Ed Leek - 'My Happiness' Acetate

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Ed Leek - 'My Happiness' Acetate

Postby Colin B » Thu Oct 12, 2017 9:37 am

Saw this on Facebook & thought it was interesting.

Posted by our old friend Maurice Colgan:

Maurice Colgan - Ed Leek.JPG
Ed Leek & Marion Keisker with acetate.jpg
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Re: Ed Leek - 'My Happiness' Acetate

Postby Graeme » Thu Oct 12, 2017 9:48 am

I've never believed or understood ALL the story about this regarding Elvis, Ed and the music loving Presleys, especially Elvis and his love of hits, including the songs he sang at MRS, not having a record player. Elvis would have had one before a car!
If it was a gift for his mother as he confirmed in 1956, then why did he give it instead to Ed? I accept either way that Ed got it.


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Re: Ed Leek - 'My Happiness' Acetate

Postby Colin B » Thu Oct 12, 2017 9:59 am

Graeme wrote:I've never believed or understood ALL the story about this regarding Elvis, Ed and the music loving Presleys, especially Elvis and his love of hits, including the songs he sang at MRS, not having a record player. Elvis would have had one before a car!
If it was a gift for his mother as he confirmed in 1956, then why did he give it instead to Ed? I accept either way that Ed got it.


I don't think he 'gifted' it to Ed Leek !

As you said, the Presleys had no record player.

Elvis took it to his friend's house [Ed Leek] in order to play it !

In the end, it got left there & forgotten.
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Re: Ed Leek - 'My Happiness' Acetate

Postby Graeme » Thu Oct 12, 2017 12:41 pm

So Gladys went with Elvis to Ed's to hear it?

I believe the Presley's did have a record player. Elvis wouldn't make a gift like that to his Mother if she couldn't play it.

He'd give her a Cadillac when she cant drive though, but at least she could be driven.


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Re: Ed Leek - 'My Happiness' Acetate

Postby Mojo Filter » Thu Oct 12, 2017 12:57 pm

I, also believe, Elvis had a record player.

There is a 1956 interview where Elvis states that he made the record so he could hear what he sounded like, words to that affect.

So that puts the "Birthday Gift" out of the window.
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Re: Ed Leek - 'My Happiness' Acetate

Postby Mojo Filter » Thu Oct 12, 2017 1:08 pm

Colin B wrote:
Graeme wrote:I've never believed or understood ALL the story about this regarding Elvis, Ed and the music loving Presleys, especially Elvis and his love of hits, including the songs he sang at MRS, not having a record player. Elvis would have had one before a car!
If it was a gift for his mother as he confirmed in 1956, then why did he give it instead to Ed? I accept either way that Ed got it.


I don't think he 'gifted' it to Ed Leek !

As you said, the Presleys had no record player.

Elvis took it to his friend's house [Ed Leek] in order to play it !

In the end, it got left there & forgotten.

Ed did try to return the acetate to Elvis in 1957, according to Ed he bumped into Elvis in Chicago, but Elvis told him, "keep it, but don't let anyone know about it".

My guess is, judging by all this, he played it to Ed and then just left it there.

PS: Doesn't Elvis mention this in the MDQ session? Can't remember what he said about it now?
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Re: Ed Leek - 'My Happiness' Acetate

Postby Colin B » Thu Oct 12, 2017 1:58 pm

Colin B wrote:I don't think he 'gifted' it to Ed Leek !
As you said, the Presleys had no record player.
Elvis took it to his friend's house [Ed Leek] in order to play it !
In the end, it got left there & forgotten.
Mojo Filter wrote:Ed did try to return the acetate to Elvis in 1957, according to Ed he bumped into Elvis in Chicago,
but Elvis told him, "keep it, but don't let anyone know about it".
My guess is, judging by all this, he played it to Ed and then just left it there.

PS: Doesn't Elvis mention this in the MDQ session? Can't remember what he said about it now?


When asked about what happened to the disc in an interview once, Elvis replied:

"Oh, my mama just plumb wore it out !"

On their non-existent record player, I guess !

I think he couldn't remember where it was & just gave the interviewer something to keep him happy...
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Re: Ed Leek - 'My Happiness' Acetate

Postby cadillac-elvis » Thu Oct 12, 2017 4:24 pm

This is another one of those stories that doesn't add up.

I think in one interview Elvis says he still has the disc, and then in another interview he says, "he lost the dub on it".

And Graeme, don't confuse, "birthday gift" with, just "gift".

I also believe Elvis had a record player....how else would he play the R & b records he loved so much.

Of course there is the possibility They had a record player and it broke down.
Also, I recall reading somewhere that not one of Memphis mafia even heard of Ed Leek.

During one magazine interview, the interviewer is talking about the personal acetates to Elvis
while Elvis' mother is playing the disc at that moment. Or one of the two.

