What Happened to Elvis’ “Steamroller Blues” on the Record World Top 100?

A look at a pair of egregious errors about Elvis’ biggest hit on 1973 on Wikipedia

This is the picture sleeve to RCA Victor 74–0910, “Steamroller Blues,” released in the US in March 1973. While it’s definitely a break from the usual photo of Elvis on stage, it’s probably not the ideal image if you’re a record company trying to sell 45s to youthful consumers in the early ’70s. (Image: personal collection)

TAKING WIKIPEDIA TO TASK for the seemingly endless number of mistakes in their pop music entries is like shooting the proverbial moose in a barrel. I could even make it a daily endeavor and turn this blog into a non-stop rant about Wikipedian boners. Fortunately, that does not interest me — at least, at this time. But there are some boners that do attract my attention.

But first, there may be a few younger readers wondering about the title of this article. Aside from its slang reference to a part (or a condition) of the male anatomy, Merriam-Webster defines a boner as “a foolish or careless mistake.” This short article addresses what appears to be a couple of big boners in the entry about Elvis Presley’s 1973 recording of James Taylor’s “Steamroller Blues”

I could turn this blog into a non-stop rant about Wikipedian boners but, fortunately, that doesn’t interest me.

Here is the entire text for the Wikipedia entry on the Presley recording. I made a few stylistic changes to keep it similar to the overall look of this blog. I also added…