Lot 128
128
Elvis Presley

Details
Elvis Presley
A rare page of lyrics in Elvis Presley's hand for I'm gonna sleep with one eye open, circa 1959, the words and music for a blues song credited by Presley to Lester Hall, the twenty-five lines in blue ink beginning: ...I've just found out today The little games you play I been sleepin' all my life away You been slippin' so they say betweeen midnight and day... the chorus continuing ..So I'm gonna sleep with one eye open from now on. - From now on, all night long You won't have a chance to treat your Daddy wrong you been stoppin', so they say between midnight and day... ending with the bitter refrain ..You thought you were been wise Runnin' 'round with other guys and leavin' me to spend my time alone But you find out today it don't work out that way you started a little game that two can't play.. annotated with guitar accompaniment details including Guitar break Elvis Presley and Fade out Elvis Presley jump 5 turn to back.. -- 11½x8in. (29.2x20.3cm.), the lyrics in common mount with a black and white machine-print photograph of Elvis being interviewed by the press whilst in the U.S. army -- 9¾x7¼in. (24.9x18.4cm.), overall measurements -- 15½x21.3/8in. (39.4x54.3cm.) framed - the reverse of the page of lyrics additionally signed and inscribed by Presley and visible through an opening at the back of the frame
Provenance
Andy Schröer, author of Private Elvis, Elvis In Germany - The Missing Years obtained these lyrics from Frau Pieper, Elvis Presley's landlady in Germany, who rented her house to the Presleys at 14 Goethestrasse, Bad Nauheim, Germany in 1959, during Elvis' army service.

Lot Essay

These lyrics, like the only other examples of lyrics in Presley's hand to have been offered at auction and sold through these rooms in 1996 and 1997, came from Presley's personal notebook. Elvis had left this behind with his landlady in Germany when he returned to the States in 1960. Elvis apparently used to rehearse in the living room of the house he rented from Frau Pieper using a piano he hired for the purpose.

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