Elvis is known throughout the world as “The King Of Rock ‘n’ Roll”. A title that owes more to the recordings he made in the fifties, than other period of his career, but Elvis wasn’t just a rock ‘n’ roll singer in the ‘50’s. His earliest demonstration discs for the Memphis based Sun label were ballads, and by the time he was called up for his national service in March of 1958, he had recorded rock ‘n’ roll, ballads, country, gospel, and pop standards. Something that he would continue to do for the rest of his career. 

What’s also interesting about Elvis’ choice of songs throughout his career is that if he liked a particular song, or thought that it had hit potential he rarely forgot about it, and in some cases, song that were recorded informally were re-visited at studio sessions some years later, whilst in others another performer’s interpretation of a song Elvis had already recorded could influence Elvis’ own interpretations of the same song during future performances. The purpose of this article is to take a look “Behind The Music”, at the stories behind some of the songs Elvis recorded. 

The first demonstration disc Elvis made for Sun Records consisted of two ballads; “My Happiness” and “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin”. Elvis was obviously fond of the latter track and during the now legendary “Million Dollar Quartet” jam session at Sun Studios’ on December 1956 he remembered the “little record” he had made, and performed the song again in a style that wasn’t too far away from what was heard on the original demo. A little over a month later on January 13, 1957 he recorded the song for RCA during a session at Radio Recorders, Hollywood. The master was a much more polished performance with Elvis’ voice having matured considerably since the first Sun demos were cut, and also featured backing vocals from the Jordanaires. It was first released by RCA as the flip side to Elvis’ second single of 1957 “All Shook Up”.

During the informal session on December 4, Elvis also ran through the gospel song “Peace In The Valley”, a song that was likely just as well known to both Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis, who were also present at the session, along with a ballad titled “Is It So Strange” which had been sent to him by Faron Young. In both cases the vocal styles Elvis used on these two performances were similar to the studio masters that we are now familiar with, and both songs were recorded for RCA at Radio Recorders, Hollywood in January of 1957. “Peace In The Valley” was recorded on January 13, and issued on an EP album of the same name later the same year, whilst “Is It So Strange” was recorded on January 19, and was first released on the 1957 (US) EP album “Just For You”. It also appeared on the stopgap album release “A Date With Elvis” which was released during Elvis’ national service in 1959, and was compiled from songs that hadn’t featured on LP albums before.    

Elvis also performed Bill Monroe’s “Little Cabin On The Hill” during the “Million Dollar Quartet” session, and did his own take on Monroe’s vocal style. Almost 14 years later whilst recording a country album at RCA’s Studio B in Nashville, Elvis remembered the song and finally recorded it for RCA. Whilst the later version is unmistakably Elvis, the original bluegrass arrangement was maintained. The song was first issued on the 1971 album “I’m 10,000 Years Old - Elvis Country”.

Before we leave the “Million Dollar Quartet” sessions, I would like to mention two songs that Elvis had already recorded by the time he re-visited Sun Studios in December 1956. Namely “Don’t Be Cruel” and “Paralyzed”. Written by Otis Blackwell “Don’t Be Cruel” was originally recorded on July 2, 1956 at RCA’s New York Studios, and had given Elvis his biggest hit record to date when released as a single coupled with “Hound Dog” earlier in the same year. During a visit to Las Vegas later in the year, Elvis had seen Jackie Wilson, (then a member of Billy Ward’s Dominoes) perform the song using a different arrangement, and with his own unique vocal style. During the MDQ session he described Jackie’s performance of the song to Carl and Jerry Lee, whilst singing the song again in a style influenced by Jackie’s own version of the song. Elvis was particularly impressed with Jackie’s pronunciation of the word “telephone”, and emphasized this during his informal performance. When he appeared on national television again during his third appearance on the Ed Sullivan show, on January 6, 1957 Jackie’s version of the song was a clear influence over his own performance of the song.  

