Elvis Presley – Please Release Me (1st Records) album art
Source: www.ebay.ie License: All Rights Reserved.
12″ bootleg album released as 1st Records No. 161 in October 1970. From the typewritten liner notes on the back cover, penned by Barry Silver who is also credited with the album design:
Please Release Me is an album that just had to be released! For many reasons. Too many to be honest. To name just the most important one: everybody wants the songs and things on this album and they have been waiting too long already. So, why keep them waiting forever and ever and not give them what they want?
6 Comments on “Elvis Presley – Please Release Me (1st Records) album art”
According to Discogs, the country where this unofficial album is released might be the Netherlands.
Could be also a European copy? Am I right?
I don’t know where this album was released. It’s an unauthorized bootleg record, which means you probably won’t find any reliable contact info on it. The Discogs page doesn’t cite any sources for the claim it originated in the Netherlands. There are currently two vinyl copies available on eBay, one by 1st Records and one by Brookville Records (both from sellers in the U.S., if that’s any indication).
What I do know is that Montgomery Pousse Cafe was an exclusive face by Photo-Lettering, Inc. and as such was available only from this typesetting house in New York. Sure, it’s possible that it was copied and offered by some European type provider, but I have yet to spot this design in a catalog by anyone other than PLINC.
I know. It is the United States, probably but one copy is from another country. I don’t know where this came from, actually.
pPin Netherlands—this is the very first Elvis bootleg ever released.
The front cover features a pen-and-ink drawing of the singer, depicting him in February 1970 in Las Vegas.
The liner notes on the back are credited to Barry Silver.
The cover is made of fairly lightweight, semi-glossy cardstock; the record label is yellow with “1st Records No. 161” printed in black at the top.
The vinyl’s matrix number is 1501A/I/B/I, and the vinyl is black.
The standout tracks were undoubtedly “A Dog and a High Starched Collar” and “Dominic,” both previously unreleased in Elvis’s discography. The entire recording was extracted from the film footage, a practice that would subsequently be copied by virtually 90% of bootleggers. It appears that only 500 copies were pressed.
In 1979, in the U.S., a counterfeit version of the record was released. The pressing was darker, and Elvis’s backside was literally “resting” against the left edge of the cover.
The cardboard was heavier than that of the 1970 original, and the label was identical to the previous one, as was the vinyl matrix number, which, of course, was still black. However, it had been handwritten to make it look identical to the first one…
This counterfeit originated in Miami.
Thank you for this extra information, Marco.
Does the cover for the 1970 original from the Netherlands feature this typeface as well?