Elvis Presley — Loving You

Phenomenally Rare Japanese Edition!!!!

Victor LS-5048

Side 1
1. Mean Woman Blues
2. (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear
3. Loving You
4. Got A Lot Of Livin’ To Do!
5. Lonesome Cowboy
6. Hot Dog
7. Party

Side 2
1. Blue Berry Hill
2. Jailhouse Rock
3. Treat Me Nice
4. That’s When Your Heartakes Begin
5. Have I told You Lately That I Love You?

One of the rarest of Elvis collectibles – the Japanese edition of “Loving You” on RCA/Victor, issued in 1958. If you're a collector, you know this doesn't come up for sale very often. I'm not sure how many are floating around - this may be the only one you ever get a shot at. This album featured completely different front and back covers and an entirely different song list as compared to the US version.

I'm listing the markings from the trail-off groove, since they might mean something to you knowledgeable folks. Here are the markings, listed in order, going counterclockwise:

Side 1: H2WP2726; RH(or A)JK; ( ); 111.6; the number "2" inside a circle
Side 2: JLM217; RH(or A) IK; ( ); 111.10; the number "2" inside a circle

Note that some of the markings are very difficult to make out. In particular, the "RHJK" "RHIK" almost look like Hebrew characters, so I just listed what I thought they were. Also, inside the pantheses, there's a design of some sort, very faint.

The condition of this album is really quite stunningly good - I would rate the record and the cover as both VG+. I was concerned over whether this may be a fake or not, but as I was taking pictures, I discovered something - the back cover is a "paste over" but one edge (the spine edge) is not sealed. Beneath the black-and-white Englisk language back cover is a cover that;s in Japanese and English, and which has a completely different layout, text, and images than the pasted over part. You can see a little peek at this inside cover in one of my pictures. Also, check out the poictures of the back cover and note the misspellings: "Heartakes" instead of "Heartaches", "Blue Berry" instead of "Blueberry", and "Campany" instead of "Company" (at the bottom), etc. Some song titles are completely different on the record label itself compared to the back cover.

The cover itself is made out of a lighter card stock than US album covers. There is an area on the spine where the cover is worn through (about 2" long, right in the middle of the spine). The record labels have some light scuffing where they rubbed across a record player spindle while being loaded to play. There are no other condition issues. The inside liner is plain white with no label cut-out, and is yellowed from age but completely intact.

I'll be happy to share more photos and answer any and all questions about this very interesting record - just send me an email. Thanks for looking and good luck.