Artist: Charles Hart
Author: Roy Turk/Lou Handman
Label: Harmony
Year: 1927
Introduced by the composers (vocal: Handman's sister Edyth) in their own vaudeville act Are You Lonesome Tonight, at first unrecorded for fear of hitnapping. The eponymous instrumental cut in 1926 by Bob Haring for Cameo/Lincoln (and under his alias The Dixie Daisies for Romeo) is a different song (foxtrot). Still Roy Turk earned co-credits on that one too.
Covers:
Lou Handman [author on piano; vocal: his sister Edyth on Gennett]
Colonial Club Orchestra [again with 'radio girl' Vaughn Deleath]
Henry Burr [more 1927 versions by Franklyn Baur (Victor), Frank Munn (Brunswick), Joe Wilbur (Perfect), Irving Kaufman (Harmony), Oscar Grogan (Columbia), Elliott Stewart (Gennett) en Lew White (Brunswick)]
Blue Barron Orch. [version that inspired Elvis' arrangement; original spoken word part by Franklyn MacCormack]
Don Cornell [with the Hugo Winterhalter orchestra]
Elvis Presley [n°1 US, UK & B]
Thelma Carpenter [all four with answer song Yes I'm Lonesome Tonight]
Peter Alexander [as Bist du einsam heut' Nacht]
Wilma Lucini [answering Peter Alexander as Ja, Ich bin einsam heut' Nacht]
Elvis Presley [the famous "laughing version"; triggered by his own wit, pills and a slightly out of key backing vocalist; inspired by the gentleman right in front of him at his International Hotel dinner table, El sang: "Do you gaze at your bald head and wish you had hair" instead of the standard "Do you gaze at your doorstep and picture me there"]
Zangeres Zonder Naam [as Ben Je Eenzaam Vannacht]
François Valery [as Qu'est-ce que je fous sans toi]
Bryan Ferry [in film Honeymoon In Vegas]
An & Jan [as Ben Jij Ook Zo Alleen]
Shawn Camp & Billy Burnette [The Bluegrass Elvises]
It was Col. Parker who came up with the idea to give this old waltz to Elvis. Are You Lonesome Tonight was the all time favorite of the Col.'s wife, who remembered Gene Austin's version since her husband had managed this country singer. The spoken part (as in Jolson's and Elvis' versions) comes from Shakespeare's As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII.
If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:
Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)