"I Love You Because" is a song written and recorded by country music singer-songwriterLeon Payne in 1949. It has been covered by several artists throughout the years, including hit cover versions byAl Martino in 1963 andJim Reeves in 1964.
In 1949,Leon Payne's original version went to number 4 on theBillboard Country & Western Best Seller lists and spent two weeks at number 1 on the Country & Western Disk Jockey List, spending a total of thirty-two weeks on the chart.[1] "I Love You Because" was Payne's only song to make the country charts.
"I Love You Because" was recorded byElvis Presley in 1954, at SUN Studio, Memphis, Tennessee. The session started on July 4 and ended early on the morning of July 5, the day that he recorded "That's All Right". ProducerSam Phillips did not think "I Love You Because" was the right song for Elvis's first single, so it was instead used as the B-side of "Tryin' to Get to You", both of which can be found on his 1956 debut albumElvis Presley.
In 1963,Al Martino recorded the most successful version of the song, which peaked at number 3 on the USBillboardHot 100 chart[10] and number 1 on theMiddle-Road (Adult Contemporary) chart for two weeks in May that year.[11]
In 1963, American country singerJim Reeves recorded the song for his albumGentleman Jim. Released as a single in 1964, it peaked at number 5 in the UK and became his most successful single in Norway, topping the VG-Lista chart for 13 weeks.[12] In 1976, the song was the title track of a posthumous Jim Reeves album that peaked at number 24 on the US Country LP chart.[13] Released as a single, it reached number 54 in the USBillboardCountry singles chart in that year.
