Billboard details how a mysterious man with a black briefcase accompanied the "My Happiness" single from Memphis to the Third Man Records headquarters in Nashville, where White told employees about the record's history and his plans to reissue it on Record Store Day. Recorded by an 18-year-old Presley on July 18th, 1953 at Sam Phillips' Memphis Recording Service for $4, the one-copy-only pressing was given to Elvis' friend Ed Leek; over 60 years later, it was Leek's daughter who auctioned off the recording, which White secretly purchased.
According to the Third Man site, White will go through painstaking details in order to recreate the original 1953 10-inch 78rpm disc, "from reproducing the typewritten labels (printed on the reverse of extra Prisonaires labels that happened to be laying around Sun Records in July 1953) to being packaged in a plain, nondescript, of-the-era sleeve, the utmost attention to detail has been paid in order to create an object so close to the historic original as to almost be indistinguishable from one other." The limited edition reproductions will arrive on Record Store Day, April 18th.
Later in the year, Third Man will release a widely available version of Presley's single with newly restored sound. "Working from a transfer done by industry expert Alan Stoker at the Country Music Hall of Fame, the audio will be as clean as modern technology can make it without losing the feeling and soul that makes these two songs both haunting and breath-taking," Third Man writes.
(Source: Rolling Stone / Third Man Records)