The classic Elvis Presley song that Paul McCartney listened to and wept
Elvis‘ cultural reach was broad and far, and The King influenced just about every rock band during the 1960s. While many of them might have turned against him in due course, it would be wrong to forget how much he moved them in the first place.
With his swinging hips, greased hair, and sultry sound, he sexualised the world of popular music. His energetic live performances set him apart from his peers, and he managed to create a union during the complicated race relations of the 1950s. Elvis was beloved by most, and especially by the Beatles’ very own bassist, Paul McCartney.
“Elvis was the guy,” McCartney told Reverb. “He ended up a complete plonker, unfortunately – he turned in the end, wanted to become a Federal drug marshal. But I did love him in the early days, and yes, when we met him, that’s the period I remember. I don’t bother when you go into Vegas and the rhinestones and all that – it’s like he didn’t exist from then on for me.”
McCartney said he had been listening to some of Elvis’ early work, as he explained: “Yeah. I heard them this summer – haven’t heard them for years – and I was blown away. I suddenly realised the last time I listened to this thoroughly was before The Beatles, before all that happened to me, and it just stripped it all away.”
Suddenly, McCartney was back in his room as a boy. He hadn’t surpassed his hero or saw the King’s image erode thanks to questionable ideology and diminishing artistic returns. And in this moment of reverie, McCartney rediscovered just how much the singer meant to him. “It was like I was a kid playing snooker again and listening,” he said. “It actually got me crying, pow. Really did it to me. And I could remember all the words, ‘Hold me close, hold me tight.'”
The words are from ‘I Want You, I Need You, I Love You’, which was released back in 1956. It was originally written by Maurice Mysels and Ira Kosloff, arriving as Elvis’ seventh single on the RCA Victor label, marking his second number one single on the country music charts. And it’s sweet tenderness always moved McCartney. In fact, you can see its mawkish influence carry right through to the defining rebuttal of ‘Silly Love Songs’.
Yet, there was also an edge to the backstory of the song that imbued it with a rock ‘n’ roll spirit that Macca has always loved, too. The tale of Elvis’ recording of the track is fascinatingly dangerous. After the success of ‘Heartbreak Hotel’, RCA Victor wanted a solid song to follow it up.
So, Elvis was flown to Nashville in the middle of his busy touring schedule. However, the plane’s engine failed and fell through the sky. All hope seemed lost, and a panicked crew desperately tried to recover engine control. Fortunately, the aircraft made it to its destination, but not without considerably shaking up its passengers.
When Elvis arrived at the studio, he was, understandably, lacking in ideas for a new track, so he decided to perform ‘I Love You, I Want You, I Need You’. However, having been traumatised during the flight, he kept forgetting the words and his band were also performing poorly. Now, seemingly, wasn’t a great time to be crafting a hit. But the newly minted march of pop culture wasn’t going to wait up for them, and they knew they had to soldier on.
In total, they recorded 17 takes of the song, none of which were particularly good, and producer Steve Sholes felt that the whole thing had been a waste of time. But, in his own panic, Scholes managed to splice together two separate takes – a rarity at the time – and no one at the label noticed. However, the minor mood swing, somehow seemed to channel the daring backstory in some strange mystical way, and McCartney was left enamoured by the result as a boy craving his own heartbreaks and adventures to sing of.
So, it’s little wonder that when he did get around to revisiting his Elvis records years later, the song made him shed a tear. McCartney continued discussing Elvis and said, “My kids were like, Dad, you know all the words to this stuff? You better believe it. And I thought, ‘Well, I once was a kid like this, before all The Beatles thing, and now you live with the whole legacy of The Beatles, and it’s great’. You could do a lot worse.”
He added, “But you know what I mean? Just the idea of that was fantastic – I was 17 again. Not a bad feeling when you’re 52″.
McCartney’s meeting with Elvis was of great benefit to Austin Butler, who recently portrayed the singer in Baz Luhrmann’s biopic. He was fortunate enough to catch a train with McCartney and his daughter, Stella, from Paris to London, where McCartney told a fascinating anecdote about meeting the king of rock and roll.
Despite their wildly differing lives and fleeting interaction, there are few artists out there with as intense a connection as Elvis and McCartney. They reached rarified heights that nobody else has matched, and even though they were practically enemies at one point, there’s no doubt that without The King, The Beatles would never have existed.
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