Elvis balked about recording the oversexed 'Burning Love.' Then it became his last hit.
The song, a slightly shocking blend of the spiritual and sexual, seemed like a hit to those in the room, with its reverent, raunchy intro:
Lord Almighty, I feel my temperature rising, mmm.Higher, higher, it's burning through to my soul.Girl, girl, girl, girl, you're gonna set me on fire.My brain is flaming, I don't know which way to go, yeah.
'Elvis didn't hate the song, he just wasn't in the mood for it,' Jerry Schilling, Elvis' longtime friend who attended the session, tells USA TODAY.
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In the end, Presley reluctantly recorded the gospel-rock track, giving it his high-octane all: 'He knew everyone felt that he should do it, he was a reasonable man,' Schilling says. It became Elvis' final Top 10 hit, peaking at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 that fall.
'I don't think Elvis was ever too thrilled about singing lyrics like 'Flames are now licking my body,' but he loved having a hit record," Schilling, 83, writes in the introduction to "Sunset Boulevard," a new five-disc, 89-track collection that spans Presley's Los Angeles studio sessions from 1970 to 1975. (Schilling can be glimpsed in the set's archival images: 'I'm very proud to be standing behind Elvis on the cover.')
The set includes rare alternate takes − half of which have never been released in the U.S. − rehearsals for his Las Vegas residency, and new stripped-down mixes of classic Elvis cuts, including 'For the Good Times,' 'Tiger Man,' 'T-R-O-U-B-L-E,' 'Green, Green Grass of Home,' 'Pieces of My Life,' 'Memories' and 'Softly As I Leave You.'
'I'm kind of a purist, you know: Don't mess with Michelangelo's paintings or change the clouds. Don't mess with the artist,' says Schilling, talking from his home in California, which Elvis gifted him in 1974. 'There's a tremendous responsibility. When the big questions come up, I go, what would I do if Elvis was sitting next to me? That's how I judge it. I know my friend.'
The singer never shied away from the provocation of songs like 'Burning Love,' Schilling adds. But in the early '70s, as Elvis privately struggled with his disintegrating marriage to Priscilla Presley, he gravitated toward expressions of heartbreak and regret such as the autobiographical 'Separate Ways' and 'Always on My Mind' (both included in the set).
Over time, he came to embrace the lusty song as part of his live repertoire, breaking it out months later for an epic 'Aloha From Hawaii' performance.
'There's a part of Elvis that wanted to be sexy,' Schilling says. 'And there's a part of him that wanted to be a great gospel singer.'
In 'Burning Love,' he got to be both.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Elvis Presley wasn't fond of 'Burning Love.' Then it became a hit.
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