Elvis Presley - My Baby Left Me (RCA Studios New York 1956)

"Down in Tupelo I used to hear old Arthur Crudup bang his box the way I do now, and I said 'If I ever got to the place where I could feel all old Arthur felt, I'd be a music man like nobody ever saw.' " ELVIS PRESLEY - 1956
Recorded by Elvis on Monday, 30 January 1956;
Elvis Presley: Vocals, Acoustic Guitar; Scotty Moore: Electric Guitar; Bill Black: Upright Bass; DJ Fontana: Drums;
Arthur Crudup was born in 1905. He did not learn to play guitar until he was 32. His records enjoyed considerable success in the Southern states of the USA during the 1940s and early 1950s, but he disappeared from the recording scene in 1954. He enjoyed a career revival with the renewed interest in Blues music in the mid 1960s. Arthur Crudup died in 1974. Trying to point to an "original" version of an Arthur Crudup number is not as easy as it might seem. Old Arthur was able to do a lot with very little material and he seemed to have a basic set of three lyrics and the same number of tunes, which were mixed up in various concoctions, given another title and, hey presto, another song was born. Based, purely on title, Arthur recorded his original of "My Baby Left Me" in 1949, but listen to his "I Want My Lovin'" (date unknown) or "I Don't Know It" (1946) and the significance of "original" takes a nosedive: both songs could serve as the original of "My Baby Left Me" or even "That's All Right Mama." See also So Glad You're Mine and That's All Right Mama.