You May Never Hear “Can’t Help Falling In Love” the Same Way Again

Promo Art from “Elvis: 30 #1 Hits” (Fair Use)

“Can’t Help Falling in Love” is one of the most beloved pop songs ever.

Elvis’ version is, of course, the one we slow-danced to in high school (if we are old enough to remember slow-dancing — do they do that anymore?). But what if we have been misunderstanding this song? I looked back at various versions and found that there is a lot more to it than one might think.

“Plaisir d’Amour” (1784, by Jean-Paul-Ègide Martini; 1971 recording by Nana Mouskouri)

The core melody is instantly recognizable as the basis for “Can’t Help Falling in Love.”

However, this is not an innocent song about falling head over heels in love. It is about the fleeting nature of sexual infatuation and the pain that is left behind when one of the lovers moves on to something more exciting. It contains more than a touch of schadenfreude: The singer had been dumped by her lover for “the beautiful Sylvie,” and Sylvie has now dumped him.

“Plaisir d’Amour” has been performed a zillion times, in a range of styles from folk to operatic, and in various arrangements. This is perhaps the most famous version, a 1971 performance by the incomparable Nana (who, like Elvis, just needs one name):

English translation:

The pleasure of love lasts only for a moment,
The pain of love lasts a lifetime.
You’ve left me for the beautiful Sylvie,
And she’s leaving you for another lover.
The pleasure of love lasts only for a moment,
The pain of love lasts a lifetime.

“As long as this water will run gently
Towards this brook which borders the meadow,
I will love you”, Sylvie told you repeatedly.
The water still runs, but she has changed.
The pleasure of love lasts only for a moment,
The pain of love lasts a lifetime.)

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“Can’t Help Falling in Love” (Written by Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore, and George David Weiss; 1961 recording by Elvis Presley)

They set entirely new lyrics to the original melody, taking away the edge and making it into something sweetly romantic. For the bridge (the part that starts “Like a river flows…”), they kept the river imagery but tweaked the lyrics so the river symbolizes everlasting love rather than simply water flowing by, indifferent to our pain.

Elvis released his version of the song in 1961, and in 1962, it peaked at #2 on the U.S. charts.

I checked out several live versions, but none of them match up to the original audio, so here it is:

UB40 (1993 release, remastered in 2002)

UB40, in case you don’t remember them, are the English reggae/ska group with huge hits like “Red Red Wine.” They re-imagined “Can’t Help Falling in Love” in their inimitable, danceable style. The big change is their choice of imagery: The video, featuring images from the film “Sliver,” has a distinctly stalker vibe. So your brain has to process the irresistible reggae groove while wondering how weird things will get.

Amusing trivia: This version actually beat out Elvis’, peaking at #1 in the U.S., albeit some 32 years later.

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Tommee Profitt and Brooke (2019 “Dark Version”)

Almost all of the covers of this song treat it the way Elvis did: as an innocent love song. But what if it’s nothing of the sort? UB40 gave us a hint that there is something vaguely creepy about it. What if it’s about obsession, and we’ve just been missing the point? It certainly could have been the soundtrack to a horror film or murder noir — it just needed the right arrangement!

That’s Tommee Profitt’s stock in trade. He does scores and soundtracks for horror and noir flicks, so it makes sense he would be the one to figure this out. The trick here was transposing it to a minor key and stripping out most of the orchestration and lyrics, leaving a dark, ominous void in the song's first half. Having Brooke sing it, with her ethereal sound, was the crowning bit of evil genius.

Diana Ankudinova (2021, “Dark Version”)

I’ve previously written about Diana, but here is a condensed bit of relevant context: She was abused by her mother and eventually abandoned at a bus stop at the age of three with a broken collarbone. It happened to be the middle of the Siberian winter. An orphanage rescued her, and a woman who worked there nursed her back to health and adopted her.

Diana suffered from speech and developmental impairments, likely due to the beatings she had endured. Part of the therapy prescribed for her was singing. Her therapists soon realized that she had a remarkable voice and that she blossomed when performing.

Diana became a star on the talent show circuit. She was 18 years old when she got hold of Profitt’s arrangement of “Can’t Help Falling in Love.” She uncorked this terrifying version of the song on a Russian reality show. There is a moment in her performance that makes you wonder about the connection between trauma and madness. Skip the last 6 minutes of the video; it’s just the judges babbling away in disbelief.