gold star for USAHOF

Teddy Bear

July 15 –September 1, 1957
Elvis Presley
(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear



If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

If you look up and down the choices that Elvis and his brain trust made for him musically in the late 50’s and early 60’s it is difficult to find misses.[1] Presley, with that Rockabilly meets R&B styling really could take a song back then and make it appeal to the Pop, Country and R&B set and sure enough, Elvis hit number one again on all three with his summer time hit, “Teddy Bear”.

Written by the successful songwriting duo of Kal Mann and Bernie Lowe, Elvis did what he could do better than anyone; sing a love song with a swagger and coolness that could mean different things to different people…an amazing accomplishment considering it was under two minutes.

I am going to keep this brief as the Elvis Presley discussion has a lot more legs to it and a lot more of his number ones still left to talk to about.

That and despite the brief praise I gave this song, it is one of my least favorite efforts from “The King”, and mainly because I never felt the need to ask any woman I was with to be their “teddy bear”.

Other Notable Songs that charted but did not go to number one in this time period: July 15, 1957 – September 1, 1957

7/15/57: C.C. Rider by Chuck Willis peaked at #12 but went to #1 on the R&B Chart.
7/29/57: Searchin’ by Larry Williams went to #3 but went to #1 on the R&B Chart.
8/5/57: Short Fat Fannie by Larry Williams went to #5 but topped the R&B Chart at #1.


[1] Why couldn’t he have a different think tank helping him with his film choices?
Tagged under

Comments powered by CComment