Central to the 100th-anniversary celebration within the RCA company is Mike Omansky, senior VP, strategic marketing, for RCA Records. His stated goal, in devising a product line appropriate to this centennial anniversary, is to show to best advantage the broad purview of RCA's accomplishments during the past century. These albums all have 14 tracks each, which have been remastered, and each disc has newly designed packaging. Common to all 16 is a "line look" with an RCA 100 logo". All the RCA 100 titles, as the series is known, will carry an $11.98 list price; the series has a July 10 street date. The label's intrinsic connection to the birth of rock 'n' roll and pop will be underscored by a Best of Elvis Presley compilation.
Omansky notes that the Elvis collection will have a limited availability. After the first six months of its release, the title will be deleted and will effectively cease to exist. "Elvis is a front-line artist; this is the one time that we'll be doing a midpriced Elvis album. We didn't want to have an anniversary without him. We know that retailers are chomping at the bit for this one, judging from what I've seen at NARM." In conclusion, speaking of his efforts to marshal the resources of the venerable imprint, Omansky laughs, commenting, "We've coordinated the efforts of several divisions of RCA for the centennial campaign. This is a lot of work! But it's definitely worth it."