“Paralysed” was another Blackwell composition that Elvis had first recorded on September 2, 1956 during the sessions at Radio Recorders that produced his second album “Elvis” (LPM 1382). The song was similar in style to “Don’t Be Cruel”, and was also given a slower blues treatment when Elvis revisited the song during the MDQ sessions. 

One of the new discoveries first issued on the box set “The King Of Rock n Roll – The Essential ‘50’s Masters” in 1992, was a January 1955 demo recording of “Shake Rattle and Roll” taken from an acetate source. Both this early version and the RCA master recorded on February 3, 1956 at RCA’s New York studios are classic examples of Elvis’ unique ability to make a song recorded by several different people sound like his own, but the 1955 demo version is closer to the “Sun Sound” that RCA were so keen to recapture during Elvis’ early recording sessions for the label. The RCA master was first issued as a 1956 single coupled with “Lawdy Miss Clawdy”, whilst alternate take 8, which featured additional lyrics that were considered too controversial for the 1956 release, first appeared officially on the aforementioned ‘50’s box. A memorable live performance of the song that pre-dates Elvis’ RCA recording was recorded during Elvis’ January 28, 1956 performance on the Dorsey Brothers Stage Show. Here we see Elvis perform the song as part of a medley with “Flip, Flop and Fly”. This version was first issued on the soundtrack album to the 1981 documentary feature “This Is Elvis”.  

Whilst stationed in Germany during his army service in 1959 Elvis made many home recordings. It’s likely that some of these were just songs that Elvis liked to sing for his own amusement, but it’s also quite possible that he was already considering material to record after his national service was complete, and one of the songs performed in Germany, the appropriately titled “Soldier Boy”, was recorded for RCA during Elvis’ first post army session at RCA’s Studio B, Nashville on March 20, 1960, and issued on his first post army album “Elvis Is Back!” (LSP 2231) Another song Elvis liked to sing during his army service was “There’s No Tomorrow”, a 1949 hit for Tony Martin, and a song Elvis would also be familiar with from a version recorded by The Clovers and issued as the flip side of their hit single “Down In The Alley”, a song Elvis would record in 1966.

The melody was taken from the Italian ballad “O Sole Mio”, and Freddy Bienstock from Elvis’ music publishing company had commissioned new lyrics for the melody by the Schroeder/Gold song writing team. The new version titled “It’s Now Or Never” was recorded by Elvis at RCA’s Studio B, Nashville on April 3, 1960, and issued as US single coupled with “A Mess Of Blues” later in the year. The song became one of Elvis’ biggest selling, and most popular records. UK fans had to wait a little longer for this release due to copyright clearance problems with the original Italian melody, but when the song was finally issued as a single in the UK coupled with “Make Me Know It” from the “Elvis Is Back!” album the effect was exactly the same.   

In addition to the material that was recorded directly after Elvis’ army service, a number of additional songs that were favourites of Elvis’ during his army service were revisited at different times during the Presley career. Sanford Clarks’ hit “The Fool” was a song Elvis would perform to his own piano accompaniment during his army service, and like Bill Monroe’s “Little Cabin On The Hill”, the song was remembered by Elvis during the June 1970 sessions at RCA’s Studio B, Nashville that produced the majority of the material for the albums “Elvis - That’s The Way It Is” and “I’m 10,000 Years Old - Elvis Country”. The 1971 arrangement was given the full band treatment, and the master recorded on June 4, was nailed in two takes and issued on the 1971 album “I’m 10,000 Years Old – Elvis Country”.

