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You Can Have Her - Only Live Perfromance

By Leon Smith, September 14, 2015 | Music

Elvis Presley appeared four times at The Forum of Inglewood in Los Angeles in the 1970’s over two days ,three years apart. The first in 1970 on 14 November during just his second tour and the second on 11 May 1974.

The 1974 shows were attended by British rock group Led Zeppellin and both the afternoon and evening shows had very little difference in terms of the setlist with Polk Salad Annie sung during the Afternoon but strangely omitted from the evening show.
Of the 37,000 who attended those two shows the half which made their way into the Forum for the afternoon show had no idea that within that show would be two and a half minutes which would set this show apart and the treat that awaited them.

Both shows were excellent with Elvis in good voice and mood – a combination which always proved to be a winner. During the afternoon show between ‘Love Me Tender’ and ‘Steamroller Blues’ something magical and quite wonderful happened. In a moment of pure Elvis spontaneity he started to sing Ray Hamilton’s 1961 hit ‘You Can Have Her’.

The song seems to progress in stages with the passing of each verse firstly Elvis shouts the songs title then Elvis and pianist Glen D. Hardin start of before Ronnie Tutt joins in with the cymbals but at the start of the next verse it’s full blown drums. At the beginning of the next verse it’s the turn of the guitars which then become more prominent next turn around. Joining next time around are the backing vocalists and then it just becomes singing for fun. By this stage you can hear the clapping along as everyone seems to be playing and singing with a smile on their face and it’s almost just like they never want it to end but eventually Elvis does just that by bringing the song to a close.

A studio version could never have caught this fun in quite the same way and the audience recording seems to add to the ‘fly on the wall’ feel to this recording. I doubt if anyone in the crowd that afternoon had any inclination as to how special a moment they were witnessing. In a cruel twist of fate the Evening show was recorded at the mixing board and the subsequent soundboard recording was released by Sony on the FTD label in 2007 but it appears that the same cannot be said of the afternoon show. This suspicion is strengthened further by the fact that Sony actually bought the audience recording of ‘You Can Have Her’ and included it as a bonus track on the aforementioned ‘Live in L.A.’ album. It is however lucky for us that the performance was captured at all and that in spite of it being recorded by an audience member it is of excellent quality.

circleG wrote on September 14, 2015
I do wonder that during moments like this if Elvis wasn't trying to tell someone something.
Cruiser621 wrote on September 15, 2015
From what I can hear, it's too bad he didn't record this tune.
Natha wrote on September 15, 2015
Indeed a nice song, which deserved a full fledged arrangement. That would have been interesting!
EJF wrote on September 16, 2015
I'm not a huge Roy Hamilton fan but his rendition of "You Can Have Her" blows me away every time I hear it. I request it quite often on local radio stations, even though I have it on CD. Yes, if Elvis had done a studio recording of it I'm sure it would have been awesome.
Dazman wrote on September 17, 2015
I shake my head and wonder why he didn't perform this more often, considering Roy Hamilton was Elvis' idol. However in JAT's Sessions III Elvis actually rehearsed it prior to his Lake Tahoe season following that short tour.
TheMemphisFan wrote on September 17, 2015
Leon Smith wrote - "... in spite of it being recorded by an audience member it is of excellent quality." I disagree. The sound quality is only fair-to-good, imo.
Yoshi wrote on September 22, 2015
There are still several hundred shows missing. With all the rarities we have on one half of the tapes I always wonder what might have been on the missing shows that have not been captured.
Ciscoking wrote on September 22, 2015
Polk Salad Annie was sung in both shows.
Leon410 wrote on September 22, 2015
Just a clarification about 'Polk Salad Annie'. I realise that some websites have 'Polk Salad' as listed in both shows but the audience recording of the show ie: 'In the City of Angels' doesn't have it on the disc or tracklisting. It could of course be have been missed by the recorder (due to changing tape) of course but no reference to a missing song is on the cover or inlet but either could be possible.
Leon410 wrote on September 22, 2015
Just an amendment to the article and comment below. 'Polk Salad' was sung during the evening show but it was the recording from the AS from which this song comes that doesn't have iit listed - Sorry!!!
Ciscoking wrote on September 22, 2015
The first edition of this concert from May 11, 1974 afternoon show titled "Los Angeles, California (Tiger, 1993) was incomplete with Polk Salad Annie being missing. Later editions like "At The Forum" (Graceland Records, 2007) were complete.
TheMemphisFan wrote on September 23, 2015
Elvis only sings a portion of the lyrics to the song, so it wasn't a committed performance in L.A. Check out Roy Hamilton's complete recording on YouTube and you'll see (hear) what I mean.
Ciscoking wrote on September 23, 2015
The song had a running time of over 4 minutes in both shows. It were full renditions.
TheMemphisFan wrote on September 25, 2015
The song runs for only 2:28 in the YouTube video above.
TheMemphisFan wrote on September 25, 2015
~ Elvis sings a couple of the verses out of sequence and completely omits the following . . . "The girl I loved she up and left me She ran away with my best friend Comes home at night just for one hour When daylight comes she's gone again" ~ I'll be glad to post all the lyrics (in correct order) if anyone wants me to. ~
Ciscoking wrote on September 25, 2015
Sure..you are right but the question was whether it was omitted at all or not. Anyway thank you for clearing this up.
TheMemphisFan wrote on September 26, 2015
You're welcome, Ciscoking. Thank you for your numerous contributions to this site! Just for the curious... Here are the complete lyrics (as sung by Roy Hamilton) . . . ~ Well, you can have her, I don't want her She didn't love me anyway She only wanted someone to play with But all I wanted was love to stay ~ Well, if you get the, the wrong woman There's only one thing that you can do Just dig a hole and jump right in it And pull the ground right over you ~ Well, you can have her, I don't want her She didn't love me anyway She only wanted someone to play with But all I wanted was love to stay ~ The girl I loved, she up and left me She ran away with my best friend Comes home at night just for one hour When daylight comes she's gone again ~ Well, you can have her, I don't want her She didn't love me anyway She only wanted someone to play with But all I wanted was love to stay ~ Life without love is mighty empty But confession's good for the soul I'd rather have love that I can cling to Than have the world and all of its gold ~ You can have her, I don't want her She didn't love me anyway She only wanted someone to play with... Ohhhhh! ~ You can have her, I don't want her She didn't love me anyway She only wanted someone to play with But all I wanted, all I wanted, all I wanted, all I wanted, all I wanted...