Elvis Presley - "I Was the One" (1956 RCA Victor)
w Hal Blair, Claude DeMetrius, Bill Peppers, Aaron Schroeder; Single, RCA Victor – 20-6420
It's been two months since we last devoted dedicated space to Elvis, so today we turn to his first single with RCA following his departure from Sun Records - but not the storied "Heartbreak Hotel", rather the altogether less remarkable though still fantastic B-side, "I Was the One".
Later collected on For LP Fans Only, Elvis' army-era compilation of previously-released singles for the most part (from whence we derive the linked recordings), "I Was the One" is maybe not a major standout musically - unless you're into this kind of sappy schlock, which I am bad - but it does demonstrate Elvis' vocal ability quite clearly. You can hear his voice has gotten a little deeper/older than on his early stuff from Sun, not just when he's doing the "hunka-hunka" low voice, but in particular on the higher parts there's no more little-boy voice like you hear on the previously discussed "I Forgot to Remember to Forget" for example:
Besides the little bit at the end where he goes into a Cookie Monster kind of thing, it's a masterful performance...
There's an even better version from Elvis' final Louisiana Hayride performance (December 15th, 1956 - when "Elvis has left the building" was said for the first time), though at the time of writing it's unfortunately been unavailable on Spotify for some time:
Elvis will return to this space yet again sooner or later...until then, let’s leave off with one more excellent performance of "I Was the One", by Italy’s (and in my estimation the world's) premier Elvis tribute artist, Sayaka Alessandra:
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