About the song
Among the quieter treasures in **Elvis Presley’s** expansive discography, **“And I Love You So”** holds a unique and dignified place. Originally penned and recorded by **Don McLean** in 1970—a songwriter best known for his epic “American Pie”—this delicate ballad found a second life in the hands of Elvis, whose 1975 rendition on the album *Today* marked a shift in tone and temperament from the bombast of his early rock-and-roll roots. What Elvis offers here is not just a cover, but a reinterpretation born of life experience, artistic maturity, and emotional honesty.
By the mid-1970s, **Elvis Presley** was no longer the defiant young idol who had revolutionized popular music two decades earlier. His voice had deepened, his performances had taken on more introspective hues, and his personal life was increasingly marked by physical and emotional decline. Yet in this period, a new dimension emerged in his artistry—an ability to convey profound feeling with restraint, warmth, and grace. **“And I Love You So”** is perhaps one of the clearest examples of this evolution.
Musically, the arrangement is elegant and uncluttered. It opens with gentle acoustic guitar and soft strings, allowing Presley’s voice to sit front and center—not to dominate, but to invite the listener into an intimate emotional space. His phrasing is tender and deliberate, especially in lines like *“And I love you so / The people ask me how / How I’ve lived till now”*. He does not oversing. He speaks through the melody with the quiet assurance of someone who has known both joy and sorrow. There is a calmness in his delivery, a subtle sense that love, in its purest form, is what has grounded him amid the chaos of fame and fortune.
What is particularly moving is how the song’s lyrical themes—love as a source of solace, and the awareness of time’s passing—resonate so deeply with Presley’s own life. By 1975, he had endured profound loss, public scrutiny, and personal disappointment, yet here he is, offering a simple declaration of enduring love. The line *“And yes, I know how lonely life can be / The shadows follow me”* is sung not as poetic metaphor, but as lived truth. Yet in the very next breath, he affirms that love brings light to those shadows. It is a moment of emotional transparency rare in popular music, made all the more powerful by Elvis’s sincerity.
**“And I Love You So”** is not one of Presley’s chart-topping hits, nor is it as instantly recognizable as “Can’t Help Falling in Love” or “Suspicious Minds.” But for those who seek the soul of the man behind the legend, this recording is indispensable. It reveals **Elvis Presley** not as a performer, but as a human being—reflective, vulnerable, and profoundly moved by love’s quiet strength.
In the twilight of his career, Elvis gave us not just entertainment, but moments of quiet beauty like this one—moments that endure because they speak not to fame or glamour, but to the simple, enduring truths of the human heart.
Video
Lyrics
And I love you so
People ask me how
How I’ve lived ’til now
I tell them I don’t know
I guess they understand
How lonely life has been
But life began again
The day you took my hand
And yes, I know how lonely life can be
When Shadows follow me and the night won’t set me free
But I don’t let the evening get me down
Now that you’re around me
And you love me too
Your thoughts are just for me
You set my spirit free
I’m happy that you do
The book of life is brief
And once the page is read
All but love is dead
This is my belief
Oh, and yes, I know how lonely life can be
When shadows follow me and the night won’t set me free
But I don’t let the evening get me down
Now that you’re around me, now you know
Thank you
Thank you very much
