Scotty , comparing the strained atmosphere to the informality of the Sun Records sessions . “ The engineer called take numbers instead of , ‘ Hey , do it again .’ My feeling was not necessarily , We ’ re in the big time , [ it was more like ] we were fresh meat .”
Elvis alone seemed sure of himself and his own agenda . He was wearing pink pants with a blue stripe and was clearly excited about the occasion , as he threw himself into a full-scale performance of his first song , Ray Charles ’ “ I Got a Woman ,” which had been a staple of his stage act for nearly a year now . He sang it again and again , zeroing in on the half-time , bluesy finish that had always been the climax of his live performance and that Sholes , a veteran record-company man , must have felt was hardly the way to begin .
I Got a Woman
Elvis had tried the song several times while he was still on the Sun label , but he had never quite gotten it right . I ’ m not sure he did here – at least not to his own satisfaction – and it was definitely taken at a tempo that would have been too fast , too little thought-out , for Sun Records owner Sam Phillips . When it was released in the original Ray Charles version in late December 1954 , “ I Got a Woman ” had revolutionized rhythm and blues by injecting a note of explicit gospel fervor ( it was based directly on the gospel song “ It Must Be Jesus ”) that would soon become the bedrock of soul . That gospel fervor was at the heart of all of Elvis ’ music , these were the same Pentecostal rhythms that he had first learned in church as a little boy , but here he dispenses altogether with Ray Charles ’ lagging beat , launching himself into the song , as if he were in a rush to get to its finish . With the
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