About The Song
Can’t Get Used to Losing You by Andy Williams hit record stores in March 1963 as a single on Columbia Records. It appeared on his album Days of Wine and Roses and Other TV Requests, which came out the following month and stayed at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart for sixteen straight weeks. The single itself climbed to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, where it held that spot for four weeks behind the Chiffons’ “He’s So Fine” and Little Peggy March’s “I Will Follow Him.” It also topped the Easy Listening chart for four weeks, reached No. 1 on Cash Box, and hit No. 2 in the UK.
The song was written by Jerome “Doc” Pomus and Mort Shuman, the prolific Brill Building team behind hits for Elvis Presley, the Drifters, and Dion. Pomus and Shuman had already crafted several successes when this one landed with Williams. His producer Robert Mersey pushed for the recording, and it fit neatly into an album built around viewer requests from Williams’ popular variety show. The record captured the smooth, adult-pop sound that defined much of his work in the early 1960s and helped keep him at the center of radio and television.
The story in the song is straightforward heartbreak. Someone tries to shake off a breakup by getting dressed and heading out into the city, only to realize the person they lost is still everywhere they look. The narrator keeps going through the motions of moving on, but the emptiness follows. It struck a chord with listeners who recognized that quiet, stubborn kind of longing.
One colorful detail from the era involves Williams’ own television program. According to Doc Pomus, Williams initially refused to perform the song on the show until it reached No. 1. Whether that hesitation was absolute or just good-natured resistance, the track’s chart success quickly made it a staple. In the studio, Williams’ vocals were double-tracked on the verses and layered into harmonies on the choruses, giving the record its warm, self-harmonized texture without sounding overly produced.
The song’s life didn’t end with the 1960s. Twenty years later, the British ska band The Beat recorded a reggae-tinged version for their 1980 album I Just Can’t Stop It. A remixed single in 1983 sent it to No. 3 on the UK chart. Elvis Costello, a longtime admirer of Pomus’ work, has said he wanted to record the song himself but was beaten to it by The Beat. Other artists covered it in the 1960s too—Patti Page, Paul Anka, Julie London, and Bobby Rydell among them—showing how quickly it traveled across pop styles.
For Williams, “Can’t Get Used to Losing You” arrived at a moment when his television show was turning him into a household name and his albums were flying off shelves. The flip side of the single, “Days of Wine and Roses,” also charted, but this track became the bigger hit and one of the songs most closely tied to his easy-listening peak. It never quite reached the absolute top of the Hot 100, yet it felt like a No. 1 in living rooms and on car radios across the country. Decades later, it still stands as one of the clearest examples of how a well-written heartbreak song, delivered with warmth and polish, could define an artist’s era.
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Lyric
Guess there’s no use in hangin’ ’round
Guess I’ll get dressed and do the town
I’ll find some crowded avenue
Though, it will be empty without you
Can’t get used to losin’ you, no matter what I try to do
Gonna live my whole life through, loving you
Called up some girl I used to know
After I heard her say, “Hello”
Couldn’t think of anything to say
Since you’re gone it happens every day
Can’t get used to losin’ you, no matter what I try to do
Gonna live my whole life through, loving you
I’ll find somebody, wait and see
Who am I kiddin’? Only me
‘Cause no one else could take your place
Guess that I am just a hopeless case
Can’t get used to losin’ you, no matter what I try to do
Gonna live my whole life through, loving you
I can’t get used to losin’ you, no matter what I try to do
Gonna live my whole life through, loving you