Simultaneously with the long player "Elvis" RCA Victor also released the extended player "Elvis - Volume 1". Because there was no chart for this format yet, Billboard picked "Love Me" and listed it on their single chart "Hot 100". On November 17, 1956 it entered the hitparade at number 84, had a run of 19 weeks and peaked at number 6. On December 1st "When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again" appeared on the "Hot 100", too, stayed for 15 weeks and made it to number 27. Finally Billboard also listed "Paralyzed", starting on December 29th. The track had a run of 7 weeks and peaked at number 59. After the introduction of a chart for extended players "Elvis - Volume 1" was ranked there for 36 weeks (starting on November 18, 1957) and peaked at number 1. In 1992 the RIAA honored the domestic sales with a Platinum Award. Worldwide the extended player sold 2 million copies, which translates to 300 million paid streams of the complete record or 1.2 billion streams of individual tracks. Commercially "Elvis - Volume 1" was a success by any means, especially because this was the second exploitation of the songs.

The cover was a copy of the album artwork, the backside of the sleeve included liner notes and the tracklisting.

Of course the ep cannot be found on the streaming platforms, because all songs are available on the album "Elvis" (1956).

The rock'n'roll song was written by Robert Blackwell and John Marscalco and first released in the summer of 1956 by Little Richard. Elvis recorded his version on September 3, 1956 within 19 takes. The narrator got his pay cheque (there were no digital transfers these days) and is ready to party. It's a great performance and one of the highlights amongst the early recordings of the king.

The original recording was released in 1954 by Willie & Ruth, Elvis taped his cover on September 1, 1956 and approved the 9th attempt for release. It is said that Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, the writers of "Love Me", didn't like the king's interpretation, because he ignored the irony and sang it seriously and schmaltzy instead. But especially the female fans loved to hear him beg "Treat me like a fool, treat me mean and cruel, but love me". Because of its popularity the song was also included on the album "Elvis' Golden Records" (1958) and the boxed set "The Other Sides - Worldwide Gold Records Volume 2" (1971). "Love Me" quickly became a fixed item in the king's concerts. And so the song is included on "Elvis As Recorded At Madison Square Garden" (1972), "Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite" (1973), "Elvis Recorded Live On Stage In Memphis" (1974) and "Elvis In Concert" (1977). A performance taped in 1968 for the television special "SINGER presents Elvis" was released in 1974 on the album "Elvis - A Legendary Performer". Unfortunately Elvis rarely met the level of the studio recording on stage.

Elvis recorded the country pop on September 2, 1956. Take 10 became the master. The original was released in 1941 by Wiley Walker & Gene Sullivan, three years later Cindy Walker (no connection to Wiley) scored a top 5 hit with "When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again". I like the tune very much, textually it can be summed up by "If you return to me, my life will be great again". The king included the song in his tv special "SINGER presents Elvis" (1968), RCA Victor also released the studio recording on the boxed set "The Other Sides - Worldwide Gold Award Hits Volume 2" (1971).

Elvis tryed to record "Paralized" on September 1, 1956, but finally gave up and taped 12 further takes the next day. Because he still wasn't able to reach a satisfactory result, he also recorded five instert-takes. The master is a splice of take 12 and insert-take 5. The result was also released on the boxed set "The Other Sides - Worldwide Gold Award Hits Volume 2" (1971). The song was written by Otis Blackwell and is reminiscent of "Don't Be Cruel" and "All Shook Up". But even without being too unique, the melody stays with you and the performance is flawless. For the king "Paralized" was a very lucrative song, because Colonel Parker made sure that his client was credited as a writer, too. Therefore Elvis also got half of the royalties.