Somewhere in Elvis Presley history is a mystery that has never been completely settled.
During several later concerts, Elvis introduced “Tiger Man” with a remarkable claim.
He referred to it as “the second song that I ever recorded” and said not many people had heard it.
There is just one problem.
No confirmed Sun Records recording of Elvis singing “Tiger Man” has ever been found.
“Tiger Man” was originally recorded by Rufus Thomas at Sun Records in 1953, shortly before Elvis began recording there. Elvis almost certainly knew the song from the Memphis music scene and later turned it into one of his most ferocious live numbers.
That makes Elvis’s comments especially intriguing.
Was he remembering an unreleased studio performance?
A rehearsal?
An acetate that disappeared?
Or was he simply confusing “Tiger Man” with another early Sun song?
Researchers have spent decades trying to answer that question.
Elvis Presley – “Tiger Man” From the ’68 Comeback Special
The strongest evidence for a lost recording comes from Elvis himself.
He made the “second song I ever recorded” comment more than once during his live years.
Even Elvis’s official music site now describes “Tiger Man” as a song he “first attempted when he was on Sun,” while acknowledging that no tape survives.
But the evidence against a finished Sun recording is stronger.
There is no known Sun paperwork listing “Tiger Man.”
No acetate has been found in Elvis’s collection.
Scotty Moore did not remember the group formally recording it, although he allowed that they might have run through the song informally.
Elvis recording historian Ernst Jørgensen has also said the possibility cannot be completely dismissed, but after years studying the Sun sessions he found no proof that such a master exists. He suggested Elvis may simply have confused “Tiger Man” with “Mystery Train,” a song he later regularly paired with it onstage.
There are known Sun-era Elvis recordings that really are missing.
Paperwork confirms songs such as “Satisfied” and an early attempt at “I Got a Woman,” even though the tapes have not survived.
“Tiger Man” is different.
There is not even paperwork proving it was recorded.
That is what keeps the mystery alive.
Elvis remembered something.
Researchers just cannot prove exactly what that memory represented.
Maybe Elvis and the Blue Moon Boys casually ran through “Tiger Man” inside Sun Studio and the tape was erased.
Maybe no tape was running at all.
Or maybe Elvis simply remembered his early career incorrectly.
Until something new turns up, nobody can say for certain.
And if an unknown Sun tape of Elvis singing “Tiger Man” ever did surface, it would instantly become one of the most extraordinary discoveries in Elvis Presley history.