"Elvira" is a song written by Dallas Frazier which became a famous country and pop hit by The Oak Ridge Boys in 1981, now considered one of their signature songs.

Songwriter Dallas Frazier wrote "Elvira" in 1966 and included it as the title track of an album he released that year. The title of the song was inspired not by the name of a woman, but by the name of a street in East Nashville, Tennessee. The song's chorus bears a resemblance to the song "Searchin'" written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and recorded famously by the Coasters.

Frazier's version peaked at #72 on the Billboard Hot 100. A number of other artists recorded the song through the years with varying degrees of success, most notably Kenny Rogers and the First Edition. Rogers' version appeared on the album Something's Burning, which reached the top 30 of the Billboard 200. In 1978, alternative country recording artist Rodney Crowell recorded his cover of "Elvira" (with "Ashes by Now" on the B-side). While Crowell's version was only a very minor hit, it did have its fans—most notably The Oak Ridge Boys. In 1980, when the band began planning for their upcoming album Fancy Free, they decided to record the song as well.

The Oak Ridge Boys already had a very successful career by 1981. They had five gold albums to their credits, with one Greatest Hits collection about to go platinum. Most of their hits had reached number one in Billboard or CashBox, and a few had crossed over to the pop and adult contemporary charts. However, they were still looking for that one song that really defined them. In May 1979, William Lee Golden told People magazine: "Inevitably our music will cross all borders and labels. Someday we're going to run across something that everybody will like at the same time. When THAT happens, we'll have made it."

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