Today’s song is ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love with You’. This is a 1961 song recorded the singer Elvis Presley for the album ‘Blue Hawaii’ (1961). It was written by Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creratore and George David Weiss. The melody is based on Plaisir d’amour’, a popular French love song composed in 1784 by Jean-Paul Martini). The song was initially written for a woman as ‘Can't Help Falling in Love with Him’, which explains the first and third line ending on ‘in’ and ‘sin’ rather than words rhyming with ‘you’.
‘Can't Help Falling in Love’ was also featured in Presley's 1961 film ‘Blue Hawaii’. During the following decades, it has been recorded by numerous other artists, including Bob Dylan and the British reggae group UB40, whose 1993 version topped both charts in the United States and the United Kingdom.
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If there was ever anyone who is an expert upon the ‘falling in love’ experience, I would be well in the running to take first prize. NI strongly suspect that nobody has fallen in love more times in their life than I have. In fact, during my late teens, I would be hard pressed to find one Saturday night at the local Town Hall Dance when I didn’t fall in love before dawn rose on Sunday morning. My weakness was that I was prone to fall in love with every decent young woman I courted. Within a month of the romance having started, I’d be obliged to accept my mother’s assessment of what had really taken place instead of what I imagined had taken place. Mum used to say,” You may go out with the best intention of ‘falling in love’, Billy Forde, but it’s ‘falling into bed with the girl that’s on your mind, lad”. How well my mother knew me!
They do say it is better to have loved than never loved at all. I would wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment. In fact, were I to provide a romantic breakdown of ‘best to worse’ in the ‘falling in love’ spectrum, it would be: First best is ‘falling in love’: Second best is ‘being in love’: Least best is ‘falling out of love’: And all of these options are better than ‘never having been in love’.
I must confess that when I did meet the last love of my life, my dearest Sheila, that ‘falling in love again' was never in my plan of future events. It just happened! I was in my late sixties and had resigned myself to paying single-person council tax for the rest of my life. We met for the first time in a Haworth café and I’m not exactly sure when it happened or even when it started. All I knew was by the time we waved each other ‘Goodbye’ that afternoon, I had ‘fallen in love’ with Sheila and could only hope that she felt the same way about me.
My greatest danger as a young man in his late teens wasn't fist fighting other young men in the gang skirmishes that were frequent within the neighbourhood. No! It was that I fell in love quicker than the murderous Sweeney Todd from Fleet Street could cut a man’s throat with his razor-sharp blade. It literally happened that fast! One minute I was a young man going dancing, who, started the night swearing to remain a life-long bachelorhood, but by the end of the night, I'd been smitten by the beauty of some young woman who I walked home at the end of the dance, As we spooned and spoke during our walk home, all I could hear was the sound of wedding bells, and all I imagined was and happiness thereafter, raising five healthy children and a brood of hens that ran around the field that surrounding our country cottage and rose garden.
As it turned out, ‘falling in love’ with Sheila and marrying her was the best thing I ever did. I have never known an unhappy moment since, despite whatever terminal cancers I have contracted and had to deal with. Indeed, I’d have to say that remaining in love with Sheila provides me with the strength to endure any health trials I must face and leads me to be happier today than I ever was when I was cancer free! I now positively enjoy every day I live better than the day before.
I’d also have to say that the very fact I wasn’t out to ‘fall in love’ again or that I didn’t need to ‘fall in love’ again in search of missing pieces of myself to make me feel wholesome. I was already happy with the man I was and had emotionally resolved my many issues years before ever setting eyes on Sheila that first time. Too many people who seek to ‘fall in love' are searching for missing pieces of their lives, and like an incomplete human puzzle, they seek a partner whom they feel will complement what they are lacking.
There is no way that falling in love, being in love and remaining in love with the same person is an easy ride. It is as exciting and as demanding as any emotional roller coaster you have ever travelled before. Not only are you ignorant of what lies around every corner; you couldn’t care less! Whatever you need to face, it is as though your combined strength and the love you share will adequately deal with it, and still have energy to spare. Its feel like you entered a gambling casino one day and gambled all your chips on one spin of the roulette wheel, and it won you the jackpot. Believe me when I say that ‘falling madly in love’ is never done ‘gracefully’.
I always found ‘falling in love’ easy, although I was never quite sure of the human mechanics involved in the process and how it worked. One minute I’d be having a good time in the company of some attractive young woman I’d never met before and a moment later, this stranger who seemed to have come out of ‘nowhere’ (with ‘nowhere’ being a simile for my hunting grounds of either Cleckheaton or Heckmondwike) becomes a fixed star in my universe.
Believe me when I tell you that expressing all form of ‘love’ will always pay off. Thereafter, hope and happiness shall remain constant bedfellows in your life. As to having a successful and happy marriage, I suspect that this state of bliss involves not only ‘staying in love’ but continuing to ‘fall in love’ many times; always with the same person. It is the falling in love with your partner repeatedly that adds the extraordinary ingredient in the love blender.
