"Love Me Tender" is a song sung by Elvis Presley, adapted
from the tune of "Aura Lee" (or "Aura Lea"), a sentimental
Civil War ballad with music by George R. Poulton and words by
W.W. Fosdick. "Aura Lee" was published in 1861 and this Civil
War song later became popular with college glee clubs and
barbershop quartets. It was also sung at the U.S. Military
Academy at West Point, New York.
The King performed "Love Me Tender" on the The Ed Sullivan
Show 9 September 1956, shortly before the single's release and
about a month before the movie,
Love Me Tender, was released, for which the song was
originally recorded. (This was Presley's only movie that he
died in.) On the following day, RCA received 1 million advance
orders for the song, making it a gold record before it was even
released. The studio, 20th Century Fox, originally wanted to
call the movie "The Reno Brothers" but instead re-titled it to
"Love Me Tender" to capitalize on the song's popularity.
Movie producer Hal Wallis would not allow Presley's regular
band made up of Scotty Moore, Bill Black, and D.J. Fontana to
play on the soundtrack. Instead, The Ken Darby Trio provided
the musical backing with Red Robinson on drums, Charles
Prescott on bass, Vita Mumolo on guitar, and Jon Dodson on
background vocals, with Presley providing only lead vocals.
The song is credited to Presley and Vera Matson because of
the publishing agreement reached for the assignment of
royalties, but the principal writer of the lyrics was Ken Darby
(Matson's husband). The song was published by Elvis Presley
Music. Darby also adapted the Civil War tune, which was in the
public domain. When asked why he credited his wife as
co-songwriter along with Presley, Darby responded, "Because she
didn't write it either."
Presley received co-songwriting credit due to his Hill &
Range publishing deal which demanded songwriters concede 50
percent of the credit of their song if they wanted Presley to
record it; Presley never wrote any of his own songs. As with
nearly all his RCA recordings, Presley took control in the
studio despite not being credited as producer. He would
regularly change arrangements and lyrics to the point the
original song was barely recognizable. This, arguably,
justified the cowriting credit in this case.
The song hit #1 on the
Billboardcharts the week ending November 3, 1956,
remaining in the position for 5 weeks and reached no. 11 on the
charts in the UK. "Love Me Tender" also reached number three
for three weeks on the R&B chart . It was also an
achievement as "Love Me Tender" succeeded another Presley
single, "Hound Dog/Don't Be Cruel" at #1. This occurrence
marked two important events in Billboard history. During this
time, Elvis accomplished another record at the time; the
longest consecutive stay at number one by a single artist,
sixteen weeks, though this was tied by Boyz II Men in 1994 and
stood for forty-eight weeks until being surpassed by R&B
singer Usher in 2004 who spent 19 weeks at the top of the
charts.
This version was ranked #437 on
Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All
Time.
In 1968, Presley recorded a 52-second track entitled "Violet
(Flower of N.Y.U.)" for the soundtrack of the film
The Trouble with Girls. Unreleased until after Presley's
death, the song used the same melody as "Aura Lee", the source
song for "Love Me Tender".
Although Presley never re-recorded "Love Me Tender" in a
studio setting, two live recordings of the song were released
on the albums:
NBC-TV Special(1968) and
Elvis: As Recorded at Madison Square Garden(1972), with
additional performances from concert and television appearances
being released after Presley's death. The song was also
performed in the Golden Globe-winning concert film
Elvis on Tour(1972).