“I’m Head over Heels in Love” was written by Lester Flatt and first recorded by Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys on November 21, 1950, in an afternoon session at The Tulane Hotel (Castle Studio) in Nashville. The recording featured Curly Seckler on mandolin, Benny Sims on fiddle, and Jody Rainwater on bass alongside Flatt and Scruggs, and was released as a single on April 9, 1951.
The song is a straightforward country-bluegrass love declaration in the Flatt & Scruggs vocabulary, with the kind of immediately singable chorus and tight harmony arrangement that defined the band’s early-1950s output. The November 1950 session yielded several of the band’s most enduring vocal recordings, and “Head Over Heels” sits alongside “I’ll Stay Around” and “We Can’t Be Darlings Any More” as one of the Castle Studio session’s most-covered songs.
“Head Over Heels” remains a regular feature in bluegrass-vocal sets, particularly at jams that lean toward the classic Flatt & Scruggs idiom. The song has been recorded by Bernie Woods and the Forest Fires, Monroe Crossing, the Osborne Brothers, Knoxville Grass, and many other acts. It is often abbreviated as “Head Over Heels” in modern usage, though the full title “I’m Head over Heels in Love” appears on the original Columbia release.
