I was only 10 when this came out. I had it on a 45 rpm record and knew the words by heart, but the concept of a "ring around your neck" always bothered me. How does one get it over your head? :=\ It took some years to realize it meant on a chain!
Born in 57, my mom had this on a 45rpm and as a young child I wore this record out. I was still in elementary school the last time I heard it until about a year ago. I was surprised that I still remembered the loud drum fill in the last chorus right before I heard it again along with the guitar lick at the end. This is one of the many reasons I love You Tube, so many songs I thought I'd never hear again. :)
I wore the ring on a chain.it was the greatest. I married someone else. But I had a crush on that boy. Back then I was hot stuff because of that ring. I loved to show it to the other girls.
So supple, so full of authority, rebellion, pathos, passion, defiance; note and pitch perfect; Elvis Presley's voice was the spokesman for OUR generation - the post-War coming-of-age, Rebel-Without-A-Cause searchers of meaning, longing for love and hope in a new nuclear age where one misstep could spell extinction. Presley was our voice, our soul, our mentor, or musical Moses, delivering us to a new Promised Land "where the strong are just, and the weak secure, and the peace preserved."
I remember those days when this song was released and many "old" people didn't know what it meant to wear a ring around your neck. They wondered how it would ever fit! In those times when a girl was going steady with a boy she would take his ring and put it on a chain which she wore around her neck. That meant he had laid claim to her and that she was off limits to all other guys who might be interested.
Lead singer of Deep Purple Ian Gillan said, "You know why Elvis will always be the king of rock and roll because he is the greatest singer that has ever lived"
