Elvis Presley, The #2 Artist of the Rock Era, Part Five

 

(Continued from Part Four)

Elvis was drafted in the Army as a private on March 24, 1958 and he undertook his basic training at Fort Hood, Texas.  While on leave in June, Presley recorded five songs in Nashville.  

RCA kept Presley front and center with compilations and other albums of unreleased material.  Elvis' Golden Records, released three days before he left for military duty, has now sold 12 million copies in the United States alone.

Claude DeMetruis wrote this song in either late 1957 or early 1958 and Elvis must have been a fan for it is the fourth he recorded, following "I Was The One", "Santa, Bring My Baby Back (To Me)" and "Mean Woman Blues".  RCA Victor consistently spelled Claude's name wrong on the three previous releases by Presley, but finally got it right on this one.  

"Hard Headed Woman" from the "King Creole" Soundtrack went to #1 for two weeks and has sold over one million copies.  However, the scene where Elvis sang the sung was cut from the movie.

"Trouble" is one of three songs that Leiber and Stoller wrote for the "King Creole" Soundtrack.

 

Elvis recorded this but Presley, Parker and the record company all had reservations about the suggestive lyrics.  Elvis continued to work with the song while he was filming Loving You, finally rewriting "One night of sin is what I'm now paying for" into "One night with you is what I'm now praying for."  Presley's remake of a Smiley Lewis song reached #4--"One Night".

In August, Gladys was diagnosed with hepatitis, and Presley was granted emergency leave to visit her.  Elvis arrived in Memphis on August 12 and two days later, his mother died of heart failure at the age of 46.  Elvis was devastated.

Presley joined the 3rd Armored Division in Friedberg, Germany on October 1.  It was there that a sergeant introduced him to amphetamines and he became interested in karate.  By all accounts, Elvis insisted on being treated like every other soldier despite his fame.  He donated his Army salary to charity.

While in Friedberg, Presley met 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu and began a seven-and-a-half-year courtship.

 

Elvis recorded this one in June of 1958 when he went to Nashville while in the army but waiting to go to Germany.  "I Got Stung" hit #8 and sold over two million singles.

RCA released the compilation 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong Elvis' Gold Records, Volume 2 in 1959 and it went Platinum.  This song from the album, written by Bill Trader in 1952, was originally a Country hit for Hank Snow until Elvis spread its popularity beyond that narrow genre.  

Presley recorded it on June 10, 1958 at RCA Studios in Nashville while he was on leave, his first session without Scotty Moore and Bill Black.  Chet Atkins played guitar with bass from Bob Moore, drums by D.J. Fontana with Buddy Harman and piano from Floyd Cramer.  

 

"(Now And Then There's) A Fool Such As I" was originally released as the B-side until DJ's turned it over and the public loved it.   It topped charts in the U.K. and Canada and stopped at #2 in the United States and sold two million copies.

 

Elvis recorded the flip side, "I Need Your Love Tonight", at that same June 10 session.  It ruled the U.K. chart for five weeks, hit #4 in the U.S. and went Gold.

Parker, for as much as he limited Presley's career by leading him to spend hundreds of days away from recording in the movie studio, seemed to understand supply and demand.  That strategy was never to give the public, or the record company, as much material as was asked for.  "A Big Hunk o' Love" also raced to #1 in the U.S. and Canada and went Gold.

Presley was honorably discharged from the Army on March 5, 1960 with the rank of sergeant.  The train that Elvis took from New Jersey home to Tennessee was mobbed every step of the way.  

Presley recorded in Nashville on March 20 in a session that yielded "Stuck On You", written by Aaron Schroeder and Sidney Wyche (under the name Sid Jaxon) and the lead single from his album, Elvis. 

Presley's first new studio album in two years (Elvis Is Back) reached #1 in the U.S., Canada and Australia and #3 in the U.K. and has sold over two million copies in the United States alone.

Another magical session two weeks later produced two all-time classics.  Elvis got the idea for this song while he was stationed in Germany.  He heard "O Sole Mio", a song popularized by Mario Lanza.  

When Presley was discharged, he asked RCA to write an English translation for him (Tony Martin wrote the first such translation in 1949.)  The aforementioned Schroeder teamed up with Wally Gold to accomplish the task in 30 minutes, using the same melody and chord progression as "O Sole Mio".  "It's Now Or Never" rocketed up to #1 in 12 countries including the U.S. (#1 for 5 weeks), the U.K., Australia and Canada.  The single has also topped two million units sold and is The #21 Song of the Rock Era*. 

 

Schroeder went on to write 17 songs for Elvis, and also wrote another song you may be familiar with, the theme to the animated TV series Scooby Doo, Where Are You?  "A Mess Of Blues" (written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman) is the flip side of "It's Now Or Never" and received considerable airplay of its own, hitting #2 in the U.K. and #32 in the United States.

 

"Are You Lonesome To-night?" was the other song recorded on that famous day when Elvis recorded "It's Now Or Never", yet another big seller (over four million copies) and #1 for Presley in the United States, the U.K., Canada, Australia and five other countries.  It marked the return of Moore on lead guitar, albeit as a session man, and is The #40 Song of the Rock Era*.

 

Paul Evans and Matt Williams wrote this song with Elvis in mind, knowing that there was a lucrative payout if Presley recorded a song.  "I Gotta' Know" received considerable distribution as the flip side to "Are You Lonesome To-night?" and is highly regarded by Elvis fans.  Evans explained how he tailored his songwriting for Presley:

                I would imagine how he sang, because 

               Elvis had a specific style.  He would mumble

               a little bit, he wasn't clear, necessarily, on his

               lyrics.  And so I would sing it like he would

               sing it, the kind of guttural and sexy thing

               that he always did.  So if we wanted to write

               for Elvis, we would have to try to feel like

               Elvis, and what does he say in his songs?  

               I would do the demo, and I would do the

               singing.  For an artist of that stature you had

               to be very careful with your demos, because

               generally speaking you would get the final

               from Elvis back with basically the 

               arrangement of the demo.  Of course, 

               instead of me singing 4-part harmonies, 

               you'd get the Jordanaires, and instead of my

               5-piece orchestra, you'd have whatever he

               wanted on his session, or his producer

               wanted.

Elvis was back in America, and back in the recording studio, and seemed to pick up where he left off before going into the U.S. Army.  But would that high level of success last?  Stay tuned for Part Six!