"Softly, as I Leave You" is a popular Italian song, originally titled Piano, composed by Tony De Vita with Italian lyrics by Giorgio Calabrese, and English lyrics by Hal Shaper.
Presley said the song originated when a man was dying and his wife was sitting by his bedside.
As she began to doze off, he felt himself beginning to die and he wrote the words to the song on a notepad.
Presley's one recorded version of this song was a bootleg made by a fan in the Las Vegas Hilton show on 13 December 1975.
RCA was able to release it commercially in March 1978[1] and it now appears on the boxed set Walk A Mile In My Shoes: The Essential 70's Masters.