Behind the Hits: Songwriters for Elvis Presley | Shocknaue Entertainment News

Raised in Tupelo, Mississippi, Elvis Presley famously listened to music without prejudice, embracing everything from Tin Pan Alley pop and R&B to gospel, country, rock and roll, folk, opera, and big ballads. While it’s a common misconception that Elvis wrote most of his hits, a detailed List Of Songs Written By Elvis Presley himself is relatively short compared to his extensive catalog. His true genius lay in his uncanny ability to interpret and make songs his own, transforming written compositions into iconic performances. From the 1950s through the 1970s, Elvis demonstrated an innate gift as a seasoned song man, working with numerous talented writers. As documented in Ken Sharp’s book, Writing for the King, over 140 songwriters shared insights into his process and impact.

Like a musical geneticist, Elvis drew from every strand of DNA in a songwriter’s work, ultimately shaping his distinctive personal interpretation. Just listen to the wide stylistic swath of genre-hopping material Elvis recorded – from Junior Parker’s rockabilly classic “Mystery Train” and Otis Blackwell’s “All Shook Up,” to the blues swagger of “Reconsider Baby” and the operatic grandeur of “It’s Now or Never.” He also tackled socially conscious anthems like “If I Can Dream” and “In the Ghetto,” and introspective ’70s fare like “Separate Ways” and “Always On My Mind.” This demonstrates the breadth of a master stylist who breathed new life into every song he cut. But how were these songs presented to Elvis in the first place?

The Song Selection Process: Hill & Range and The Colonel

In 1956, Freddy Bienstock was hired by the powerful New York publishing firm, Hill & Range (formed by Julian and Jean Aberbach), as a songplugger. From then on, he was responsible for presenting songs to Elvis and acted as his A&R musical lifeline. Piled high with acetates, Bienstock was a constant presence at all of Elvis’ recording sessions, providing the artist with demo after demo.

“I knew what kind of songs Elvis liked and what I thought might capture his attention,” Bienstock recalled. “It was either a terrific melody or a novelty kind of lyric idea like ‘All Shook Up.’” Elvis listened intently to demos and knew immediately if a song was right for him. “He knew exactly what he wanted to do,” Bienstock affirmed. “You couldn’t talk Elvis into doing a song; he had to feel it. He knew what would work for him. If Elvis didn’t like a song, he’d only play about eight bars and then he would take it off. Then there were times he’d want to hear it again and again. Elvis would often adapt the arrangements inherent in the demos. On songs that he was particularly fond of, he would make a real effort – sometimes he’d do 40 takes. When there was a song he especially liked, he was almost a perfectionist about getting it just right.”

Elvis’ close friend, Lamar Fike, headed up the Nashville division of Hill & Range between 1962 and 1973. “You’d get all the songs together for a session, anywhere from probably 50, 100, 200 songs,” Fike remembered. “Freddy would send them to Memphis or L.A. or wherever we were, and Elvis and I started going over the material. We would weed it down to 20 or 30 songs and then weed it down further to about 10 songs. It was a continual process of listening and evaluating the material. We were looking for hits. You didn’t know exactly what you were looking for in the sense of this kind of wording, or, that type of music. With hit songs you feel it and just know it’s there. Elvis was one of the best song men that I’ve ever seen. He had an excellent ear, and he was more right than wrong with the material he selected. If he hadn’t been more right than wrong he wouldn’t have sold 200-300 million singles.”

For the most part, Presley was limited to cutting songs published by Hill & Range. If he took a liking to a non-Hill & Range song, a publishing deal would quickly be secured. During that time, his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, in cahoots with Hill & Range, also adopted a controversial stance whereby Elvis received a third of the songwriters’ mechanical royalties on tunes he cut. (He’s listed as co-writer of several hits, including ‘Heartbreak Hotel’, ‘Don’t Be Cruel’ and ‘All Shook Up’, albeit he didn’t have a hand in writing them. This practice of adding co-writer credit soon ceased thereafter.) Surprisingly, most songwriters did not object, as landing a cut was a coup and potential money maker.

