Return to Sender (Elvis cover) – Sung by Gehan Gunasekera
Gehan recorded at Banora Studios, Banora Point NSW 2486 on 6th July 2019 In response to a request from Gail Wickremasinghe.
Gehan recorded this song written by Otis Blackwell and Winfield Scott, recorded on the 27th of March 1962 and featured in The Elvis Presley Movie Girls, Girls, Girls. Gerri Granger later recorded an answer song: “Don’t Want Your Letters”.
On January 8, 1993, the U.S. Postal Service issued a commemorative postage stamp honoring Presley. Many stamp collectors mailed envelopes, franked with this stamp, to fictitious addresses in the hopes that they would receive their letters not only postmarked with the first day of issue, but also with a “return to sender” postal marking!!
Distant Drums (A Jim Reeves Cover)By Gehan Gunasekera
Oh OK, I know it’s Christmas, but thought I’d just change the topic for a minute and upload one of my favourite Jim Reeves songs, which I hope you’ll like!! Wayne, Shobana and all
you Jim Reeves fans, I hope you’ll enjoy my cover of this delightful song!
“Distant Drums” is a song which provided US singer Jim Reeves with his only UK No. 1 hit – albeit posthumously in the United Kingdom in 1966, some two years after his death in a plane crash on 31 July 1964. The song remained
in the UK Singles Chart for 25 weeks. The single also topped the US country chart for four weeks, becoming his most successful posthumous single.
It was an unexpected achievement for a song that Reeves had recorded for its composer, Cindy Walker, under the impression it was for her private use only and had earlier been dismissed by both the RCA record company and
Chet Atkins (a noted guitarist and record producer who worked with Reeves) as unsuitable for wider public release.
This may have explained the lower than usual sound quality heard on the original recording of the song. However, following Reeves’ death, the track was overdubbed with an orchestral backing and released to the public
as the version that later climbed up the music charts in both the United States and the UK.
Perhaps because of the timing of the song’s release (during the summer of 1966), “Distant Drums” attracted attention to the continuation of hostilities in the Vietnam War and an increased public awareness (both in the United Kingdom and the United States) of the difficult conditions faced by U.S. armed personnel fighting in that conflict. This is due to the lyrics implying the wishes of a soldier who wants to marry his beloved
(called “Mary” in the song) before he answers the call of battle in some far away land; the “distant drums” which make up the song’s title.
Hope you enjoy hearing this rather melancholy song, sung with much love!
It is with a lot of pleasure that I introduce Gehan Gunasekera as “The Cover King” of eLanka. I first heard Gehan on Facebook,.recently. when, out of the blue, amid many & various “Song Clips” being aired every day, on this “platform”, one, that I feel is ideal for music & Musicians, I noticed his name, together with his own “introduction” to “songs” he had “covered”, in his own style of recording, which immediately interested someone who has been recording songs for eons(it seems). I had never seen this particular technique of recording, & as I “clicked” on, to hear the most dulcet tones of Gehan & watching the “backing trax” actually working, computer-style, intrigued me, so I just kept watching & listening to yet another great Sri Lankan talent who, obviously knew what he was doing. Gehan has a rather soft,.yet beautiful baritone voice, can sing any type of ballad to perfection, plus, what interested me even more, was the fact that he had a natural tendency for “Country Music”.
To the many thousands of eLanka readers,.everywhere, this is only a brief introduction of Gehan Gunasekera, together with a “sample” of what might be a 45rpm (Single), of the good old days, done now, in “G.G.THE COVER KING” of eLanka style, which I am certain that readers everywhere will enjoy. Gehan, like me, is very very proud of what certain Sri Lankan Entertainers, people like Bill Forbes, Cliff Foenander,.plus instrumentalists like the late, great, Gerry Crake (to name just three), have done, to make our beautiful little Island (former) home, proud.
As we feature Gehan Gunesekera further, I shall endeavour to bring you more details of this “Cover King’s” life. For now, please enjoy the superb work of this guy, of whom eLanka is very proud, indeed.
