"Surrender" is a rearrangement by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman of a 1902 Neapolitan ballad by Giambattista and Ernesto de Curtis entitled "Torna a Surriento" ("Come Back to Sorrento"). It became a UK and US number-one hit for Elvis Presley in 1961 and has been recorded by many other artists. This was one of 25 songs Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman wrote for Presley.This is a classic version by Pavarotti but not the original.
“Torna a Surriento”, a Neapolitan song, is said to have been composed in 1902 by Ernesto De Curtis to words by his brother, Giambattista. The song was copyrighted officially in 1905; it has since become wildly popular, and has been sung by performers as diverse as Beniamino Gigli, Elvis Presley, Dean Martin, José Carreras, Plácido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, Meat Loaf, Mario Lanza, Franco Corelli, Robertino Loretti, Giuseppe Di Stefano, and Francesco Albanese. Claude Aveling wrote the English lyrics, which are titled “Come Back to Sorrento.” Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman re-arranged it and wrote a new set of lyrics for Elvis Presley (“Surrender”).
The song was supposedly written at the request of a friend of Giambattista's, Guglielmo Tramontano, who was mayor of Sorrento in 1902 when the prime minister of Italy, Giuseppe Zanardelli, stayed at his hotel in that town; it was claimed that the piece was meant to celebrate Zanardelli's stay. More recent research indicates that the song may merely have been reworked for the occasion; family papers indicate that the brothers deposited a copy with the Italian Society of Authors and Editors in 1894, eight years before they claimed to have written it. There is also a version in standard Italian called “Torna a Sorrento” The English lyrics have nothing to do with either of the Italian versions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torna_a_Surriento
And for the original Italian lyrics and translation
http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/06mar/article054.html
Elvis's version - Surrender-
Robert Matthew Walker in ELVIS - A Study in Music 1979 says -
" The enormous success of It's Now or Never demanded a follow up, and Surrender attempts to repeat that formula. The Neopolitan song 'Come back to Sorrento' is transferred to a bossa nova rhythm with fast guitar chords. It does not quite come off - although Presley sings the arrangement to perfection,with a dazzling top B flat full of powerful head-tone."
The Songwriters
Ernesto De Curtis (October 4, 1875 - December 31, 1937) was an Italian composer. Born in Naples, the son of Giuseppe De Curtis and Elisabetta Minnon, he was a great-grandson of composer Saverio Mercadante and the brother of poet Giambattista De Curtis, with whom he wrote the song "Torna a Surriento". He studied piano and received a diploma from the Conservatory of San Pietro a Maiella in Naples.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernesto_De_CurtisGiambattista De Curtis
"(20 July 1860 - 15 January 1926) was an Italian painter and poet remembered today for his song lyrics. He wrote the original words to Torna a Surriento. Born into a noble family in Naples, de Curtis was firstborn of fresco painter Giuseppe de Curtis and his wife, Elisabetta Minnon, and was a great-grandson of composer Saverio Mercadante. He expressed his first interest in painting, which he learned from his father, and which he perfected to the point that he was called a "contemporary Salvator Rosa". He was a complete artist, writing poetry and theatrical works as well as verses for popular songs; he was also a sculptor. His love for Neapolitan song led him to collaborate with composer Vincenzo Valente, at the time a lodger at the de Curtis family palace in corso Garibaldi. It was, in fact, Valente who in 1889 set to music his first song, "A Pacchianella"; the following year, he set another of de Curtis's texts, "Muglierema come fa?". "'I Pazziava" followed in 1890, and "Ninuccia" in 1894; "Tiempe Felice" came in 1895....when composing song lyrics he would often be inspired by some encounter or other that he had had. Indeed, de Curtis was by all accounts a curious and amiable man, and was rarely without a compliment for an attractive woman; he courted many, and would often dedicate his lyrics to them. Nevertheless, he did not wed until 1910, when, at the age of fifty and after nearly twenty years' engagement, he married Carolina Scognamiglio." Read the full article here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giambattista_De_Curtis
Doc Pomus
" Jerome Solon Felder, better known as Doc Pomus (June 27, 1925 - March 14, 1991), was a twentieth-century American blues singer and songwriter. He is best known as the lyricist of many rock and roll hits. Pomus was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the category of non-performer in 1992.He was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992. and the Blues Hall of Fame. Pomus asked Shuman to write with him because Doc didn't know much about rock and roll at the time, whereas Mort was well versed in many of the popular artists of the day. Their songwriting efforts had Pomus write the lyrics and Shuman the melody, although quite often they worked on both. They wrote the hit songs: "A Teenager in Love"; "Save The Last Dance For Me"; "Hushabye"; "This Magic Moment"; "Turn Me Loose"; "Sweets For My Sweet" (a hit for the Drifters and then the Searchers); "Go Jimmy Go", "Can't Get Used to Losing You"; "Little Sister"; "Suspicion"; "Surrender"; "Viva Las Vegas"; "(Marie's the Name) His Latest Flame"." More on Doc Pomus here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doc_Pomus
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