Elvis Christmas Album, 1957, on RCA label by Elvis Presley. Value, original pressing £100, red vinyl limited edition £5,000.

OF ALL the albums that Elvis released, this is his most valuable for a collector, writes MICHAEL BROOKS. In 1957, an engineer at the RCA plant where this record was being pressed, made the first copy of it in red vinyl, numbered it and took it home. Due to the success of the record more red vinyl copies were issued as limited editions, now rated as extremely collectable. Sixty years later, that first copy including the documentation with a signed affidavit, is currently on sale on e-Bay for $30,000 dollars, if it's not sold soon it will be put up for auction.

1957 was the year that Elvis rocketed to stardom. In the UK alone he had 12 different records in the top 20, and he had moved his family from a little shack in Tupelo, Mississippi, to a mansion that we now know as Graceland on the outskirts of Memphis.

This was his third studio album and the film Jailhouse Rock was about to be released. Many will agree that the most popular Christmas song of all time is the Irving Berlin classic White Christmas recorded by Bing Crosby in 1942 which has appeared every December in the Billboard charts until 1962 and is still a perennial favourite even today. When Irving Berlin discovered that Elvis had recorded the song and put it on his Christmas album, he was far from happy. Like many mainstream musicians and composers, he hated the new rock 'n' roll craze which was sweeping across America. He was so incensed by Elvis' recording of his song that he ordered his staff to telephone radio stations across the USA demanding that the Elvis version of his song be removed and banned from radio airplay. Most of them ignored Berlin's request, although one disc jockey whose station had acceded was fired for playing the song. Surprisingly, most Canadian stations did refuse to play it, including the album. I can only imagine that the royalties sent to Berlin eventually softened his anger.

First pressings had eight Christmas songs, including four gospel songs that RCA had originally released on an EP Peace In The Valley (value £30). Subsequent re-releases saw the format change. The gospel songs were removed with a couple of Christmas songs replacing them. To date 17 million copies have been sold making it Elvis' highest selling album. It is the biggest selling Christmas album of all time.