It really never occurred to me to try and collect all of Elvis Presley’s albums on vinyl. Many years ago, I was able to obtain all of his albums on one format or another so I have happily owned all the music for some time. But the favoured format, records? I had never really thought of it.

Let us not forget the legendary tale of the glorious Garage Sale Miracle. I related in these pages some time ago the magical Saturday morning I rolled up on a garage sale and spied a big, ol’ cardboard box. Loaded with CDs, I dug down deep and pulled out a holy grail, the RCA Albums Collection, the 60-CD box that contains all of Presley’s albums. This is a treasure for me – not only the freakish fact that I found this on someone’s driveway and paid $10 for it but also for the soothing knowledge that I owned all of EP’s LPs on quality hard copy physical media.

Until one day I scanned my record collection and consulted my go-to reference book The Complete Music Catalog by the De Medeiros brothers and realized I had only three more to find; Harum Scarum, You’ll Never Walk Alone and Speedway. This realization got me pretty excited and I mobilized my two sons who collect physical media like their old dad. Keep an eye out, says I, for these records. This is something we’ve done before – hunted for a specific title – and it has proven to be fun searching for the latest white whale. The Harum Scarum soundtrack I had built with downloads or converted to mp3 from YouTube many years previous and I’ve always liked the album. I have often defended it as not a collection of songs from a goofy movie but more a concept album along the same lines as the albums with a common theme released by Sinatra & Friends; Elvis Brings the Big Beat to Baghdad with a Collection of Middle Eastern-flavoured Rockers and Ballads. No different than Dean Martin sings French songs or Frank bossa nova.

You’ll Never Walk Alone is a 1971 compilation album released on the budget Camden label that contained gospel and “inspirational” tunes. I remember working in a department store in 1992 when several Elvis albums were released to stores for the 25th anniversary of his death. One of the ones I bought on cassette was this gospel compilation. But I never liked the album; still don’t. First of all, the title track I’ve always disliked along with “The Impossible Dream” as I find both pompous and overwrought. Never mind that “Walk Alone” reminds me of my dislike of Liverpool FC when I was a Spurs supporter. Mostly what I don’t care for personally is any collection that combines gospel with non-gospel songs like the title track, “I Believe” and lightweight “Let Us Pray”, the “Electric Liturgy”-type tune that closes Change of Habit.

The soundtrack for Speedway I had also built with downloads. It is a typical Elvis soundtrack in that it contains excellent songs (“Let Yourself Go”) and ridiculous plot-device songs (“He’s Your Uncle, Not Your Dad”??!!). It’s also typical in that it is fleshed out with other songs not heard in the film. “Western Union” is a good song recorded a full 4 years earlier and “Mine”, “Goin’ Home” and “Suppose” all are fine tracks that fly in the face of the silly “Uncle” song. It is decidedly atypical though as it contains a duet with Nancy Sinatra and – more remarkably considering the Colonel hated for his boy to share the spotlight – a solo for Nancy, the pretty cool Lee Hazlewood-penned “Your Groovy Self”. Speedway was a new low for Presley’s album chart positions and sales; it sold fewer than 100,000 copies and topped out at Number 82 on the charts. Mercifully, it was the last full soundtrack album released from one of Presley’s films.

But – only three more albums to find. The hunt was on.

My youngest son was crate digging one day and told me that he was looking at a copy of Harum Scarum for $15. I told him that – if it was in good “condish” – to pick it up for me. He wrapped it up for me and gave it to me as a birthday gift some time later and it is in great shape. One down – two to go.

I have a local record here that I frequent and every Friday they will share their new arrivals. One fine day, I noticed that they had a Rare Earth album that I did not own – must remedy that, mustn’t I? I commented that I was interested and I remember I went there and instead of asking for it I just scanned the New Arrivals section as I do so love to find records through the organic magic of just crate digging. When it wasn’t there I began to sweat. Rare Earth may be my second-favourite band but who else in this neck of the woods would have swooped in and taken it? I asked at the counter and my man had put it aside for me. While I was there I figured that I must dig through the rest of the crates – mustn’t I? During this dig I found You’ll Never Walk Alone in good shape for, like, three bucks. I took it to the counter and my man threw it in for free! I would have told him what it meant to me and that now I only needed one more but I was afraid he would have hunted it down for me. I was determined that I or my sons would just come across it one day in the shops. Onward!