Bare in mind there were at least two discs made, so some references could be talking about the first one, and some could
be referring to the second.

We have a flimsy story tracing the whereabouts of the first disc, but no such stories about the second.

The only thing I recall is the second disc ended up with a cousin who in turn I believe was selling it at a yard sale!


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Re: Ed Leek - 'My Happiness' Acetate

Postby Suspicious Minds » Thu Oct 12, 2017 5:27 pm

From Keith Flynn's website

https://www.keithflynn.com/recording-se ... 30718.html

[...] the story behind how Elvis' first recording found its way into Ed Leek's possession and how it all came to light many years later is an interesting, though somewhat confused one. Briefly, at the outset in 1953, having paid approximately four dollars to record the private disc, at some point later Elvis played it to Ed Leek, one of his friends from Humes High School (who later claimed that he had persuaded Elvis to record it in the first place), and somehow or other the recording ended up in his private possession for a great many years until the late 1980s when finally he agreed a deal with RCA for them to copy it and thereafter release it commercially.

What purports to be the full story of how the acetate was found and shared was actually printed in the US magazine Goldmine (issue 211). The story repeats the emphatic assertion by Marion Keisker (and supported by Leek who says Elvis told him it was Marion) that it was she who made the acetate in the first place and not Sam Phillips, as he long maintained. However, there is still some time discrepancy as to when Elvis actually left it in Ed Leek's possession. Elvis made reference to his first private recording at the studio during the Million Dollar Quartet session on December 4 1956 - basically saying it was lost - but Leek professed to be confused by that as he asserted that Elvis would know full well where it was.

Leek also went on to say that he had tried to return the disc to Elvis at a concert in Chicago, probably in 1957, presumably without success.

On the other hand, a newspaper story from a US magazine in 1956 entitled On The Record throws another element of uncertainty into the equation. Writing about Elvis' first private recording – and quoting both Sam and Marion - the writer says the following: "He chose a slow ballad. In the recording, Elvis' singing style changes very eight bars. He swings from a high, thin tenor to a resounding bass, but most of the time the voice sounds merely undecided. The platter is worn and cracked today. But to his parents, it is still a most precious possession, to be played only on special occasions." This description of Elvis' delivery is most accurate and surely has to be the result of having heard the actual disc. The reference to its sentimental value to the family is most pertinent too.
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Re: Ed Leek - 'My Happiness' Acetate

Postby cadillac-elvis » Thu Oct 12, 2017 5:34 pm

The record is cracked? I never heard that one before.


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Re: Ed Leek - 'My Happiness' Acetate

Postby Suspicious Minds » Thu Oct 12, 2017 5:39 pm

Posted by Maurice Colgan on TKC
http://elvis-tkc.com/forum2/lofiversion ... 15994.html

image.jpeg


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Re: Ed Leek - 'My Happiness' Acetate

Postby Graeme » Thu Oct 12, 2017 5:43 pm

cadillac-elvis wrote:And Graeme, don't confuse, "birthday gift" with, just "gift".


Never have, never will. I wrote years ago on the TMMB site the trans from an Elvis interview in 56 where he was asked specifically if it was a birthday present and Elvis says it wasn't a birthday present.

Now, a 20th wedding anniversary present is something else.



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Re: Ed Leek - 'My Happiness' Acetate

Postby cadillac-elvis » Thu Oct 12, 2017 6:04 pm

Graeme wrote:
cadillac-elvis wrote:And Graeme, don't confuse, "birthday gift" with, just "gift".


Never have, never will. I wrote years ago on the TMMB site the trans from an Elvis interview in 56 where he was asked specifically if it was a birthday present and Elvis says it wasn't a birthday present.

Now, a 20th wedding anniversary present is something else.


Awefully late birthday gift I would say.
As you know, some reporters would lead Elvis in questions, and he would just agree sometimes.

I can't recall which interview you are siting here.


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Re: Ed Leek - 'My Happiness' Acetate

Postby Mister Moon » Thu Oct 12, 2017 6:05 pm

Indeed, Elvis talks at some length about the first acetate at the very beginning of Robert Carlton Brown's interview. in March 1956.

Among other things, Elvis says that "we still got the record at home".



Carlton (3).jpg
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Re: Ed Leek - 'My Happiness' Acetate

Postby cadillac-elvis » Thu Oct 12, 2017 6:06 pm

Graeme wrote:
cadillac-elvis wrote:And Graeme, don't confuse, "birthday gift" with, just "gift".


Never have, never will. I wrote years ago on the TMMB site the trans from an Elvis interview in 56 where he was asked specifically if it was a birthday present and Elvis says it wasn't a birthday present.

Now, a 20th wedding anniversary present is something else.


Awefully late birthday gift I would say.
As you know, some reporters would lead Elvis in questions, and he would just agree sometimes.

I can't recall which interview you are siting here.


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