I’m still working on a gigantic post for next week, so I wasn’t planning on posting this morning. However, huge news rocked the Elvis world yesterday.

Just last week, I asked riders to describe the moment in Elvis’ life they would capture if they had a time-traveling audio recorder. There were some terrific responses but, in some ways, this fantasy is no longer just on the edge of reality.

Jorgensen: “I’m still trying to recover from the shock”

On Tuesday, audio collector amberola1b quietly posted on YouTube a clip of Elvis Presley singing “I Forgot To Remember To Forget” live on the Louisiana Hayride radio show in 1955. Sourced from a Silvertone wire recording, the performance has never been heard by the public since the original broadcast. Compared to most of the other Hayride recordings released in the past, the audio quality is stunning. The Elvis portion begins at 3:45.

“I Forgot To Remember To Forget” (Live-1955) — Elvis Presley

[Source: amberola1b — YouTube]

By Friday, Elvis fans began taking notice. On the excellent For Elvis CD Collectors forum, member AVSP posted a link to the clip and the thread ignited in positive reactions. Within only twelve hours, six pages of comments had come in. As of now, it is up to seven and counting.

Research by Mike C and drjohncarpenter has tentatively dated this fantastic recording as occurring on Saturday, October 1, 1955.

Of course, the first question on everyone’s mind is will this appear on A Boy From Tupelo: The Complete 1953-55 Recordings, FTD’s SUN boxed set that includes a 512-page book and 3 CDs.

With the 11-pound set only weeks from release, the answer appears unfortunately to be no. It turns out that Sony’s Elvis chief Ernst Jorgensen was just as surprised as anyone else by the recording. “Wow – it’s unbelievably beautiful. I’m still trying to recover from the shock,” he said in an email to willem k.

Around the Elvis web, the story has inspired headlines:

• “New Elvis Recording Discovered” — Elvis Day By Day
• “Brand New Elvis Recording found!” — Elvis Information Network
• “You sure don’t want to miss this” — TCB-World

Here’s hoping that Jorgensen can work out an arrangement with the recording’s owner. Even if it cannot make the SUN set, it deserves an official release on a Sony or FTD product.

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UPDATE: I hope you had a chance to play it, folks, because amberola1b has now removed the song from YouTube. Only about three hours before this, willemk posted on FECC that Ernst Jorgensen was “now in contact with the owner.” With that in mind, the removal from YouTube may in fact be a really good sign. Let’s keep our fingers crossed, everyone, that we will get to hear the live version of “I Forgot To Remember To Forget” on a Sony or FTD release soon.