the aisle. And the woman said, "No, wait, Melissa. Come back—don’t run away, Melissa!" I went, "Sweet Melissa." I could've gone over there and kissed that woman. As a matter of fact, we came down and met each other at the end of the aisle, and I looked at her and said, "Thank you so much." She probably went straight home and said, "I met a crazy man at the fucking grocery." Allman rushed home and incorporated the name into the partially completed song, later introducing it to his brother: "[I] played it for my brother and he said, 'It's pretty good—for a love song. It ain't rock and roll that makes me move my ass.' He could be tough that way." The duo produced a demo recording of "Melissa" that later surfaced on One More Try, a compilation of outtakes released thirty years later. In 1968, the duo recorded it during a demo session with the 31st of February, a band that featured Butch Trucks, the Allman Brothers' later drummer. That version is thought to have featured the debut recorded slide guitar performance from Duane Allman, and the entire session was later compiled into Duane & Greg Allman, released in 1972. Gregg Allman sold the publishing rights to "Melissa", as well "God Rest His Soul" (a tribute to Martin Luther King Jr.), to producer Steve Alaimo for $250 () shortly thereafter. He had been tied up in Los Angeles, contractually bound by Liberty Records (who had previously issued albums by the Allmans' first band, the Hour Glass), and used the money to buy an airplane ticket to fly back. When Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1971, his brother performed the song at his funeral, as he had grown to like the song over the years. Gregg Allman commented that it "didn’t sit right" that he used one of his brother's old guitars for the performance, but he nonetheless got through it; he called it "my brother’s favorite song that I ever wrote." Both because he did not own the rights and found it "too soft" for the band's repertoire, he never mentioned the song to the members of the Allman Brothers Band. Following Duane's death, manager Phil Walden arranged to buy back the publishing rights in order to record the song for Eat a Peach, the band's fourth album. Gregg brought it to the studio