www.elvis-presley.website

The ultimate site about the king of the analogue age

 

SUN Records released "Baby Let's Play House" / "I'm Left You're Right, She Gone" on April 10, 1955. After the sales had lowered twice in a row, Elvis' fourth release did much better and gained national interest. Fort the first time Billboard listed one of his songs on their "Hot Country Singles Chart". "Baby Let's Play House" had a run of 15 weeks and peaked at number 5 (Most Played By Jockeys) and number 10 (Best Sellers In Stores). RCA Victor took over the singer's contract in November 1955 and re-released the single under their own brand.

The single is not available on the streaming platforms, but "Baby Let's Play House" is included on the album "A Date With Elvis" (1959) and "I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone" can be found on the longplayer "For LP Fans Only" (1959). In 2016 the complete Presley catalogue was restored and remastered by Vic Anesini for a boxed set of 60 compact discs called "The Album Collection". Sony Music Entertainment provides the streaming platforms with the same versions of the individual tracks, albeit in 24 bit/90 khz flac. That means, if the platform of your choice supports high resolution audio, you can enjoy the songs in the same quality Sony used to scan and master them. On Spotify, which has a market share of approximately 30% and is the only platform that publishes streaming figures, "Baby Let's Play House" accumulates 16 million streams, "I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone" clocks in at 2 million.

At the time SUN Records didn't produce individual picture sleeves, but sold all their releases in universal SUN sleeves.

 

Baby Let's Play House

The song was written by Arthur Gunther, who released it in 1954. Elvis followed him sometime between January 30, 1955 and February 4, 1955. He recorded two takes of "Baby Let's Play House", the first one was selected as master. In contrast to Gunther the king started his performance with the chorus and changed the line "...you may give religion, baby" to "...you may have a pink Cadillac". He alluded to his choice of transportation, which today is regarded to be an icon of the 1950's. Back then the paraphrase "to play house" meant to play familylife by children. But the teenagers used the phrase to describe a well-defined part of the family life: The production process of children. So it's quite obvious what the singer means, when he invites his lady to "play house". For me, this bold song is nothing but great. It was re-released by RCA Victor on the albums "A Date With Elvis" (1959) and "The Sun Sessions" (1976).

I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone

Sam Kesler brought "You're Right, I'm Left, She's Gone" to Sam Phillips, who thought the track might be the perfect vehicle for his new star. Elvis, Scotty and Bill first tried to record the song in 1954, but the result wasn't all that satisfactory. In April 1955 the group made a second attempt, this time accompanied by the drummer Jimmie Lott. They were successful and the 6th take was considered to be worth a release. Unfortunately Sam Phillips messed up the title when he created the labels for the single and turned "You're Right, I'm Left, She's Gone" into "I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone". Instead of correcting the name on further releases it was left that way. RCA Victor re-released the track on the extended player "Any Way You Want Me" (1956) and the albums "For LP Fans Only" (1959) and "The Sun Sessions" (1976).

 

Verdict

Once again Elvis came up with two great tracks and this time he even gained national attention. It was also the first time a Presley recording featured a drummer.

 (C) SUN Records