Meet Gerald Nelson, Mysterious Elvis Songwriter

[drjohncarpenter]

Makes more sense with the female intro.

yes it definately does

But does it make it a better piece of music?

Don't think so...

[Swingin-Little-Guitar-Man]

I've ordered it and it's on the way. And yep, Yoga Is as yoga Does sounds better than the Elvis cut. All a bit of innocent fun.

[Mike Eder]

That's Alright With Me was (I Think) Ral Donner's first record. That one isn't too bad but a lot of these songs are crazy.

[jetblack]

That's Alright With Me was (I Think) Ral Donner's first record. That one isn't too bad but a lot of these songs are crazy.

Spot on Mike. 'That's All Right With Me' backed with 'Tell Me Why' was released in 1959 by Ral. It wouldn't be until 1961 until his first hit though, 'The Girl Of My Best Friend / It's Been A Long Long Time' which peaked at position 19 in the USA.

Andy

[Gregory Nolan Jr.]

re:

(1) Gerald Nelson: Songs I Wrote for Elvis


Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.
A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure it was in the best possible condition before mailing.
Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy.
We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved "Bon Voyage!" to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, May 12, 2010.
We hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. In commemoration, we have placed your picture on our wall as "Customer of the Year." We're all exhausted but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Sigh...
We miss you already. We'll be right here at http://cdbaby.com/, patiently awaiting your return.
--
CD Baby

Oh that's the new "Shop Elvis" policy, given all the nicely-packaged CD's I've gotten from them of late!

Neat post, Doc....

So he's the one responsible for the "Yoga Is As Yoga Does" atrocity!

[ronnt]

I've got myself all of the Gerald Nelson demo songs written for Elvis.Some good,some not so good.
Author Trevor Simpson was recently in Texas visiting Sid Wayne's family.On a recent Liverpool,U.K. radio programme he chatted about it to Spencer Leigh.Sid's family invited Trevor to listen to a pile of demo's their dad had written for Elvis.The singers were Glen Campbell & P.J.Proby.Only a handful were ever selected for the movies. I bet they were all fantastic!! On the same radio show the demo sung by P.J.Proby "Fun In Acapulco" was also played.....absolutely brilliant. I'd love to see all these demo's out on CD. Wonder if it will ever happen?
Ron T.

[Mike Windgren]

Hi there!! .

I've got myself all of the Gerald Nelson demo songs written for Elvis.Some good,some not so good.
Author Trevor Simpson was recently in Texas visiting Sid Wayne's family.On a recent Liverpool,U.K. radio programme he chatted about it to Spencer Leigh.Sid's family invited Trevor to listen to a pile of demo's their dad had written for Elvis.The singers were Glen Campbell & P.J.Proby.Only a handful were ever selected for the movies. I bet they were all fantastic!! On the same radio show the demo sung by P.J.Proby "Fun In Acapulco" was also played.....absolutely brilliant. I'd love to see all these demo's out on CD. Wonder if it will ever happen?
Ron T.

I also love all those demos that were supplied to Elvis . It would be great to have them in one single collection as you stated and great to know at the same time that they are still around. Thanks!. Here´s one that I like . Bye for now .

http://www73.zippyshare.com/v/61928259/file.html

[drjohncarpenter]

The problem with packaging Elvis demos is the market is extremely small for them.

This is the reason only one of the two CDs included in Follow That Dream's Writing for the King book contains demos -- Ernst knew that two discs would torpedo the sales necessary to get a release approved by the parent company. But I wager he would have loved to made both discs all demos.

Gerald Nelson's demo of "The Love Machine" is among those included on that essential release.


Writing for the King (FTD, December 08, 2006)
https://www.elvisinnorway.no/writingfortheking.html
http://www.amazon.com/Writing-King-Book-2-CDs/dp/B000KLNM0O


'

[Panhandle Kid]

If I Were You
..

Clambake
..

