The story behind the song
Are You Lonesome Tonight? was an older tune from 1926 created by vaudevillians Roy Turk and Lou Handman. Before Elvis covered it, multiple artists had already laid down versions including crooner Vaughn De Leath and it made a comeback in the 1950s with covers by Blue Barron and Al Jolson.
When Elvis came back from two years serving in the U.S. Army in March 1960, he was hunting for fresh songs to record. Interestingly, Are You Lonesome Tonight? was the only song that Tom Parker, his manager, ever personally suggested to Elvis. Parker wanted him to do it mainly because it was his wife Marie Mott’s go-to favorite.
On April 4, 1960, Elvis headed into RCA Nashville Studio B to record the song. To get that raw, emotional feeling for the ballad, Elvis had the studio lights switched off completely so he could sing in pitch-black darkness. When the song wrapped up in the dark, Elvis accidentally knocked into a chair. If you pay attention to the acoustic parts of the final recording, you can still hear that clear banging noise. Elvis wasn’t totally happy with what he did, and after the second attempt, he told producer Steve Sholes, “Get rid of that song. I’m not doing it right.” Sholes didn’t listen to him though, because he knew they had something special. Elvis based his take on Vaughn De Leath’s 1927 version, which had a cool spoken part in the middle. Dave Dreyer wrote this spoken section, and it pulls a lot from William Shakespeare’s As You Like It (“All the world’s a stage, and each must play a part”).
RCA Victor’s bosses were hesitant about putting out the single at first. They were worried that the soft, smooth vibe of the pop ballad didn’t match up with Elvis’s tough rock-and-roll reputation. But when they finally released it on November 1, 1960.
The track turned into a huge instant hit, jumping to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for six weeks straight and hitting #3 on the R&B chart. It also shot to #1 on the UK Singles Chart a month later.
AT A GLANCE