When I heard that song the other day, I assumed it was some Presley classic from the early '60s which I'd somehow overlooked. Turns out it was written and recorded by a Georgia-born singer called Marvin Benefield in 1962 under the alias Vince Everett, which you no doubt recall was the name of the sulky-bad-boy-from-the-wrong-side-of-the-tracks character played by Elvis in Jailhouse Rock. According to the On the Record blog (here), the backing vocals were supplied by The Jordanaires, the same singers Elvis himself regularly used, and Marvin claimed that his session musicians included Jerry Reed, Ray Stevens, Floyd Cramer and Boots Randolph, which would explain how they managed to match the quality of musicianship heard on such early '60s Elvis LPs as Elvis Is Back!, Pot Luck, and Something for Everybody.
What's truly remarkable about "Don't Go" is that it wasn't even the A-side. That was a spookily accurate recreation of "Such a Night", the Drifters number already recorded and released by Elvis on Elvis Is Back! in 1960 (and subsequently released as a single in 1964). "Such a Night" is my second-best Elvis soundalike record of all time. Okay, Everett's voice is lighter than Presley's, but I reckon you'd have to be concentrating very hard to tell the difference:
I suspect that the later Elvis's deeper, vibrato-laden voice is easier to imitate - mainly because he began to sound like a parody of himself towards the end. Nevertheless, I enjoy Irish singer James Brown's take on how Elvis might have sounded tackling some famous songs he never got around around to recording. Here - recorded as The King - is one that was around during Elvis's lifetime and which he really should have tackled:
I'll leave you with the slightly surreal experience of Brown channeling Elvis channeling Nirvana:
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