The Love Machine
..

Double Trouble
..

The Chicken Scratch
..

Easy Come, Easy Go
..

Here's some I found on youtube.

[Since1956]

I've got myself all of the Gerald Nelson demo songs written for Elvis.Some good,some not so good.
Author Trevor Simpson was recently in Texas visiting Sid Wayne's family.On a recent Liverpool,U.K. radio programme he chatted about it to Spencer Leigh.Sid's family invited Trevor to listen to a pile of demo's their dad had written for Elvis.The singers were Glen Campbell & P.J.Proby.Only a handful were ever selected for the movies. I bet they were all fantastic!! On the same radio show the demo sung by P.J.Proby "Fun In Acapulco" was also played.....absolutely brilliant. I'd love to see all these demo's out on CD. Wonder if it will ever happen?
Ron T.

Very few songs from the Elvis movies are memorable. For a movie song, Gerald Nelson's "The Love Machine" isn't bad at all. Nelson did his own demo which is also very good. It's one that was included on the Writing for the King Disc 1.

P.J. Proby said on camera in a 1997 interview that his job many years before was doing demos of all the Elvis movie songs. He said he recorded the demos while Elvis was filming scenes. Then Elvis would learn the songs from his demos and record the tracks for the movie.

Everyone knows that professional quality demos (like Gerald Nelson's) had already been provided by the writers of songs submitted for movies. The insipid interviewer talking to P.J. Proby in 1997 didn't ask the reason for the senseless re-demo practice Proby described or who paid him and all the musicians it required. That's typical of interviewers who are out of their depth. Proby obviously wanted everyone viewing the interview to believe Elvis couldn't do anything without HIS demos. Rubbish! I guess all those multi million selling non-movie songs Elvis recorded without a Proby demo must have been sheer luck.

[zolderopruiming1]

P.J. Proby recorded demo's for Elvis. That's a fact! Some "escaped".

[Since1956]

P.J. Proby recorded demo's for Elvis. That's a fact! Some "escaped".

I didn't say P.J. Proby never demoed a song written for Elvis.

Dozens of singers and singer-songwriters (both men and women) recorded demos of songs for Elvis. But to my knowledge P.J. Proby is the only one who has said he recorded demos of "all the songs" in a movie while Elvis was filming the scenes. Proby even toured the UK in 2011 billed as Elvis's Demo Man. If Elvis had a demo man it was the best kept secret in history. Hard to believe with all the other dirt that's been spread around by people out to make a buck off Elvis.

[colonel snow]

Not mentioned: Mary Lou Brown - recorded in september 1961 by The By Liners (Felsted 8631).
Red West is credited for the song on Elvis' records.

colonel snow

[colonel snow]

The lyrics for Sing your sinner sings are changed into Sing your children; Gerald Nelson sings the original lyrics on the CD.


colonel snow

[drjohncarpenter]

Not mentioned: Mary Lou Brown - recorded in september 1961 by The By Liners (Felsted 8631).
Red West is credited for the song on Elvis' records.

colonel snow

Of course, this song was not mentioned, or included in Gerald Nelson's CD, because it was never apparently intended for Elvis. It is interesting that Charles Hodge gets a co-writing credit.

Extensive research and documentation on this November 1961 By Liners single may be found here:

http://www.elvis-collectors.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=80443#p1237309

[MikeFromHolland]

.

Also added to the < SONGS IN THE SPOTLIGHT > thread.



The full Gerald Nelson CD with Elvis Demos is also on Spotify:


.

[poormadpeter2]

Not mentioned: Mary Lou Brown - recorded in september 1961 by The By Liners (Felsted 8631).
Red West is credited for the song on Elvis' records.

colonel snow

Of course, this song was not mentioned, or included in Gerald Nelson's CD, because it was never apparently intended for Elvis. It is interesting that Charles Hodge gets a co-writing credit.

