Are You Lonesome Tonight? • 1960

Expanding on the elegant style of “It’s Now or Never,” Elvis took the advice of manager Colonel Parker and recorded this aching tune from the 1920s. “Lonesome” was penned by the vaudevillians Lou Handman and Roy Turk, who took inspiration from the Italian opera Pagliacci and Shakespeare’s As You Like It. They created a trio of verses linked by a spoken bridge, in which Elvis outlines a love in three acts. Elvis’ take proved so resonant, it inspired no fewer than four related songs from female artists, whose recordings all answered the title question with “Yes, I’m lonesome tonight.”