"Pledging My Love" is a blues ballad

Blues ballad

The term blues ballad is used to refer to a specific form of popular music which fused Anglo-American and Afro-American styles from the late 19th century onwards...

. It was written by Ferdinand Washington and Don Robey

Don Robey

Don Robey was an American record label executive, songwriter and record producer, who used criminal means as part of his business model...

 and published in 1954.

The song's theme is captured in the title and the opening lines:

Forever my darling, my love will be true,

Always and forever, I'll love only you,

Johnny Ace

The most popular recording of the song was done by Johnny Ace

Johnny Ace

Johnny Ace , born John Marshall Alexander, Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee, was an American rhythm and blues singer. He scored a string of hit singles in the mid-1950s before dying of an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound....

. It was released by Duke Records

Duke Records

Duke Records was an American record label, started in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1952 by David James Mattis and Bill Fitzgerald, owners of Tri-State Recording Company. Their first release was Roscoe Gordon singing "Hey Fat Girl", issued on Duke R-1, later amended to R-101.After forming a partnership...

 as catalog number

Catalog numbering systems for single records

This article presents the numbering systems used by various record companies for single records.- Capitol :...

 136) in 1955, immediately after Ace's death as a result of a drunken game of Russian Roulette

Russian roulette

Russian roulette is a potentially lethal game of chance in which participants place a single round in a revolver, spin the cylinder, place the muzzle against their head and pull the trigger...

. Ace's version peaked on the Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

chart at #17 and spent ten weeks at #1 on the R&B

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,...

 chart.

Ace's "Pledging My Love" was used multiple times in the 1983 film Christine directed by John Carpenter

John Carpenter

John Howard Carpenter is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor, composer, and occasional actor. Although Carpenter has worked in numerous film genres in his four-decade career, his name is most commonly associated with horror and science fiction.- Early life :Carpenter was born...

 and written by Stephen King

Stephen King

Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...

 about a 17-year old boy in love with a possessed 1958 Plymouth Fury. It is briefly heard in Back to the Future

Back to the Future

Back to the Future is a 1985 American science-fiction adventure film. It was directed by Robert Zemeckis, written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale, produced by Steven Spielberg, and starred Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover and Thomas F. Wilson. The film tells the story of...

(1985) when Lorraine Baines is in the car with her future son Marty McFly

Marty McFly

Martin Seamus "Marty" McFly, Sr. is the protagonist in the Back to the Future film trilogy, and is portrayed by actor Michael J. Fox. Marty was also the protagonist in the animated series where he was voiced by David Kaufman...

. The song is also played during the movie Bad Lieutenant

Bad Lieutenant

Bad Lieutenant is a 1992 crime-drama film directed by Abel Ferrara and starring Harvey Keitel as the eponymous "bad lieutenant". The screenplay was written by actress-model Zoë Lund. She also played a small role in the film. Lund had been discovered by Ferrara and had starred in his earlier film, Ms...

and another Harvey Keitel movie, Mean Streets

Mean Streets

Mean Streets is a 1973 drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Scorsese and Mardik Martin. The film stars Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro. It was released by Warner Bros. on October 2, 1973...

.

Paul Simon

Paul Simon

Paul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles...

 wrote a song called "The Late Great Johnny Ace

The Late Great Johnny Ace

"The Late Great Johnny Ace" is a song by Paul Simon, which appears on his 1983 Hearts and Bones album.-History:The song initially sings of the rhythm and blues singer Johnny Ace, who is said to have shot himself in a game of Russian roulette in 1954...

" and released it on his Hearts and Bones

Hearts and Bones

Hearts and Bones is the sixth solo album by Paul Simon. It was released in 1983.The album was originally intended to be a Simon & Garfunkel reunion album called Think Too Much, following their Central Park reunion concert in 1981, and the world tour of 1982 - 1983. In fact, some of the songs...

album. In the early 2000s, Simon sang "Pledging my Love" live in concert, telling the audience that this record was the first one he ever bought.

Other versions

It was covered

Cover version

In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

 by Teresa Brewer

Teresa Brewer

Teresa Brewer was an American pop singer whose style incorporated elements of country, jazz, R&B, musicals and novelty songs. She was one of the most prolific and popular female singers of the 1950s, recording nearly 600 songs. Born Theresa Breuer in Toledo, Ohio, Brewer died of a neuromuscular...

 (Coral Records

Coral Records

Coral Records was a Decca Records subsidiary formed in 1949. It recorded pop artists McGuire Sisters and Teresa Brewer, as well as rock and roller Buddy Holly....

, catalog number 61362) and The Four Lads

The Four Lads

The Four Lads is a popular Canadian male singing quartet. In the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, the group earned many gold singles and albums. Its million-selling signature tunes include "Moments to Remember," "Standin' on the Corner," "No, Not Much," "Who Needs You," and "Istanbul."The Four Lads makes...

