The Elvis tapes ...

Press, 26 January 1984, Page 14

The Elvis tapes ...

NZPA New York A recording of five songs by the late Elvis Presley, sung on a Louisiana radio show in 1955 and 1956 when he was 20 and 21, will be released next Monday, according to a record company spokesman. The LP, titled “Elvis, The .First Live Recordings,” also has an introduction by the master of ceremonies of the “Louisiana Hayride” radio show and a recent reminiscence by a man who worked on the programme, according to Mr Ben Liemer, the publicity director for Jem Records.

The five songs were recorded on a one-track machine in a Shreveport, Louisiana, radio studio where Presley sang, for later broadcast on the armed . services network. “Hound Dog” was recorded in his last appearance on Louisiana Hayride in late 1956, and “I Wanna . Play House With You,” “Maybelline,” “Tweedie Dee,” and “That’s All Right Mama,” were recorded in December, 1955. Marshall Sehorn, coowner of a New Orleans recording studio, found the tapes in a mislabelled box,

among several he bought from Louisiana Hayride. Liemer said Presley tapes from the show had long been rumoured to exist but hadn’t previously been found. Sehorn made a deal with RCA Records to press the records. He and Kevin Eggers set up their own record label, the Music Works, and went to Jem for distribution. “Maybelline” and “Tweedie Dee” have not be.en on a Presley record before, Liemer said.