Wise men say only fools rush in/
But I can’t help falling in love with you.

“Can’t Help Falling in Love” is Elvis Presley’s most famous ballad. It has been covered many times but Presley’s version remains the best-even if he didn’t write it.  The song was released in 1961. It sounds a bit older when we think about all the crazy music that would be released only 5 years later during the summer of love- ’67.  The change in music during this time was an explosion.

The introductory verse (above) is a classic line…and a complex lyric for pop music at the time. Presley knows he shouldn’t be feeling and acting the way he does, but he’s in love and he doesn’t care: he has no control.

This song was written is a couple years after Donna by Ritchie Valens, five years after “Tutti Fruitti” and around the same time the Beatles were singing “She Loves you yeah yeah yeah yeah”.  This is a slightly more complex take on love and a bit risque for the time. The only one beginning to break ground in terms of lyrics was Dylan and some of the blues and folk singers, but that would come a few years later.

Presley’s voice sounds deep and rich and the guitar picking is a nice accompaniment. The melody of the verse is the strength of the song. It is timeless.

Can’t Help Falling in Love Lyrics

Wise men say,
“Only fools rush in”.
But I can’t help
Falling in love with you.

Shall I stay?
Would it be a sin?
If I can’t help
Falling in love with you.

Like a river flows
Surely to the sea.
Darling so it goes-
Some things are meant to be.

Take my hand,
Take my whole life too.
For I can’t help
Falling in love with you.

Like a river flows
Surely to the sea.
Darling so it goes-
Some things are meant to be.

Take my hand,
Take my whole life too.
For I can’t help
Falling in love with you.

For I can’t help falling in love with you.

Songwriters: George David Weiss / Hugo E. Peretti / Luigi Creatore

I have never had a lover/
I am young but I am so alone.

“A Long Time Ago” is a beautiful deep track from Jim Croce. Croce is an extremely underrated performer who died at age 30 in a plane crash. Croce has a signature deep voice and guitar sound. Most of his songs are two guitars- usually he plays rhythm with another person playing lead: both acoustic. Some of his hits are on piano, but I don’t consider them as good as his songs on guitar.

In “A Long Time Ago” Croce reminisces about the first meeting with a lover (his wife?). He was lost before her. He describes the first night that he met her where they stayed up all night talking and staying up to see the sunrise…(“which was nothing that I had not seen in your eyes”). Great line. She fell asleep during the night and he describes feeling nervous wanting to touch her but he remains respectful. During the middle of the night she wakes up and tells him she is cold and says she would feel warmer next to him. The picture he paints makes us feel like we are watching a movie.

He also uses an interesting vocal technique that I have only heard used in one other song (which is also on this list). He recites exact dialogue of the woman and when he uses her voice he changes his singing voice to a softer tone so that we know she is speaking. When he is speaking in the song, he uses his regular singing voice. The other song this appears on is Father and Son by Cat Stevens.

A Long Time Ago Lyrics

Seems like such a long time ago
I was walking on a lonely road
Getting tired of dreaming alone
Like all the lonely people I have known

Seems like such a long time ago
There was no one who would share my song
I was just a boy far from home
I became a man when you came along

We spent the whole night talking
You said you’d like to see the sunrise
But in the gold of morning
T’was nothing that I had not seen in your eyes

I was so afraid to touch you
Thought you were to young to know
So I just watched you sleeping
Then you woke and said to me
The night is cold it frightens me
I could sleep so easy next to you

Wasn’t very long ago
You said that you would like to share my road
Then you started singing my songs
Spent so many nights a waiting
Let’s not spend the moments wasting
Time for me has very far to go
I will go if you would take me
I have never had a lover
I am young but I am so alone

We spent the whole night talking
But in the gold of morning

written by: Jim Croce