| Wooden Heart | |
| Cover: | Muß i denn muß i denn Wooden Heart by Elvis Presley German single.png |
| Caption: | Picture sleeve for one of 1961 German singles |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Elvis Presley |
| Album: | G.I. Blues |
| A-Side: | "Blue Christmas" (USA 1964) |
| B-Side: | "Tonight is So Right for Love" (UK 1961) |
| Released: |
|
| Recorded: | 28 April 1960 |
| Length: | 2:03 |
| Label: | RCA |
| Producer: | Steve Sholes |
| Chronology: | Elvis Presley USA |
| Prev Title: | Ask Me |
| Prev Year: | 1964 |
| Wooden Heart | |
| Year: | 1964 |
| Next Title: | Do the Clam |
| Next Year: | 1965 |
| Wooden Heart | |
| Cover: | Wooden_Heart_-_Joe_Dowell.jpg |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Joe Dowell |
| B-Side: | Little Bo Peep |
| Released: | June 1961 |
| Genre: | Pop |
| Length: | 2:01 |
| Label: | Smash |
| Next Title: | The Bridge Of Love |
| Next Year: | 1961 |
"Wooden Heart" is a pop song recorded by Elvis Presley. The composition is based on a German folk song "Muss i denn" (lit. Must I then) and it was featured in the 1960 Elvis Presley film G.I. Blues. The song was a hit single for Presley in the UK Singles Chart, reaching No. 1 for six weeks in March and April 1961.[1]
The song was published by Elvis Presley's company Gladys Music, Inc. In the United States, it was released in November 1964 as the B-side to "Blue Christmas". Presley performed the song live during his Dinner Show concert at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas in 1975, a recording available on the Elvis Presley live album Dinner At Eight.
A cover version by Joe Dowell on the Smash Records label made it to number one in the US at the end of August 1961, knocking Bobby Lewis' "Tossin' and Turnin'" off the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 after seven weeks. Dowell's version also spent three weeks at number one on the Easy Listening chart.[2]
"Wooden Heart", written by Fred Wise, Ben Weisman, Kay Twomey and German bandleader Bert Kaempfert, was based on the German folk song, "Muss i denn", originating from the Rems Valley in Württemberg, south-west Germany, and arranged by Friedrich Silcher. "Wooden Heart" features several lines from the original folk song. Marlene Dietrich recorded a version of the song in the original German sometime before 1958, pre-dating Presley, which appears as a B-side on a 1959 version of her single "Lili Marlene", released by Philips in association with Columbia Records.[3] The Elvis Presley version was published by Gladys Music, Elvis Presley's publishing company. Bobby Vinton recorded his version in 1975 with those lines translated into Polish.
The Elvis Presley version features two sections in German, the first being the first four lines: "". The second section is towards the end and is based on a translation of the English version (therefore not appearing in the original German folk lyrics): ("Be good to me, be good to me, be to me how you really should, how you really should...").
| Chart (1961) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australia (Kent Music Report)[4] | 1 |
| Austria | 1 |
| Canada (CHUM Hit Parade) | 2 |
| New Zealand (Lever Hit Parade)[5] | 3 |
| South Africa [6] | 1 |
| Spain | 11 |
| UK Singles (OCC) | 1 |
| Chart (1961) | Rank |
|---|---|
| Australia | 3 |
| South Africa | 1 |
| UK [8] | 3 |
| Region | Sales | |
|---|---|---|
| Europe | 1,000,000[9] | |
| Germany | 600,000[10] | |
| Netherlands | 90,000[11] |
| Chart (1961) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| US Billboard Hot 100[12] | 1 |
| US Billboard Easy Listening | 1 |
| US Cash Box Top 100[13] | 3 |
| Chart (1961) | Rank |
|---|---|
| US Billboard Hot 100[14] | 10 |
| US Cash Box [15] | 22 |
released on their 2015 album of previously unreleased material, Nobody's Children