Details
Elvis Presley
A rare page of lyrics in Elvis Presley's hand
for Don't Tease Me, circa 1959, the words and music for the song credited by Presley to B.Glenn & Carl Smith, the twenty-three lines in blue ink showing deletions and alterations to a few words and phrases, the song signed and inscribed at the head of the page Changed to up tempo, Elvis Presley and annotated with similar guitar accompaniment details ...Don't tease me... don't you know its unfair To my heart to tease me this way./It sets my heart astray If you want me and need me why don't you try and to please. But don't tease me cause I'm no teasing kind. don't get too close when you're teasing me It sets my heart on fire and I never gave you a to ever start your teasing So please don't tease me cause I'm not a teasing kind..., the lyrics written on a page numbered initially 49 and renumbered 31st, the title of the song and the first line written and scoured out by Presley at the top of the page, the lyrics in common mount with a black and white machine-print photograph of Elvis in U.S. army uniform disembarking from a train -- 10¾x8 7/8in. (27.3x22.6cm.), overall measurements -- 15¾x22¾in. (40x63cm.) framed; and a letter concerning the provenance from Andy Schröer author of Private Elvis -- The Missing Years 1958-1960 attached to the reverse and visible through an opening at the back of the frame
Provenance
Andy Schröer obtained these lyrics from Mrs Pieper, Elvis Presley's landlady in Germany, who rented her house to the Presleys at Goethestrasse 14, Bad Nauheim, Germany in 1959 during Elvis' army service.

Lot Essay

These lyrics and the two sets sold through these rooms on June 6th, 1996 and May 29th, 1997 came from Presley's personal notebook which he left behind in Germany with his landlady when he returned to the States in 1960. Elvis apparently used to rehearse in the living room of the house he rented from Mrs Pieper using a piano he had hired for this purpose.

Don't Tease Me was a hit for country singer Carl Smith in 1955.

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