"Poor Boy" is a song by

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...

. The song is credited to Elvis Presley and Vera Matson, the wife of

Ken Darby Kenneth Lorin Darby (May 13, 1909 – January 24, 1992) was an American composer, vocal arranger, lyricist, and conductor. His film scores were recognized by the awarding of three Academy Awards and one Grammy Award. He provided vocals for ...

, 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

. The song was released on an RCA Victor EP from the movie, '' Love Me Tender'', EPA-4006, which also included the

title track A title track is a song that has the same name as the album or film in which it appears. In the Korean music industry, the term is used to describe a promoted song on an album, akin to a single, regardless of the song's title. Title track may al ...

, "

We're Gonna Move "We're Gonna Move" 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 movie ''Love Me Ten ...

", 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 Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

acoustic guitar * Luther Rountree –

rhythm Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular recu ...

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 Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

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