"Poor Boy" is a song by
Elvis Presley. The song is credited to Elvis Presley and Vera Matson, the wife of
Ken Darby, the principal writer, published by Elvis Presley Music. The song was featured in the
20th Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...
movie
''Love Me Tender'' and was released as an
RCA Victor
RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also Aris ...
EP in 1956.
Background
"Poor Boy" was recorded on August 24, 1956.
"Poor Boy" appeared in the 1956 movie
''Love Me Tender'' released by
20th Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...
. The song was released on an RCA Victor EP from the movie, ''
Love Me Tender'', EPA-4006, which also included the
title track, "
We're Gonna Move", and "
Let Me".
Soundtrack
"Poor Boy" reached no. 35 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' pop singles chart in December 1956, in an 11-week chart run.
Instead of a full long-playing album soundtrack, for ''Love Me Tender'' the four songs appearing in the film were released as an extended-play, seven-inch 45 RPM record on RCA Records, ''Love Me Tender'', catalog EPA 4006, during November 1956. The EP was certified Platinum by the RIAA. The EP reached No. 10 on the ''Billboard'' EP chart, and No. 22 on the ''Billboard'' 200 album chart.
The four EP soundtrack songs were recorded at 20th Century Fox's Stage One in Hollywood, at three sessions on August 24, September 4, and October 1, 1956.
Personnel
* Elvis Presley – vocals
* Vito Mumolo –
lead acoustic guitar
* Luther Rountree –
rhythm acoustic guitar
* Dom Frontieri –
accordion
Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...
* Mike "Myer" Rubin – double bass
* Richard Cornell – drums
* Rad Robinson – backing vocals
* Jon Dodson – backing vocals
* Charles Prescott -backing vocals
Other versions
Hillary Hawkins released the song as a 45 single on Wide World Records. Col Joye and The Joy Boys released a version in 1964. Paul Ansell recorded the song in 1999. Carlos and The Bandidos recorded the song in 2003. Wim Vandevelde recorded the song in Belgium.
Paul McCartney recorded the song in 1987 for the ''
Choba B CCCP
''CHOBA B CCCP'' (; also known as ''The Russian Album'') is the seventh solo studio album by Paul McCartney under his own name, originally released in October 1988 exclusively in the Soviet Union. The album consists entirely of live-in-studio reco ...
'', or Back in the USSR, album which remains unreleased.
References
Sources
*Guralnick, Peter. ''Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley.'' Little, Brown; 1994. .
*Guralnick, Peter. ''Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley.'' Back Bay Books; 1999. .
*Guralnick, Peter; Jorgensen, Ernst. ''Elvis Day by Day: The Definitive Record of His Life and Music.'' Ballantine; 1999. .
*Hopkins, Jerry. ''Elvis—The Biography.'' Plexus; 2007. .
*Jorgensen, Ernst. ''Elvis Presley—A Life in Music: The Complete Recording Sessions.'' St Martin's Press; 1998. .
{{Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley songs
Songs written by Elvis Presley
1956 songs
Songs written for films