"Don't Forbid Me" is a popular song by Charles Singleton. Among Singleton's huge number of compositions was " Tryin' to Get to You", which had previously been recorded by

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...

at Sun Records. In 1957, "Don't Forbid Me" was a number 1 hit for

Pat Boone Patrick Charles Eugene Boone (born June 1, 1934) is an American singer, songwriter, actor, author, television personality, radio host and philanthropist. He sold nearly 50 million records, had 38 Top 40 hits, and has acted in many films. Boone ...

, and also peaked at number 10 on the Most Played R&B in Juke Boxes chart.

Presley connection and version

's recording and 1957 hit record though came with a little luck. The demo was first sent to Elvis Presley, who revealed this during the Million Dollar Quartet jam session in December 1956. As he recalled, "Have you heard Pat Boone's new record, called 'Don't Forbid Me'? It was written for me, it was sent to me, it stayed over at my house for 'bout ages, man I never did even see it. Too much junk around." Presley then took the acoustic guitar he was playing and ran down a couple of terrific versions by himself to demonstrate to the others how he might have done it. It would remain lost with the other Sun Records tapes of that magical session for the next 24 years.

The Beatles and Bert Kaempfert cover versions

According to eminent author Mark Lewisohn in "The Complete Beatles Chronicles" (p. 362),

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

performed ''Don't Forbid Me'' on stage from at least 1960 and through 1961, which would have been in Liverpool and Hamburg, with

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained global fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and the piano, and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John ...

on lead vocal, but no recording is known to survive. However, their performance of it on stage in Hamburg is probably where big-band conductor, arranger, writer and producer Bert Kaempfert heard the song, as he had previously never covered a single rock song of any sort for his instrumental records. Thus, in 1961 the celebrated Kaempfert recorded a version of the song for his instrumental album, ''The Wonderland of Bert Kaempfert''. Kaempfert also signed

to record for

Polydor Polydor Limited, also known as Polydor Records, is a British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in ...

, backing their friend — and almost Beatle — Tony Sheridan.

References

Billboard Top 100 number-one singles 1956 songs 1957 singles Songs written by Charles Singleton (songwriter) Pat Boone songs Elvis Presley songs {{1950s-pop-song-stub