ELVIS PRESLEY, Heartbreak Hotel, 10" 78 rpm demo white label, c/w Ted Heath

	£		321
	$		425

I'm adding loads of  vinyl at the rate of 1 or 2 lots a day for the next few weeks...

Today's 1st offering is...

ELVIS PRESLEY - Heartbreak Hotel

10" 78 RPM white label demo

On the other side is TED HEATH - The Faithful Hussar

This is a bit of an odd one. Both sides have white labels printed 'Demonstration Record Not For Sale' and 'The B. F. Wood Music Co., Mills House, London, W.C.2', and then handwritten 'Heartbreak Hotel, Elvis Presley, HMV POP 182' on one side and 'Ted Heath, The Faithful Hussar, Decca F10746' on the other side. As you can see in the pictures, for some reason someone has scribbled all over the label on the Elvis side and even tried to remove it. The vinyl has surface scratches but plays perfectly both sides, with no jumping or sticking, and just the amount of hiss and crackle you would expect from a 78 from 1956.

The sleeve is just plain brown, and I have no idea if it's the original or not, but it feels old enough.

This really is a bit of an oddity - have you ever seen another record with a king on one side and a prime minister on the other?!

TEMPTINGLY LOW START, NO RESERVE

Postage in UK is £4

Of course, if you win several lots then postage costs will be adjusted accordingly.

I'm having a serious clearout of my massive vinyl collection of rock, pop, punk, new wave and miscellaneous stuff that I will be listing over the next month or so. Check regularly for the latest additions.

On 02-Mar-18 at 17:12:33 GMT, seller added the following information:

More information....

Firstly, I know that Ted Heath the bandleader is not the same person as Ted Heath the prime minister. It was meant as a joke.
Secondly, there has been a lot of interest in this and after a bit of research it does actually seem to be very rare indeed.
I have played both sides and can say that it is definitely Elvis on one side and Ted Heath on the other side. I recorded both sides on my phone and if the bidding goes into 3 figures in the next few days I may well put it on YouTube or something.
I am fairly sure it is shellac, not vinyl, after doing the tapping test and it made a nice ringing sound. It weighs 154g without the sleeve. There are a few very minor chips in the rim, but so minor I didn't think I needed to mention them.
I have found 3 instances of a one-side-only version with the same hand-written label selling on ebay for 100s of pounds, and apparently some people think it more valuable if there are different artists on each side. 
I bought it at an auction in Newark a few years ago in a bundle with 20 other 78s for, I think, £4. I am selling the others as a job lot separately, they're mostly jazz and blues.
I could take it off and re-list with a silly reserve or buy-it-now price but I'm not going to, and please don't ask for a buy-it-now price as it's much more exciting to wait and see what happens.

Happy bidding!

On 05-Mar-18 at 19:34:51 GMT, seller added the following information:

And more information...

You can now listen to both sides of the record on YouTube. www.youtu.be/OnJyzrKzajc If the above doesn't work just search YouTube for 'Elvis Presley Ted Heath'
After further research, it seems that this is an acetate. I have added some more pictures showing the tiny chip in the rim that reveals what looks like a metal inside coated with nitrocellulose lacquer (thanks Wikipedia), and also the drive hole under the number 2 in the catalogue number.
I've played both sides twice in the past couple of weeks, and obviously have no idea how many times it has been played in the 60 years before I got it, but I won't be playing it again. Interestingly, there seems to be more hiss and crackle on the Ted side than the Elvis side, which may mean it belonged to a big band fan who wasn't impressed with that vulgar young upstart from Tupelo Mississippi and his rocking and rolling nonsense that was just a fad that would never catch on. Maybe that explains the scribbling?! We'll probably never know.


 

On 09-Mar-18 at 13:10:09 GMT, seller added the following information:

There has been a lot of interest in this. It really is very rare.

I would suggest not leaving it until the last minute. Bid now!

If you have any concerns about posting the record, I have plenty of bubble wrap and it will go inside a sturdy box, 1st class signed for, in the post Monday morning (as long as I have received payment by then, of course). Alternatively, the winning bidder is welcome to collect it from my house, 10 mins from junction 29 on the M1, anytime from Sunday afternoon. I will email the recordings (as M4A files), as soon as payment is received by Paypal. If it should go for a four figure sum I may well offer to deliver it personally, along with a bunch of flowers and a box of chocolates and a nice bottle of wine. But we'll see.

Now bid.