It was a US top ten popular music hit for singer Ray Peterson in 1960 on RCA Victor Records, reaching No.

[3] The song tells the tragic story from a witness' perspective of a young man named Tommy who is in love with Laura and wants to marry her, so he enters a stock car race, despite being the youngest and most inexperienced driver, hoping to win and use the prize money to buy Laura a wedding ring.

In the final verse, Laura prays inside the chapel, where a church organ is heard, and where she can still hear Tommy's voice intoning the title one more time, before it fades out.

The lyrics of "Tell Laura I Love Her" originally concerned a rodeo, not an automobile race, as composer Jeff Barry was an aficionado of cowboy culture.

The personnel on the original recording included Al Chernet, Charles Macy, and Sebastian Mure on guitars; Lloyd Trotman on bass; Andrew Ackers on organ; Bob Burns on sax; and Bunny Shawker on drums.

[7][8] Valance's version was initially banned by the BBC; it was considered to be in "bad taste" and expressed concern for copycat activity.

Unusually for covers released in Italy in the Sixties, Mogol's lyrics were quite faithful to the original, although Tommy was renamed Tony and recast as a pop singer who scores a hit with a song he wrote for Laura.

[26] There were also versions in Czech ("Když dozrálo víno", by Petr Spálený, in 1967), Serbian ("Lora, ja te volim", by Miodrag Jevremović), Danish ("Hils Lillian kærligt", by Heaven and "Si' til Lis hun er min tøs", by Dick Kaysø and Peter Thorup), Dutch ("Ik blijf van Laura houden", by Charles Tuinenburg and The Melody Strings), Finnish ("Laura (sua kauheesti kaipaan)" by Hector), French ("Dis à Laura", by Richard Anthony), German ("Das Ende der Liebe", by Rex Gildo), Italian ("Dite a Laura che l'amo", by Michele), Swedish ("Jag Älskar Min Laura", by Carli Tornehave), Mandarin ("告訴羅娜我愛她") and Vietnamese ("Trưng Vương Khung Cửa Mùa Thu", by Nam Lộc).