The Nashville session had been scheduled strictly to fullfill a contractual commitment to RCA: twelve songs were required to make up a new studio album, and as per the Colonel's instructions just twelve songs were recorded, with the title assigned to the album that came out four months later, "Something for Everybody," reflecting some of its compromised origins. The two songs that that Don Robertson contributed, however, "There's Always Me" and "Starting Today," struck a fresh note, coming as close as you could get to the kind of moody late-night ballad one might expect from Frank Sinatra (if Frank Sinatra were to adopt country chord changes) and offering Elvis a rare opportunity for introspection and serious interpretation. After the session he told Freddy he'd like to meet Don Robertson if he ever got the chance, and Freddy and Julian Aberbach invited Robertson, a Chicago psychiatrist's son whose country and western compositions consistently reflected a profundity born of determined simplicity, to the first night of the Blue Hawaii soundtrack, when his new song was scheduled to be recorded.
"I sat in the control room, and he came in during a break and introducted himself (he was standing there in his little captain's hat), and we talked some, and he told me how he got started in the music business. He was very charming, very humble, sweet, and an altogether appealing person. That night, before I left he told me that some of the musicians and the Jordanaires were going to be coming up to his house after the session, and would I like to come? While I was there, he played me his version of "There's Always Me'......it was the first time I heard it, and we listened on headphones because he didn't want the rest of the people in the room necessarily to hear it. I remember, he got almost operatic at the end, just like he did on 'It's Now or Never,' and he said, 'Listen to this ending.' He was very proud of it. He talked with me about the lyrics, he was very interested in the lyrics. It was almost like he wanted me to know that he understood everything that was going on, everything, everything that was intended in the lyrics. I don't think I was overawed by him, but I was totally disarmed. He had this talent for making people feel comfortable, for letting you know that he really liked and respected you. And, you know, he told everyone that night that I was the one that had started Floyd Cramer's 'slip-note' style [the grace-note approach to country and western piano that was sweeping Nashville at the time]. I think he was kind of proud of me on that account."
The Unmaking Of Elvis Presley
Careless Love
by Peter Guralnick |
