I Can't Stop Loving You
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

"I Can't Stop Loving You" is a
popular song Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...
written and composed by the
country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...
musician
Don Gibson Donald Eugene Gibson (April 3, 1928 – November 17, 2003) was an American songwriter and country musician. A Country Music Hall of Fame inductee, Gibson wrote such country standards as " Sweet Dreams" and " I Can't Stop Loving You", and enjo ...
from his 1958 album ''
Oh Lonesome Me "Oh Lonesome Me" is a popular song written and recorded in December 1957 by Don Gibson with Chet Atkins producing it for RCA Victor in Nashville. Released in 1958, the song topped the country chart for eight non-consecutive weeks. On what beca ...
'', who first recorded it on December 3, 1957, for RCA Victor Records. It was released in 1958 as the
B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...
of "
Oh Lonesome Me "Oh Lonesome Me" is a popular song written and recorded in December 1957 by Don Gibson with Chet Atkins producing it for RCA Victor in Nashville. Released in 1958, the song topped the country chart for eight non-consecutive weeks. On what beca ...
", becoming a double-sided country hit single. At the time of Gibson's death in 2003, the song had been recorded by more than 700 artists, most notably by
Ray Charles Ray Charles Robinson (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential musicians in history, and was often referred to by contemporaries as "The Gen ...
, whose recording reached No. 1 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart.


Composition

Don Gibson wrote both "I Can't Stop Loving You" and "
Oh Lonesome Me "Oh Lonesome Me" is a popular song written and recorded in December 1957 by Don Gibson with Chet Atkins producing it for RCA Victor in Nashville. Released in 1958, the song topped the country chart for eight non-consecutive weeks. On what beca ...
" on June 7, 1957, in
Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in Knox County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located on the Tennessee River and had a population of 190,740 at the 2020 United States census. It is the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division ...
. "I sat down to write a lost love ballad," Gibson said in Dorothy Horstman's 1975 book ''Sing Your Heart Out, Country Boy.'' "After writing several lines to the song, I looked back and saw the line 'I can't stop loving you.' I said, 'That would be a good title,' so I went ahead and rewrote it in its present form."


Charts

''Note'': This original recording was released as "I Can't Stop Lovin' You".


Ray Charles version

The song was covered by
Ray Charles Ray Charles Robinson (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential musicians in history, and was often referred to by contemporaries as "The Gen ...
in 1962, featured on Charles' album '' Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music'', and released as a single. Charles' version reached number one on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in 1962, for five weeks. This version went to number one on the U.S. R&B and
adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...
charts. ''
Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
'' ranked it as the No. 2 song for 1962. Charles reached No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart in July 1962, staying for two weeks. In
Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
it was the first number one single on the sales chart Kvällstoppen on July 10, 1962. The Ray Charles version is noted for his saying the words before the last five lines of the song on the final chorus: "Sing the song, children". Choral backing was provided by The Randy Van Horne Singers. It was ranked No. 164 on ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...
s list of the
500 Greatest Songs of All Time "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" is a recurring song ranking compiled by the American magazine ''Rolling Stone''. It is based on weighted votes from selected musicians, critics, and industry figures. The first list was published in December 2 ...
and No. 49 on CMT's "100 Greatest Songs in Country Music". In 1963 at the 5th Annual Grammy Awards, the Ray Charles version of the song won him the Grammy Award for Best Rhythm & Blues Recording. This recording was featured in the 2001 film ''
Metropolis A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural area for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications. A big city b ...
'', where it can be heard during the explosion of the skyscraper Ziggurat shortly after the climax.