Extensive research and documentation on this November 1961 By Liners single may be found here:

http://www.elvis-collectors.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=80443#p1237309

Errr...that post provides us with very little. You suggest that Red West might have had a hand in writing the song, but give no indication of why that might the be the case other than the fact a different composition with the same name was copyrighted by him. That is likely to be the only connection. The same song can not be copyrighted twice. That's not how it works - surely you know that???

Then, in the post I am quoting here, you state "Of course, this song was not mentioned, or included in Gerald Nelson's CD, because it was never apparently intended for Elvis."

And yet on the post you are linking to, you say: "Another intriguing thing, which may be a clue to solving this mystery, is the fact that Nelson issued a disc in 2006 of his Elvis demos, mostly submissions for Hollywood soundtracks, which is seven years after The Home Recordings was released, yet "Mary Lou Brown" was not on it. This might indicate he didn't believe it really was his song in the first place."

So, which is it?

So your extensive research on the single by The By Liners....reveals nothing.

[brian]

I wish Elvis had gotten a hold of Tragedy. It's a good song although probably a B-side for Elvis at that time.

[Stevenson]

The lyrics for Sing your sinner sings are changed into Sing your children; Gerald Nelson sings the original lyrics on the CD.


colonel snow

Interesting. What do you think was the reason for lyrics change? Did Elvis objected them or perhaps someone from the movie company?
Thank you for posting this lyric sheet! Love that kind of stuff! (and am awaiting for some more!)

[colonel snow]

The lyrics for Sing your sinner sings are changed into Sing your children; Gerald Nelson sings the original lyrics on the CD.


colonel snow

Interesting. What do you think was the reason for lyrics change? Did Elvis objected them or perhaps someone from the movie company?
Thank you for posting this lyric sheet! Love that kind of stuff! (and am awaiting for some more!)

Here's the lyric card with corrections.


colonel snow

[Stevenson]

Here's the lyric card with corrections.
colonel snow

THANKS!!

[poormadpeter2]

The lyrics for Sing your sinner sings are changed into Sing your children; Gerald Nelson sings the original lyrics on the CD.


colonel snow

Interesting. What do you think was the reason for lyrics change? Did Elvis objected them or perhaps someone from the movie company?
Thank you for posting this lyric sheet! Love that kind of stuff! (and am awaiting for some more!)

Here's the lyric card with corrections.


colonel snow

You'd think he'd have got hold of the basic lyric change without all verses having to changed on the sheet, wouldn't you?!

[colonel snow]

The lyrics for Sing your sinner sings are changed into Sing your children; Gerald Nelson sings the original lyrics on the CD.


colonel snow

Interesting. What do you think was the reason for lyrics change? Did Elvis objected them or perhaps someone from the movie company?
Thank you for posting this lyric sheet! Love that kind of stuff! (and am awaiting for some more!)

The movie company and / or producer wanted a change of the lyrics.

colonel snow

[colonel snow]

The lyrics for Sing your sinner sings are changed into Sing your children; Gerald Nelson sings the original lyrics on the CD.


colonel snow

Interesting. What do you think was the reason for lyrics change? Did Elvis objected them or perhaps someone from the movie company?
Thank you for posting this lyric sheet! Love that kind of stuff! (and am awaiting for some more!)

Here's the lyric card with corrections.


colonel snow

You'd think he'd have got hold of the basic lyric change without all verses having to changed on the sheet, wouldn't you?!

To prevent mistakes all words were corrected in my opinion.


colonel snow

[kevanbudd]

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 (for 'Clambake')
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

Additional songs submitted by Gerald Nelson to Elvis -

20. Why didn't I tell her (G Nelson and F Burch)
21. There's no place to go but up (Gerald Nelson and Fred Burch)
22. I just thought you'd like to know (Gerald Nelson)
23. Heartbreak city (Gerald Nelson)
24. There she goes (G Nelson and F Burch)

Kevan Budd