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This was an era where songwriters were trying to derive strange game-playing titles for pop songs; another Elvis recording from the same era was “I’m left, you’re right, she’s gone” released by Elvis in 1955 with the same producer (see below). Curiously it was also given the reverse name “You’re right, I’m, Left, She’s Gone” which was again recorded by Elvis on Sun. What strange days they were!
But back to “I forgot to remember….” This is also a song I recall from my childhood, although the version that’s still in my head is much more upbeat
The song was recorded at the Sun Studio on July 11, 1955, by Elvis Presley. The B side of the record was “Mystery Train” which was much more to my taste in my sub-teen years.
Listening to Bob performing “I forgot” reminds me what a sensational memory he has for lyrics, for in songs such as this the melody and chord changes for the guitar or piano are fairly easy to keep in one’s head.
But then it struck me that actually maybe there are not that many lyrics to remember.
I forgot to remember to forget her I can't seem to get her off my mind I thought I'd never miss her But I found out somehow I think about her almost all the time The day she went away I made myself a promise That I'd soon forget we ever met But something sure is wrong 'Cause I'm so blue and lonely I forgot to remember to forget
That I think is about it – although the second section gets a repeat in the song as well.
But it always does strike me that the songs that Bob occasionally mentions or sings from his past are the songs that are short on lyrical variation and which really don’t go anywhere. There is just the statement (he is still thinking about her) and that’s pretty much it.
And yet somehow, having been brought up on these simplistic early songs Bob did not use them as any sort of model, but instead went into writing in a completely different way, reducing the level of emphasis on the melody (which we can hear in this song) but increasing dramatically the importance of the lyrics.
Thus in this song we have a modulation (a change from the key that the song starts in, at the line “That I’d soon forget we ever met”) and then the jump back to the original key by the time the song ends with “I forgot to remember to forget”.
It is in fact a totally different form of song writing – and Bob returned to the form of songs found in earlier folk music, while Stan Kesler along with Charlie Feathers took the contemporary pop approach which had developed in the 1940s of modulating to the dominant key part way through the song, before bringing us back to the key we started in. Bob worked on the lyrics, while the pop songwriters played with the music.
Although Charlie Feathers seems only to be remembered in the music industry for this song, Stan Kesler co-wrote several other early Elvis hits including “I’m Left, You’re Right, She’s Gone” and was an accompany guitarist on recordings by Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins, gong on later to be a successful producer of pop singles, especially those that incorporated some more unusual twists on the English language either in the lyrics or even the name of the bands (as for example Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs).