An 18-year-old Elvis Presley walked through the doors of the Memphis Recording Service at 708 Union Ave. in the summer of 1953. He carried a beat-up guitar that he'd had since the age of 11 and enough money to make a $3.98 record of his own voice. He sang two '30s ballads -- 'My Happiness' and 'That's When Your Heartaches Begin' -- hoping to catch the attention of Sam Phillips, who had started his own label, Sun. When he was done, Marion Keisker, who helped run the place with Phillips, typed his name on the back of a label for Sun act The Prisonaires, and Presley left with his acetate. For more than six decades, that record of Elvis singing 'My Happiness' was kept by the family of the high-school friend Presley left it with, Ed Leek. As part of an auction at Graceland on Jan. 8 (2015) -- which would have been Presley's 80th birthday -- it was valued at approximately $100,000. It sold to an unknown Internet bidder for $300,000. That bidder was Jack White. A piece of American musical history.
Buy 'My Happiness' and 'That's When Your Heartaches Begin' 7-inch 45rpm Single
'My Happiness' and 'That's When Your Heartaches Begin' 7-inch 45rpm Single.