Lyr Req: I Can't Stop Loving You (from Ray Charles

Subject: I can'ty stop Loving You
From: Francis Hahn
Date: 08 Jun 98 - 03:23 PM

I'm looking for the words to this song. Done once by Ray Charles

Subject: RE: I can'ty stop Loving You
From: Joe Offer
Date: 08 Jun 98 - 03:33 PM

Hi, Francis - the Mudcat Cafe, where we are now, is a good place to look for folk lyrics. For pop lyrics, try Jen's Lyric Underground - click here. Jen has Tom Jones listed as the performer, but the rendition I remember is the one by Ray Charles. I thought Tom Jones sounded too pretentious, so I tended to change the station when his songs came on. The song was written in 1958 by Don Gibson, and recorded by Ray Charles in 1962. Don Gibson also wrote "Oh, Lonesome Me" and "Sweet Dreams." I betcha you can find more Don Gibson stuff at Cowpie, the country lyrics archive. At www.cdnow.com, I found recordings by everyone from Ella Fitzgerald to the Chieftains.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: I can'ty stop Loving You
From: Dale Rose
Date: 08 Jun 98 - 04:18 PM

The first and definitive version is by the author, Don Gibson. He wrote it in June of 1957. He tells the story of how he came to write two of his (and country music's) greatest hits in the same afternoon~~he said, "the kind of day I could use a few more of."

"I was sitting in the trailer feeling low; when you're sitting in a trailer and don't have a job, you're low and down. They had come and got my TV and vacuum cleaner one afternoon. They started carrying things off, and I wrote those songs because I felt bad. I sat down to write a lost love ballad and that was 'I Can't Stop Loving You.' I jotted down some of the lyrics before I sang them into my tape recorder, and saw the line, 'I Can't Stop Loving You' and said, 'That would make a good title.' Then I did 'Oh, Lonesome Me,' sang that into my tape recorder, and so when I sent the tape off to Acuff-Rose, whoever transcribed it misunderstood it. I had originally titled it 'Ole Lonesome Me,'but when it came out on sheet music and all, they had it 'Oh, Lonesome Me' and it was too late to change it then."

He recorded them back to back on December 3, 1957.

"I didn't think it was much of a song . . . I brought 'I Can't Stop Loving You' as a ballad I wanted to do on the backside. Chet (Atkins) and Wesley (Rose)looked at it, and said, 'Well, it's not much of a song.' And I said, 'Well, it's gonna be on the B side, so what difference does it make?' They finally let me cut it -- as the B side to 'Oh, Lonesome Me.' Over the next three years, that record sold 600,000 copies."

Subject: RE: I can'ty stop Loving You
From: Old Timer
Date: 08 Jun 98 - 05:16 PM

Don't know if this is the definitive version or not, but here is a version:

I CAN'T STOP LOVING YOU

I can't stop loving you
So I've made up my mind
To live in memory of old lonesome times
I can't stop wanting you
It's useless to say
So I'll just live my life in dreams of yesterday.

Those happy hours that we once knew
Tho' long ago still make me blue
They say that time heals a broken heart
But time's stood still since we've been apart.

I can't stop loving you
There's no use to try
Pretend there's someone new I can't live a lie.
I can't stop wanting you the way that I do
There's only one love for me
That one love is you.
I can't stop loving you
So I've made up my mind
To live in memory of old lonesome times.
I can't stop wanting you
It's useless to say
So I'll just live my life in dreams of yesterday.

Subject: Lyr Add: I CAN'T STOP LOVING YOU (Don Gibson)
From: Gene
Date: 08 Jun 98 - 08:06 PM

Guess I might as well stick my two cents worth in...

Here's I Can't Stop Loving You as recorded by the guy that wrote it; Don Gibson.

Source: Don Gibson/I Wrote a Song

I CAN'T STOP LOVING YOU
Singer: Don Gibson
Writer: Don Gibson

CHORUS
I can't stop loving you
So I made up my mind
To live in memory - of old lonesome time
I can't stop wanting you
It's useless to say
So I'll just live my life in dreams - of yesterday.

Those happy hours - that we once knew
Tho' long ago - still make me blue
They say that time - heals a broken heart
But time has stood still - since we've been apart.

I can't stop loving you
So I made up my mind
To live in memory - of old lonesome time
I can't stop wanting you
It's useless to say
So I'll just live my life in dreams - of yesterday.

Subject: RE: I can'ty stop Loving You
From: Will
Date: 08 Jun 98 - 09:34 PM

Gee, Joe, even when you try to pack them off to the countryside, someone else chimes in with information and lyrics. Just gotta get sterner about the folk standards 'round here.

