Can't Help Falling In Love With You

Elvis Presley Singing
"Can't Help Falling in Love with You" (1968)

By Peter Y. Chou
WisdomPortal.com

Preface: For Song #17, I've selected "Can't Help Falling in Love with You" sang by Elvis Presley in his 1968 Las Vegas Comeback. The song was from the 1961 movie "Blue Hawaii". It was written by Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore, and George David Weiss and published by Gladys Music, Inc. The melody is based on "Plaisir d'amour", a popular French love song composed in 1784 by Jean-Paul-Égide Martini. The piece revolves around a linear arpeggio in C and fits the classical guitar to perfection. When the melody is superposed to the C major arpeggio, the listener is taken on a trip into memory lane and love. The piece fits classical guitar perfectly & recurring arpeggio sequence generates some quite stunning harmonic convergences. Elvis Presley's song version topped British charts in 1962, spending four weeks at No. 1. The single is certified Platinum by the RIAA, for US sales in excess of one million copies. In the United States, the song peaked at No. 2 on the US Billboard Hot 100 behind Joey Dee & the Starliters' "Peppermint Twist" and went to No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary chart for six weeks.

Wise men say
"Only fools rush in"
But I can't help
Falling in love with you

Shall I stay?
Would it be a sin
If I can't help
Falling in love with you?

[Chorus]
Like a river flows
Surely to the sea
Darling, so it goes
Some things are meant to be

Take my hand
Take my whole life, too
For I can't help
Falling in love with you

[Chorus]
Like a river flows
Surely to the sea
Darling, so it goes
Some things are meant to be

Take my hand
Take my whole life, too
For I can't help
Falling in love with you
For I can't help
Falling in love with you

© Peter Y. Chou
WisdomPortal.com
May 20, 2023