Love Me Tender
Flash Player is not loaded. Enable or get Flash to see this content.
Elvis Presley
Runtime: 25:42 Teacher: David
- A7
- Am7
- C
- C7
- D7
- E7
- F
- Fm
- G7
Lesson Description
This lesson has 7 chapters. In the Performance you’ll see David using the fingerpicking technique that he’ll show you in the Bonus Chapter at the end of this lesson. Notice how easy it is. In the Overview you learn all nine chords, plus some interesting historical info about the song. Then comes the Verse. This is where David immerses you in the classic 2-4 Strum Pattern that will make your life much more meaningful. He’s using his fingers, but strumming. This is a useful skill for you to get down. It works best on slow, mellow songs like this one. In the Chorus you carry on wit the same pattern, but you need to apply to it to a very different feeling chord progression. The First Slow Practice puts it all together for you and you play along with David until you feel you’ve got it down. In the next chapter, Fingerpicking, you learn how to isolate single strings and play “arpeggios” to give your playing a much more sensitive flavor. This is an ideal song for practicing this technique because it’s rhythmically and chordally simple so you can focus on developing your picking skills. Finally, David gives you the chance in a second Slow Practice to do the whole song again using the fingerpicking techniques that you have just learned to apply to this song.
Song Information
Love Me Tender
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
|
"Love Me Tender" |
||||
|
|
||||
|
Single by Elvis Presley |
||||
|
B-side |
"Any Way You Want Me" |
|||
|
Released |
October 6, 1956 |
|||
|
Format |
7" single |
|||
|
Recorded |
August 24, 1956 |
|||
|
Genre |
Soft Rock |
|||
|
Length |
2:41 |
|||
|
Label |
RCA Records |
|||
|
Writer(s) |
Vera Matson, Elvis Presley (credited); George R. Poulton, Ken Darby (uncredited) |
|||
|
Producer |
Ernie Oelhrich, Thorne Norgar |
|||
|
Elvis Presley singles chronology |
||||
|
||||
"Love Me Tender," sung by Elvis Presley, was adapted from the tune of "Aura Lee," a Civil War ballad with music by George R. Poulton and words by W.W. Fosdick. "Aura Lee" was published in 1861 and later became popular with college glee clubs and barbershop quartets.
Elvis performed "Love Me Tender" on the Ed Sullivan show in September of 1956, shortly before the single was released and about a month before the movie “Love Me Tender” opened. The day after his performance on television, RCA received 1 million advance orders for the song, making it a gold record before it was even released. 20th Century Fox had planned to call the movie "The Reno Brothers," but changed the title to "Love Me Tender" to capitalize on the song's popularity.
The song is credited to Presley and Vera Matson, but the principal writer of the lyrics was Ken Darby (Matson's husband). Presley never wrote any of his own songs, but he often took control in the studio and made so many changes to the arrangements and lyrics that the original song was barely recognizable. Thus, the co-writing credit was justified.
“Love Me Tender” hit #1 on the Billboard charts the week ending November 3, 1956, remaining there for five weeks, and reached #3 for three weeks on the R&B chart. It succeeded another Presley single, "Hound Dog/Don't Be Cruel" as #1.
The song also reached #11 on the charts in the UK, and was ranked #437 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
|
Preceded by |
Cash Box magazine best selling record chart |
Succeeded by |
|
Preceded by |
Billboard Top 100 number-one single |
Succeeded by |
