Love Me Tender - From the 20th Century-Fox CinemaScope Production, "Love Me Tender"

This was the theme song to the first of 31 Elvis movies. The movie was titled The Reno Brothers before it was renamed to capitalize on the song. Originally, Elvis had just a small role in the movie, but during filming it became apparent that he was a really big deal, and his role was expanded to take advantage of his stardom. His character is killed at the end of the movie, but Elvis re-appears to reprise the song.

Love Me Tender, the movie, is set during the Civil War, so the musical director, Ken Darby, sought out songs from that era to adapt for Elvis. He found one in "Aura Lee," a classical piece from 1861. Using that song's melody, he and Elvis developed the song on set. On August 24, 1956, Elvis recorded it on the soundstage with session musicians.

On September 9, 1956, Elvis sang this on The Ed Sullivan Show, his first appearance on the program. The song wasn't released yet, so after the performance, orders came flooding in. Elvis' label, RCA, took the opportunity to hype the release, claiming a million pre-orders came in and touting it as the first single ever to go Gold before it shipped (the RIAA didn't start certifying Gold records until 1958, so there was nothing to validate this claim). When it was released in early October, the song became a sensation. It rose to #1 on November 3, two weeks before the movie came out, and stayed on top for five weeks, becoming one of Elvis' best-known songs.