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The Songs

 

Heartbreak Hotel

A song such as Heartbreak Hotel presents unique challenges. It's so well known, and the version everybody knows is the original by Elvis; which was era-defining, and genre-defining. It is an iconic piece of dramatic theatre, with the power vocal of the verse, saturated with echo, and then the low-bass delivery of the chorus I've been so lonely, baby... 

I'm sure there have been a thousand covers of this song, but I didn't hear them. Elvis' version is the only one that ever mattered. 

The Rock'n'Roll Outlaw version perhaps has a lot to contend with, if it is to avoid being another silly imitation. But, imitation is not our style. We don't do 'covers' we just perform the song. Instead of trying to reproduce what Elvis did with it, or trying to be starkly different, for the sake of difference, we simply approached it as we do every song we perform: can we make it work? Can we deliver it in a style that expresses our music, the way we feel the song, our sensibilities? And, can we do the song justice? 

A song such as Heartbreak Hotel will provoke a lot of scrutiny, and perhaps criticism. 

We needed to get the sound right. It was one of the songs we worked most on during the Superfly sessions. We did about seven different versions, all similar, but with slight changes of tempo or emphasis. We wanted it to be a smokey, bluesy, lonely version, very down-tempo and raw, folk-blues.

Our favorite version is the one on the Rockabilly Blues EP. But, it still isn't quite right, as in we didn't get exactly what we aimed for with it, and we may try again and record another version in the future. 

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