Greatest Love Songs Ever: #3 “Can’t Help Falling In Love”
By Tom Quiner, Board President, Pulse Life Advocates
“Can’t Help Falling in Love” begins with such beautiful words:
Wise men say,
“Only fools rush in.”
But I can’t help
Falling in love with you.
‘Only fools rush in’ invokes the virtue of sacrificial love. It reminds us of the first responders at the Twin Towers who sacrificed everything by rushing in to a burning building to save others.
Love is self-giving, not taking.
Elvis Presley (and the songwriters, Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creator, and George Davie Weiss), who introduced this song in 1961, summarize Aquinas so simply with these words:
Take my hand,
Take my whole life, too.
For I can’t help
Falling in love with you.
An exchange of lives
A song like this tells us that love goes far beyond sexuality. It says that love is an exchange of lives. “I give my life to you, you give your life to me.” Or as God explains in the Book of Genesis, “two become one flesh.”
I keep quoting St. Thomas Aquinas who explains that love wills the good of the other. In some fashion, a good love song invokes this sentiment.
With very few words, enriched by a lovely, lilting melody, “Can’t Help Falling In Love” expresses this foundational principle of Christianity.
Love is powerful. We can’t resist it. When it hits us like a ton of bricks, all we can do is throw our hands up in amazement and quote Elvis: “I can’t help falling in love with you!”
The songwriters quoted in this countdown of the 52 Greatest Love Songs Ever say the same thing, but from different perspectives. Track back to the first song in our countdown, #52, “Silly Love Songs” by Paul McCartney who sings:
“Love doesn’t come in a minute,
Sometimes it doesn’t come at all,
I only know that when I’m in it,
It isn’t silly, love isn’t silly,
Love isn’t silly at all.”
Indeed, Sir Paul!
We long for love
There’s nothing silly about love. Love is rich and profound and gives our lives meaning, from conception to natural death. We long for love every moment we take a breath (whether we know it or not), with a longing and the faith that the taste of love we experience in this life is but a prelude to the next.
Few contemporary songwriters compose songs of this depth. But there are signs of hope. The Knot (an online wedding planning platform) conducts annual surveys of wedding trends. Guess what the most popular first wedding dance song for 2023 and 2024 was? Wait for it: “Can’t Help Falling in Love” as sung by Elvis Presley.
Interestingly, it wasn’t one of Elvis’ top ten selling songs, according to the Elvis History Blog. (“Don’t Be Cruel” was his top seller.) But along with “Love Me Tender,” it is certainly the one covered by the most artists. It is so superior to modern day songs that young couples who may not even know who Elvis is still request it.
Listen to Elvis’ one-of-a-kind presentation of “Can’t Help Falling in Love” at the top of the page. But there are so many other outstanding covers of this song that it’s hard to nail down the 2nd and 3rd best versions.
Haley Reinhart sings “Can’t Help Falling in Love”
I absolutely love Haley Reinhart’s stripped down version. Reinhart, of American Idol fame, uses only simple piano accompaniment, unleashing the full effect of her smoky vocals to carry the song. Of all the songs she’s recorded, this is the one that’s received the most Spotify streams, a half a billion and counting.
UB40 sings “Can’t Help Falling in Love”
I’m a sucker for UB40’s 1993 reggae version. Amazing, isn’t it, that a song can be interpreted in so many different ways. “Can’t Help Falling in Love” is their 3rd most popular song on Spotify with over 300 million streams.
What happens to this song if you change the perspective? What happens if the song is sung from the perspective of your unborn child in the womb? “Take my hand, take my whole life, too, for I can’t help falling in love with you.”
That baby, your child, is a little bundle of love who has no choice but to place her whole life in your hands. It’s a big responsibility, and an honor. Be a wise man and a wise woman and embrace this wonderful gift of love.
Remember, love is the antidote to abortion. See you next week for a life-giving song that is impossible not to sing along to.
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