The first record Elvis Presley recorded is expected to fetch a fortune at auction in January (15).

Presley was a teen wannabe when he paid just $4 to record two tracks, My Happiness and That's When Your Heartaches Begin, at the Memphis Recording Service in 1953.

The session and the acetate was supposed to be a gift for his mom, but he left the record at a friend's house as his career took off and he became a recording studio fixture in and around Memphis, Tennessee.

Sources at Elvis mecca Graceland, where an auction of The King's memorabilia items will be held early next year, are calling the record "part of the Holy Grail of artefacts in rock 'n' roll history".

Other items include Elvis' driving license and a jacket he wore in the movie Viva Las Vegas.

The auction will take place on 8 January (15) - what would have been Elvis' 80th birthday.