If you ask 100 people to list their top 5 favorite Elvis Presley songs, it’s very possible that no list will be the same. This is because Elvis has such a wide range of songs, from gospel and rock to ballads and movie soundtracks. Quickly rising up my list of favorites is one I heard for the first time in 2021. It’s called “Something Blue.” Take a listen…
This song is a play off of the well-known phrase associated with brides on their wedding day…
“Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue…”
I won’t get into the meaning of this centuries-old rhyme, but there’s a Brides.com article that does, so click here for more on that. I want to talk about the lyrics of the song (written by Paul Evans and Al Byron). Hearing this song for the first time just recently, and having the chance to listen intently to the lyrics, I was floored with the way Elvis ties the “borrowed, blue, old, new” rhyme in with his heart-breaking role in a wedding. Is he in love? Yes. Is he the groom?
It begins as a list of things he misses about an ex. But the biggest twist comes in these lyrics, “Something old, the dreams we planned. Something new, his wedding band,” and that’s when it’s quite clearly revealed who is (and isn’t) getting married this day. It’s kind of like (and by “kind of like,” I mean EXACTLY LIKE!) another song Elvis sings, except sort of in reverse but sort of not in reverse at all.
Elvis, as the narrator, in fact is in love with the bride (a woman he has had a relationship with), but she’s marrying another man. Why is he at the wedding then? It’s like rubbing salt in the wound because HE’S THE BEST MAN. Ouch. Not quite the romantic story, huh? I’m thinking of “Love Letters,” another amazing song by Elvis full of romance.
In “Something Blue,” Elvis walks down the aisle as the groom’s best man, thinking (as the lyrics reveal), “I’m really not the best man in the room.” This wouldn’t be such a bad thing, right? Except the fact we already mentioned, the groom is marrying a woman Elvis dated, loved, but who broke his heart, “Something borrowed was the heart I gave you, you returned it torn in two.”
How the song is written so cleverly in rhymes and telling the story without spelling it out directly, with the unmatched voice of Elvis, is why it might already be in my top 10 all-time Elvis favorites. I love that it’s almost halfway through the song that one realizes what’s actually happening. It’s not just a list of things he misses about an ex, it’s things he misses about an ex who is in a wedding dress walking down the aisle to marry a man who isn’t him, and he’s got to stand there and watch it. Can you even imagine?
Where does this song land on your list of Elvis favorites? While you’re thinking about it, comment below with your top 5 Elvis songs and let’s see if it matches mine.
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-Out of the Wilderness
Out of the Wilderness 