The piece was lyricized in English by Larry Kusik into "Speak Softly, Love", a popular song released in 1972.

[2] Larry Kusik wrote the original, English lyrics, and Nino Rota composed the score.

[3] Different sets of lyrics for the song have been written in French (Parle plus bas), Italian (Parla più piano), Portuguese (Fale baixinho), Sicilian (Brucia la terra), and Spanish (Amor háblame dulcemente, El milagro de tu amor).

The first version of the song to reach any of the charts in Billboard magazine was "Love Theme from The Godfather" by pianist Roger Williams.

His instrumental recording debuted in the issue dated 1 April 1972, and "bubbled under" the Hot 100 for five weeks, peaking at number 116,[5] and another piano rendition by Ferrante and Teicher got as high as number 28 Easy Listening during its four-week chart run that began in the 8 April issue.