"Wooden Heart" is a pop song recorded 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 composition is based on a German folk song "

Muss i denn "Muss i denn" (German for "must I, then") is a German folk-style song in the Swabian German dialect that has passed into tradition. The present form dates back to 1827, when it was written and made public by Friedrich Silcher.August Bopp, ''Friedr ...

" (''lit.'' Must I then) and it was featured in the 1960

film ''

G.I. Blues ''G.I. Blues'' is a 1960 American musical comedy film directed by Norman Taurog and starring Elvis Presley and Juliet Prowse. The movie was filmed at Paramount Pictures studio, with some pre-production scenery shot on location in Germany before Pr ...

''. The song was a

hit single A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single or simply a hit, is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although ''hit song'' means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term ''hit record' ...

for Presley in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

, reaching No. 1 for six weeks in March and April 1961.

Background

The song was published by Elvis Presley's company Gladys Music, Inc. In the United States, it was released in November 1964 as the B-side to " Blue Christmas". Presley performed the song live during his Dinner Show concert at the

Hilton Hotel Hilton Hotels & Resorts (formerly known as Hilton Hotels) is a global brand of full-service hotels and resorts and the flagship brand of American multinational hospitality company Hilton. The original company was founded by Conrad Hilton. As ...

in Las Vegas in 1975, a recording available on the Elvis Presley live album ''Dinner At Eight''. A

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

Joe Dowell Joe Dowell (January 23, 1940 – February 4, 2016) was an American pop singer. Career He was born in Bloomington, Indiana, United States, and moved to Bloomington, Illinois as a child. He first performed at a ninth-grade talent show and later at ...

on the

Smash Records Smash Records was an American record label founded in 1961 as a subsidiary of Mercury Records by Mercury executive Shelby Singleton and run by Singleton with Charlie Fach. Fach took over after Singleton left Mercury in 1966. Its recording artist ...

label made it to number one in the US at the end of August 1961, knocking Bobby Lewis' "

Tossin' and Turnin' "Tossin' and Turnin'" is a song written by Ritchie Adams and Malou René, and originally recorded by Bobby Lewis in the fall of 1960. The record was released on the Beltone label in December 1960. It reached number one on both the ''Billboard' ...

" off the number-one spot on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 after seven weeks. Dowell's version also spent three weeks at number one on the Easy Listening chart. "Wooden Heart", created by Fred Wise,

Ben Weisman Benjamin Weisman (November 16, 1921 – May 20, 2007) was an American composer. He wrote 57 songs recorded by Elvis Presley, more than any other songwriter. Biography Weisman was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and grew up in Brooklyn, New Yor ...

Kay Twomey Kathleen G. "Kay" Twomey (April 27, 1914 in Boston, Massachusetts – September 26, 1995 in Wellesley, Massachusetts) was an American songwriter and music arranger. Twomey co-wrote '' Serenade of the Bells'', which reached the Billboard magazine ...

and German bandleader

Bert Kaempfert Bert Kaempfert (born Berthold Heinrich Kämpfert; 16 October 1923 – 21 June 1980) was a German orchestra leader, multi-instrumentalist, music producer, arranger, and composer. He made easy listening and jazz-oriented records and wrote the musi ...

, was based on a German folk song, "

", originating from the

Rems Valley The Rems is a right tributary of the Neckar in eastern Baden-Württemberg. It is 78 km long. It upsprings at Essingen, near Aalen. It flows more or less west through the towns Böbingen an der Rems, Schwäbisch Gmünd, Lorch, Plüderh ...

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Würt ...

, south-west Germany, and arranged by

Friedrich Silcher Philipp Friedrich Silcher (27 June 1789 in Schnait (today part of Weinstadt) – 26 August 1860 in Tübingen), was a German composer, mainly known for his lieder (songs), and an important Volkslied collector.Luise Marretta-Schär, Silcher, (Phili ...

. "Wooden Heart" features several lines from the original folk song.

Marlene Dietrich Marie Magdalene "Marlene" DietrichBorn as Maria Magdalena, not Marie Magdalene, according to Dietrich's biography by her daughter, Maria Riva ; however Dietrich's biography by Charlotte Chandler cites "Marie Magdalene" as her birth name . (, ; ...

recorded a version of the song in the original German sometime before 1958, pre-dating Presley, which appears as a

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

on a 1959 version of her single "

Lili Marlene "Lili Marleen" (also spelled "Lili Marlen'", "Lilli Marlene", "Lily Marlene", "Lili Marlène" among others; ) is a German love song that became popular during World War II throughout Europe and the Mediterranean among both Axis and Allied troo ...

", released by

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...

in association with

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

. The Elvis Presley version was published by Gladys Music, Elvis Presley's publishing company.

Bobby Vinton Stanley Robert "Bobby" Vinton (born April 16, 1935) is a American former singer and occasional actor, who also hosted his own self-titled TV show in the late 1970s. As a teen idol, he became known as "The Polish Prince", as his music paid trib ...

recorded his version in 1975 with those lines translated into Polish. The Elvis Presley version features two sections in German, the first being the first four lines: "". The second section is towards the end and is based on a translation of the English version (therefore not appearing in the original German folk lyrics): ("Be good to me, be good to me, be to me how you really should, how you really should...").

Chart history

Elvis Presley

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Joe Dowell

Gus Backus

Editions

*(US) " Blue Christmas" b/w "Wooden Heart" Released: November 1964, RCA 447-0720 Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Released on their 2015 Album Nobody's Children of previously unreleased material *

released it as a 45 single on

ABC Records ABC Records was an American record label founded in New York City in 1955. It originated as the main popular music label operated by the Am-Par Record Corporation. Am-Par also created the Impulse! jazz label in 1960. It acquired many labels befo ...

in 1975—U.S. #58

References

External links

Elvis News Network – ''G.I. Blues''

Joe Dowell Collection
McLean County Museum of History {{Authority control 1959 songs 1960 singles 1961 singles Elvis Presley songs UK Singles Chart number-one singles Number-one singles in Australia Number-one singles in Norway Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles Songs with music by Bert Kaempfert Songs with lyrics by Fred Wise (songwriter) Songs with music by Ben Weisman Songs with lyrics by Kay Twomey Songs written for films RCA Records singles Smash Records singles 1950s ballads Pop ballads Folk ballads Macaronic songs