David Hess, a Hill & Range writer whose songs were recorded by Elvis – including the 1958 No. 1 smash, ‘I Got Stung’ – recalled, “Part of the deal when Elvis cut one of your songs was he would get a piece of the action. Colonel Tom Parker made sure of that. To have a potential No. 1 hit staring you in the face made the pain of getting screwed a little less painful. It was a game you had to play and it was just dollars and cents for the Colonel. It wasn’t personal. He was looking out for his client, and that’s the way it was done in those days.”

He contrasted it with the modern era: “It’s so much different now. Everybody owns their own publishing. Back then you were just a songwriter and were happy to be part of a situation that made you money. You didn’t think about making waves, because if you did, you were out – and there was always somebody lined up behind you waiting to get in. You weren’t thinking about anything but making a living and writing songs.” In later years, the quality of the Hill & Range songs dipped, and outside songs like Mark James’ “Suspicious Minds” managed to break through the tight control, proving to be Presley’s last No. 1 hit.

Characterizing Presley’s extraordinary ability to inhabit the heart and soul of the songs he recorded, Fike reflected, “In order to make a song work, you’ve gotta understand it. And that’s what any good singer does. If you’re a stylist like Elvis was, that’s what makes a great song. What makes a great singer is his style. Frank Sinatra was one of the greatest stylists that ever lived – so was Elvis. When Elvis got through with a song, it became his. Sinatra said one time when talking about Elvis’ version of ‘My Way’, ‘He’s the only other person that made that song his too‘. With Elvis, when he got through with the song, it was his and nobody else’s.”

Let’s spotlight some of the key songwriters and the stories behind the hits recorded by The King.

Tommy Durden: Crafting the First Smash, “Heartbreak Hotel”

Tommy Durden and Mae Axton crafted Presley’s first RCA Records smash, ‘Heartbreak Hotel’, a song widely cited as a seminal spark that ignited the rock and roll revolution.

“I would get The Miami Herald every day,” Durden began. “I ran across a little item about a man who had committed suicide… there was a line in the suicide note that struck me. It said, ‘I walk a lonely street’. I thought it would be a terrific idea for a blues song.”
The next time he met Mae Axton, a songwriter, he shared the idea. “She sat down at the piano and I walked the floor behind her – and we wrote ‘Heartbreak Hotel’. It took all of 20 minutes.” They decided it would be a natural for Elvis, who was still on Sun Records but had recently come under Parker’s management.

They had Glenn Reeves, who could do an Elvis imitation, sing a demo. “He didn’t even like the song. It was done just with guitar and voice,” Durden said.
A disc jockey convention was coming up in Nashville, where Mae was headed and Elvis would be present. Durden told Mae, “‘Take the dub because Elvis is gonna be there. Go see him and play it for him. If he’ll record it on RCA, give him a third of the writer’s end’. She went there, played it for him and gave him a third of it. And it was his first release on RCA.”

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Tupelos Own Elvis Presley DVD, Never before have we seen an Elvis concert from the 50s with sound

Otis Blackwell: The Quiet Genius Behind “Don’t Be Cruel” and “All Shook Up”

Otis Blackwell was reportedly a very quiet man, but his wonderful songs spoke volumes. ‘Don’t Be Cruel’, ‘All Shook Up’, ‘Paralyzed’, and ‘Great Balls Of Fire’ are among the rock and roll treasures he created.

On Christmas Eve in 1955, Blackwell, needing money, was introduced to Shalimar Music. Through a connection at Shalimar to the Elvis Presley people, his songs were heard.
“I was working for Shalimar, and Elvis was with Hill & Range. So they got together to co-publish. I played seven songs for them – one of the songs was ‘Don’t Be Cruel’. They bought it and showed it to the Elvis company. They asked me could I write some more stuff.” He made demos for “Don’t Be Cruel,” “Paralyzed,” and “All Shook Up.”

