various radio stations. These records he hand-stamped, “SAMPLE” (in red, generally on the A-side label) and then dispensed in featureless brown-paper wrap. In all, Phillips produced five different Elvis Presley 45 rpm's. Today, any one of these is in alarmingly scant supply. However, our tenaceous collector, Matt Wanhala, captured all five of them, and we now make this complete unit available to our readers. To appreciate this collection of Sun promos fully, we cite a recent article that appeared in Goldmine Magazine, a periodical dedicated to that collecting community. In that narrative, John Tefteller was quoted to assert that “...he didn’t know of anyone else who had assembled a collection of all five promos. You never see more than one [record]...” adding, “...and maybe only one every 10 years or so.”

Pertinent to this collection, we report that each record is in NM or stronger condition (except where noted), and each is accompanied by the non-illustrated, plain brown sleeve. Specifically,

Sun 209 “That’s All Right”/”Blue Moon of Kentucky” Upon careful examination, we discover that the B-side label has the release number “209” inverted. No other copy of this record is known to exist with that error. We surmise that after this record was pressed, Sam Phillips caught the mistake and immediately rectified it. The unusual error (now likely unique) clearly makes this the rarest copy of Elvis Presley’s first record.

Sun 210 “Good Rockin’ Tonight”/”I Don’t Care If The Sun Don’t Shine” It's important to note that the songwriter credit on the label for “Good Rockin’ Tonight,” is mistakenly listed as “Ray Brown” (not “Roy Brown”). Equally noteworthy, there are no publishing credits listed on the label for “Good Rockin’ Tonight.” These errors provide verification that this vinyl is probably from the first pressing. Later releases have both the publishing credits and the songwriter credits corrected.

Sun 215 “Milk Cow Blues Boogie”/”You’re A Heartbreaker” Both sides grade Mint with no visible signs of play. We qualify this record as “rare” but particularly so since it's stamped “SAMPLE” on both sides.

Sun 217 “Baby Let’s Play House”/I’m Left, You’re Right, She’s Gone” This record was obtained from noted Elvis Presley collector, Richard Consola. Stamped “SAMPLE” on both labels.

Sun 223 “Mystery Train”/”I Forgot To Remember To Forget” Both sides of this record are technically EX (due solely to penned writing appearing neatly on both labels). This promo, also stamped "SAMPLE" on both sides, came to Matt Wanhala through a Goldmine ad placed by collector Bob Brennan. Traceable to veteran DJ, Marvin Lacy, this record got no air time as Lacy disliked the flash-in-the-pan Elvis Presley who, he contended, was corrupting country/western with his brand of "rockabilly."

During the time when Sun 209, 210 and 215 were in John Tefteller’s possession, he was contacted by BMG Records (formerly RCA Records) with the request to borrow the records for use on the “Elvis At Sun” compact disc reissue. BMG found that these very copies had a greater sound “presence” and fidelity than their original source material. Ultimately BMG did use the three records to create the digitally enhanced re-issue that was released in June 2004.