RCA received tapes from Sam Phillips in December 1955, and where no tapes existed they used dubs from Sun singles for their masters (see below).

The only dating we have for the session for the slow version of 'I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone' is March 5 1955.

On The Complete Sun Sessions (LP & CD), RCA producer Gregg Geller misidentified the take Sam Phillips chose to put on acetate in 1955, for local DJ feedback, and listed what was in the vaults as Take 9 as being the master, when the master really should have been listed as Take 11. Basically, what is listed as being Take 11 in the Session Logs should have been listed as Take 9! Ernst Jørgensen has since labelled the takes originally listed as being 7 to 13 as now being takes 1 to 7.

Explanation for the misidentfying of 'I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone' ('My Baby's Gone').

When the slow version of 'I'm Left, You're Right, She’s Gone' ('My Baby's Gone') was first discovered, on acetate, it didn’t have a "Take" associated with it but was obviously considered by Sam to be a master as an acetate was cut of it.

It was this acetate that was first released on bootleg in the 1970s and then finally released officially on the Golden Celebration box set in 1984.

A tape source was then found of this session (dated March 5 1955) but none of the takes had count-ins. For some reason, RCA listed them as being Takes 7 to 13 and released them in 1987 on The Complete Sun Sessions album.

Probably because the master of 'I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone' is listed as being Take 6, perhaps they thought the take numbering continued with the slow version of the song - Hence starting with Take 7, I don't know!

Anyway, now the confusion starts!

Gregg Geller wrongly thought that Take 9 on the tape RCA now had was the ‘Master’ that RCA had released on acetate in 1984 – even though a quick listen proves they are completely different, so he listed the following in the session logs:-

Take 7: Complete - 2:59 (SPA1 4281)
Take 8: Complete - 2:51 (SPA1 4282)
Take 9: Master 2:36 (OPA1 4196 – 1984 matrix number) not issued with new matrix number
Take 10: False Start 0:14 (SPA1 4283)
Take 11: Complete 2:42 (SPA1 4284)
Take 12: Complete 2:36 (SPA1 4286)
Take 13: Incomplete 1:33 (SPA1 4285)

But the actual running order of the tape was as follows:-

Unknown Take (7): Complete - 2:59 (SPA1 4281)
Unknown Take (8): Complete - 2:51 (SPA1 4282)
Unknown Take (9): Complete 2:42 (SPA1 4284)
Unknown Take (10): False Start 0:14 (SPA1 4283)
Unknown Take (11): Master 2:36 (OPA1 4196 – 1984 matrix number)
Unknown Take (12): Complete 2:36 (SPA1 4286)
Unknown Take (13): Incomplete 1:33 (SPA1 4285)

So with Gregg Geller still thinking that Take 9 was the master he released the third track from the tape (SPA1 4284) as Take 9 on Side 3 of The Complete Sun Sessions album.

It was only when Ernst Jørgensen came to the helm that this mistake was discovered, and rectified with the release of The King Of Rock 'N' Roll - The Complete 50s Masters, and the correct master was listed on disc 5 as Take 11.

Ernst has since changed the listing of Takes from 7 to 13 as now being Takes 1 to 7, as listed below:-

Take 1: Complete - 2:59 (SPA1 4281)
Take 2: Complete - 2:51 (SPA1 4282)
Take 3: Complete 2:51 (SPA1 4284)
Take 4: False Start 0:10 (SPA1 4283)
Take 5: Master 2:40 (OPA1 4196 – 1984 matrix number)
Take 6: Complete 2:40 (SPA1 4286)
Take 7: Incomplete 1:35 (SPA1 4285)

With no surviving tape reel, the progression of the session is a mystery. The best possible scenario comes from the recollection of Jimmie Lott, who played with Elvis on one session only. The result of this collaboration, 'I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone' became Elvis' fourth single, released in May (9th?) 1955 (or possibly even earlier - April 10 1955).

Lott also remembers working on a rhumbafied version of 'How Do You Think I Feel', and an instrumental rehearsal (Elvis off-mic) version can be heard on A Boy From Tupelo, among other releases since it's first release on the Bear Family box set The Sun Country Years 1950 - 1959. Lott also remembers rehearsing a version of 'You're A Heartbreaker', with drums, which has not survived. The tryout of 'You're A Heartbreaker' was possibly a warm up starting the session, setting levels etc with a song they all knew, as the song had already been released as a single (Sun 215) back in December 1954.

Just before the first 'How Do You Think I Feel' tryout Scotty Moore can be heard playing the 'Blues Stay Away From Me' riff used on the slow version of 'I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone', which indicates that the slow version of 'I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone' was recorded at this session too.

The false start before the master of the regular 'I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone' was discovered on an acetate being auctioned by Graceland in August 2018 - Thanks to Kevan Budd for this discovery, and also a new theory that the slow version of 'I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone' ('My Baby's Gone') was recorded on the same day as the regular version, but after the regular master.

Kevan explains that during the `My Baby's Gone` slow session tape, between takes Elvis is loosely playing, in part (slapping the open `A` string), the acoustic intro that only featured on the regular, fast master take. It seems Elvis liked this intro and rather than fluffing the intro before the master, what the acetate shows us is Elvis rehearsing the intro before the master, he seems to damp the sound early. But the key point here is that it seems while recording `My Babys Gone` Elvis already had the master acoustic intro worked out, which would suggest that this is because the slow version is recorded AFTER the master and that both were recorded on the same day.

Kevan continues that usually Sam appeared to stop recording once he had the master/single, but as we know Sam also produced a test acetate (a record test) of `My Baby's Gone`, it's quite clear Sam was in two minds about which version he wanted and must have had some doubts about the faster master if he went on to record the slow version and, likewise, let Elvis continue and to try out `How Do You Think I Feel`.

It also makes sense as Stan Kessler says the demo was mid tempo, like the master, so a likely tempo to start out with. Also the slow version first theory is that they hired a drummer and had the song already from Stan, so would they get the drummer to sit out on the first attempts, it makes more sense to start with the demo tempo and the drummer they had hired. Then when dissatisfied with the result ask the drummer to sit it out.

As we know Sam already had the one song he wanted to record from Stan, no reason to believe he would need any more than a Saturday morning session, in spite of a later Hayride performance, there was plenty of time for both.

In March of 2007, Sony decided to go through all of Elvis' masters. They retransferred everything and remastered all tracks including repairing as many clicks, pops, bad edits and dropouts as they could. They have used these newly mastered recordings on their new releases since 2007 including budget soundtracks, Legacy releases, the 30 disc Complete Elvis Presley Masters collection and the Franklin Mint package. These 2007 remasters were not used on FTD's A Boy From Tupelo, the masters were all remastered again from scratch on that set.

Elvis At Sun - Restoration (Courtesy of 'Master & Session')

The rejected, slow 'I'm Left, You're Right, My Baby's Gone' is of course improved here as well with dropout repairs and absence of the digital BMG mastering with filtering and added echo that has haunted us until now. The other outtake that was released on Sunrise merely suffered from dropouts and poor eq resulting in a "hard" sound. 

'I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone', the C&W side of the fourth single has never sounded anywhere near this good before. The main source was a Sony transfer of the recently found 30 ips RCA master tape that is at least one generation down, but not subjected to any bad processing at all. Since the song on the best tape isn't complete (last song on compilation tape), it was necessary to combine more than one source to produce the best result throughout. The now restored and beautifully matched original uncut ending is a thrill to hear - a personal favorite on Elvis At Sun considering the final, uniform result from combined sources.