It's Now or Never (song)

"It's Now or Never" is a popular song recorded by Elvis Presley and published by Gladys Music, Elvis Presley's publishing company, in 1960. The melody of the song is adapted from the Italian standard, "'O Sole Mio", but the inspiration for it came from the song, "There's No Tomorrow", recorded by U.S. singer, Tony Martin, in 1949. The lyrics were written by Aaron Schroeder and Wally Gold.

In the late 1950s, while stationed in Germany with the U.S. Army, Presley heard Martin's recording. 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 office, where he found songwriters, Mr. [Aaron] Schroeder and Wally Gold, the only people in that day. The two wrote lyrics in half an hour. Selling more than 20 million records, the song became number one in countries all around 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."^[1]

In 1960, "It's Now or Never" was a number-one record in the U.S., spending five weeks at number one and the U.K., 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 25 million copies worldwide, his 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 ^[2].

Barry White heard this song in 1960 when he was in jail for stealing tires. The song had such an impact on White, that it convinced him to pursue a career in music. ^[3]

A live version featuring "O Sole Mio" is available on the 1977 live album Elvis in Concert. "O Sole Mio" is sung by tenor Sherrill Nielson.

In early 2005, the song was re-released along with the other Presley singles in the UK, and again reached number one on the UK Singles Chart for the week of February 5, 2005. The song also appears in the TV mini-series Elvis.

John Schneider version

American country music singer and actor John Schneider released a cover of the song as his first single and the title track of his debut album. Schneider's version was a top five hit on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart and peaked at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Chart performance

See also

• List of number-one hits in Norway
• List of Hot 100 number-one singles of 1960 (U.S.)
• List of number-one singles from the 1960s (UK)
• List of number-one singles from the 2000s (UK)

References

External links

• The Story behind "It's Now Or Never"