 (Columbia Records

Columbia Records

Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...

, catalog number 40436). Brewer's version also charted at #17 on the pop chart in 1955. On Cash Box magazine

Cash Box magazine

Cashbox magazine was a weekly publication devoted to the music and coin-operated machine industries in the USA which was published from July 1942 to November 16, 1996...

's Best-Selling Record charts, where all versions are combined, the song peaked at #11.

Jay and the Americans

Jay and the Americans

Jay and the Americans was a pop music group popular in the 1960s. Their initial lineup consisted of John "Jay" Traynor, Howard Kane , Kenny Vance and Sandy Deanne , though their greatest success on the charts came after Traynor had been replaced as lead singer by Jay Black.-Early years:They were...

 released a cover version of the song on their 1969 album, Sands of Time

Sands of Time (Jay and the Americans album)

Sands of Time is the seventh studio album by Jay and the Americans released on March 15, 1969. The album went to #51 on The Billboard 200. It reached #30 on the Cashbox charts....

.

Percy Sledge

Percy Sledge

Percy Sledge is an American R&B and soul performer who recorded the hit "When a Man Loves a Woman" in 1966.-Early career:...

 also released a version of this song on an album around 1971. It was not released as a single.

Later versions also making the charts were recorded by Roy Hamilton

Roy Hamilton

Roy Hamilton was an American singer, who achieved major success in the US R&B and pop charts in the 1950s...

 (released by Epic Records

Epic Records

Epic Records is an American record label, owned by Sony Music Entertainment. Though it was originally conceived as a jazz imprint, it has since expanded to represent various genres. L.A...

 as catalog number 9294, #45 on Billboard and #51 on Cash Box in 1958) and Johnny Tillotson

Johnny Tillotson

Johnny Tillotson is an American singer and songwriter. He enjoyed his greatest success in the early 1960s, when he scored 9 top-ten hits on the pop, country and adult contemporary billboard charts including "Poetry In Motion" and the self-penned "It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin'"...

 (released by Cadence Records

Cadence Records

Cadence Records was an American record company based in New York City. It was founded by Archie Bleyer, who had been the musical director and orchestra leader for Arthur Godfrey in 1952...

 as catalog number 1377, #63 on Billboard and #73 on Cash Box in 1960).

In 1973, a cover version by Diana Ross

Diana Ross

Diana Ernestine Earle Ross is an American singer, record producer, and actress. Ross was lead singer of the Motown group The Supremes during the 1960s. After leaving the group in 1970, Ross began a solo career that included successful ventures into film and Broadway...

 and Marvin Gaye

Marvin Gaye

Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. , better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye, was an American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range....

 appeared on the album Diana & Marvin

Diana & Marvin

Diana & Marvin is a duets album by soul musicians Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye, released October 26, 1973 on Motown. Recording sessions for the album took place in 1972 and 1973 at Motown Recording Studios in Hollywood, California. Featuring vocal collaborations by Gaye and Ross, widely recognized at...

.

The song was recorded by Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley

Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....

 late in his career and appears on his 1977 album Moody Blue

Moody Blue

Moody Blue is the final studio album by Elvis Presley. The album was a mixture of live and studio work, and included tracks from Presley's final studio recording sessions in 1976, including Moody Blue, a previously published hit song, and Way Down, which became a hit song after Presley's death less...

, the last album released before Presley's death in 1977.

David Allan Coe

David Allan Coe

David Allan Coe is an American outlaw country music singer who achieved popularity in the 1970s and 1980s. He has written and performed over 280 original songs throughout his career...

 also recorded a cover of the song.

In 1984, country singer Emmylou Harris

Emmylou Harris

Emmylou Harris is an American singer-songwriter and musician. In addition to her work as a solo artist and bandleader, both as an interpreter of other composers' works and as a singer-songwriter, she is a sought-after backing vocalist and duet partner, working with numerous other artists including...

 released a version of this song and reached #9 on the country charts.

In 1993, soul legend Solomon Burke

Solomon Burke

Solomon Burke was an American singer-songwriter, entrepreneur, mortician, and an archbishop of the United House of Prayer For All People. Burke was known as "King Solomon", the "King of Rock 'n' Soul", and as the "Bishop of Soul", and described as "the Muhammad Ali of soul", and as "the most...

 made a cover version of this song on his album, Soul Of the Blues.

In 1994, blues singer Little Milton

Little Milton

James Milton Campbell, Jr. , better known as Little Milton, was an American electric blues, rhythm and blues, and soul singer and guitarist, best known for his hit records "Grits Ain't Groceries" and "We're Gonna Make It."-Biography:Milton was born James Milton Campbell, Jr., in the Mississippi...

 covered this song on his album, I'm A Gambler.