Elvis's
biggest hit was actually an English re-working of Eduardo di Capua's
"O Sole Mio", which was written at the turn of the century.Elvis was serving in the army in
Germany when he heard the melody and asked Freddie Bienstock, his music
publisher, to find someone to write English lyrics for it, preferably
different from Tony Martin's English version, "There's No
Tomorrow", which Elvis didn't like.Wally Gold and Aaron Schroeder were the only lyricists
available.Naturally, they
jumped at the chance to pen a song for Elvis, and they knocked out the
lyrics in about a half hour.The result was the biggest hit of Elvis's career, a chart-topper in
just about every market in the world, which sold over twenty million
copies.Elvis was not the
first actor to sing it, however:That honour fell to David Hess (then David Hill) who later appeared
in Body Count, House on the Edge of the Park, The Last House on the Left,and Swamp Thing.He
recorded the demo that eventually sold Elvis on the song.