Two other songs that Elvis would sing whilst playing piano during his army service were “I’ll Take You Home Again Kathleen”, and “I Will Be True”. Whilst both were ballads, Elvis also tried “Kathleen” in an up-tempo style during his army service, although the ballad treatment worked better. Both songs were recorded for RCA some 12 years later on May 19, 1971 at RCA’ s Studio B in Nashville, and in both cases Elvis opted for the ballad style that had first been attempted during the 1959 home recordings, and again accompanied himself on piano. Whilst both songs were excellent recordings they remained in the RCA vaults until 1973 when they were included on the album “Elvis” a.k.a. “Fool” (APL1-0283). Elvis’ producer Felton Jarvis overdubbed strings when the tracks were first issued on the aforementioned “Elvis” album, but the original undubbed recordings of both tracks, featuring just Elvis at the piano, were included on the 1995 box set “Walk A Mile In My Shoes – The Essential ‘70’s Masters”.      

Another song from Elvis’ army days is the Irish ballad “Danny Boy”. The home recording from Germany features Elvis singing the song to his own rhythm guitar accompaniment, but ideally the song was more suited to a piano arrangement, and Elvis finally recorded it this way during a session held in the Jungle Room at his Graceland mansion on February 5, 1976. The song was obviously one of Elvis’ favourites and I don’t doubt it was sung privately many times during the 17 years between the 1959 home recording, and the 1976 master recording, with another example being a performance taped during the dressing room rehearsals for the NBC TV Special on June 25, 1968. The song was included on the 1976 album “From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis Tennessee” (APL1-1506), and more recently a rare live performance recorded on June 1, 1976 in Tucson, Arizona, and featuring Elvis playing piano was issued on the BMG collectors label “Follow That Dream” on the 2000 CD release, “Tucson ‘76”. 

During the mid sixties Elvis’ movie contracts meant that the recording of soundtrack material took preference to secular sessions for a while, but the home recordings that have been discovered and released since Elvis’ passing from this period, show that privately Elvis was trying out new songs during this period, and some of these were recorded for RCA following Elvis’ 1968 comeback. Amongst the home recordings made during 1966 was a version of Eddy Arnold’s 1962 hit “After Loving You”. This was a favourite of Elvis’ and his vocal delivery on the 1966 home recording is very similar to the completed master that was recorded on February 18, 1969 during the legendary sessions at American Studios in Memphis. The song was issued on the first album from Elvis’ Memphis sessions, 1969’s “From Elvis In Memphis” (LSP 4155). 

Another song that was recorded privately during 1966 was “Fools Rush In”. A song that had been a hit for both Brooke Benton and Ricky Nelson. On the home recording we hear Elvis singing the song to an orchestral arrangement from a record. By the time Elvis recorded the song at RCA’s Studio B, Nashville on May 18, 1971, he had been performing live again for almost three years, and James Burton who had played on an earlier hit version of the song for Ricky Nelson was now lead guitarist in Elvis’ studio and live band. On the RCA master James reprised the arrangement that had been used on the Ricky Nelson hit, and RCA released the track on the 1972 album “Elvis Now” (LSP 4671).    

When choosing songs for the 1973 satellite broadcast “Aloha From Hawaii” new material was needed for the set list so that the resulting soundtrack album would be significantly different from the 1972 live set “As Recorded Live At Madison Square Garden”. One of the songs added to the set list, and included in the satellite broadcast was “What Now My Love”, a song Elvis had added to his stage repertoire during his 1972 summer festival in Las Vegas. A full orchestral arrangement was worked out, and this differed considerably from a mid tempo piano based arrangement that was recorded privately in 1966, and featured Elvis harmonizing with fellow members of the Memphis mafia. The live master of   “What Now My Love” featured on the 1973 album “Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite”, (VPSX 6089) which gave Elvis his first US no.1 album since the “Roustabout” soundtrack in 1965.     

The above examples are intended provide a further insight into Elvis’ creative process, and musical influences, and are also further proof, if any were needed, of Elvis’ unique talent and versatility. A quick glance at the different musical styles and genres Elvis covered whilst recording the songs listed above clearly illustrates that when the young Elvis first walked into Sun Studios and told Marion Keisker that he sang “all kinds” of music, he certainly wasn’t bluffing.

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