Burning Love was one of the last ever rock songs released by Elvis. It was written by Dennis Linde (who actually played on the Elvis version) and originally first played by country soul musician Arthur Alexander in early 1972.
Elvis recorded his cover of the song in March 1972 and released it as a single in August later the same year. It eventually reached number two in the Billboard Hot 100 and number one in the Cashbox Top 40 chart, becoming his 20th US number one. However, whilst it was also his 40th Top Ten US chart hit it was also to be his last.
There have been many artists who have subsequently played their own versions of the song including the likes of Bruce Springsteen (who played it at most of his 1990’s concerts), Wynonna Judd, and even Dr and the Medics (included on their album “I keep thinking its Tuesday”).
NASA too got in on the act and used the Elvis original as the wake-up song on one of the Space Shuttle missions, and no wonder as there’s an epic feel to the intro riffs of the track that makes it a classic Elvis rock anthem.
When you watch this first video of Elvis performing Burning love LIVE you will feel your temperature rising:
And so here is where the dilemma starts. There’s another version of “Burning Love” that the official Elvis Channel released. You’ll have to watch to see why we put it at the end for a grand finale. It’s well worth the watch and it’s is DAZZLING.
The video is an extremely well-edited remix of modern superstar legends blended with the Elvis concert put together for the Cirque de Soleil shows Viva Elvis whilst they were resident at Las Vegas from 2010 to 2012.
The show was a celebration of Elvis’ life and the producers released a soundtrack album which included this remix of Burning Love. This was the third posthumous Elvis album but differed from the previous two which contained previously unreleased original material and, instead, had digitally re-instrumented or entirely new backing tracks supporting Elvis.
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As a result, the album, just like this video, was subject to a varied critical response that depended on whether you were in the camp that believed only Elvis knew how to deliver his music, or alternatively you felt Elvis would have leveraged the available technology and ability of the modern facilities to produce something similar.
Regardless of which side of the fence you sit on it’s worth a view. As one person commented “To all the naysayers with the negativity on this song, I love it as it freshens it up a lot. I’ve listened to Elvis nearly 50 years and I’m impressed with this version”. Another said “This was very well put together. It was awesome”.
