The Story Behind I Cant Help Falling in Love

It sold more than a million copies on its release in 1962, becoming one of Elvis Presley’s greatest hits—the piece he reserved for the final climax of live concerts. And it remains popular to this day, a survey in 2020, for example, finding I Can't Help Falling in Love to be one of the most frequently used pieces for the first dance of newly married couples.

Despite its association with The King of Rock and Roll, however, its composition dates back to the 18th century and a little known composer named Jean-Paul-Égide Martini…

Martini and the Pleasure of Love

Jean-Paul-Égide Martini (1741–1816), was a Frenchman of German birth. In the 1780s he directed concerts for Queen Marie Antoinette at court, eventually being designated to take the top job as ‘Supintendant of the King’s Music.’

He was unable to take it up, however; the French Revolution breaking out in 1791, leading to the execution of both King and Queen.

Martini proved adept at navigating this potentially fatal political turbulence, fleeing to Lyon, but eventually returning to write music for Bonaparte and even the restored Bourbon monarch Louis XVIII.


Martini wrote many works, but is these days best remembered for the song Plaisir d’amour,(‘Pleasure of Love’) written in 1784 to a text by poet Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian:

French Text (1st Stanza)
Plaisir d'amour ne dure qu'un moment ;
Chagrin d'amour dure toute la vie,
J'ai tout quitté pour l'ingrate Sylvie :
Elle me quitte, et prend un autre amant.
Plaisir d'amour ne dure qu'un moment ;
Chagrin d'amour dure toute la vie.

English Translation:
The pleasure of love lasts only a moment;
The sorrow of love lasts a lifetime,
I left everything for the ungrateful Sylvie:
She leaves me and takes another lover.
The pleasure of love lasts only a moment;
The sorrow of love lasts a lifetime.

Martini Mania

Martini’s song was quite the hit, both during his lifetime and afterwards. Berlioz, for example, made an arrangement of it for orchestra in 1859 and Louis van Waefelghem made a version for viola in the 1880s.

Into the twentieth century too Martini’s version remained popular, featuring in the movies ‘Love Affair’ (1939), 'The Heiress' (1949), 'We’re No Angels' (1955), 'Touki Bouki' (1973) and being the basis of the Christian hymn ‘My God Loves me.’

Enter Elvis…and Peretti, Creatore and Weiss

The 1961 song ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’ was written by Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore, and George David Weiss. The main melody, however, is based upon Martini’s song. Here’s the opening of the original:

And here’s their version:

The song was recorded by Presley for part of his album ‘Blue Hawaii’ (1961), the soundtrack to the movie of the same name.

Of course, Elvis’s association with Peretti, Creatore and Weiss’s version catapulted it to levels of popularity that a lesser singer could not have achieved—the song has, at the time of writing, some half a billion YouTube views. This has led in turn to others covering Elvis’s version, including figures such as Perry Como, Doris Day and Bob Dylan.

But is has also led to a renewed interest in Martini’s delightful original—the unlikely 18th century progenitor of a King of Rock and Roll classic.