It's Only Make Believe

"It's Only Make Believe" is the title of a song written by Jack Nance and American country music artist Conway Twitty, released by Twitty as a single in July 1958. The single topped both U.S. and British national charts, and was Twitty's only number-one single on the pop charts of either country. It is believed that Twitty wrote his part of the song while sitting on a fire escape outside his hotel room, to escape the summer heat, in Hamilton, Ontario. Twitty had come to Canada at the request of another American singer, "Rompin' Ronnie Hawkins, due to Hawkins saying to Twitty that Canada was the 'promised land' for music.

Twitty recorded many subsequent versions of "It's Only Make Believe", including a 1970 duet with Loretta Lynn on their very first collaborative album, We Only Make Believe. Twitty joins in on the last verse in a 1988 uptempo cover by Ronnie McDowell, which was a #8 hit on the country music charts. Additionally, Twitty contributed to an alternative cover by McDowell. One interesting fact about Twitty's original recording of this song was that Twitty's voice sounded so similar to that of Elvis Presley that many people thought that the song was actually recorded by Presley, using "Conway Twitty" as a pseudonym.