Elvis Presley’s first recording ever made has sold at a Graceland auction for $300,000.
An unnamed buyer placed the winning bid online for the 78 rpm recording of My Happiness, the first time it has come up for public sale.
The auction was held at Elvis Presley’s former home Graceland on what would have been his 80th birthday.
Elvis Presley recorded My Happiness in 1953 when he was 18-years-old.
He wanted to find out what his voice sounded like on record and paid $4 for the session to record My Happiness and That’s When Your Heartaches Begin onto acetate.
Elis Presley was said to have made the recording partly as a present for his mother.
But the family did not have a record player, so he took it to his friend Ed Leek’s house to listen to the results of the session and left it there.
Ed Leek kept the record in a safe for 60 years and after he and his wife died their niece Lorisa Hilburn inherited it.
Lorisa Hilburn from Florida was surprised but “very happy” with how much the record sold for.
“There was adrenaline beforehand … but when it was over, I was numb,” she said.
“It was surreal.”
Lorisa Hilburn plans to use some of the money to put her sons through college.
Other items in the auction included Elvis Presley’s first driving license, scarves worn by Elvis Presley at concerts and gold necklaces with the initials TCB – short for the slogan Taking Care of Business.
Before the auction Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley hosted a cake-cutting ceremony to mark what would have been Elvis Presley’s 80th birthday.
Fans around the world have also taken part in birthday events, including a five day festival in Sydney, Australia.
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