I Can't Stop Loving You

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"I Can't Stop Loving You"
I Can't Stop Loving You - single cover.jpg
Single by Don Gibson
from the album Oh Lonesome Me
A-side "Oh Lonesome Me"
WrittenJune 7, 1957 (1957-06-07) [1] [2]
PublishedFebruary 7, 1958 Acuff-Rose Publications, Inc. [3]
ReleasedDecember 1957 (1957-12)
RecordedDecember 3, 1957 (1957-12-03) [4]
Studio RCA Studio B, Nashville
Genre Country
Length2:37
Label RCA Victor
Songwriter(s) Don Gibson
Producer(s) Chet Atkins
Don Gibson singles chronology
""Oh Lonesome Me"
(1958)
"I Can't Stop Loving You"
(1957)
"Blue Blue Day"
(1958)

"I Can't Stop Loving You" is a popular song written and composed by country singer, songwriter, and musician Don Gibson, who first recorded it on December 3, 1957, for RCA Victor Records. It was released in 1958 as the B-side of "Oh, Lonesome Me", becoming a double-sided country hit single. At the time of Gibson's death in 2003, the song had been recorded by more than 700 artists, most notably by Ray Charles, whose recording reached No. 1 on the Billboard chart. [5]

Contents

Composition

Gibson wrote both "I Can't Stop Loving You" and "Oh, Lonesome Me" on June 7, 1957, in Knoxville, Tennessee. [5] "I sat down to write a lost love ballad," Gibson said in Dorothy Horstman's 1975 book Sing Your Heart Out, Country Boy. "After writing several lines to the song, I looked back and saw the line 'I can't stop loving you.' I said, 'That would be a good title,' so I went ahead and rewrote it in its present form." [6]

Charts

Note: This original recording was released as "I Can't Stop Lovin' You". [7]

Chart (1958)Peak
position
Norway (VG-lista) [8] 2
US Hot Country Songs ( Billboard ) [9] 7
US Billboard Hot 100 [10] 81

Ray Charles version

"I Can't Stop Loving You"
I Can't Stop Loving You --- ABC-Paramount.jpg
Single by Ray Charles
from the album Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music
B-side "Born to Lose"
ReleasedApril 1962
RecordedFebruary 15, 1962
Studio United Western Recorders, United B, Hollywood, California
Genre
Length2:37 (single version)
4:12 (album version)
Label ABC-Paramount 10330
Songwriter(s) Don Gibson [12]
Producer(s) Sid Feller [12]
Ray Charles singles chronology
"Hit the Road Jack"
(1961)
"I Can't Stop Loving You"
(1962)
"You Don't Know Me"
(1962)
Audio sample

The song was covered by Ray Charles in 1962, featured on Charles' Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music , and released as a single. Charles' version reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1962, for five weeks. This version went to number one on the U.S. R&B and adult contemporary charts. [13] [14] Billboard ranked it as the No. 2 song for 1962. [15] Charles reached No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart in July 1962, staying for two weeks. [16] In Sweden it was the first number one single on the sales chart Kvällstoppen on July 10, 1962. [17]

The Ray Charles version is noted for his saying the words before the last five lines of the song on the final chorus: "Sing the song, children". Choral backing was provided by The Randy Van Horne Singers. It was ranked No. 164 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and No. 49 on CMT's "100 Greatest Songs in Country Music".

In 1963 at the 5th Annual Grammy Awards, the Ray Charles version of the song won him the Grammy Award for Best Rhythm & Blues Recording. [18]

This recording was featured in Metropolis , where it can be heard during the explosion of the skyscraper Ziggurat shortly after the climax. [19]

Charts

Chart (1962)Peak
position
Australia (Kent Music Report) [20] 1
Finland (Suomen virallinen) [21] 2
Norway (VG-Lista) [22] 4
Sweden (Kvällstoppen) [17] 1
Sweden ( Tio i Topp ) [23] 1
US Billboard Hot 100 [24] 1
U.S. Billboard R&B Singles1
US Adult Contemporary ( Billboard ) [25] 1
UK Singles Chart [12] 1

All-time charts

Chart (1958-2018)Position
US Billboard Hot 100 [26] 125

Other versions

The song has been recorded by many other artists. Some recordings are titled as "I Can't Stop Lovin' You" (with or without an apostrophe).

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References

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