“When Elvis recorded these songs, he was copying the vocal style on the demos,” Blackwell revealed. “And when they heard that, they asked me would I make other demos for writers as well.”
After the success of “Don’t Be Cruel,” Shalimar wanted another hit for Presley. “Al Stanton walked in one day with a bottle of Pepsi, shaking it… and said, ‘Otis, I’ve got an idea. Why don’t you write a song called ‘All Shook Up?’ Two days later I brought the song in and said, ‘Look, man, I did something with it’.” He noted that after “All Shook Up,” the practice of sharing songwriting credit became less common between him and Elvis.

Blackwell was surprised by the accuracy of Elvis’s versions. “I was surprised when I heard ‘Don’t Be Cruel’ because it was just like I had done the demo. I used to sing all my own demos, and it just so happened that a lot of what Presley and Jerry Lee did sounded alike. I thought they did justice to the songs. They put the kind of feeling into it that I felt.”

Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller: Rock and Roll Architects for Elvis

In the annals of songwriting, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller are championed alongside legendary teams like Lennon and McCartney. Celebrating over half a century of songwriting, they penned dozens of hits, with their remarkable songs interpreted by Presley standing among their finest achievements.

Mike Stoller: “‘Hound Dog’ was not originally written about a hunting dog who’d forgotten how to hunt. It was about a woman kicking a free-loader out of her house.”
Jerry Leiber: “I didn’t particularly like Elvis’ version of ‘Hound Dog’, but as time passed I grew very fond of it. I’m not sure if it was the actual record itself or the fact that it had become such an anthem.”

After “Hound Dog,” Elvis’s publishers contacted them. Jerry suggested an old song called “Love Me” that they’d recorded with a gospel group.
JL: “It was originally written as a send-up of country music, but Elvis sang it from the heart and it became a true love song.”
MS: “Elvis’ version of ‘Love Me’ became a big hit and a standard. He managed to transform this simple tune into something genuinely touching.”

For Elvis’s movies, they’d receive a script indicating where songs were needed. “Our job was to come up with the songs, and ultimately we decided where they would go,” Leiber said. They submitted songs through Freddy Bienstock, as Colonel Parker’s system dictated. “We wrote ‘Jailhouse Rock’ for the film.”
JL: “We were the producers without portfolio. That was a given. Steve Sholes [RCA A&R man] was a great guy… He came up to me and said, ‘Hey, Jer, you guys know more about this rock and roll stuff than I do. Why don’t you just take over?’ And we did. We didn’t get credit and get paid, but we got a hit score and some hit records.”
MS: Elvis requested they be at the ‘Jailhouse Rock’ recording sessions. “We hadn’t met yet. He was very easygoing… We’d demonstrate the songs for him. It was long hours and hard work in the studio, but Elvis made it seem effortless. He could sing take after take and never get tired. He was unreal.”

W. Earl Brown: The Soulful Message of “If I Can Dream”

W. Earl Brown had songs recorded by icons like Frank Sinatra and Cher, yet his extraordinary ‘If I Can Dream’ is the centerpiece of his career. It was the soul-stirring closer of Elvis’ historic ’68 Comeback Special television show and heralded Presley’s resurrection as a serious recording artist.

“They wanted to close the show with a song of peace, hope and brotherhood – a message song,” Brown explained. “A Change Is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke was the kind of song he aimed for. “I really believed in the song so much. ‘If I Can Dream’ came quickly, both words and music… I quickly scribbled it out on manuscript paper. It just unfolded. I didn’t think about form. It was a very inspired and pure song.”

He brought it in the next morning. “From the other room I heard Colonel Parker say, ‘That ain’t Elvis’ kind of song’. Then from behind me I heard, ‘I’d like to try it, man’. I didn’t know that Elvis had been standing in the doorway and had heard it.” Soon after, Brown found himself at Western Recorders where Elvis was recording it, and the backup singers, The Blossoms, had tears in their eyes. Darlene Love told him, “He really loves the song. He really believes in the song and means every word of it.”

