Elvis Presley’s first recording is to be sold at an auction in Memphis.

In June 1953, an 18-year-old Elvis Presley went to the Memphis Recording Service to record My Happiness and That’s When Your Heartaches Begin onto acetate.

He wanted to find out what his voice sounded like on record and paid $4 for the session.

Elvis Presley returned to record sessions for Sun Records the following year and went on to become the “king of rock ‘n’ roll”. The auction will take place in January.

Elvis Presley’s first recording is to be sold at an auction in Memphis

It will be one of 68 rare artifacts to be auctioned at his former home of Graceland in Memphis.

The announcement from Graceland described the record as “part of the <<Holy Grail>> of artifacts in rock ‘n’ roll history”.

Elvis 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 a friend’s house to listen to the results of the session and left it there.

This will be the first time it has come up for public sale.

The other items in the auction will include Elvis’ driving license, issued in 1952, a 1955 contract to perform on the Louisiana Hayride radio and TV programs and a jacket worn in the film Viva Las Vegas.

The auction will take place on January 8, what would have been Elvis Presley’s 80th birthday. The items have not been given estimated values.

[youtube tC-LG7wfvmU 650]