Jack White has revealed that he was the buyer of Elvis Presley's first record, and he plans on sharing it with fans as a special Record Store Day release from Third Man Records. The 1953 acetate features two songs, "My Happiness" and "That's When Your Heartaches Begin." The record was bought at auction for $300,000—three-times as much as it was expected to fetch—and the guitarist would later reveal himself as the buyer.
The announcement comes in one of the quirkiest acts from the ever quirky White: A reporter from Billboard, Chris Payne, was set to meet the guitarist for an interview in Memphis, but instead got a mysterious man who gave the reporter a briefcase and instructed the writer to rush to Nashville and meet White at Third Man Records three hours from that moment. Payne gave White the briefcase and then the musician announced to his staff that it contained the Presley acetate, and that they would be releasing it for Record Store Day.
The tale of Presley's first record is almost as tough to believe as White's method of announcing his intentions. The 18 year-old musician had paid Sam Phillips $4 for a recording session (four bucks went farther during 1953) and then took the resulting pressing to his buddy Ed Leek's home as he himself didn't own a record player. Despite having put the time and money into the pressing, Presley forgot (or simply left) the disc at Leek's home and never reclaimed it. Leek's niece would later come into possession of the acetate and eventually contacted Graceland, which put it up for auction. It was expected to fetch $100,000 but bidding apparently heated up quickly.
Third Man is renowned not only for its passion for vinyl in general, but also the many special innovative features it features on its releases, a few thousand of which were on display for White's Lazaretto last year.
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