Guest
‘Burning Love’ was recorded by Elvis in RCA’s Studio C in Hollywood, California on 28 March 1972, one of only two recorded that day, the other being ‘Fool’. This was the middle day of a three day session which would yield seven masters including ‘Always On My Mind’ and ‘Separate Ways’. Elvis’ producer Felton Jarvis was convinced that a song he had been given by his friend Bob Beckham, a Nashville publisher, would be a big hit for Elvis. Initially unconvinced it took a great deal of effort and persuasion on the part of Jarvis and Beckham to get Elvis to record the Denis Linde composition – ‘Burning Love’. The electric guitar opening and riffs were overdubbed and played by Dennis Linde himself. Elvis introduced it into his live repertoire for his next tour which began just over a week after the Hollywood session in Buffalo, New York on 5 April and concluded in Albuquerque, New Mexico on 19 April – nineteen shows later. Performed only twice on this tour, it was presumably included for the benefit of the MGM cameras, who filmed four shows from this tour for the upcoming ‘Elvis – On Tour’ documentary, and both times the cameras were present. The song would flit in and out of the set list for the next few months and in 73, despite it being included in both ‘Aloha’ shows it would be sung only a further three times that year, the next three Elvis shows which were the opening three of Elvis’ sixth Las Vegas engagement. For the rest of 73 and all of 74 it would disappear completely but would have a renaissance in 75 and 76 where it between 18 March 75 and 25 June 76 it would become an almost permanent fixture. Despite this it would be performed for the final time on stage on 25 October 1976 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Commercially, ‘Burning Love’ was released as a single on August 1, 1972, with the B-side “It's a Matter of Time“, and it reached the Top 40 on the country charts, peaking at #36. For the weeks of October 21 and 28, 1972, “Burning Love“ rose to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, being kept from #1 by Chuck Berry's novelty song “My Ding-a-Ling.“ However, it reached #1 on Cashbox's Top 40 Charts for the week of November 11. This first live performance was omitted from the final cut of ‘Elvis – On Tour’ with this version four nights later in San Antonio, Texas being preferred and subsequently included in the movie. Also evident in this first performance is Elvis’ obvious unfamiliarity with the song as he struggles with the lyrics – even with a lyric sheet. Elvis the consummate professional is unperturbed and finishes the song completely unflustered. The whole situation is taken in good humour by Elvis, the band and the audience especially with the ending of the song almost being a disaster – Elvis comments that ‘Thought we’d never end the damn thing!!’ - priceless! There was obviously some extra work done in between shows during the four days between that first performance and this second performance as it is much improved - although Elvis has not yet completely mastered the lyrics yet!! As with all of these videos, to get the most out of the re-edited audio, I highly recommend you use ear /headphones and turn the volume up as much as you dare!
