One of Elvis Presley’s greatest hits was a song called “Love Me Tender,” that he recorded back in 1956. During this time, Elvis was only three years into his music career, and the song quickly shot up to number one on four US Billboards which included US Billboard Hot 100, US Billboard Best Sellers in Stores, US Billboard Most Played by Jockeys, and US Billboard Most Played in Jukeboxes. Now, as for the song itself, it’s actually an adaptation of a Civil War song called “Aura Lee,” which was published back in 1861. The music was written by George R. Poulton and the lyrics by W. W. Fosdick. The song later became very popular with barbershop quartets and college glee clubs all over the country.
Ken Darby was the songwriter who changed the original lyrics to adapt the song for Elvis. However, Darby stated once that Elvis had a special talent adapting songs to suit his style. The writer noted that Elvis didn’t read music, nor did he need to, instead he would simply play a song once and know exactly how he wanted to sing it. Darby stated: “He has perfect judgment of what is right for him. He exercised that judgment when he chose ‘Love Me Tender’ as his theme song.” In this 1970 performance of “Love Me Tender,” Elvis starts off with a bit of fun as the song starts by “playing” on a tiny guitar.
He then gets down to business and starts to sing. Although, as we soon find out, that was not his primary “job” that evening as he proceeds to kiss nearly every woman in the room for the next four minutes while singing. The term “Rock Star” has been used pretty loosely over the years, but this video shows us why Elvis will always be “The King of Rock & Roll.”
Image via YouTube
You can watch Elvis’s incredible lip serving performance in the video below.