Finally, I cannot leave this subject without referring to the part that ‘fate’ plays in finding the one we love. All I can say is that when Sheila once asked me how I knew that she was the right one for me, I didn’t have the words to tell her other than say, “When I looked at you then, Sheila, and every time I look at you now, I just can’t help falling in love with you.”
Love and peace. Bill xxx
‘Can't Help Falling in Love’ was also featured in Presley's 1961 film ‘Blue Hawaii’. During the following decades, it has been recorded by numerous other artists, including Bob Dylan and the British reggae group UB40, whose 1993 version topped both charts in the United States and the United Kingdom.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
If there was ever anyone who is an expert upon the ‘falling in love’ experience, I would be well in the running to take first prize. NI strongly suspect that nobody has fallen in love more times in their life than I have. In fact, during my late teens, I would be hard pressed to find one Saturday night at the local Town Hall Dance when I didn’t fall in love before dawn rose on Sunday morning. My weakness was that I was prone to fall in love with every decent young woman I courted. Within a month of the romance having started, I’d be obliged to accept my mother’s assessment of what had really taken place instead of what I imagined had taken place. Mum used to say,” You may go out with the best intention of ‘falling in love’, Billy Forde, but it’s ‘falling into bed with the girl that’s on your mind, lad”. How well my mother knew me!
They do say it is better to have loved than never loved at all. I would wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment. In fact, were I to provide a romantic breakdown of ‘best to worse’ in the ‘falling in love’ spectrum, it would be: First best is ‘falling in love’: Second best is ‘being in love’: Least best is ‘falling out of love’: And all of these options are better than ‘never having been in love’.
I must confess that when I did meet the last love of my life, my dearest Sheila, that ‘falling in love again' was never in my plan of future events. It just happened! I was in my late sixties and had resigned myself to paying single-person council tax for the rest of my life. We met for the first time in a Haworth café and I’m not exactly sure when it happened or even when it started. All I knew was by the time we waved each other ‘Goodbye’ that afternoon, I had ‘fallen in love’ with Sheila and could only hope that she felt the same way about me.
My greatest danger as a young man in his late teens wasn't fist fighting other young men in the gang skirmishes that were frequent within the neighbourhood. No! It was that I fell in love quicker than the murderous Sweeney Todd from Fleet Street could cut a man’s throat with his razor-sharp blade. It literally happened that fast! One minute I was a young man going dancing, who, started the night swearing to remain a life-long bachelorhood, but by the end of the night, I'd been smitten by the beauty of some young woman who I walked home at the end of the dance, As we spooned and spoke during our walk home, all I could hear was the sound of wedding bells, and all I imagined was and happiness thereafter, raising five healthy children and a brood of hens that ran around the field that surrounding our country cottage and rose garden.
As it turned out, ‘falling in love’ with Sheila and marrying her was the best thing I ever did. I have never known an unhappy moment since, despite whatever terminal cancers I have contracted and had to deal with. Indeed, I’d have to say that remaining in love with Sheila provides me with the strength to endure any health trials I must face and leads me to be happier today than I ever was when I was cancer free! I now positively enjoy every day I live better than the day before.
I’d also have to say that the very fact I wasn’t out to ‘fall in love’ again or that I didn’t need to ‘fall in love’ again in search of missing pieces of myself to make me feel wholesome. I was already happy with the man I was and had emotionally resolved my many issues years before ever setting eyes on Sheila that first time. Too many people who seek to ‘fall in love' are searching for missing pieces of their lives, and like an incomplete human puzzle, they seek a partner whom they feel will complement what they are lacking.
There is no way that falling in love, being in love and remaining in love with the same person is an easy ride. It is as exciting and as demanding as any emotional roller coaster you have ever travelled before. Not only are you ignorant of what lies around every corner; you couldn’t care less! Whatever you need to face, it is as though your combined strength and the love you share will adequately deal with it, and still have energy to spare. Its feel like you entered a gambling casino one day and gambled all your chips on one spin of the roulette wheel, and it won you the jackpot. Believe me when I say that ‘falling madly in love’ is never done ‘gracefully’.
I always found ‘falling in love’ easy, although I was never quite sure of the human mechanics involved in the process and how it worked. One minute I’d be having a good time in the company of some attractive young woman I’d never met before and a moment later, this stranger who seemed to have come out of ‘nowhere’ (with ‘nowhere’ being a simile for my hunting grounds of either Cleckheaton or Heckmondwike) becomes a fixed star in my universe.
Believe me when I tell you that expressing all form of ‘love’ will always pay off. Thereafter, hope and happiness shall remain constant bedfellows in your life. As to having a successful and happy marriage, I suspect that this state of bliss involves not only ‘staying in love’ but continuing to ‘fall in love’ many times; always with the same person. It is the falling in love with your partner repeatedly that adds the extraordinary ingredient in the love blender.
Finally, I cannot leave this subject without referring to the part that ‘fate’ plays in finding the one we love. All I can say is that when Sheila once asked me how I knew that she was the right one for me, I didn’t have the words to tell her other than say, “When I looked at you then, Sheila, and every time I look at you now, I just can’t help falling in love with you.”
Love and peace. Bill xxx
