{"id":550639,"date":"2026-03-28T15:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T15:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/550639\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T15:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T15:22:09","slug":"on-this-day-in-1972-elvis-presley-recorded-his-final-major-hit-despite-fears-it-was-too-sexy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/550639\/","title":{"rendered":"On This Day in 1972, Elvis Presley Recorded His Final Major Hit Despite Fears It Was Too \u201cSexy\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Throughout his career, Elvis Presley was certainly no stranger to controversy. Often bumping up against the societal constraints of the conservative 1950s, he once had to rewrite<\/a> an Everly Brothers song before recording it. (The radio had banned the Everly Brothers version for \u201cscandalous\u201d lyrics.) Being the biggest rock star of all time meant constantly walking a tightrope between appealing to the masses without veering too far into explicit territory. All that considered, it sort of make sense why Presley hesitated to record \u201cBurning Love\u201d. However, on this day (March 28) in 1972, Elvis relented. He decided to record the song that would give him the final major hit of his career.<\/p>\n

Elvis Presley \u201cWasn\u2019t in the Mood\u201d For This Song<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret that provocative lyrics and dance moves were a major component of Elvis Presley\u2019s fame. However, by the early 1970s, the King of Rock and Roll was struggling<\/a> as his marriage to Priscilla Presley crumbled behind closed doors. (They would divorce in 1973, one year after he recorded \u201cBurning Love\u201d. <\/p>\n

As such, the Mississippi-born superstar felt more drawn to heartbreaking ballads like \u201cSeparate Ways\u201d and \u201cAlways on My Mind\u201d. So when he heard a demo of \u201cBurning Love\u201d, originally recorded by country-soul artist Arthur Alexander, Presley wasn\u2019t an instant fan.<\/p>\n

\u201cElvis didn\u2019t hate the song, he just wasn\u2019t in the mood for it,\u201d Jerry Schilling, the King\u2019s longtime friend, told USA Today.<\/p>\n

At the insistence of everyone in the room at Hollywood\u2019s RCA Studio C, Presley finally relented. He recorded the gospel-rock track, releasing it as a single that August.<\/p>\n

[RELATED: This 1962 Elvis Presley Song Was Outdated Within Months, Thanks to This Governmental Change]<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cHe knew everyone felt that he should do it, he was a reasonable man,\u201d Schilling said.<\/p>\n

And they weren\u2019t wrong. \u201cBurning Love\u201d climbed to No. 2 on the all-genre Hot 100 in October 1972. It marked the final Top 10 hit of Presley\u2019s career before his death in 1977.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think Elvis was ever too thrilled about singing lyrics like \u2018Flames are now licking my body,\u2019\u201d Schilling wrote in the introduction to the Sunset Boulevard box set. \u201cBut he loved having a hit record,\u201d<\/p>\n

Featured image by Ron Galella\/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Throughout his career, Elvis Presley was certainly no stranger to controversy. Often bumping up against the societal constraints…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[2616,15762,88,216,2156],"class_list":["post-550639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-1970s","tag-elvis-presley","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-rock-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}