Billy Swan was a country singer and songwriter who released one of his most well-loved hits in 1974 that captured the interest of the King of rock ‘n’ roll, Elvis Presley.
“I Can Help” is often regarded as Swan’s only major hit single of his career that landed at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and crossed over at No.1 on the Hot Country Singles chart. When released, critics described it as a neo-rockabilly track, while Swan perceived it as an “up-tempo blues song.”
The success of “I Can Help” led to the creation of an album of the same name that topped the country charts the following year. When it came to the track’s creation, Swan was inspired by a wedding gift from fellow musicians Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge, and a music room his wife, Marlu, had built for him.
“Well, when my wife and I got married, Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge gave us a little RMI portable organ as a wedding present. I guess it’s mostly to me since little– , you know. But Marlou fixed up a little music room in a little closet area of this duplex we were livin’ in and she had her little drum machine that went Bom-bom-bom-bom, you know. And I was playin’ with that rhythm one time and started playin’ the organ and that’s when I wrote I Can Help,” he explained, according to Elvis Australia.
In an interview with Sound on Sound, Swan added that the Rhythm Master had 10 preset sounds, including mambo, cha-cha, bossa nova, Rock 1, and Rock 2. He used one of the Rock sound presets that played 16ths and sounded like a sock cymbal. Swan had “I Can Help” in roughly 20 minutes, and it even surprised the songwriter at how quickly it was developed.
“I didn’t always write that quickly, but from my experience the ones that come quickly are the good ones. ‘Lover Please’ was like that, and so was ‘Everything’s the Same’. With ‘I Can Help’ I actually wrote the three verses first, and since I needed something to put between the second and third verse I then came up with the bridge. The whole thing just came out of the air, including the words,” he explained.
A year later, Presley covered “I Can Help” for his Today album. It just so happened that Swan became familiar with Presely’s family early in his career. He had met former Elvis bassist Bill Black in the early ’60s, who took one of his songs and made it a hit for Clyde McPhatter in 1962.
Swan moved to Memphis to write more material for Black and met Presley’s Uncle Travis. He worked as the guard at the front gate of Graceland and struck up a conversation that led Swan to live with Travis and his wife at their home.
“I became friends with Billy and his brother Bobby. The house was only a couple of blocks up the street, and I’d hang out with them whenever they joined Elvis at the movies, the skating rink or the fairground. I stayed there until May, and saw Bill Black maybe twice. Most of the time I was hanging around the gate with Travis,” said Swan.
Related: 1961 No. 1 Hit, Written by 26-Year-Old Carpet Salesman, Is Still Haunting 65 Years Later