Jack White may be taking a break from live performance, but his obsession with the process of recording music is as healthy as ever. The musician and record label owner, who anonymously bought Elvis Presley’s first recording for a cool $300,000 in a January auction, has seen the 10-inch acetate disc digitally transferred in Nashville.
Presley was just 18 when he recorded songs My Happiness and That’s When Your Heartaches Begin, in July 1953 at the Sun Records studios in Memphis. Now, more than 60 years later, that original vinyl disc has been turned into a digital file to enable its reissue by White’s Third Man Records label. Third Man plan to release the single on 10-inch vinyl on 18 April – this year’s Record Store Day – while also offering fans the chance to record themselves direct to acetate, as the King did.
Alan Stoker, a curator at Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, was responsible for transferring the disc to a digital file, under White’s watchful eye. Stoker had previously transferred the two songs to analog tape in 1989, to allow for their distribution on CD by the then-owner Shelby Singleton, according to Rolling Stone.
Presley’s first studio session was taped by Marion Keisker, assistant to label owner and producer Sam Phillips. As such, Phillips is often credited with discovering rock’n’roll’s first mainstream superstar.
