"Friendly Persuasion (Thee I Love)" is a

popular Popularity or social status is the quality of being well liked, admired or well known to a particular group. Popular may also refer to: In sociology * Popular culture * Popular fiction * Popular music * Popular science * Populace, the total ...

song with music by

Dimitri Tiomkin Dimitri Zinovievich Tiomkin (, ; May 10, 1894 – November 11, 1979) was a Russian-born American film composer and conductor. Classically trained in St. Petersburg, Russia before the Bolshevik Revolution, he moved to Berlin and then New York City ...

and lyrics by Paul Francis Webster. It was published in

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming, ar ...

and appeared in the 1956 film of the same name. At the

29th Academy Awards For the 29th Academy Awards, the Best International Feature Film was introduced as a competitive category, instead of only a Special Achievement Award. The first winner in this new category was Federico Fellini's ''La Strada'' with Anthony Qu ...

, ''Friendly Persuasion'' was nominated for the Best Music – Song but lost out to "

Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be) "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)" is a song written by the team of Jay Livingston and Ray Evans that was first published in 1955. Doris Day introduced it in the Alfred Hitchcock film '' The Man Who Knew Too Much'' (1956), singing it as ...

Background

The title is an obvious play on words, since the film centers on a Quaker family, a religion known as the "Society of Friends". Thus, they are said to be of the "Friendly" persuasion.

1956 recordings

*The best-known version of the song was recorded by

Pat Boone Patrick Charles Eugene Boone (born June 1, 1934) is an American singer and actor. He was a successful pop singer in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s. He sold more than 45 million records, had 38 Top 40 hits, and appeared in mo ...

and it reached the No. 5 position in the USA charts and No. 3 in the UK. *Another recording by

The Four Aces The Four Aces are an American male traditional pop quartet popular since the 1950s. Over the last half-century, the group amassed many gold records. Its million-selling songs include " Love is a Many-Splendored Thing", " Three Coins in the Fo ...

followed Boone's in 1956 and reached number 45 peak position on ''Billboards pop music chart.

Other recordings

* Johnny Mathis included the song in his 1963 album ''

Romantically ''Romantically'' is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on November 18, 1963, by Columbia Records and was also the final original studio album recorded by Mathis for the label prior to his moving to Mercury Records. ...

''. * Bing Crosby recorded the song for his album ''

Bing Crosby's Treasury - The Songs I Love (1968 version) ''Bing Crosby's Treasury - The Songs I Love'' is an LP set issued in both mono and stereo formats by a mail-order firm, The Longines Symphonette Society, an educational service of the Longines-Wittnauer Watch Company. A similar LP set had been is ...

''. * Aretha Franklin recorded the song for her album '' Soft and Beautiful'' (1969).

Popular culture

version of the song was used in the 2013 BBC television series, ''

Call the Midwife ''Call the Midwife'' is a BBC period drama series about a group of nurse midwives working in the East End of London in the late 1950s and 1960s. The principal cast of the show has included Jessica Raine, Miranda Hart, Helen George, Bryony Ha ...

''.

References

1956 songs Pat Boone songs Songs written for films Songs with music by Dimitri Tiomkin Songs with lyrics by Paul Francis Webster {{pop-standard-stub