Only You (And You Alone)

"Only You (And You Alone)" (often shortened to "Only You") is a pop song composed by Buck Ram.^[1] It was recorded most successfully by The Platters, with lead vocals by Tony Williams, in 1955.

The first recording of the song on Federal Records, also by Williams and The Platters, turned out poorly in 1954, but after a re-recording, the song scored a major hit when it was released on July 3, 1955. The song held strong in the number-one position on the U.S. R & B charts for seven weeks, and hit number five on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.^[2] It remained there for 30 weeks, beating out a rival cover version by a white band called The Hilltoppers. When the Platters track, "The Great Pretender" (which eventually surpassed the success of "Only You"), was released in the UK as Europe's first introduction to The Platters, "Only You" was included on the flipside. In the 1956 film Rock Around the Clock, The Platters participated with both songs "Only You" and "The Great Pretender".

Cover versions

Ringo Starr version

In 1974, Ringo Starr covered this song for his album Goodnight Vienna at the suggestion of John Lennon, and it became a number six hit on the US Billboard Hot 100 and reached number one on the easy listening chart in early 1975.^[3]. Lennon plays acoustic guitar on the track, and recorded a guide vocal which was kept by producer Richard Perry. Harry Nilsson sings harmony vocals and appears with Starr in the amusing music video filmed on top of the Capitol Records building in Los Angeles. Lennon's vocal version appears on his Anthology box set.

Other notable covers

• A version was recorded in 1956 by the Welsh bon singer Malcolm Vaughan.
• The American vocal group Deep River Boys featuring Harry Douglas with Arne Bendiksen's orchestra recorded the song in Oslo on August 8, 1956. It was released on the 78 rpm record HMV AL 6033.
• A 1959 instrumental cover by French orchestrator Franck Pourcel hit the Billboard top ten. *Brenda Lee's version made the top five in Flemish Belgium in late 1963.
• Bobby Hatfield of the Righteous Brothers made #95 on the Billboard charts with his 1969 version.
• In 1973, the singer Stein Ingebrigtsen got a big hit in Norway with a Norwegian version of that song entitled "Bare du". The lyrics were written by the record producer Arve Sigvaldsen. A Swedish version of the song, "Bara du", also recorded by Stein Ingebrigtsen, became popular in that country. Ingebrigtsen also recorded a German version entitled "So wie du" with lyrics written by Ralph-Maria Siegel.
• The American vocal group The Stylistics recorded a cover version for their 1976 album, Once Upon a Juke Box.
• Country singers Norro Wilson, Reba McEntire, Travis Tritt and Doug Stone all released cover versions, in 1969, 1982, 1995, and 2006, respectively. Wilson, McEntire and Tritt charted with their renditions.
• Japanese artist Shikao Suga covered this song on his 2001 single Hachigatsu no Serenade.
• Diana Ross covered the song on her 2007 album I Love You.
• Train covered the song in 2010 and released it as a non-album Internet-only single.
• Most recently, this song can be heard sung by The Joker (voiced by Mark Hamill) in the videogame Batman: Arkham City during the end credits.

Appearances in films and television

The 1952 romantic adventure movie Scaramouche included the words “Only you, and you alone”. It is not known whether this was an influence.

Conversely, the 1994 romantic comedy Only You did not feature the song.

The song is included on the soundtracks of the films American Graffiti (The Platters recording), The Delinquents (The Platters recording), Mr. Destiny and Alvin and the Chipmunks in which it was performed by Alvin and the Chipmunks.

The song is in the 1991 film Hot Shots! starring Charlie Sheen. The song features in the 1994 Michael Hui film Tie ban shao (Teppanyaki).

The song is also featured in the 1993 Mike Myers cult classic So I Married An Axe Murderer. Partly sung in French by Nancy Travis during the wedding ceremony scene.

In the 1995 comedy Sgt. Bilko, Country music artist Travis Tritt sings it on the stage. Tritt's version was included on his 1995 album Greatest Hits: From the Beginning.

This song was adapted into Cantonese in the Hong Kong movie A Chinese Odyssey. In the song, Longevity Monk tries to convince the character Joker, who he thinks is the Sun Wukong, to protect him on his travels and put on the Monkey King's golden crown. Instead, Joker beats Longevity Monk over the head with a rod.

Lonestar recorded a cover version for the soundtrack to the film Where the Heart Is.

This song also appears in the 2009 Japanese film Zero Focus.

Filipino actor/singer Sam Milby sang a rock-version of the song which served as the theme song for the Filipino-dubbed airing of the Korean drama series Only You and later served as the theme song to the Philippine adaptation of the series, starring Milby and airing on ABS-CBN in the Philippines and The Filipino Channel worldwide.

The song appears in the credits to Batman: Arkham City, sung by the Joker.

See also

• List of number-one rhythm and blues hits (United States)
• List of number-one adult contemporary singles of 1975 (U.S.)

References

External links

• Vocal Hall Of Fame: The Platters