50 years ago: Elvis Presley hit #2 with “Can’t Help Falling in Love”

Can’t Help Falling in Love Elvis Presley

Writer(s): Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore, George David Weiss (see lyrics here) Released: October 1, 1961 First Charted: November 10, 1961 Peak: 2 US, 4 CB, 11 GR, 3 HR, 16 AC, 14 UK, 4 CN, 15 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 2.0 US Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 393.8 video, 477.38 streaming

Can’t Help Falling in Love Lick the Tins

Released: 1985 First Charted: -- Peak: 3 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 2.37 video, 0.45 streaming

Can’t Help Falling in Love UB40

First Charted: May 1, 1993 Peak: 17 US, 18 CB, 13 GR, 11 AC, 11 MR, 12 UK, 12 CN, 17 AU, 8 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.3 US, 0.64 UK, 2.71 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 201.71 video, 178.86 streaming

Awards (Elvis Presley): Click on award for more details. Awards (Lick the Tins): Awards (UB40):

About the Song: Elvis Presley may have been the King of Rock and Roll but “there’s nothing rock ‘n’ roll about ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love” and it makes no attempt to recapture the early danger of Elvis. Instead, it’s Elvis hitting his romantic-crooner stride, his voice hitting a deep puppydog quaver and harmonizing beautifully with the Jordanaires’ gospel-informed backing vocals.” SG Music historian Steve Sullivan calls it “Elvis’ defiintive snuggle-up-close love ballad” SS “rivaled lonly by 'Love Me Tender’ and ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight?’” SS Critic Dave Marsh voices a similar sentiment, calling it “one of the great ballad performances of his career.” SS It is a “confession of Presley’s complete surrender to the whims of forces greater than he can comprehend…this is what…renders the song with such tremendous conviction.” SS The melody was adapted from “Plasir d’Amour,” a 1784 song by a German-born French composer with the Italian name Jean-Paul-Égide Martini. It was originally written from the perspective of a woman falling in love with a man. WK It was featured on Blue Hawaii, Elvis’ most successful soundtrack – it spent 20 weeks atop the Billboard album chart. In the movie, he doesn’t sing it to his love interest, but her grandmother. He gives her a music box on her birthday and it plays the song and he sings along. SF The song became Elvis’ regular concert closer. In fact, it was the last song he ever performed live at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis on June 26, 1977. WK The song has been recorded multiple times, including a #1 version by UB40. The British reggae group made a career out of remaking pop songs. They took Neil Diamond’s “Red Red Wine” to #1 and had top 10 hits with covers Al Green’s “Here I Am (Come and Take Me)” and the Temptations’ “The Way You Do the Things You Do.” They first recorded “Can’t Help Falling in Love” for the 1992 Honeymoon in Vegas soundtrack, but one by Bono of U2 was used instead. FB Then the band were approached about using their version in the Sharon Stone 1993 erotic movie thriller Sliver. Billboard’s Larry Flick wrote that UB40’s version “has a pillowy, midtempo pace that dabbles in island beats and radio conscious funk.” WK Entertainment Weekly’s Marisa Fox said that UB40 “revitalize” the song. WK Music & Media magazine described it as “a reggae remake that sounds like the sun will never stop shining.” WK Others who have recorded the song include the A-Teens, Bob Dylan, Corey Hart, Engelbert Humperdinck, Chris Isaak, Al Martino, Kacey Musgraves, Pearl Jam, the Stray Cats, and Andy Williams. The song played a role in reuniting Fleetwood Mac when Christine McVie recorded it in 1986 for the movie A Fine Mess. She convinced Fleetwood Mac members Lindsey Buckingham, John McVie, and Mick Fleetwood to back her on the recording. The next year, the four reunited with Stevie Nicks for the 1987 album Tango in the Night. SF My personal favorite version was recorded by Lick the Tins in 1985 and featured in the closing credits of the John Hughes’ 1987 teen movie Some Kind of Wonderful, one of my all-time favorite movies. Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Elvis Presley DMDB encyclopedia entry for Lick the Tins DMDB encyclopedia entry for UB40 FB Fred Bronson (2003). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (5th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 819. SF Songfacts SG Stereogum (2/11/2022). “The Number Ones” by Tom Breihan SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Page 550. WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 1/13/2023.

 

50 years ago: Elvis Presley’s Blue Hawaii soundtrack hit #1 for 1st of 20 weeks

First posted 4/9/2008; updated 9/29/2020.

Blue Hawaii Elvis Presley

Released: October 1, 1961 Charted: October 23, 1961 Peak: 120 US, 118 UK, -- CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): 3.0 US, -- UK, 3.0 world (includes US and UK) Genre: rock and roll

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Blue Hawaii [2:36] Almost Always True [2:25] Aloha Oe [1:53] No More [2:22] Can’t Help Falling in Love (Creatore/ Peretti/ Weiss) [3:01] (11/22/61, 2 US, 1 AC, 1 UK, 4 CN, 3 AU, sales: 1.6 million) Rock-a-Hula Baby [1:59] (12/4/61, 23 US, 3 UK) Moonlight Swim [2:20] Ku-U-I-Po [2:22] It Eats [1:23] Slicin' Sand [1:36] Hawaiian Sunset [2:32] Beach Boy Blues [2:03] Island of Love [2:41] Hawaiian Wedding Song [2:48] Total Running Time: 32:02

Rating: 3.319 out of 5.00 (average of 13 ratings) Awards:

About the Album: “After his return from military service, Elvis Presley’s movies, and the soundtracks to them, began taking on a formulaic quality – the early ones, however, such as G.I. Blues and this release, still had enough interest on the part of the makers and the singer, however, to make them attractive if flawed efforts.” BE This “soundtrack of what was to be Elvis’ biggest movie called for an Hawaiianesque flavor” NU “that doesn’t necessarily present Elvis in anything like his strongest musical setting.” BE “While Presley’s vocals are excellent throughout, much of the material is of a throwaway caliber.” NU But in between and around tracks like Aloha Oe and other pieces of music lifted from the local color, there are songs such as No More and, most importantly, Can’t Help Falling in Love (arguably the best song in any Elvis movie, and maybe the best song ever written for a rock & roll movie) that show him at his best – his singing was advancing with each passing month, and with the right material he was still one of the most compelling and charismatic vocalists on the planet, and here, for those two songs, he had the right material, which was more than enough.” BE “It was even enough to overcome the weakness of Rock-A-Hula Baby, a third-rate song” BE “as dumb as the title implies.” NU The song “became an international hit and proved that at this point, Elvis could probably have sung the telephone book and made it chart.” BE “The expanded edition is mostly filled out with the songs as arranged and mastered for their on-screen incarnations, which are slightly different in emphasis, texture, and accompaniment – even here, ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’ is different enough to justify the purchase of the special edition. The sound on all of this is impeccable, state of the art, and gives the singer his due and more in terms of fidelity and richness…This release captures Elvis’ singing at a point that – as the quality of the songs in his movies declined in the years to come – fans would soon regard as a golden age.” BE Notes: The 1997 CD reissue includes alternate takes of “Blue Hawaii,” “No More,” “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” “Rock-a-Hula Baby,” “Slicin’ Sand,” and “Beach Boy Blues.” Also included are two versions of “Steppin’ Out of Line,” a song not featured on the original soundtrack.

Resources and Related Links: Elvis Presley’s DMDB Encyclopedia entry BE Bruce Eder, All Music Guide NU Neal Umphred, All Music Guide