“There was such a sense of excitement in the air with Elvis doing the Comeback special… When he began to sing ‘If I Can Dream’ at the end of the show, you could feel something in the air. It was truly electric.”
Brown still has his original handwritten lyrics. “Up in the left corner Elvis wrote, ‘My boy, my boy – this could be the one!’ Because he hadn’t had a hit in nine years, and it was.” Find out more about the songs that made it to the charts, such as elvis presley songs top 10.

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Don Robertson: Country Heartbreak and Enduring Standards

A 1972 Nashville Songwriters Hall Of Fame inductee, Don Robertson’s songs have been recorded by a diverse range of artists. Leiber & Stoller paid tribute to Robertson, deeming his country standard, ‘I Really Don’t Want to Know’, the greatest country song ever written.

When he finished writing ‘I’m Counting On You’, he played it over the phone for his publishers, the Aberbachs. “They liked it a lot and said, ‘We think we can get you a big artist on that’.” A few months later, Jean Aberbach called, apologetic. “‘We didn’t get you a big name artist, but there’s this new singer who everybody thinks is going to be really hot and his name is Elvis Presley’.” Robertson was initially disappointed, expecting a bigger name. “I changed my mind later on,” he laughed. Elvis’s recording of ‘I’m Counting on You’ was included on his first RCA album.

“‘Anything That’s Part of You’ was a love song I had written for Irene, the girl that I’m still married to today,” he shared. When she was away working as a flight attendant, he missed her dearly. “She left a brown knit sweater hanging in my closet, and I would sometimes bury my face in it and smell her perfume and feel my heart ache with longing for her… This inspired me to write ‘Anything That’s Part of You’.” The sweater lyric evolved into the more singable “ribbon from your hair.” Elvis particularly liked Robertson’s piano work on the demo and had his session pianist copy it. “By a happy coincidence, Elvis and I had similar vocal ranges, so he was comfortable in my keys – with my phrasing and my arrangements. I think that was one reason he liked my demos. He usually copied my demos note for note.”

Robertson recorded an album including his performance of ‘I Really Don’t Want to Know’. He gave it to Elvis’s friend at his house. “I don’t know if Elvis ever listened to it – but I think he did because it wasn’t too long after that that I was told that Elvis had recorded ‘I Really Don’t Want to Know’.” Elvis’s bluesy rendition was very different from Robertson’s. “He introduced the song to a whole new generation and helped to establish it as a pop/country standard. That was extremely satisfying to me as a writer.” Perhaps the King’s musical partnership extended to other artists, like exploring scotty moore songs.

Mac Davis: A Vicious Circle in “In the Ghetto”

Mac Davis’s first big break came with songs he wrote that were recorded by Elvis, namely the hits ‘In the Ghetto’, ‘Don’t Cry Daddy’ and ‘Memories’. He later achieved major success as a recording artist himself.

“My daddy was a small building contractor,” Davis began, recalling a Black man named Alan Smith who worked for him. Smith’s son, Smitty Junior, was Davis’s age, and they played together. “They lived on a really funky dirt street ghetto. There was broken glass everywhere. I couldn’t understand how these kids could run around barefoot on all that broken glass. I was wondering why they had to live that way and I didn’t.”
A guitar player showed him a lick, and while messing around with it, Davis sang, “In the ghetto.” “I thought, man that just fits. I had always wanted to write a song called ‘The Vicious Circle’.” He explained the concept: “A child is born in a situation, his father leaves and he ends up acting out and becoming his father. Being born, dying and being replaced by another child in the same situation is basically what I was talking about. Dying is a metaphor for being born into failure, a situation where you have no hope.”

