Wooden Heart (Muss I Denn)
Composer:
German Traditional
Genre: World / Folk
Decade: before 1923
Submitted by: Russell Ambrose
Description:
"Wooden Heart (Muss I Denn)" is a song best known for its use in the 1960 Elvis Presley film G.I. Blues. The song was a hit for Presley in the United Kingdom, making number one for six weeks, but wasn`t released as a single in the United States until November 1964 as the B-side to "Blue Christmas". Presley performed the song live during his Dinner Show concert at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas in 1975. The recording is available on the Elvis Presley live album, Dinner At Eight.A cover version by Joe Dowell did make it to number one in the US at the end of August 1961, knocking Bobby Lewis` "Tossin` and Turnin`" off the number-one spot of the Billboard Hot 100 after seven weeks. Dowell`s version also spent three weeks at number one on the Easy Listening chart.[1]"Wooden Heart", created by Fred Wise, Ben Weisman, Kay Twomey and German bandleader Bert Kaempfert, was based on a German folk song by Friedrich Silcher, "Muss i` denn zum Städtele hinaus", originating from the Rems Valley in Württemberg, Southwest Germany. "Wooden Heart" features several lines from the original folk song, written in the German Swabian dialect, spoken in Württemberg. The Elvis Presley version was published by Gladys Music, Elvis Presley`s publishing company. Bobby Vinton recorded his version in 1975 with those lines translated into Polish.
by: Russell Ambrose