Back in 1977 I don’t think I knew what rockabilly was, and I’d never heard Elvis Presley’s early Sun Sessions. Then along came a cool dude with impeccable punk credentials called Robert Gordon.

He had sung with Tuff Darts, one of the bands on that seminal punk album Live At CBGBs, who sounded as much like The New York Dolls as the Dolls themselves on its opening tune All For The Love Of Rock And Roll.

That gave Gordon all the credibility I needed to embrace him (yep, that’s how shallow I was) so I dived eagerly in to a pair of albums by this guy who looked like Elvis, sounded like Elvis, and even sang an Elvis song, One Night.

Those first two albums teamed him up with Link Wray, a legend of rock’n’roll guitar of whom I had never heard at the time, but I liked what I heard, even though I was unfamiliar with its references to Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran and Jack Scott (and Elvis himself).

I was also impressed when Gordon, with his big Elvis quiff and motorcycle leathers, turned up in a cool indie film called The Loveless, an hommage to Brando’s 1950s biker pic The Wild One, written and directed by a young Kathryn Bigelow (and starring a young Willem Dafoe).

He also sang the songs on the soundtrack, including cracking versions of Dwight Sherman’s So Young, Jack Scott’s I’m Dreaming Of You and Goodbye Baby, and Marshall Crenshaw’s Wasting My Time. 

Looking back now, those first two LPs (both still in my collection) kickstarted a rockabilly revival that gathered pace in the early 1980s, sparking the psychobilly offshoot with British bands like The Meteors and The Polecats.

Gordon was cut from the same cloth, punk in attitude but rockabilly in style and sound – a fusion of two rebel musics. And through him I discovered both Link Wray, and those early efforts of Elvis, which remain among my favourite recordings of all time.

The second of those albums, Fresh Fish Special, even featured Elvis’s old backing group, The Jordanaires, and includes this song, written for him by another young fellow starting out in the business, who also plays the keyboards.

I think you’ll agree that Robert Gordon sounds more like Elvis than The King himself on this one.

RIP Robert Gordon (1947-2022)