“When I had finished the last line, I knew that I had written a hit,” he stated. “I didn’t know that it was important, but I just knew that it was a hit if the right person cut it.”
Davis felt Elvis took a “huge chance” recording “In the Ghetto” because it was controversial and not aligned with his middle-of-the-road image. He was “shocked” Colonel Parker allowed it.
“Elvis improved [the song],” Davis claimed. “In fact, it was Elvis’ idea to add another ‘and his mama cries’ at the end of that song.” The original ended simply with “And another little baby child is born – in the ghetto.” Elvis’s addition emphasized the vicious circle. “It would have been a hit without him doing it, but he improved it.” Davis fondly remembered being winked at by Elvis when he performed the song in Vegas, saying, “Here’s my first number 1 in quite a while.” Exploring Elvis’s filmography also reveals fascinating stories, such as the movie with elvis presley and mary tyler moore.

Mark James: The Enduring Suspicion in “Suspicious Minds”

First coming to prominence as the writer of B.J. Thomas’s ‘Hooked On A Feeling’, Mark James crafted one of Elvis’s most enduring songs, the No. 1 hit ‘Suspicious Minds’. Elvis recorded four additional songs penned by James (‘It’s Only Love’, ‘Raised on Rock’, ‘Moody Blue’, and ‘Always on My Mind’).

The idea for ‘Suspicious Minds’ came to him one night. “First the title came – I thought about it and lived with it a while. Then the lyric came to me: ‘Caught in a trap, I can’t walk out because I love you too much baby’.” He explained the core message: “we can’t live together, attain our dreams or build on anything if we don’t trust one another… If there’s distrust in a relationship or you’re wondering if your partner wants to be with somebody else, you can’t go forward. The chorus, which says, ‘We can’t go on together with suspicious minds’, is what I was trying to get across with the song.”

“Suspicious Minds” captured a lot of soul, something James learned growing up in Houston. He put the song together quickly, aiming for a hit. His version came out on Scepter Records in ’68, before Elvis’s sessions at American Studios in ’69.
Don Cruise, co-partner at American Studios with Chips Moman, told James, “You know Elvis is coming in?” James was trying to write something great for him. He analyzed Elvis’s career phase – in his early 30s, needing to remain viable as a rock star.
James recalled Don Cruise urgently asking if he had anything. “Then he said, ‘Well, what about the old catalog? What about ‘Suspicious Minds?’” At that moment, James saw a “golden number one” in his head. “Chips was a little hesitant because I didn’t have a hit with my own version… but he saw the belief I had in the song and he played it when Elvis came. Elvis liked it immediately… He asked for a tape and took it home. Priscilla loved the song too, so the excitement and momentum about ‘Suspicious Minds’ kept building.”

The recording session involved dealing with Colonel Parker and Hill & Range trying to secure publishing rights, a practice James refused. Chips Moman stood firm, threatening to keep the master tape if they didn’t back down on publishing demands. This occurred during the ‘Suspicious Minds’ session.
“Elvis’ performance on ‘Suspicious Minds’ is great. He got into the song and made it his own,” James stated. It became number one in 27 countries and is often considered Elvis’s signature song. James received an award from Graceland selecting it as Elvis’s all-time favorite song. “I believe it is. Elvis had a lot of great songs, but at the time of his comeback, he needed a mature rock song… I’m happy that my song helped him do that. It reinvigorated Elvis as an artist and brought him a newfound respect. I wanted to write a song that would move people and would capture the essence of Elvis’.”

Conclusion: The King’s Interpretive Legacy

While a complete List Of Songs Written By Elvis Presley is shorter than many might expect, the enduring legacy of his music is inextricably linked to the talented songwriters featured here and countless others. Elvis Presley was a master interpreter, capable of taking a melody and lyrics and imbuing them with a unique soul and power that made them undeniably his. The stories behind these hits highlight not just the creative sparks of the writers but also the intricate business dealings and, most importantly, Elvis’s unparalleled instinct for selecting and performing songs that resonated with audiences worldwide, solidifying his place as the King of Rock and Roll.

Source: Adapted from Writing for the King by Ken Sharp.