Wooden Heart

Album

The Cruisin’ Story 1961

Label

Smash Records

Genre

Dance-pop

Duration

1:00

Composer(s)

Fred Wise, Ben Weisman, Kay Tworney, Berthold Kaempfert

Entered Chart

Jun 26, 1961

Peak Date

Aug 28, 1961

Released

Unknown

Recorded

Unknown

Catalog #

Smash 1708

B-Side

Little Bo Peep

This is an English version of the German folk song "Muss I Denn." Elvis Presley sang it in the movie G.I. Blues, and his version became a #1 hit in the UK in March 1961. RCA Records had no intention of releasing it in the US, as they feared it would harm his image - in the movie, he sang it to a puppet and it is clearly a novelty, complete with poorly translated lyrics like "If you say goodbye then I know that I would cry, maybe I would die." Elvis was becoming more of a family entertainer and had a huge hit borrowing from an Italian song with "It's Now Or Never," but this one could have done serious damage to his rock cred. When it became clear that the Elvis version wasn't going to be released in America, the race was on to record it stateside, and Shelby Singleton, a producer at Mercury Records, got a young performer named Joe Dowell to sing a half-English, half-German version, which shot to #1 upon release. Dowell had one more Top 40 hit when the novelty song "Little Red Rented Rowboat" made #23 in America, but he got his own G.I. Blues when he was drafted into the Army. When this hit #1 for Elvis in the UK, he became the first artist there with seven #1 hits. The credits on this song read: Benjamin Weisman, Fred Wise, Kay Twomey and Bert Kaempfert. Kaempfert wrote the music for "Danke Schoen" and produced the first Beatles recordings, which were done when they came to Germany in the early '60s. The legend of the recording sessions may have been exaggerated over the years, but this song was recorded very quickly, with Shelby Singleton giving Joe Dowell just a few hours to learn the bilingual lyrics. The song was a #1 country hit, and around the same time (some sources report it was the same day), Singleton also produced the Ray Stevens song "Ahab the Arab" and Leroy van Dyke's "Walk On By," both of which were also #1 country hits. Stevens played organ on Dowell's recording of "Wooden Heart." In 1969, Singleton bought Sun Records (where Elvis signed) from Sam Phillips, who founded the label. Elvis Presley was the first artist to attain the Official Chart Double in the UK. He achieved the feat in January 1961 when this song and the G.I. Blues soundtrack album were at #1 on the singles and albums charts simultaneously.

Can't you see
I love you
Please don't break my heart in two
That's not hard to do
'Cause I don't have a wooden heart.

And if you say goodbye
Then I know that I would cry
Maybe I would die
'Cause I don't have a wooden heart.

There's no strings upon this love of mine
It was always you from the start
Treat me nice
Treat me good
Treat me like you really should
'Cause I'm not made of wood
And I don't have a wooden heart.

Muss i' denn, muss i' denn
zum Staedtele hinaus,
Staedtele hinaus
Und du mein Schatz, bleibst hier?
Muss i' denn, muss i' denn
zum Staedtele hinaus,
Staedtele hinaus
Und du mein Schatz, bleibst hier?

There's no strings upon this love of mine
It was always you from the start
Sei mir gut
Sei mir gut
Sei mir wie du sollst
wie du wirklich sollst
'Cause I don't have a wooden heart.