It wasn’t as hard as we may have thought. Only weeks later, one of my sons was in the shops and he texts me at work; are you able to FaceTime? I go out to the cafeteria patio and he calls. He’s grinning, spins the camera around and – BAM! – there’s Speedway on vinyl. He found it at BMV at Bloor and Bathurst in Toronto. He said there were only two Elvis records there and this is one of them. As we’re celebrating he says “lookit this!” and shows me the Speedway DVD on the shelf; so it was meant to be. Sonny Rollins had just died and I asked him to see if he could find Saxophone Colossus and he did. I couldn’t lose for winning. Bam.

Inevitably in a case like this there must be a discussion of what is meant by “every” album. Here’s what I mean by that. Every album released in his lifetime excluding some compilations. With Elvis, we must also discuss “compilations”. Many of you out there have the same sad knowledge that Elvis’ manager, Col. Tom Parker, in cahoots with RCA, played fast and loose when releasing Presley’s recordings. Jimi Hendrix may have only released three studio albums and then there was the compilation, Smash Hits. It isn’t that easy with Elvis. Technically, even his iconic first album is a comp, combining freshly recorded songs with Sun sides. For LP Fans Only and A Date With Elvis – both from ’59 I have counted though they are compilations. I’ve also counted the first four volumes of Elvis’ Gold Records, obvious comps. Never mind the budget Camden records from the late Sixties, all compiled from random stuff. It’s just different with Elvis. These patchwork records were built with recordings that hadn’t been released on other albums so they are legit parts of the canon. This is not so much a matter of me counting them as Elvis albums – they just do count. What I have not counted are the Legendary Performer records, two released before Presley’s death in ’77. They are listed in the discography of the De Medeiros book but they are not included in the complete CD box. For the record, I have Volumes 2 and 3.

I’ve never been fussy on what edition of a record I own. While I, like many, prefer first-run vintage LPs, I never turn my nose up at a brand new record I find at a big box store. While you still can never be sure of the quality of a record, I always love a new 180-gram vinyl record. Some of my Elvis records are from the 1970s and 80s and are “Electronically Reprocessed for Stereo” and I’m OK with that; my copies of Elvis’ first two albums are like that and they are in good shape. Original copies of these records are scarce and go for bank. I scored a batch of these 70s and 80s versions at one particular garage sale. The lady had a couple records out and I scooped them up. She said she may have a few inside and she comes out with a few more Presley records. She goes in again and comes out with more and I buy them all up.

I’ve bought only a few posthumous releases. I consider 1977’s Elvis in Concert part of the (unofficial) canon as I grew up staring at my mother’s copy and it became one that my brother and I became determined to own – we both do. I made a point of buying from the official Presley site Where No One Stands Alone, the gospel record from 2018 and I was quite shocked to find Elvis Live 1972, a double album from ’23, at a big box store when I was on holiday. I have A Canadian Tribute, one of only two records I own with no jacket, and one silly double album comp that is near a dear to me. The Wonderful World of Elvis is a 1981 album from Camden out of England that I’ve had since I was a child. Great to grow up with this one with good write ups on each song in the gatefold and offering some deeper cuts like “Hard Luck”, “If You Think I Don’t Need You”, “Home is Where the Heart Is” and “Let’s Be Fiends”. I was thrilled to stumble on Guitar Man in the wild and a little less so to find The Elvis Medley (silly record). Speaking of silly, I do own Having Fun With Elvis On Stage (a very rough copy) and Elvis Sings for Children and Grownups Too though I keep them separated from the real albums. I have two copies of Elvis’ Golden Records, two of His Hand in Mine, one a sealed 1981 press and two Blue Hawaii‘s, one original from ’61 and one from ’80 that I’ve had since I was a child. Others I’ve had since I was young include Elvis (TV Special) and my favourite Elvis album, That’s the Way It Is. I need upgrades of some very rough copies like King Creole, Clambake and Elvis’ Christmas Album, among others.

Well, as I’ve said, I honestly never thought of collecting all of the King’s albums on vinyl but now, of course, I’m very glad I have. It’s actually amazing to think that I’ve done this through shopping at brick and mortar stores, garage sales and thrift stores. Partly its incredible because people nowadays think that records are worth more than they are and especially if they are Elvis records people don’t want to part with them unless they get for them the big bucks they think they are worth. So, I’ve done pretty well, I think. Now to sit and listen to some while I get them all logged on Discogs.

It’s another celebration of the hunt. Be encouraged to get out there and hit the crates, the thrift stores and the yard sales. You never know what treasures await.