Lover Please
(Billy Swan)

Billy Swan-penned "Lover Please" is probably best known sung by Clyde McPhatter. It was a hit in 1962 (Mercury Records).

This is the very first version by the Rhythm Steppers (vocal : Jim Boyer) on the Memphis Louis label owned by Bill Black.

A band Bill Black sometimes played with, Mirt Mirley & the Rhythm Steppers, drove from St. Louis to Memphis to record for Black. Billy Swan was just along for the ride. « My friend Jimmy Boyer was the lead singer for them. », recounts Swan. « So, we went into Satellite studios, and Chips Moman was the engineer, and they did one song called « Little Miss Heartbreak ». That’s the only one they had with ‘em. Then Jimmy Boyer, who was standing against a wall drinking a Coke, said « Well, Swan writes songs". So Bill said, « Well, play me something." So I played him three, and ‘Lover Please' was one of ‘em. So, they did ‘Lover Please’.
[from The Blue Moon Boys: The Story of Elvis Presley's Band, book by Ken Burke,Dan Griffin]

Mirt Mirley & the Rhythm Stepppers’ version of the song didn’t click, but Black liked the song well enough to record it with another Swan’s friends, Dennis Turner.