I Gotta Know

This was written by songwriters Paul Evans and Matt Williams, and was released on the B-side of Elvis' #1 hit "Are You Lonesome Tonight." This was written specifically for Elvis, as there was a big payout if he recorded one of your songs. Evans told us: "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? We knew what he liked, and we wanted to give him something he liked, of course. 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."

For all the swagger Elvis carried, he often sounded quite lovelorn in his songs, and this one is a good example. Evans explains: "Love Me Tender, please, love me: that was the essence of Pop music - or it used to be. I think the essence today is naughty, and the essence is angry. We didn't do angry music in the '50s and '60s." (Check out our interview with Paul Evans.)