Lee Dawson & Joe Krein will be talking about this more on the next request show (Fri 26th 2009) but we had to put something up
here to warn fans out there against these suspicious looking acetates.
On ebay we have rare “Acetates” which are not what they seem. First we have ‘When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold
Again’ on the PRESTO label, which is dated Feb 1st 1957. We know that the song was recorded in 1956 and the
song was released on Elvis’ second album “Elvis” in October 1956. So why do we have an acetate for this song
from 1957?...........We DON’T!
This and others like it are nothing more than early CD-Rs. They are “Home Recording Discs” (or VD-R’s = Vinyl Disc
Recordable’). In 1932 Gernsback Publications published a book "Home Recording And All About It", written by
George Saliba. In the book are several references to recording "kits", as produced by the Presto Products Company,
and sold to the home recordist and apparently introduced as early as 1930. There were many discs that were
manufactured during World War Two but never recorded on until the 1960s, and some people are still making
recordings on vintage blank vinyl discs TODAY!
There were many other labels that produced VD-Rs apart from the ‘PRESTO’, one of these is ‘AudioDiscs’ and even
RCA produced these home recording discs, so if an Elvis song turns up on one of these, that will cause some
confusion and no doubt another poor fan paying way over the odds for a pretty worthless disc.
Although, one BIG give-away is the double hole or in some cases up to 5 holes, which are used to hold these VD-R'
steady as they spin round while recording. An example is a copy of 'Milkcow Blues Boogie' which has no label but
has the tell, tell 2 holes of a VD-R and just as with ‘When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again’ this will be the master
take and nothing more special than a copy from the real release.
Recently there was one of these “acetates” sold on ebay which had ‘Treat Me Nice’ on it. This too had a double hole
and housed in a ‘AudioDiscs’ sleeve and sold for over $1,000. ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS for some worthless
early day CD-R.
We have no doubt that many fans have paid big money for these supposed “acetates” over the years but we can
now only hope you will go out and spread the word about these VD-R’s and beware of these multi-hole personal
recording discs being passed off as rare acetates.
Just to make you aware, the 1955 recordings 'Fool, Fool, Fool' and 'Shake Rattle & Roll' were on a 'PRESTO' disc
which was used to capture these performances by a radio DJ in Lubbock, Texas. The DJ simply set up the
recording equipment, positioned the microphone and thankfully we have that treasure. This type of Elvis recording
on a VD-R is obviously a find that really is worth £££££££s & $$$$$$$$$s, but all these other "acetates" on these
discs with more than one hole are nothing more than someone making an early copy of a song for their personal
enjoyment.
Lee and Joe will be discussing this more on Fridays show and will update any more details
http://www.elvis-express.com/
www.elvis2001.net
Re one of a kind acetates?
Linear Mode
