increasingly frenzied response that it got almost compelled Elvis to record it . And so he did , at a hastily arranged session in New York the day after he had performed the song on the Steve Allen Show , dressed in white tie and tails at Allen ’ s request , to evade all the self-righteous calls for outright censorship .
In the studio the next day he felt a mix of embarrassment and exhilaration . He was not unaware of the challenges of attempting to translate the excitement that the song never failed to generate in his live shows into a studio setting , and he had difficulty at first finding a way to do it . After seventeen takes , Steve Sholes was ready to give up and move on to something more suitable , but Elvis was determined to keep going . As photographer Al Wertheimer , who had been assigned to document the session , described it ( Wertheimer was an exponent of the vérité style of photography pioneered by Henri Cartier-Bresson , and his writing reflected the same dedication to closely observed detail ), Elvis was a mixture of activity and stillness , taking charge in a way that was very different from previous sessions . ( See “ The Recordings ” section for a fuller account .) “ In his own reserved manner ,” wrote Wertheimer , “ he kept control , he made himself responsible . When somebody else made a mistake , he sang off-key . The offender picked up the cue . He never criticized anyone , never got mad at anybody but himself . He ’ d just say , ‘ Okay , fellas , I goofed .’”
You can see it in the pictures ( don ’ t , under any circumstances , miss the pictures , which have been published in a number of Wertheimer collections ), his absolute focus , his concentration and seriousness through take after take . Sholes pronounced that they were done after take 26 , but Elvis just shook his head and bore down even more for another five takes . When they listened carefully to the playbacks , Elvis showed no hesitation in declaring that the final take was the master .
20