"Milkcow Blues Boogie"/"You're a Hearbreaker" session tape

RCA received tapes from Sam Phillips in December 1955.
RCA never got the master tapes for "Milkcow Blues Boogie"/"You're a Hearbreaker".
IMO There are two possibilities what might have happened to the tapes:
a) Sam lost the tapes, (what is very unlikely) so he couldn't send them to RCA.
b) Sam re-used the tape for another session (very likely, see the "Good Rockin Tonight" fragment on The Prisonaires session tape)

IMO the session is recorded over with another performer or group. It must be on the recording session tapes from September 12-16 1954 to late 1955 (circa November-December), because if it was not recorded over (mislabeled) Sam would simply pass it to RCA. There were about 50 recording sessions in the SUN studio in this time frame.
I hope someday the technology wil be able to recover erased/recorded over audio, because the complete session (with new songs maybe) is just for the asking.

Nothing special, but I thought I'd like to share my thoughts to you.

With the possible exception of "Mystery Train" and "I Forgot To Remember To Forget" are we sure any of the 10 tracks originally released as singles by SUN were turned over the RCA? Were not the 15 tapes turned over to Sholes "outtakes" or "work parts"?

MT

Last edited by MysteryTrain on Sun Dec 16, 2012 7:45 am, edited 2 times in total.

Since these older analogue magnetic recorders didn't actually record directly over the top of a prior recording, they had separate tape heads that allowed the tape to pass a demagnetizer head that erased the tape first before it got to the recording head, I would say it would be just about impossible to recover any audio from a recorded-over tape. Even if there was a way I bet it would be pretty bad quality to the point of being un-listenable.

Maybe something will turn up in our lifetime, there's always hope!

I don't know about the demagnetization/tape erasing actually happening PromisedLand. The reason why is, I seem to recall that there were snips of songs Elvis recorded heard between takes from another artist recording over them on a few Sun tapes. I think that Ernst had said this once, but don't quote me, it could have been someone else that had access to the tapes. Anyway, my point is, the demagnification/tape erasing of the tapes must not have been too good or done at all if previous recordings could be heard between takes from another artist.

RCA received tapes from Sam Phillips in December 1955.
RCA never got the master tapes for "Milkcow Blues Boogie"/"You're a Hearbreaker".
IMO There are two possibilities what might have happened to the tapes:
a) Sam lost the tapes, (what is very unlikely) so he couldn't send them to RCA.
b) Sam re-used the tape for another session (very likely, see the "Good Rockin Tonight" fragment on The Prisonaires session tape)

IMO the session is recorded over with another performer or group. It must be on the recording session tapes from September 12-16 1954 to late 1955 (circa November-December), because if it was not recorded over (mislabeled) Sam would simply pass it to RCA. There were about 50 recording sessions in the SUN studio in this time frame.
I hope someday the technology wil be able to recover erased/recorded over audio, because the complete session (with new songs maybe) is just for the asking.

Nothing special, but I thought I'd like to share my thoughts to you.

Not sure where you are getting all your Sun tape information from, but the accepted scenario is that Sam Phillips misfiled the reel/s with the master versions. Fifty years later, these will probably never be found.

Accurate information is found here:

The 15 Original Tapes
http://www.elvisrecordings.com/sun.htm#15tapes

The Tapes Sent to Indianapolis in 1957
http://www.elvisrecordings.com/sun.htm#Indianapolis

Apparantly, the out-takes of "I got a woman" and "Heartbreak hotel" were found at the end of a tape containing recordings by Pee Wee King! They must have re-recorded over Elvis' session tape, but not the full length of it. I often wonder if other RCA artists' session tapes have been scoured thoroughly in this way? Maybe other Elvis material could be located.

Apparantly, the out-takes of "I got a woman" and "Heartbreak hotel" were found at the end of a tape containing recordings by Pee Wee King! They must have re-recorded over Elvis' session tape, but not the full length of it. I often wonder if other RCA artists' session tapes have been scoured thoroughly in this way? Maybe other Elvis material could be located.

According to EMM, this is a fact:

Thanks to the tireless efforts of Roger Semon and Ernst Jorgensen, these long forgotten outtakes were recently discovered, tucked away on quarter inch reels that contained recordings associated with other artists. RCA, like most other labels at that time, tended to eke out every inch of recordability from their stock of magnetic tape. It wasn’t that they were being excessively frugal in their approach, it was simply that the medium was still in its infancy and the manufacturers, Scotch, were struggling to keep up with demand. Suffice to say Elvis, as yet an unproven signing, shared a tape reel with country star Pee Wee King and that is where these different takes remained for the best part of forty years.

- Stuart Colman, Elvis: The Man And His Music - Issue 31, June 1996

But such long shots are few and far between.

If EJ has not done this with the tapes in the vault could there a possibilty search other matrix that were used after each session.to check for Elvis songs that may still be there not checked.Or has this been done already?Wonder why they have some stereo 57 sessions and not the rest recorded at radio recorders
Lost reused?,tosed?or in pvt collections?

Most accounts I have read imply that the tapes from this session were accidentally recorded over. There is, of course, the possibility that it could have been misfiled among the thousands of poorly organized tapes that Shelby Singleton purchased from Sam Phillips. However, with each succeeding search through the vault, the probability of finding a new gem among the Sun tapes grows smaller and smaller.

This is a session about which very little is known, and even less speculated, regarding songs that may have been tried out at this time. "You're A Heartbreaker" was a new song, and one can presume that Elvis and the boys tried several tunes in search of a flip side.

Unfortunately, no new information about this session (or group of sessions) was documented in "A Boy From Tupelo", so the mystery remains.