Rock Valhalla: “Burning Love” by Elvis Presley

By the autumn of 1972 the rock ‘n’ roll revival had gathered pace to the point that Elvis, absent from this list for a decade, was for the only time in his life kept off number one by Chuck Berry, with the new Rick Nelson record not far behind. Fear of what else was about to happen?

“Burning Love” came after Presley’s epically point-missing take on Mickey Newbury’s “An American Trilogy” and was clearly designed as one last flourish of rock to prove he hadn’t lost it. The song was written by Dennis Linde, who also played guitar (alongside James Burton) on the record, with JD Sumner and The Stamps’ backing vocals more than up to the task. It was originally written for Arthur Alexander, who released his version earlier in 1972, but Presley’s reading swiftly eclipsed Alexander’s.

Of course it wasn’t really the good old days returned; sonically the record is too processed, smeared by flawless polish. But Presley’s vocal was jarring enough to make the song sound like a requiem. He is extending a dubious lyrical analogy between fire and sex, much as some allegedly blasphemous gospel singers had done in the fifties when everything was still to be achieved. But his quiver shreds the polite backdrop as he goes on to equate sex with death. By the time he gets to the squealingly exhausted “Lord have mercy, I’m burning a hole where I lay,” we appear to be witnesses to a Viking funeral. To paraphrase the song sung by another RCA recording artist at the time, he had five years, and possibly knew it (I further note that the three-chord bridge of “Burning Love” is harmonically identical to the three-chord middle-eight of “Perfect Day,” as sung by another RCA recording artist at the time).

Date Record Made Number Two: 28 October 1972

Number Of Weeks At Number Two: 1

Record At Number One: “My Ding-A-Ling” by Chuck Berry

UK Chart Position: 7

Other Information: The song and its B-side, “It’s A Matter Of Time,” both appear on a budget album entitled Burning Love And Hits From His Movies, Volume 2. Of the other eight songs which make up this twenty-three-minute record, none – not even “Tonight Is So Right For Love” which harvests the same Offenbach stock as Donald Peers’ “Please Don’t Go” – was even released as a single, let alone became a hit.

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