Gerald wrote mostly for Presley's movie soundtracks. Sadly, the ones that got chosen were often among the worst ever cut by Elvis. In the end, it turned out that "If I Were You" would be Nelson's only non-soundtrack contribution.
But there could have been another one, according to the notes he added to his 2006, self-published compilation disc.
Gerald Nelson Songs I Wrote for Elvis (Coda Masters, March 2006)
01. If I Were You
02. Sing You Children
03. The Love Machine
04. Yoga Is As Yoga Does
05. Easy Come, Easy Go
06. Lazy Love Affair
07. Let Me Tell You Something New
08. Long Vacation
09. Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained
10. That's Allright With Me
11. Clambake
12. Dancing Out of My Life
13. Danger Beware
14. Ferryboat From Dover
15. Double Trouble
16. Dominique My Bull
17. How Can I
18. I'll Take Love
19. The Chicken Scratch
I thought it might be fun to put together a CD of the original demonstration recordings of songs that I wrote for Elvis Presley. Some he recorded, some he didn’t. He was such a good friend and I respected his friendship so much that I never ask him to record any of my work. Lamar Fike or Freddy Beanstalk put those that he did in his hands. Usually they would send me a script and say: ”Write something for this movie”. For the most part that was either fun or insane.
Fun: “Dominique My Bull” I think that was for the “Stay Away Joe” film wherein he buys a bull to breed, the bull turns out to be gay and won’t perform that for which he was purchased. He gets the idea for he and his Indian girl friend to show the bull what to do! They didn’t use this song in the movie, perhaps today they might? Another fun write was “The Chicken Scratch”. Lots of laughter in the studio when I was trying to make the guitar sound like a chicken.
Insane: “Yoga Is As Yoga Does” Now how does one go about writing a song around that title? I thought that this scripted nonsense has to be a joke. It turned out to be the absolute worst Song I ever heard! This crazy composition was used in the “Easy Come Easy Go” movie along with two others that are on this CD, “Sing You Children” and “The Love Machine”. There were four songs in this movie. I wrote three of them. The best song of the four that I submitted was “Easy Come, Easy Go”, they didn’t use that one. Go figure.
The Elvis movie producers passed on a song “Lazy Love Affair”, for which film I forget. But the demo recording that you can hear on this CD, was later used in two movies: Miami Blue and Caged Fear.
He recorded “If I Were You” and put it in the “Love Letters” album. Oddly enough this song, even today, gets quite a bit of airplay and sales around the world. It’s the only non-movie song of mine that was ever submitted to him.
For those of you who like “tid-bits” here is an interesting one for you. A contemporary standard, “Tragedy”, was written by Fred Burch and me. The song has sold millions and millions of records and has been recorded by 20-25 different artists over the years. We wrote the song for Elvis!
Chet Atkins was Elvis’s producer at RCA at the time and I sent it to Chet for Elvis. Chet passed on the song. Years later Chet told me that he “missed on that one, but that he would make it up to me” He did. He recorded it in years to come by Charlie Rich, Floyd Cramer, and the Anita Kerr Singers. I didn’t include it in this collection because Paul McCartney later purchased the publishing, you know that Beatle boy, and it is too much trouble to get a license for use in a little project like this.
I hope you get some fun out of listening to some of this stuff.
Gerald Nelson
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/geraldnelson
Well then. How fascinating to learn Nelson intended "Tragedy" to be recorded by Presley. The only 1958 RCA session that might've fit was the one in Nashville on June 10th, but that date was mainly devoted to cutting up-tempo single A-sides.
The ballad ended up being cut by local Memphis singer Thomas Wayne. And it became a hit!
Thomas Wayne With the DeLons "Tragedy" (Fernwood 109, October 13, 1958)
Billboard "Hot 100" #5, March 23, 1959, Cash Box "Top 100" #7, March 28, 1959
The DeLons were Sandra Brown, Nancy Reed and Carol Moss.
Billboard - March 23, 1959
"Tragedy" peaks on the Billboard "Hot 100" at #5 for the first of four weeks in a row.
Wayne was born Thomas Wayne Perkins, and was the brother of Luther Perkins, Johnny Cash’s legendary lead guitarist. Look closely again at that label, it was "Produced by Scotty Moore" . . . Elvis' original lead guitar player!
"Tragedy" (Fernwood 109, October 13, 1958)
So many connections. It's a small world, after all. Heck, I might even pick up this CD!
BONUS BILLBOARD
'
. I´ve just placed an order for this cd 
, as I am always interested on demos that were used by Elvis. Thank you. Bye for now 
.
. Bye for now