He succumbed to episodes of drug and alcohol abuse, and found dwindling success on Nashville’s Sound Stage 7 label, recording, amongst other things, a bluesy rendition of the Everly Brothers’ “Bye Bye Love.” But by the mid-’60s, with the Hollies and Dusty Springfield having also performed his songs, he was no longer the darling of the British Invasion. He subsequently scored a US R&B #10 in October ’62 with “Anna (Go to Him),” which the Beatles covered the next year on Please Please Me. That was when Alexander, after a teenage stint in a gospel group called the Heartstrings, broke through with an exquisite piece of self-penned southern soul in the form of “You Better Move On.” He took the song to #24 in the Hot 100, before the Rolling Stones released a cover of it on their 1965 US #4 album, December’s Children (and Everybody’s). Presley got the credit because, once again, the Alabama-born pioneer of country-soul failed to get the commercial success he deserved as a former favorite of the two biggest British bands of the ’60s. Of course, Elvis had something of a history of making other people’s songs his own as the co-creator of rock ‘n’ roll, from Bill Monroe’s “Blue Moon of Kentucky” and Big Mama Thornton’s “Hound Dog,” to Mark James’ “Suspicious Minds.” But his ownership of “Burning Love” was assured, first of all, by the fact that Alexander’s original sank without trace. What is also little known, therefore, is that Presley’s version is a cover. What is less well known is that Presley achieved exactly the kind of resurgence with “Burning Love” that Arthur Alexander hoped for when he released it as a single six months earlier. ![]() ![]() (He was joined there by Chuck Berry and Ricky Nelson, the first time all three had been in the top ten in fourteen years.) It was high time he reclaimed his throne as the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, considering his recent dearth of hits in the US, and an audience seemingly weary of his ballads, his gospel numbers, and, ultimately, his “American Trilogy.” On “Burning Love,” he was able to reconnect with his incendiary late-’50s incarnation, to the point of ad-libbing a slice of his 1959 rocker, “A Big Hunk o’ Love.” In the 1972 song, he found the ingredients to catapult him back to the upper reaches of the Billboard Hot 100. Elvis Presley was finally convinced to get back, in true Beatles fashion, on “Burning Love,” the song he released as a single in August 1972.
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