A tortoise and the hare twofer from Elvis - the tortoise comes in the shape of 'One Night', a slow and strung out bluesy holler that follows much the same template as set by Jane Morgan previous. Unlike Jane though, Elvis makes good on the promise of the music by delivering a pressure cooker vocal of sexual frustration; the anguish in his "Now I know that life without you has been too lonely too long" suggests he doesn't plan on doing much sleeping during that one night. So far so good, but beneath it all Presley by now sounds more like he's putting on an act, a bit of showmanship that aims for one last gasp of groin based bravado before the flame of rebellion gets snuffed out for good (that sleeve shot shows it's already more than half ways there). It's not a bad song, but its merits shine that much brighter when placed next to some of the horrors to come than when compared to some of the gems that have been.The hare duly arrives on 'I Got Stung', a busy bee tune that leaps around like a bust spring but winds up chasing it's own tail in an ever diminishing spiral. Elvis puts out his by now trademark 'uh huh huh's' on cue but here they're the sound of a singer marking time, filling in the gaps while he waits for the song to get a grip on itself and take off in a single direction he can follow. Sadly, it never does and 'I Got Stung' limps to a close with its tail between its legs in a way that makes you wonder if there ever was a song there in the first place. On a note of trivia,'I Got Stung' was co-written by David Hill who, under the name David Hess, spent most of the seventies murdering, torturing and raping his way through a series of low budget, high violence video nasties like 'Last House On The Left', 'The House On The Edge Of The Park' and 'Hitchhike'. If he'd channelled some of that aggression into this then we'd all have been quids in.
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