Introduction

Elvis Sang “And I Love You So” Directly to Sheila’s Soul ❤️

There were no screaming fans.

No Las Vegas spotlights.

No thousands of people waiting for Elvis Presley to make his entrance.

Just a recording studio.

A microphone.

Elvis.

And Sheila Ryan.

It was March 1975, and Elvis had arrived at RCA’s Studio C in Hollywood to record material that would become his Today album.

Elvis was 40 years old.

The young rebel who had shocked America in the 1950s was now a very different man.

He had experienced marriage.

Divorce.

Fatherhood.

Extraordinary fame.

And increasingly serious health problems.

Sitting nearby was Sheila Ryan, one of the women romantically involved with Elvis during this period.

Then came a song written by Don McLean:

“And I Love You So.”

Before Elvis began the first take, something happened that transformed an ordinary recording session into an intimate moment.

Elvis called Sheila closer.

“Step up here Sheila, let me sing to ya baby.”

Then the music began.

Suddenly, Elvis wasn’t merely recording another song for another album.

At least for those few minutes, he was singing directly to the woman standing before him.

And knowing the story behind that moment makes the recording feel completely different.

“And I Love You So” is a song about loneliness being transformed by love.

It speaks from the perspective of someone who has known emptiness and then discovered another person who changes everything.

For Elvis, those emotions must have felt familiar.

By 1975, he could surround himself with almost anyone he wanted.

Friends.

Employees.

Musicians.

Fans.

Beautiful women.

Yet enormous fame didn’t necessarily protect him from loneliness.

Perhaps that is why Elvis could make songs like this sound so personal.

He didn’t simply sing the words.

He seemed to inhabit them.

Sheila later described her relationship with Elvis as passionate and unusual.

She said she didn’t try to change him and understood the complicated reality of being involved with one of the most famous men alive.

Their relationship wasn’t a conventional Hollywood fairy tale.

Elvis’s personal life rarely was.

But that doesn’t make the studio moment less powerful.

Imagine being Sheila.

Elvis Presley looks across the room.

Calls you toward him.

The musicians prepare.

And then one of the most recognizable voices in history begins singing a love song directly to you.

Not to an arena.

Not to television cameras.

To you.

Elvis eventually completed “And I Love You So,” and it appeared on Today, released in May 1975. The song remained important enough that he continued performing it live during the final years of his life.

But the polished album version doesn’t contain everything that happened that night.

The outtake preserves something more human.

Before the King began singing, there was simply a man talking to a woman he cared about.

“Step up here Sheila…”

Five words.

Then the music.

Elvis Presley spent his life singing love songs to millions.

But on that night in Hollywood, for a few unforgettable minutes, the audience seemed to consist of just one person.

Sheila Ryan.

And Elvis wasn’t singing for the world.

He was singing straight to her heart. ❤️