Elvis Presley — Elvis Presley: How to Identify a First Pressing

• Cover: The iconic cover photo was taken on July 31, 1955, at a performance at the Fort Homer Hesterly Armory in Tampa, Florida.
• Cover: The back-cover photo credited to Popsie (photographer William 'Popsie' Randolph) is actually from a separate shoot in early December 1955 in New York, not the same session as the main cover photo.
• Other: The album was originally released in mono only, consistent with the era, before stereo recording became common in the vinyl industry by 1956.

• When RCA first reissued the original 12-track album on CD in 1984, it mistakenly used a 'reprocessed'/fake-stereo treatment; these CDs were quickly withdrawn and reissued in their original mono form — this episode suggests that all later official reissues should be mono, and any '1956 original' labelled as stereo should be viewed with suspicion. In 1999, RCA released an expanded edition with a reordered tracklist and three additional non-album singles; in 2005, it was remastered using DSD technology, restoring the original track order.

discogs.com returned a 403 this time and could not be accessed; the English Wikipedia entry was used instead. The catalog number LPM-1254 does not appear as a complete sentence in the Wikipedia article's body text (it appears only as a database-citation title in the external-links section), so it is used with caution; label details such as the position of the 'Long Play' text and the New Orthophonic high-fidelity mark could not be verified against a citable verbatim source this time.

• Read the runout (the smooth area between the last groove and the label) with the disc tilted under a lamp: matrix numbers, stamper codes and mastering initials are the strongest evidence.
• Label details change between pressing plants and years: rim text, logo style, address, "Manufactured by" wording.
• Cover printing shows the plant and era: printer credit, catalog number position, barcode presence.
• Match all three. A first-press disc in a later cover, or the reverse, is common.

Shoot the label straight on in even light, then the runout with the disc tilted so the etched text catches the light (a phone torch from the side works). Add the front and back cover, the spine, and any inner sleeve or insert. The app reads the label and cover; the runout photo is what confirms the pressing.