When I began my A Touch of Gold book (burdened with the cumbersome subtitle The Elvis Presley Record & Memorabilia Price Guide) back in 1988, I was mostly concerned with vinyl records. While the book eventually embraced a broad spectrum of music-related Elvis collectibles, I focused my energies on 78 and 45 rpm singles and EP and LP albums.
So my contributors and I paid little attention to prerecorded tapes than I did. We did pay some attention to the reel-to-reel tapes, especially those from the early ’60s that played at 7.5 ips. The boxes for reels were 7×7-inches—the size of a 45 rpm picture sleeve—so the graphics on the covers of those boxes were often attractive.
But we gave short shrift to the 8-tracks that started finding their way into millions of automobiles in the mid-’60s. At best, this format (RCA Victor called them “Stereo 8” tapes) was treated almost like a novelty in my book. Given the bizarre alterations made in the sequencing of the tracks on many titles, that was not unreasonable.
But we treated the itty-bitty, ever-rickety cassette cartridge tape with contempt, despite its having long passed the LP in sales in the US. And despite their popularity with consumers of new music, they were looked down upon by two discerning groups: audiophiles and record collectors.
So, when I started accumulating data for A Touch of Gold, my lack of interest in and knowledge of cassettes was shared by most of my contributors!
Despite this ignorance, we still managed to list more than 300 prerecorded tapes in A Touch Of Gold! Since the publication of that book thirty years ago, I have not paid much attention to the 8-track and cassette formats in any manner.
That is, I remain ignorant of these formats.
I believe that I can safely assume—despite my personal motto being “Never assume a goldarn thing”—that’s probably true for thousands of Elvis collectors. Without intending to, we have made the prerecorded tape the most overlooked format in the hobby of collecting Elvis.
And we have done such a good job of it that even now, more than forty years after the first all-Elvis price guide was published, most Elvis experts are at a complete loss when it comes to differentiating a first pressing of a cartridge tape from a later pressing. Hell’s Belles, some of us don’t even know there are different pressings!
But I believe that’s about to change.
For years, I thought that those changes would occur on my own blog (Elvis – A Touch Of Gold). Such has not been the case as my prejudices have kept me from ever thinking about them.
Welcome to Elvis Presley Tapes.