Charts


All-time charts


Certifications


Other versions

The song has been recorded by many other artists. Some recordings are titled as "I Can't Stop Lovin' You" (with or without an apostrophe). *1958: Kitty Wells on her album ''Kitty Wells' Golden Favorites''; No. 3 on the ''Billboard'' country chart. *1961:
Roy Orbison Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist known for his distinctive and powerful voice, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. Orbison's most successful periods were ...
on his album '' Sings Lonely and Blue''; charted in ''Variety'' magazine's Top 100 listing. *1962: Ray Anthony recorded the song for the album ''Ray Anthony Plays Worried Mind.'' *1963:
Count Basie William James "Count" Basie (; August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, he formed the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and the ...
's recording, a
Quincy Jones Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (March 14, 1933 – November 3, 2024) was an American record producer, composer, arranger, conductor, trumpeter, and bandleader. Over the course of his seven-decade career, he received List of awards and nominations re ...
arrangement, won the 1964 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement at the 6th Annual Grammy Awards. *1963:
Johnny Tillotson Johnny Tillotson (April 20, 1938 – April 1, 2025) was an American singer-songwriter. He enjoyed his greatest success in the early 1960s, when he scored nine top-ten hits on the pop, country, and adult contemporary ''Billboard'' charts, incl ...
on his album ''
Talk Back Trembling Lips "Talk Back Trembling Lips" is a 1963 song first recorded by Ernest Ashworth. The song became the most successful of Ernest Ashworth's career and was his only No. 1 song on the ''Billboard'' Hot Country Singles chart that October. The song spe ...
'' (
MGM Records MGM Records was a record label founded by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio in 1946 for the purpose of releasing soundtrack recordings (later LP albums) of their musical films. It transitioned into a pop music label that continued into the ...
– E 4188). *1963:
Paul Anka Paul Albert Anka (born July 30, 1941) is a Canadian and American singer, songwriter and actor. His songs include " Diana", “ You Are My Destiny", “Lonely Boy", " Put Your Head on My Shoulder", and " (You're) Having My Baby". Anka also wr ...
on his album ''Songs I Wish I'd Written'' (
RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic ...
– LSP-2744). *1963: Saxophonist
Boots Randolph Homer Louis "Boots" Randolph III (June 3, 1927 – July 3, 2007) was an American musician. His 1963 saxophone hit " Yakety Sax" became the signature tune of ''The Benny Hill Show''. Randolph was a prolific session musician and member of the Nas ...
recorded an instrumental version of the song for his album ''Boots Randolph's Yakety Sax!.'' *1964: Faron Young on his album ''Country Dance Favorites'' (Mercury Records - SR 60931) *1964:
Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most I ...
recorded the song for his album '' It Might As Well Be Swing'', his second collaboration with Count Basie and the
Count Basie Orchestra The Count Basie Orchestra is a 16- to 18-piece big band, one of the most prominent jazz performing groups of the swing era, founded by Count Basie in 1935 and recording regularly from 1936. Despite a brief disbandment at the beginning of the 19 ...
. *1964:
Jim Reeves James Travis Reeves (August 20, 1923July 31, 1964) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. One of the earliest pioneers and practitioners of the Nashville sound, he played a central role in the sonic development of country music in th ...
on his last album '' The Jim Reeves Way'' which was released in 1965. *1964:
Ike & Tina Turner Ike & Tina Turner was an American musical duo consisting of husband-and-wife Ike Turner and Tina Turner. From 1960 to 1976, they performed live as the Ike & Tina Turner Revue, supported by the Kings of Rhythm and backing vocalists, the Ikettes. ...
covered the song in 1964; released on their album '' Live! The Ike & Tina Turner Show'' in January 1965. *1965:
Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous Big band, jazz orchestra from 1924 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D ...
recorded the song for his album '' Ellington '66.'' *1965:
Andy Williams Howard Andrew Williams (December 3, 1927 – September 25, 2012) was an American singer. He recorded 43 albums in his career, of which 15 have been gold certified and three platinum certified. He was also nominated for six Grammy Awards. He hos ...
on his album ''
Andy Williams' Dear Heart ''Andy Williams' Dear Heart'' is the sixteenth studio album by American pop singer Andy Williams and was released in the spring of 1965 by Columbia Records and was the last of his Columbia releases that remained exclusively within the realm of tr ...
.'' *1966: Pavel Novak, Czech singer. *1967:
Ronnie Dove Ronald Eugene Dove (born September 7, 1935) is an American pop music, pop and country music singer who had a string of hit pop records in the mid to late 1960s and several country chart records in the 1970s and 1980s. Early life Ronnie Dove, th ...
on his LP '' Cry.'' *1969:
Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...
performed the song live from 1969 until his final tours in 1977, first recording it on the RCA release '' Elvis in Person at the International Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada.'' *1969:
Jerry Lee Lewis Jerry Lee Lewis (September 29, 1935October 28, 2022) was an American pianist, singer, and songwriter. Nicknamed "The Killer", he was described as "rock 'n' roll's first great wild man". A pioneer of rock and roll and rockabilly music, Lewis m ...
