Elvis Presley was many things: a singer, a performer, a cultural icon, and a somewhat dubious film actor. All of those talents made him perhaps the biggest rock and roll star that ever lived, but one thing that Presley did not excel at was songwriting.
By his own admission, Presley never even really thought about songwriting. He didn’t have to: writers were clamouring to get the Elvis seal of approval, one that virtually guaranteed a major windfall of publishing profits due to the popularity of the man himself. Presley had one of the most generous publishing contracts of the 1950s, and because his team was always looking to squeeze out as much money as possible, Presley made millions of dollars off of songs he didn’t write.
“In the early days Elvis would show dissatisfaction with some lines and he would make alterations, so it wasn’t just what is known as a ‘cut-in’,” Presley’s publishing manager, Freddy Bienstock, claimed. “His name did not appear after the first year. But if Presley liked the song, the writers would be offered a guarantee of a million records and they would surrender a third of their royalties to Elvis.”
Sometimes this number fluctuated, usually balancing out to between 1/3rd and half of a song’s publishing royalties. This wasn’t exactly fair – Elvis himself would change the slightest bit of a song’s wording, or more often than not, he wouldn’t change a single thing about a song. And yet, because he was surrounded by some of the most powerful and cut-throat businessmen in early rock and roll history, Presley was also set to make a profit on songs he recorded.
That’s why if you go back to singles released contemporaneously during Elvis’ career, you’ll see his name listed in the songwriting credits for tracks like ‘Don’t Be Cruel’. Presley didn’t do anything to truly merit these credits, and in later years, most of the songwriters would be listed alone, even though the songs were still owned by Presley’s publishing company, Gladys Music.
Check out ‘Don’t Be Cruel’ down below.