(Grin)

Subject: RE: I can'ty stop Loving You
From: JVZ
Date: 08 Jun 98 - 11:33 PM

IF FOLKS SING IT AND OTHER FOLKS HEAR IT AND SING IT AND IT IS SUBSEQUENTLY PASSED AROUND TO OTHER FOLKS WHO SING IT, THEN IT'S A FOLK SONG. I suppose that a true folk purist would remove himself from this particular forum, for there is certainly nothing folksy about computers or the internet. OR COULD IT BE THAT THINGS CHANGE?

Subject: RE: I can'ty stop Loving You
From: Sheye
Date: 09 Jun 98 - 12:03 AM

Speaking of getting wound into knots, I now have in my hands, the all-time right answer to the unanswerable question (is now making its rounds thru' the 'net, and is my favourite of the year!!!) Don't bother with applause, just send money, payable to my "Hawaii" fund...

The chicken and the egg are lying in bed. The chicken is smoking a cigarette and looking tired, but pleased. The egg is frustrated and fidgity (sic??) and says out loud, to no one in particular, "Well, I guess that answers THAT question!"

Now, the question is (Thank you, Dr. Suess): Which would you rather be, a chicken or an egg!

Subject: RE: I Can't Stop Loving You
From: Anonymous person in Sacramento
Date: 09 Jun 98 - 01:36 AM

I'll have mine scrambled, Sheye....

Subject: RE: I can't stop Loving You
From: Joe Offer
Date: 09 Jun 98 - 05:07 AM

Now, aren't Gene and Old Timer one and the same? I'm really getting confused now.....

Subject: RE: I can'ty stop Loving You
From: Francis Han
Date: 09 Jun 98 - 10:59 AM

Thanks everyone

Subject: RE: I can'ty stop Loving You
From: KickyC
Date: 09 Jun 98 - 08:08 PM

This has been a favorite song of mine for a long time. Don Williams is one of my all-time favorite country singers and I love the Chieftans. When I found their CD "Another Country" with Don Williams singing "I Can't Stop Loving You" on it, I thought I was in in heaven!

Kicky

Subject: RE: I can'ty stop Loving You
From:
Date: 09 Jun 98 - 08:32 PM

Its funny. When I am asked about a song by Ray Charles, I have the same reaction as Joe, but when I am asked about a song sung by Don Gibson, I am inclined to answer without worrying if it is folk or not.

Murray

Subject: RE: I can'ty stop Loving You
From: Dale Rose
Date: 09 Jun 98 - 09:52 PM

I think Murray has hit upon it there. We all have different criteria in our minds for where folk leaves off and country, singer-songwriter, bluegrass, old time, blues, whatever begins. It is not an easily discerned demarcation. I can't tell you why (in my mind) Charlie Poole absolutely belongs, Hank Snow almost certainly does, Don Gibson probably does, and Garth Brooks does not. It is not entirely based on the age of the music involved, for there are things being sung or played this very day which I feel has that affinity to folk, yet there are others from many years ago which do not. For instance, I have not seen one solitary reference to Conjunto music here, and very few to Cajun music, yet they are much more folk in their own way than a great bit of what we do talk about.

I know there are others whose definition is far narrower than mine. I am just thankful that the climate here is such that we are all able to live in relative harmony (good word there) despite our occasional differences of opinion.

Subject: RE: I can't stop Loving You
From: Joe Offer
Date: 10 Jun 98 - 03:49 AM

Well, I gotta say I got a whole lot more respect for the song when I found out it was by Don Gibson. I really like Ray Charles and I think there is an enduring quality to his music, but I sure do hate his backup singers - and they are very much in evidence in this song.
Still, almost every time I question somebody about posting a request, I find the request may not be as outrageous as I first thought.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: I can'ty stop Loving You
From: Earl
Date: 10 Jun 98 - 01:02 PM

Ray Charles is probably the only person who has had hits on the pop charts, the jazz charts, the R&B charts and the c&w charts. I can do without the string section but I can't imagine Ray without the Raylettes.

Subject: RE: I can't stop Loving You
From: Bert C
Date: 10 Jun 98 - 11:50 PM

I heard the most amazing (almost frightening) thing on my radio tonight - Ray Charles himself singing this very song to a sandwich in an Arby's commercial! How the mighty have fallen.

Subject: RE: I can'ty stop Loving You
From:
Date: 11 Jun 98 - 09:15 PM

Sigh. I remember the shock of seeing Orson Wells doing a wine commercial on TV.

Murray