Love Me Tender (song)

Elvis Presley recorded Love Me Tender on August 24, 1956 for his debut movie. The producer of the film, Hal Wallis, was opposed to participating in the recording of the soundtrack of the permanent Elvis band, which consisted of guitarist Scotty Moore , double bass player Bill Black and drummer Dominic Fontan . This trio was temporarily replaced by a group of session musicians: John Dodson ( backing vocals ), Vita Mumolo ( guitar ), Charles Prescott ( bass ) and Red Robinson ( drums ).

About a month before the film was released, September 9, 1956, Elvis Presley and his trio sang “Love Me Tenderly” on the Ed Sullivan show . The next day, September 10, the singer’s publishing company ARC received about a million pre-orders for a record with this song. Due to this popularity, the 20th Century Fox film company, originally planning to name the Renault Brothers movie, decided to name it Love Me Tenderly .

Over the next 13 years, Presley continued his film career, releasing a soundtrack album with the same name for the movie for each film in which he took part.

For some reason, Elvis Presley and Vera Matson appear to be the authors of the song, although the original lyrics were written by Ken Derby, the husband of Vera Matson. Ken Derby also arranged the tune “Aura Lee,” which is in the public domain today. According to biographer Peter Guralnik, Elvis Presley did not write his own songs, performing exclusively songs by other authors ^[1] .

The principle of the recording of “Love Me Tenderly” was not generally different from the work on other Elvis Presley songs released on ARC. The singer was a leader in the studio, despite the fact that he was not involved in the project as a producer . He could regularly change the manner of performance and the lyrics, because of which the original every time became barely recognizable. This fact may justify his co-authorship . Even at concerts, the singer changed lines from the song. So, at a concert in Las Vegas, instead of the words “You have made my life complete” ( Eng. You have made my life complete ), Elvis Presley sings “You have turned my life into a mess” ( Eng. You have made my life a mess! )) ^[2] or "You made my life wretched".

Although Ken Derby is known for his work on many Hollywood films, starting with The Wizard of Oz in 1939, his collaboration with Elvis Presley in the film Love Me Tenderly was the only one. Derby is the author of three other songs from the movie: Poor Guy, Let Me, and We're Going to Move. However, Presley did not like any of these songs except the title tune.

Ken Derby was awarded three Oscars in the nomination “ Best Music ” for such films as “ The King and Me ”, “ Camelot ”, “ Porgy and Bess ”. For the last film, he was also awarded the Grammy Award.

On November 3, 1956, the single with the song “Love Me Tender” led the US music parade and stayed at the top for five weeks, repeating the success of the previous single of the musician “Hound Dog” / “Don't Be Cruel”, which also reached number 1 in the hit parades. In the UK, the single took a more modest 11th line ^[3]

In 1968, Elvis Presley recorded "Violet (Flower of NYU)" for the soundtrack for the film " Trouble With Girls ." The song used the motives "Love me dearly." Also known are two concert versions that were released on the NBC Special albums in 1968 and Elvis, as it was recorded at Madison Square Garden in 1972.

• The instrumental version of “Love Me Affectionately”, recorded by Henry Rene and his band for the film, was released on ARC a few weeks after Elvis Presley’s record ^[4] .
• George Richard Chamberlain released the single "Love Me Tender" / "All I Do Is Dream of You", which became a hit in 1962.
• The Beatles performed the song “Love Me Tender” at one of their concerts before signing a contract with I-um-ah in 1962.
• The Lettermen recorded a song for the album Jim, Tony, and Bob .
• The 1967 cover version by Percy Sledge , who entered the Top 40, reached position 40 in the US Billboard pop chart and position 35 in the R&B charts .
• A cover version of Mick Ronson , who recorded the song for the 1974 album, Slaughter On 10th Avenue .
• Merle Haggard for the 1977 album My Farewell to Elvis .
• Linda Ronstadt , who recorded the song for the 1978 album Living in the USA , which became a hit .
• Frank Sinatra recorded the song for the 1980 album Trilogy: Past Present Future .
• Singer Amy Grant has recorded a song for the 1992 movie soundtrack, Honeymoon in Las Vegas . The singer also performs this song at concerts.
• Norah Jones version in collaboration with Adam Levy for the 2004 film How to Become a Princess .
• Country singer Kenny Rogers recorded the song in 1996.
• Scatman John recorded the song B sided with his 1996 single, Su Su Su Super Kirei .
• A cover version of the song, performed by Gene Summers, was included in her double album Rock and Roll Juke Box , released by I-um-ay in France in 1988. The song was also released on the 50th annual CD of recordings by singer Reminisce Cafe in 2008.
• Tony Bennett performed this song.
• Cover version of the Spanish band Mocedades .
• Hugh Laurie performed the show in reprise for The Fry and Laurie Show .
• David Archuleta performed this song. His version entered the "Top 40" and was used in the seventh season of the popular television show "American Idol."
• Willy Nelson recorded the version of the song for the movie Revenge of the Fat Man, or Fat Man III .
• In 2007, Russian singer Muslim Magomayev recorded an interpretation of the famous ballad , which was included in one of his last albums ^[5] .

• Elvis Presley's Alphabetical List of Songs
• Discography of Elvis Presley

• “Love Me Tender” on Songfacts
• Chords of the song "Love me dearly" falshivim-vmeste.ru (Russian)