Winnipeg Free Press, April 3, 1957
Surely, Elvis wasn't throwing a single by newcomer rockabilly Charlie Gracie into his performance?
Gracie made a national TV appearance just three weeks before.
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Charlie Gracie, "Butterfly" ("Ed Sullivan Show," Sunday, March 10, 1957)
Anyway, surely the media misheard Presley, who was really offering up his new single, "All Shook Up," which ends a key line with the rhyming noun "buttercup"?
Well, maybe they didn't.
As early as February 1957, "Butterfly" was getting a strong reaction, earning consecutive-week mentions in Billboard.
Billboard, February 2, 1957
Billboard, February 9, 1957
"Butterfly" stormed up the charts, hitting #1 on April 6.
Billboard, April 6, 1957
But ... could Elvis have really decided to sing Gracie's hit tune? Why?
Well, at Presley's Toronto shows on April 2, he threw in a performance of the recorded-but-not-yet-issued "One Night," a storming rock cover of Smiley Lewis' 1956 R&B success, which RCA would release 18 months later.
So Elvis was obviously in a somewhat "loose" frame of mind regarding his live show. The song itself is a easy, breezy rocker that could be picked up by the band and Jordanaires in a heartbeat.
And the Cameo single was on the radio all the time.
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Charlie Gracie, "Butterfly" (Cameo 105, February 1957)
Perhaps the clincher to this saga was just discovering that "Butterfly" was firmly in the Hill and Range publishers stable.
Bar Biszick Lockwood, Restless Giant (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2010)
http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/44bfy9fe9780252035074.html
Jean and Julian Aberbach built Hill and Range Songs, one of music history's most powerful popular music publishing companies.
Elvis shared ownership with the Aberbachs in two music publishing companies.
1957 music trade ads at the time touted the connection.
Billboard, April 27, 1957
All we need now is a concert tape recording to prove beyond all doubt that Elvis sang "Butterfly."
Anyone out there got one?
Elvis on stage in Toronto, April 2, 1957 - First Show
Ironically, guess which song knocked "Butterfly" out of the #1 position?
"All Shook Up."
Billboard, April 27, 1957
Enjoy!