recorded it on the album ''
Sings the Country Music Hall of Fame Hits, Vol. 2 ''Sings the Country Music Hall of Fame Hits, Vol. 2'' is the 11th album by Jerry Lee Lewis, released on Smash Records in 1969. Background The album concludes producer Jerry Kennedy's concept of having Lewis record standards from the country mus ...
.'' *1972:
Conway Twitty Harold Lloyd Jenkins (September 1, 1933 – June 5, 1993), better known by his stage name Conway Twitty, was an American singer and songwriter. Initially a part of the 1950s rockabilly scene, Twitty was best known as a country music performer. ...
on his album ''I Can't Stop Loving You/(Lost Her Love) On Our Last Date''; the song reached No. 1 on ''Billboards Hot Country Singles chart. *1973: Guy & Ralna included a recording of the song on their 1973 album ''Country Songs We Love to Sing''; the duo also performed the song numerous times on ''
The Lawrence Welk Show ''The Lawrence Welk Show'' is an American televised musical variety show hosted by big band leader Lawrence Welk. The series aired locally in Los Angeles for four years, from 1951 to 1955, then nationally for another 16 years on ABC from 1955 t ...
,'' on which they were regulars. *1974: Donna Hightower recorded a cover in Spain on her Columbia album ''I'm In Love with Love'' (also released as ''I'm in Love with You'' and ''The One I Cried''). *1974:
Dolly Parton Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, actress, and philanthropist, known primarily as a country music, country musician. After achieving success as a songwriter for others, Parton's debut album ...
and
Chet Atkins Chester Burton Atkins (June 20, 1924 – June 30, 2001), also known as "Mister Guitar" and "the Country Gentleman", was an American musician who, along with Owen Bradley and Bob Ferguson (musician), Bob Ferguson, helped create the Nash ...
performed the song (to Atkins' guitar accompaniment) on ''The Porter Wagoner Show'' in 1974. *1974: Johnny Rodriguez covered the song on his album ''Songs About Ladies and Love''. This version is notable as Rodriguez alternates between singing in English and Spanish throughout the song. *1977:
Sammi Smith Jewel Fay "Sammi" Smith (August 5, 1943 – February 12, 2005) was an American country music singer and songwriter. She is best known for her 1971 crossover hit " Help Me Make It Through the Night", which was written by Kris Kristofferson. Sh ...
covered the song for her ''Mixed Emotions'' album. The song also reached No. 27 on ''Billboard'''s Hot Country Singles chart. *1978: Mary K. Miller reached No. 28 on ''Billboard'''s Hot Country Singles chart. *1981: Rez Band recorded a cover as their closing track on the platinum-selling '' Mommy Don't Love Daddy Anymore'', hitting the
Christian Rock Christian rock is a form of rock music that features lyrics focusing on matters of Christian faith, often with an emphasis on Jesus in Christianity, Jesus. This music is typically performed by Christians, Christian individuals. The extent to whi ...
charts. *1981: Millie Jackson recorded an upbeat,
disco Disco is a music genre, genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightclub, nightlife, particularly in African Americans, African-American, Italian-Americans, Italian-American, LGBTQ ...
-influenced version for her ''Just a Lil' Bit Country'' album. The song was also released as a single in the U.S. and charted #62 R&B. *1982:
Freddy Fender Freddy Fender (born Baldemar Garza Huerta; June 4, 1937 – October 14, 2006) was an American Country and Tejano singer, known for his work as a solo artist and in the groups Los Super Seven and the Texas Tornados. His signature sound fused cou ...
recorded the song on the self titled album, ''Freddy Fender''. *1991:
Van Morrison Sir George Ivan "Van" Morrison (born 31 August 1945) is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician whose recording career started in the 1960s. Morrison's albums have performed well in the UK and Ireland, with more than 40 reaching the UK ...
on his album '' Hymns to the Silence''; also appears on a limited edition album '' Live at Austin City Limits Festival'' (2006). *2002:
Anne Murray Morna Anne Murray (born June 20, 1945) is a retired Canadian country, pop and adult contemporary music singer who has sold over 55 million album copies worldwide during her over 40-year career. Murray has won four Grammys including the Grammy ...
on her album '' Country Croonin'.'' *2005:
Martina McBride Martina Mariea McBride (née Schiff, July 29, 1966) is an American country music singer and songwriter. She is known for her soprano singing range and her country pop material. McBride was born in Sharon, Kansas, and relocated to Nashville, T ...
on her album '' Timeless.'' *2014:
Bryan Adams Bryan Guy Adams (born November 5, 1959) is a British and Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, and photographer. He is estimated to have sold between 75 million and more than 100 million album, records and Single (music), si ...
recorded a version for his album '' Tracks of My Years.''


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:I Can't Stop Loving You 1958 singles 1962 singles 1972 singles 1991 singles Songs written by Don Gibson Don Gibson songs Kitty Wells songs Roy Orbison songs Ray Charles songs Johnny Tillotson songs Jim Reeves songs Frank Sinatra songs Duke Ellington songs Elvis Presley songs Song recordings produced by Owen Bradley Number-one singles in Australia Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles Cashbox number-one singles UK singles chart number-one singles Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients ABC Records singles Decca Records singles Polydor Records singles RCA Victor singles Torch songs 1957 songs