Even if you are not a big Elvis fan, you have probably heard his happy hits. This is the opposite. In 1962, while “Good Luck Charm” shot to Number 1, the flip side carried a quiet ballad called “Anything That’s Part of You.”
It is only two minutes long, but it feels like someone reading out a broken heart line by line. This was after Elvis came back from the Army, working in Nashville with the famous studio band that gave his early 60s songs that smooth, warm sound.
The track was written by Don Robertson, who is a master of love songs. Elvis sounds different here. He is not the loud rock and roll rebel. His voice is gentle at first, almost like he is talking to one person in the dark. Then, when he sings “Oh, how it hurts to miss you so,” he suddenly opens up, and you feel the full weight of the pain.
Elvis Presley – Anything That’s Part of You (Golden Records, Vol. 3 – Audio)
On the front of that very same record sits “Good Luck Charm,” the bright, bouncy hit everyone knows. It was the A-side that raced to Number 1 in 1962, the song built for radio, jukeboxes, and singalongs. That success is the reason the quiet B-side, “Anything That’s Part of You,” was even heard by a wider audience at all.
Both songs were recorded on the same October 1961 night in Nashville with the same studio band, yet they live in completely different moods. “Good Luck Charm” comes from hitmakers Aaron Schroeder and Wally Gold, all smiles and catchy hooks. The flip side comes from Don Robertson, soft and wounded, holding on to every small memory after love has gone.
Elvis Presley – Good Luck Charm (Official Audio)
To really feel how this softer, post-Army Elvis was born, you can step one move further back in time. Before “Good Luck Charm” and “Anything That’s Part of You,” there was “The Girl of My Best Friend,” a slow, aching track from his 1960 album Elvis Is Back!. This is where the new Elvis sound first comes into focus.