“I’ll Be Home On Christmas Day”:
Some background info on the lyrics
Hi to all you Elvis fans out there! This is my first blog for "Michael's Corner", I hope you enjoy it.
 
"So you want to make a hit record?? It's simple, just stuff a bunch of rags in your mouth and sing".
That's what they use to say when Elvis first hit the airwaves back in the 1950's. The record producers and people in the music business were so baffled at how this young good looking kid in his 20's was capturing the attention of young people in the U.S. and all over the world, and was doing it in such a way as to be 'breaking all the rules' as they say. Prior to Elvis, The lyrics on records (were for the most part anyway) perfectly audible. You could understand each and every word that was being sung by the recording artist, and that was the criteria of the times. Even though most parents were complaining about what they felt were Elvis's suggestive gyrations, most parents really couldn't understand a lot of what Elvis was saying on his records and to them, not only was this guy shaking his hips and dancing around on stage in what they considered a "vulgar" way, but he was "mumbling" when he sang as well.
Well, today all those kids and parents (including myself) have transcended that era only to realize its historical significance and how much Elvis really changed music forever.

I remember joking around with the "rags in your mouth" concept with my friends, but little did I know the profound effect it would have on my association with Elvis.
When I first recorded my demo of "I'll Be Home On Christmas Day", I sang it in a 'bluesy shuffle style' and slurred my words like any self respecting blues singer would do. I think Elvis picked up on that and liked my bluesy approach to the song, because he sang most of it just like I did, copying my same bluesy nuances. What an honor for me as a songwriter to have the "King" singing it like me, and me originally trying to sing it and sound like him on the demo. Sometimes a recording artist will take "poetic license" with the 'melody' of an original song and sing it their way. Elvis not only sang it just like me, but put his own undeniable stamp on it as well and the rest as they say, is history.
So here we are nearly 40 years later and every Elvis Song Book and Internet 'music lyric' websites all have incorrect lyrics to "I'll Be Home On Christmas Day" thanks to "the rags in the mouth" <grin> no, really! ..I'm not kidding,...I'm not too sure just who started the inaudible slurring? Maybe me, maybe Elvis, but the end result are lyrics that I didn't write. I know personally that he changed one line in the second verse ("my soul filled with yearning"), that's his doing along with changing the 'title of the song' which was originally called, "It Happens Every Year". I think the rest of the places in the song where the lyrics are wrong, are simply the old "rags in your mouth" and really could have started with me, and probably did I'd say. To close this story of the writing of "I'll Be Home On Christmas Day"
on that unhappy Christmas Eve way back in 1969 has one more "twist"
that I'd like to share with you. On that night I was feeling very sentimental and wrote a verse about my children using each of their real names.
Lost Verse:
 
"Been so long since I've seen little John, Michele, Christine and Kelly; And I almost forgot with all the presents, that I bought a purse for little sister to carry"
So when I was sitting there at the piano at Gold Star Recording Studios in L.A before recording, I thought about leaving this particular verse out, considering Elvis wouldn't want to sing it using the names of children that weren't his, but looking back I think the real reason I included this particular verse was the fact that Elvis also had a child and could relate to this particular sentiment, so I left that verse in on the demo.... So here's the "twist", it was early this year and, some 38 years later, that I was completely astounded upon hearing the Alternate #9 Take of my song and there was that verse that I had assumed had been left out for obvious reasons. I have say in all honesty that upon hearing this version I immediately broke out in "goose bumps" and was totally shocked!! He did sing that verse and I didn't know about it all these years. Wow!! I called my kids and told them and they listened and were thrilled. So was I!!

Here are the original lyrics as best I remember:
“I'll Be Home On Christmas Day”.
 
I've roamed the hills of Georgia
Crossed the plains of Tennessee
I've seen and I've done most everything
That a man can do or see
But if I could only borrow just one
Dream from yesterday
I'd be on that train tomorrow
And be home on Christmas day
 
Been so many times I know
She left that candle burning
And far too many tears that fell
From eyes so filled with yearning
If I had any sense at all
I'd just be on my way
And I'd be on that train tomorrow
And be home on Christmas day
 
Everytime I think about her
And the love I left behind
Memories still linger there in my troubled mind
If I could set aside my pride I'd just be on my way
And I'd catch that train tomorrow
And be home on Christmas day
 
If I had any sense at all
I'd just be on my way
And I'd catch that train tomorrow
And be home on Christmas day
 
I said I'd catch that train tomorrow
And be home on Christmas day
Well, that's the story of the lyrics, and a little more on the writing of "I'll Be Home On Christmas Day" ....and may I say, the "Rags Rule" forever and so does Elvis !;=)
Mj