"It's Now or Never" is a song recorded by Elvis Presley and released as a single in 1960. The song is one of the best-selling singles by Presley (20 million copies), and one of the best-selling physical singles of all time. It was recorded by Bill Porter at RCA Studio B in Nashville. It is written in E major and has a tempo of 80 BPM.
In 1960, "It's Now or Never" was a number-one record in the U.S. for Elvis Presley, spending five weeks at number one and the UK, where it spent eight weeks at the top in 1960 and an additional week at number one in 2005 as a re-issue, and numerous other countries, selling in excess of 20 million physical copies worldwide, Elvis Presley's biggest international single ever. Its British release was delayed for some time because of rights issues, allowing the song to build up massive advance orders and to enter the UK Singles Chart at number one, a very rare occurrence at the time. "It's Now or Never" peaked at number seven on the R&B charts.
"It's Now or Never" is one of two popular songs based on the Italian song of the Neapolitan language, "'O Sole mio" (music by Eduardo di Capua); the other being "There's No Tomorrow", recorded by U.S. singer Tony Martin in 1949, which inspired Presley's version. The lyrics were written by Aaron Schroeder and Wally Gold. The song was published by Elvis Presley's company Gladys Music, Inc.
In the late 1950s, while stationed in Germany with the U.S. Army, Presley heard Martin's recording. It is also likely that he was inspired to record this because of his fondness for Mario Lanza who had first popularized "'O Sole Mio" to American audiences and who had died the year before "It's Now or Never" was recorded. According to The New York Times, quoting from the 1986 book Behind the Hits, "he told the idea to his music publisher, Freddy Bienstock, who was visiting him in Germany... Mr. Bienstock, who many times found songwriters for Presley, returned to his New York City office, where he found songwriters, Mr. [Aaron] Schroeder and Wally Gold. The two wrote the lyrics in half an hour. Selling more than 5 million records, the song became number one in countries all around the world and was Presley's best selling single ever... a song [they] finished in 20 minutes to a half hour was the biggest song of [their] career.
Information sourced through Wikipedia. Backing track by "Sunfly Karaoke".
In 1960, "It's Now or Never" was a number-one record in the U.S. for Elvis Presley, spending five weeks at number one and the UK, where it spent eight weeks at the top in 1960 and an additional week at number one in 2005 as a re-issue, and numerous other countries, selling in excess of 20 million physical copies worldwide, Elvis Presley's biggest international single ever. Its British release was delayed for some time because of rights issues, allowing the song to build up massive advance orders and to enter the UK Singles Chart at number one, a very rare occurrence at the time. "It's Now or Never" peaked at number seven on the R&B charts.
"It's Now or Never" is one of two popular songs based on the Italian song of the Neapolitan language, "'O Sole mio" (music by Eduardo di Capua); the other being "There's No Tomorrow", recorded by U.S. singer Tony Martin in 1949, which inspired Presley's version. The lyrics were written by Aaron Schroeder and Wally Gold. The song was published by Elvis Presley's company Gladys Music, Inc.
In the late 1950s, while stationed in Germany with the U.S. Army, Presley heard Martin's recording. It is also likely that he was inspired to record this because of his fondness for Mario Lanza who had first popularized "'O Sole Mio" to American audiences and who had died the year before "It's Now or Never" was recorded. According to The New York Times, quoting from the 1986 book Behind the Hits, "he told the idea to his music publisher, Freddy Bienstock, who was visiting him in Germany... Mr. Bienstock, who many times found songwriters for Presley, returned to his New York City office, where he found songwriters, Mr. [Aaron] Schroeder and Wally Gold. The two wrote the lyrics in half an hour. Selling more than 5 million records, the song became number one in countries all around the world and was Presley's best selling single ever... a song [they] finished in 20 minutes to a half hour was the biggest song of [their] career.
Information sourced through Wikipedia. Backing track by "Sunfly Karaoke".
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