The man who gave the world All Shook Up may now be all cut up, says a company selling what it claims are two-inch pieces of one of Elvis's songs.
The sale has provoked a row in the music world. Some critics call sacrilege.
A company called Master Tape Collection (MTC) is offering mounted segments of what it says is the first cut of Elvis's 1954-55 Sun sessions, which included such songs as That's All Right.
Its president, Michael Esposito, who announced the sale this week in New York, said the recording, bought at an auction after being found in a warehouse 12 years ago, had been copied but was too fragile to play.
"Once we knew what we had, and given the condition it was in, we realised that the process to preserve it intact would, instead, destroy it," he said.
He said that rather than disintegrate in a museum it would grace the homes and offices of Elvis devotees.
Two-inch pieces of the tape, which have apparently been authenticated, will sell for £270.
Critics and musicologists say the tape should be preserved. "I think most fans are pretty much outraged by it," said Howard Kramer, curatorial director of the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. "Our business is to preserve history not destroy it."

I'm not an Elvis fan, but this seems like barbarism to me!