Back in 1976, in the days when I was a graphic designer, I went up to RCA's Curzon Street offices in London, not far from the famous Playboy Club, to pitch an idea for a five track EP of then unavailable
movie songs, including the studio version of Johnny B Goode from
Elvis On Tour. I did a full proposal and a full colour sleeve visual
with Letraset and a letterbox still of Elvis in Charro, which I had
picked up at the fan club convention in Leicester, that same year,
where I had seen the Aloha From Hawaii TV special for the first time
on a big screen. Seems incredible to think about now, but none of the
British television companies had at that time scheduled it for
broadcast. There was a whole campaign in Elvis Monthly to persuade
the BBC to show it, and I seem to remember that RCA had offered to
front half the asking price of £50,000, but it was still not enough
to persuade the BBC to buy the special, and so it went unseen until
a much edited version was eventually broadcast on BBC in 1978.
I can’t remember exactly the
date that I went to RCA, but it was probably in the latter part of 76
as I remember being shown the artwork for the Elvis In Demand album, and getting given a poster for the Presley Gold singles campaign, which was a reissue
collection of Elvis’s 16 Number One singles in their original U.S picture bags. The album and poster featured the same illustration of Elvis. It was during this meeting that I first heard about the then planned CBS TV Special which according to what I was told, was not going to be a concert special but a mix of concert footage, Elvis taking viewers for a tour around Graceland, and a gospel recording session.
The product manager Dave Mackay at RCA liked my proposal for the movie EP very much, and said that he wanted to make it happen, but told me he would have to get approval from the Colonel before proceeding any further, and would send it over to the Colonel to get it greenlighted. And that was the last I heard of it! A few weeks later, Dave left RCA and had cleared out his office, so I never did see my visual or proposal again. And no one at RCA could find it or trace a letter being sent to the Colonel's office about it.
The product manager Dave Mackay at RCA liked my proposal for the movie EP very much, and said that he wanted to make it happen, but told me he would have to get approval from the Colonel before proceeding any further, and would send it over to the Colonel to get it greenlighted. And that was the last I heard of it! A few weeks later, Dave left RCA and had cleared out his office, so I never did see my visual or proposal again. And no one at RCA could find it or trace a letter being sent to the Colonel's office about it.
Elvis In Demand though, was
quite a unique album for its time. Marketed as "the most lovingly compiled album ever", it came about when RCA UK invited British fans of the official fan club to select 16 songs from Elvis's extensive recorded repertoire to represent his studio work, Hollywood film soundtracks and live shows. Most songs picked were an assortment of singles, B-sides,
album tracks and some obscure movie
songs. The idea was to have on one album, as many songs that were no longer available. When news of the project first appeared
in Elvis Monthly, to celebrate the 21st birthday of the fan club, it was suggested that this would be a good
opportunity to fill in a few gaps for songs that were not currently
available in the UK. The article in the Monthly gave a list of
suggested tracks that could be included and if memory serves me right, it was most of these tracks, seven of them in mono, that ended up on the final album. Although looking back on it now, the list of selected tracks may have seemed strange at the time, but there was a sensible logic behind it, and it
proved to be a most successful idea. It sold over 100,000 copies,
peaked at No. 12 in the UK album chart and earned itself a silver
disc award. It was released one month after the album's lead single Suspicion had become a Top
Ten hit. Many of the general record buying public seemed to think it was a new recording, and that Elvis had returned to his old 60s style, even though the track had first appeared on Pot Luck, his No.1 studio album from 1962.
Even more strange is the story
that Elvis personally autographed 15 copies of the sleeve in June
1977, with "Best Wishes Elvis Presley", which according to those who have claimed to have seen it, was clearly visible in black ink. If true, that would mean the album sleeves would have probably been among some of the last things Elvis would have signed for fans, but one also has to wonder what he
must have thought about being asked to sign a record album with such a "ghostly"
looking illustration. The 15 copies he is said to have signed, were then
said to have been given away as prizes by the Daily Express, even
though no cuttings from the newspaper have yet surfaced to support
the story. Some say they remember it well, while others don’t, and
most are sceptical about the whole thing. I don’t remember seeing
any such competition in the Express, but that’s not to say it
didn’t happen. It probably did when you consider that Todd
Slaughter, the boss of the British Fan Club, had met Elvis to
present him with some British awards, during the filming of the CBS In
Concert TV Special in the same month that Elvis is said to have signed the
copies of In Demand. Although the Fan Club did a lot of shouting
about its contribution to the LP, and rightfully so, there are those sceptics who have suggested the whole signed copies affair was just a
marketing ploy between the Fan Club and Express newspapers. It would
be an interesting exercise to try and find out if Elvis did actually
sign the albums, and if any fans do indeed, have a signed copy of it.
