Don't

Album: Elvis' 30 #1 Hits (1958)
Charted: 2 1
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Songfacts®:

  • Elvis needs some lovin' in this hit ballad written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, the duo behind "Hound Dog" and "Jailhouse Rock." He begs his girl, who seems to be questioning his level of commitment, to stop resisting his romantic advances. He assures her:

    This you can believe
    I will never leave you
    Heaven knows I won't
    Baby, don't say don't
  • Mike Stoller also played Elvis' piano player in Jailhouse Rock. In the book Hound Dog: The Leiber and Stoller Autobiography, he explained how Elvis approached him as they were leaving the set on a Friday and told him, "I want you to write me a real pretty ballad."

    It all came together over the weekend. He and Leiber wrote "Don't" on Saturday morning, had Young Jessie of the Flairs sing an Elvis-styled demo on Sunday, and delivered it to the King on Monday. Elvis loved the song, recorded it, and three weeks after "Jailhouse Rock" hit #1, the ballad topped the chart. "You'd think we'd be heroes," said Stoller. "But in the court of the King, it didn't work that way."

    An irate Freddy Bienstock, who was in charge of selecting songs for Elvis, demanded to know why Stoller gave a song directly to Elvis without running it by him or Jean Aberbach, the head of Hill & Range publishing. Leiber, who had the bad luck of taking the phone call, asked, "What's the problem, man. Did Elvis hate the song?" Bienstock replied, "No, the problem is that he likes it."

    By cutting out the middle man, the songwriters also cut out contract negotiations, ensuring Elvis and the Hill & Range execs would retain publishing rights. Plus, Elvis' controlling manager, "Colonel" Tom Parker, didn't like anyone going behind his back. Despite the procedural snafu, Leiber & Stoller continued to churn out songs for the King, including "Treat Me Nice" and the Christmas classic "Santa Claus Is Back in Town."
  • This also peaked at #2 on the country chart and #4 on the R&B chart.
  • The B-side was "I Beg Of You," a Top 10 hit written by Rose Marie McCoy.
  • This was used in the 1992 comedy Dave, starring Kevin Kline. It was also featured on the TV show Big Little Lies in the 2017 episode "You Get What You Need."

Comments: 2

  • Tim Shank from Bethesda MdIn the song "Don't", by Elvis Presley, the lyrics for the song, near the beginning, call for "...long to kiss you", but Elvis actually says (in all the recordings I've heard), "...long to kill you". How on earth did that get by the producers?!
  • Michael Silva from PhilippinesThe authors make it sound like Elvis requested this, recorded it, and had it released in quick succession. I suppose they were making the film, "Jailhouse Rock", when he asked for a ballad. But of course there is a lot of post production in most films and for whatever reasons, they decided to wait and release "Don't" right after the "Jailhouse Rock" record hit the top. I would guess they all had a backlog of material to release but just had to wait sometimes for a big hit to slow down until releasing more material. I know that when Elvis was drafted into the army, that he had a lot of material released in the two years he was gone and not making new records.
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