IF I CAN DREAM

Steve Binder - Elvis World Japan - 2005

"One night when we were rehearsing, the television set was on the other room and all of a sudden there was this moment of silence. And I said, "I think Bobby Kennedys just been shot." And we all rushed into the other office and that's exactly what happened. They had live at the Ambassador Hotel, Kennedy making his speech. We were in the piano room at the time, but there was just something weird that evening and I just sensed something had gone wrong. Then we spent the whole night basically talking about the Kennedy assassination, of both Bobby and John."

"And I really liked him. I thought Elvis was one of the nicest, kindest, funny guys I had ever been exposed to. He may not have been college educated but he was sure street smart and well read. And, Elvis basically had in those moments of pure honesty, had been saying things that I felt we should say on the air in the special. So I went to Earl Brown, our special material writer and choral director, and to Billy Goldenberg and I asked them to disguise. I had read an article that in World War Two all the German artists were disguising their art work so, you know, the Nazis would never know what they were saying cause it was too abstract for them. And I said, "We're gonna get it passed the Colonel if we just write a speech. But if we can put it in the lyrics of a song, he's never gonna know what we did." So I asked them go home and write a song about the philosophy of what I was hearing from Elvis personally. That, you know, we're all created equal. We're all deserve to walk hand in hand with our brothers, and all that stuff."

"And, one morning, very early in the morning, I got a phone call from Earl Brown saying "I think we did it. I think you've got your song." And so we rushed down to the studio to hear it and Billy Goldenberg played piano and Earl sang "If I Can Dream". And the lead sheet that I was handed had Earl Brown and Billy Goldenberg as the writers of it. And I said "Well let's wait till Elvis shows up and we'll play it for him." In the meantime Colonel Parker was saying over my dead body "Are we gonna play that as the last song of the show?" And I waited for Elvis and Elvis came into the dressing room. And I ushered him into the piano room and Colonel Parker was in the outer room with Tom Diskin and a few of the RCA people and so forth. And I could hear them mumbling, you know, their discomfort and not wanting us to do what we were doing.

And we played "If I Can Dream" for Elvis and Elvis listened to it. He said "Play it again." So we went through it again and Elvis said, "Which I had become accustomed to." When Elvis was really making decisions he didn't just want to make rash fast decisions. He wanted to, you know, absorb it and hear it over and over. He had Billy and Earl play this song I would say three or four times. And he looked at me and said, "Okay I'll do it." I said "You'll do it" and immediately the door burst open, and contracts were in hand to give away the publishing and so forth for RCA and Elvis publishing company. Once they realized this is going in the show whether they like it or not. "

""

""