Copyright 2013. Robert Ruggieri. All rights reserved

The two billionth record to roll off the presses at RCA records was a copy of “Moody Blue” awarded to Elvis by Ernest P. Ruggieri, RCA’s Division Vice President of manufacturing.  This was said to be Elvis’ last personal award prior to his death approximately six weeks later.  
Ernie Ruggieri worked his way up through RCA’s manufacturing division (1935 - 1980), starting his career as a punch operator in the press room and ending it as Division Vice President in charge of all manufacturing.  Ernie was always full of new ideas and very instrumental in many of the color vinyl and picture discs produced for artists in the 1970’s.   After Elvis’s death in 1977, Ernie worked directly with his staff on various Elvis experimental records.  With the demand for existing Elvis records expanding and Ernie’s retirement approaching, most of these brilliant ideas remained on his shelf or hung on the walls in his office.  Now almost 20 years later, his collection of memories has been found and opened for the first time.

Note: All records in this collection are in excellent or near mint condition unless stated otherwise.

ELVIS PICTURE DISCS

Experimental LP's