"Viva Las Vegas" is a 1963 song by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, originally recorded by Elvis Presley for the film by the same name. It was re-recorded as a folk ballad by singer Shawn Colvin, notably featuring in the end credits of The Big Lebowski (1998). Colvin's cover plays in "Part 11" of Twin Peaks (2017) during Dale Cooper's limousine ride through the Las Vegas Strip.
Lyrics[]
- Bright light city gonna set my soul
Gonna set my soul on fire
Got a whole lot of money that's ready to burn
So get those stakes up higher
There's a thousand pretty women waitin' out there
And they're all livin' devil may care
And I'm just the devil with love to spare
Viva Las Vegas, Viva Las Vegas
How I wish that there were more
Than the twenty-four hours in the day
'Cause even if there were forty more
I wouldn't sleep a minute away
Oh, there's black jack and poker and the roulette wheel
A fortune won and lost on ev'ry deal
All you need's a strong heart and a nerve of steel
Viva Las Vegas, Viva Las Vegas
Viva Las Vegas with you neon flashin'
And your one armbandits crashin'
All those hopes down the drain
Viva Las Vegas turnin' day into nighttime
Turnin' night into daytime
If you see it once
You'll never be the same again
I'm gonna keep on the run
I'm gonna have me some fun
If it costs me my very last dime
If I wind up broke up well
I'll always remember that I had a swingin' time
I'm gonna give it ev'rything I've got
Lady luck please let the dice stay hot
Let me shout a seven with ev'ry shot
Viva Las Vegas, Viva Las Vegas
Viva, Viva Las Vegas
Credits[]
- Written by Mort Shuman and Doc Pomus
- Performed by Shawn Colvin
- Published by Warner/Chappell/Spirit One Music and Published by Elvis Presley Music (BMI)
- Admin by Kobalt Music Publishing America, Inc.
- Courtesy of Columbia Records
- By arrangement with Sony Music Licensing