Quite rare and unusual release from Holland, 1968. "Another Place Another Time", with a psychedelic type of front cover, which doesnt really go with the songs.
US Promotional copy of "Breathless" from 1958, with "D.J COPY" stamped in red ink on the label. Also this copy has got Jerry's Stamped autograph.
Another rare item is this New Zealand issue of "Carry Me Back To Old Virginia" from 1965. Here with the original New Zealand paper sleeve.
UK 1-sided Demo / testpress issue of "High School Confidential" from 1958. Note the stamped catalouge nr which was to be used on the official release. This kind of 1-sided Demo records are extremely tough to find as London Records only used to press a couple of hundreds of each issue to send out to DJ's and radio stations for airplay.
US Promotional issue of "Good Golly Miss Molly" from 1962. In the beginning of 1960, Sam Phillips started to use this white labeled Promos as free records to DJ's and radio stations, but very few were acctually pressed and sent due to cost, therefore some of Jerrys white labeled promos can be very hard to find in a decent condition. This is one of those. This one was given by Bill Mack, a radio disc jockey in Charleston, to one of his friends. This one was probably also sent to Bill Mack from Sam Phillips 1962.
Fantastic issue from the UK from late 1963. One of the rarest releases from Jerry's Mercury years, which features "Pen And Paper" as the A side and "Hit The Road Jack" as the B side. All the other different releases except the US release had "Hit The Road Jack" as the A side. Beautiful and totally unique Mercury labels, which was the first Mercury release for Jerry.
Rare Swedish issue of "There Must Be More To Love Than This" from 1970, with an unusual nice picture cover of Jerry doing what looks like anything else but a country tune.
From SUN studios, Memphis Tennessee, a very odd issue called "The Return Of Jerry Lee", from the summer of 1958. Jerry had just been thrown out of England during a European tour after it had been known that he had married his 13 year old cousin Myra, whom also accompanied Jerry to England. This was a bleak atempt to try to get something out of the falling empire the once was Jerry Lee. The very first issue that had "The Return..." on both sides is many times rarer than the later issues with "Lewis Boogie" as the B side. This is also even rarer due to its "D.J COPY" stamp.
A Mercury Promotional issue of "I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone" from 1974. The song that Elvis recorded in 1955, gets an upbeat, country treatment.
Another 1-side UK Demo / Testpress by London Records, with the new correct catalouge nr stamped on the label. "Fools Like Me" from 1958, that was used as the flipside of "High School Confidential". Somewhere between 50- 100 copies did London records press - this one is unplayed.
From Germany comes this white label Promotional issue of "Great Balls Of Fire" and "Whole Lot Of Shakin Goin On". From the beginning of the 70's, probably 1972, when the Rock n Roll circus emerged once again. No need to say that this issue is quite hard to find, to say the least.
"Hit The Road Jack" from New Zealand, late 1963 . A nice find. This is the only copy I've ever seen. As you can see here , the A side is "Hit The Road Jack" and not "Pen And Paper" ( see the UK Demo release of this record ).
This DJ COPY of "John Henry" from 1960 is most certain one of the few to exist today, due to the fact that Sam Phillips pressed some white label Promo copies of the same record for giving to DJ's and Radio stations. Why mr Phillips stamped regular stock copies with "DJ COPY" was probably a money saving thing, when it certainly did cost some dollars to press white label copies. Anyway, this is the only copy I have ever come across, and interesting here is also that Sam have marked the "John Henry" side as Plug side. Obviously he thought that that side was the one that should be heard, when in fact it was the other side that got the more airplay.
Holland really did release some interesting and unique sleeves to singles with Jerry. Like this one, from 1967 - "It's A Hang Up, Baby". A fantastic soul stomper with one of the best picture sleeves of all Jerrys 45's. It's a shame that it didn't make the charts.
The Promotional issue of 1973's "Drinking Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee", taken from the album "The Session" which was recorded in London, 1973 with incredible backup artists. As the Promo issue is the 1st pressings from the stampers, the sound is much clearer and the record is a bit more diffucult to find.
Another Mercury Promotional record from 1970 - "There Must Be More To Love Than This" and this one seems, strangely enough, to be very diffucult to find . The only one I've ever seen - this far. Note the different color of the Stereo and Mono sides. This was also only done to a few singles by Jerry.
Test press of "Crazy Arms / Lewis Boogie" from 1974. A reissue of the classic tracks from the Sun years. Made from the original stampers. This test press is however a mysterium, due to the fact that no official release is to be found with these two tracks on the same single. On the "Lewis boogie" side there are numbers written - 3334 - which is the rec. nr of the "Lewis boogie" reissue in the Sun collectable series from 1974, but the flipside of that release is "The return of Jerry Lee" .... Seems to be a test press of an Unreleased record. - Unplayed cond.
Rare & Obscure Records In My Collection
Belgium release from 1968. Very rare unique issue with two songs from 1964. End of the road from Jerry Lee's 1st session with Smash Records in september 1963, and a live version of Chuck Berry's "Memphis", taken from "The greatest live show on earth" from 1964. No other country did release this single. M- cond.
Jerry join his sister Linda Gail Lewis on this single from April 1969. One of the toughest of Jerry's SMASH record releases to find in a PROMOTIONAL issue, and in a really good condition. This one is Unplayed --
Different label version of Jerry's last release for SUN records in March 1965. This one, strangely, DJ COPY Stamped, even when there actually was one white labeled issue distributed specially for DJ's. Probably there was need for some more DJ copies than Sam did issue in the white labeled ones. - This is a rare unplayed copy
A really nice gem is this 5 track EP from 1972, released as a PROMO only to promote Jerry's "The killer rocks on" album. Totally unique sleeve and also the record spins in 33 1/3 rpm. Not many of these were issued and as mentioned ONLY distributed to radio stations for airplay. - -This one is Unplayed
