Aware of the interpretative dynamic best suited to an optimum performance, the band stays in the background while Elvis, bouncing consonants around the vocal booth, miraculously forges the text into a convincing patois. For an interval of eight bars, it is as if the narrator has swiftly downed a very strong cup of coffee.Īs a composition, 'One sided love affair' is random enough to sound unfinished, so Campbell must have thought it was all his birthdays rolled into one when he heard what Elvis, Scotty and Bill had done with it.I n his percussive delivery of the words and in particular his ability to fuse the surly and the comedic by inventing a version of himself capable of bridging the two, Elvis uses his musical and phrasing skills to project the song, as a recording in vivid technicolour. The lyric in the bridge, which stubbornly favours the tonic chord, ventures into some complex, nearunintelligible colloquial slang, that in terms of continuity bears little resemblance to the mumbling mumbling ramble of the character who delivers the preceding verse.
As lyric poetry it is negligible, as conversational language it is basic, an impression amplified by the familiar, generic twelve-bar blues of the music. As a composition, the lyrics, particularly those in the verses, project the most straightforward of romantic propositions, altering only to introduce slight variations on the type of romance to be reciprocated. Listening to the eventual recording, we are led to identify with Cloonan's observation that the way lyrics are sung may bear little relation to how they appear on the page (2005: 79). With apologies to its author Bill Campbell, the music and words of 'One sided love affair', an unexceptional composition given by A&R man Stephen Sholes to Elvis Presley for possible inclusion on his debut album, presented numerous challenges to the performer as he entered RCA studios in New York one winter's morning in 1956. The book The Art of Songwriting calls the song itself (its music and words) "unexceptional", but praises Presley's performance and the eventual result: 'Cos I ain't for no one-sided love affair:Īn' the whole world knows that it's true. The book Song & Dance Man III: The Art of Bob Dylan note Presley's cynicism in the song, whose lyrics go: In a Mainterview the song was cited by Presley as his favorite from the album. There were six songs handpicked by A&R person Steve Sholes himself for Presley to record for his first album at the sessions, but "One-sided Love Affair" was the only one Presley liked and recorded. Presley recorded the song on Januat the RCA Studio in New York. The song (both the words and the music) was written by Bill Campbell.
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