Details
ELVIS PRESLEY A 1942 Martin D 18 acoustic guitar, serial number 80221, spruce top applied with metal lettering spelling ELVI ['S' missing], mahogany body and neck, maker's details Martin & Co. EST 1833 on headstock, metal Kluson machineheads, 20 fret ebony fingerboard with dot inlays and tortoiseshell pickguard; and case - owned by Elvis in the early 1950s and used by him between 1954-1956 for all his recordings on the Sun label and for concerts during this period, (body cracked?); accompanied by various documents concerning the guitar's provenance including:
- a photocopy of a receipt from O.K. Houck Piano Co. 121 Union, Memphis, Tennessee, Septmber 11th, 1956; - an affidavit from the owner of the guitar between 1956-1991;
- copies of correspondence from the Country Music Foundation, 4 Music Square East, Nashville, Tennessee, regarding the acquisition of this guitar on loan as an exhibit in the Museum;
- seven photographs of Presley playing this Martin D-18 during this period, two featuring Presley on stage with Scotty Moore and Bill Black, his two recording partners at Sun records, on their 1954 tour of the South and Southwest States as the Blue Moon Boys; another of Elvis playing this guitar at Ellis Auditorium during the Elvis Presley Show, February, 1956, (printed later);
- a document from C.F.Martin & Company, Inc. Nazareth, Pa. giving the manufacturer's history of this guitar;
- a letter from Jim Jaworowicz, Graceland's Executive for Memorabilia in 1991, confirming the guitar's provenance.
Provenance
Elvis Presley purchased this Martin D-18 guitar in the early 1950s and used it to record his first hits records between 1954-1956 and for his concerts during this period. As a result of these early recordings, known as the "Sun Sessions" Elvis shot to fame. Sam Phillips of Memphis Recording Service owned Sun Records studios and first heard Presley sing in January 1954. Phillips encouraged Presley under the belief that he had finally found what he was looking for ..a white man with the negro sound and the negro feel." Phillips enlisted lead guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black to accompany Elvis and on July 5th 1954 they recorded three songs: I Love You Because, Blue Moon Of Kentucky and the one which would become Presley's debut That's All Right. Two days later Memphis disc jockey Dewey Phillips played Elvis' first two record sides That All Right (Mama)' and Blue Moon of Kentucky' on his Red Hot and Blue show on radio station WHBQ. The audience response was overwhelming and That's All Right became Elvis' first hit. Between 1954-1956 Elvise made the following records on the Sun label:
That's All Right (Mama)/Blue Moon Of Kentucky
Good Rockin' Tonight/I Don't Care If The Sun Don't Shine
Milkcow Blues Boogie/You're A Heartbreaker Baby Let's Play House I'm Left You're Right She's Gone
Mystery Train I Forgot To Remember To Forget
Other recordings Elvis made at the Sun studios were later released on R.C.A. In September 1956, RCA Records purchased Presley's contract from Sun and the same month Elvis traded this Martin D-18 guitar in at O.K. Houck Piano Co. in Memphis. A few days later the guitar was purchased by a local Memphis resident and friend of Scotty Moore, associated with the Memphis music scene. He owned the guitar from 1956-1991 and loaned it to the Country Music Hall Of Fame, Nashville, Tennesse in 1974 where it was on display for seventeen years. In 1991 the guitar was purchased by the current vendor.
Exhibited
Nashville, The Country Music Hall Of Fame, Nashville, Tennessee, 1974-1991.
London, The Museum Of Moving Image, The Irn-Bru Pop Video Exhibition - The Definitive Collection Of Pop Video Since 1899, 1992.
