Songoftheday 4/5/15 - Like a river flows surely to the sea, darling so it goes some things are meant to be...

"Can't Help Falling In Love" - Corey Hart
from the album Fields Of Fire (1986)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #24 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 5

Today's Song of the Day is by Canadian pop singer/songwriter Corey Hart, whose third album Fields Of Fire had already spun off a top-20 pop hit in the States with "I Am By Your Side". For its followup Hart put out his first cover song for a single, a remake of the classic "Can't Help Falling In Love". Based on the 18th century love ballad "Plaisir D'Amour", with new lyrics and arrangement from Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore, and George David Weiss, the song was first made popular in its most loved version by the "King" himself, Elvis Presley. In 1962, he took the record to #2 on the pop chart in America...

Corey Hart's remake of the song kept it simple with very understated instrumentation under his emotive, and almost Sting-like vocals...

Corey's "Can't Help" reached the American pop top-40 in February of 1987, while becoming his third #1 single in his native Canada.

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"Can't Help Falling In Love" had been covered countless times by all kinds of music artists, and has popped on to the chart three more times besides Elvis and Corey. In 1970, two version hit the charts; first trad-pop singer Al Martino saw his go to #51...

..while crooner Andy Williams landed at #88 with his take, which climbed to #3 in the UK...

In 1976, American R&B group the Stylistics had a #4 hit in Britain with their lite-disco version, which also peaked at #52 on the US R&B chart...

 The same year Corey's version was released, Celtic folk band Lick The Tins had a minor British hit with the song...

 British reggae band UB40 had by far the most successful chart run of the song, spending seven weeks at #1 on the US pop chart in 1993..

Swedish pop group the A-Teens had a moderate international hit with their version in 2002 from the movie Lilo and Stitch..

British synthpop duo Erasure released the song on their Other People's Songs in 2003...

In 2005, Rick Astley did a sweet version on his covers album Portraits...

Last year, south Jersey native Christina Grimmie came in third on the finals of The Voice, and her performance of the song went to #74 on the Hot 100...

Up tomorrow: A dragged-up guy and his band have a replacement paramour.