Elvis Presley
The Originals

I became interested in the original versions of Elvis's recordings in the early 1990s. I was already aware, of course, that many of the numbers for which he was famous had been recorded originally by someone else and it was thanks to Elvis that I had learned to enjoy other forms of music and other artists. I'm sure that without his "introduction," many of these artists would have remained unknown to me.

In about 1994 I started searching in earnest for information about Elvis originals. In the back of my mind I had a vague idea of putting together a book and perhaps publishing it together with a series of CDs containing the original versions. When it became apparent that the Web was going to be easily accessible, I decided instead to place the information there, which I first did in about 1998, when I had a list of perhaps 150 titles. I had no idea that I would add so many more titles to the list, of course!

In searching for original versions, I have used numerous sources, including:

• The Encyclopedia of Rock Vols. 1-3; Phil Hardy & Dave Laing; 1977
• Encyclopaedia Britannica; 1978
• Million Selling Records From The 1900s To The 1980s; Joseph Murrells; 1984
• Elvis, His Life From A to Z; Fred L. Worth & Steve D. Tamerus; 1989
• Hits of the '60s: Million Sellers; Demitri Coryton & Joseph Murrells; 1990
• Good Rockin' Tonight; Colin Escott with Martin Hawkins; 1991
• Mystery Train; Greil Marcus; 1991
• Lost Highway; Peter Guralnick; 1992
• Feel Like Going Home; Peter Guralnick; 1992
• This Day In African-American Music; Ted Holland; 1993
• The History of Blues; Frank Davis; 1995
• The Originals; Arnold Rypens; 1996
• Go, Cat, Go!; Carl Perkins and David McGee; 1996
• Elvis Presley: A Life In Music; Ernst Jorgensen; 1998
• Classic Country: Legends of Country Music; Charles K. Wolfe; 2001
• Memphis Boys: The story of American Studios; Roben Jones; 2010
• Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings Vol. 1; Steve Sullivan; 2013

(Year shown indicates publication year of the edition I used.)

The above list is certainly not exhaustive -- many of the books I have used are listed among my Elvis In Print and Popular Music In Print sites, but these were certainly my early sources. LP covers and CD inserts have also provided the occasional hint, though these are frequently inaccurate!

A number of people have sent me corrections and additions to the site: Garth Bond (UK?), Sebastiano Cecere (Italy), Chris Deakin (UK), Stig Ericsson (Sweden), Joop Jansen (Netherlands), Torben Jensen (Denmark), Robin Jones (Saudi Arabia), Henk Muller (Netherlands), Rami Poutiainen (Finland), Aad Sala (Netherlands), Trevor Simpson (UK), Leroy Smith (Netherlands), Kris Verdonck (Belgium). If I've forgotten anyone, please forgive me! Thanks to all who have taken the trouble to contact me. in this respect.

I have endeavoured to at least double-check all information shown for each title. In some cases, doubts still exist and these are indicated in the relevant entries. Checking the information is done with both traditional material (books, etc) and through searching the Web, dropping questions in discussion boards, and mailing people I think might be able to help -- often family members or associates of the supposed original artist.

I hope you will enjoy (or have already enjoyed) Elvis Presley: The Originals!

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