Elvis Moody Blue Vinyl Value: Why the Black Pressing Is the Rare One

Moody Blue was released on July 19, 1977, four weeks before Elvis died. RCA pressed the first American copies on translucent blue vinyl — the first time an Elvis album had been issued on coloured vinyl — and that is the version most people own. Because it looks like a special edition, owners often assume it is valuable. It is not: blue copies were the standard US issue and remained in production through the enormous demand of late 1977.

The rare copy looks ordinary. For a short time in early August 1977, RCA’s Indianapolis plant pressed AFL1-2428 on standard black vinyl. After Elvis’s death on August 16, RCA returned to blue for the very large runs that followed, which left the black copies as a small, early batch. In Neal Umphred’s value table, a solid-black AFL1-2428 is listed at $250 and a solid-blue one at $5.

• Blue translucent, AFL1-2428: standard issue, common, usually a few dollars.
• Black, AFL1-2428, 1977 label: the scarce US variant, $110–230 in recent sales.
• Black, AQL1-2428: the 1980 reissue, common.
• Green, red, white, yellow or splash vinyl: special pressings that were not sold in shops; see below.

For coloured vinyl in general — why some colours are worth money and most are not — see our colored vinyl guide.

The sequence is documented in two independent accounts, Rockhurst Auctions’ lot descriptions and Neal Umphred’s history of the album, and they agree:

1. July 1977: the first US run is pressed on translucent blue vinyl at Indianapolis. Umphred gives 250,000 copies for that run, and says himself he has not seen the figure in an official RCA source.
2. Early August 1977: the album sells faster than expected. When the blue copies have shipped, Indianapolis presses a further batch on normal black vinyl. Rockhurst suggests a short supply of blue vinyl as the reason; that is an explanation, not a documented fact.
3. August 16, 1977: Elvis dies. Demand for his catalogue surges, and RCA orders Moody Blue back onto blue vinyl for the much larger runs that follow.
4. September 12, 1977: the album is certified Gold and Platinum. It reached number three on the Billboard 200 and number one on the Country Albums chart.

How many black copies were pressed is unknown. A figure of 25,000 circulates in seller listings and forum comments, but none gives a source, so we do not use it. Wikipedia also describes the black copies as pressed just before Elvis’s death and calls them the scarcer of the two. For the wider story of Elvis records after August 1977 see our Elvis vinyl value guide.

Three checks, in this order:

1. Prefix. The label and the spine must read AFL1-2428. A black copy numbered AQL1-2428 is the 1980 reissue: elvisrecords.com notes its thinner white cover stock and an “RE” on the back cover. Umphred says every US pressing from then on was on black vinyl, so a black AQL1 is ordinary.
2. Colour. Hold the disc to a strong light. Blue copies are translucent and glow blue; the rare copies are opaque black.
3. Run-out. US 1977 copies, blue and black, carry the cutting credit Masterfonics GAM and an AFL1-2428 matrix with a low stamper number (1S or 2S). Compare yours with the table — read the dead wax with a torch at an angle, as described in our guide to run-out and matrix numbers.

The run-outs of blue and black 1977 copies overlap, so a run-out does not prove a black copy by itself: the colour and the AFL1 prefix do. What the run-out does rule out is a later reissue cut from new lacquers. Rockhurst’s 2022 lot says its matrix numbers matched known black copies of the early pressing. If you photograph the cover or label with VinylAI, the app identifies the release; the vinyl colour and the run-out you check yourself.

A small number of copies exist on other colours. elvisrecords.com lists green, white, red and gold as reported by Heritage Auctions, and describes them as RCA test pressings, promotional only and never intended for sale. Their covers often carry a “Not For Sale Demonstration” stamp, and on the white copies side A is mislabelled with LSP-1254(e). Wikipedia mentions white and yellow copies in the US; Discogs lists a white and a yellow AFL1-2428.

Umphred connects the coloured copies to RCA’s Indianapolis plant passing a production milestone and lists solid colours (green, red, white, yellow) and splash colours. The often-quoted limit of fifty copies per colour is, by his own note, unconfirmed. These are high-value items: a purple-splash copy described as Mint sold on eBay for $5,300 in April 2011, and Umphred estimates that a Near Mint copy of any colour could fetch $500–2,000 at auction.

Because they are worth so much more than a blue copy, they attract fakes and misdescriptions. Ask for provenance, the cover stamp and clear photos of the run-out before paying a premium price.

Outside the US, Moody Blue was not a coloured-vinyl record. According to Wikipedia, all overseas pressings were on black vinyl, except the first Argentine and Canadian pressings, which were on translucent blue. Most European copies carry the number PL 12428; Australia and New Zealand used APL1 2428; Japan RVP-6224; Argentina AVS-4496.

The table lists the LP pressings on Discogs, oldest first, with the first run-out string transcribed by users. It shows identification details only.

A black PL 12428 from the UK or Germany is therefore the normal copy for that country, not the rare US variant. A Canadian black AFL1-2428 exists as well; it uses the US number but was pressed at RCA’s Smiths Falls plant in Canada, so check the label for the country of manufacture.

Original US copies came shrink-wrapped, and stickers on the shrink announced “The Blue Album” and “Contains the hits Moody Blue and Way Down”. They may or may not be present. Umphred notes that most sealed copies with these stickers hold the standard blue record, so a sealed copy is usually a sealed common record. In his account, one sealed copy sold for $300 in 2016 and many have sold for $20–30 since.

A sealed black copy is different, because the seal hides the one feature that matters. The sealed black copy in our sales table was sold as black; with a sealed record the buyer has to take the seller’s word for it. If you are offered a “sealed black” Moody Blue, ask how the colour was established. Our guides to sealed record value and spotting a resealed record cover the checks.

These are completed sales we could verify, with date and venue. eBay results are as archived by Popsike. Rockhurst figures include the buyer’s premium.

Since 2022, black AFL1-2428 copies have sold for $110–230, with condition deciding where in that range a copy lands. The 2009 result of $42 shows how widely single sales can vary. This is a small sample: six sales, five of them black copies, and several of the auctions had a single bid. Treat these figures as a guide to the range, not a quotation.

Grade both record and sleeve before comparing with these figures; see our vinyl grading guide.

Moody Blue turns fifty in July 2027. Several later editions are on blue or clear vinyl, and they are easy to mistake for the 1977 record:

• 2013, Friday Music FRM-2428: translucent blue, 180 g, limited edition, pressed at RTI.
• 2015, Follow That Dream: a numbered two-LP edition on clear vinyl.
• 2017, 40th anniversary, Sony/Legacy 88985446191: translucent blue, released November 24, 2017; some copies carry a “The Blue Album” sticker.

Their run-outs are different — the 2013 edition reads 88725459531-A, the 2017 one BH80472-01 — and none carries the Masterfonics GAM credit of the 1977 lacquers. As of October 12, 2026, no fiftieth-anniversary edition has been announced. We will update this page before the anniversary. We do not forecast prices for it.