Credit: Far Out / Alamy

Which Beatles songs did Elvis Presley cover?

Sat 15 February 2025 21:30, UK

There is a lot you can conclude about modern society from the simple fact that in 1962, John Lennon was cogitating on a thought he would later put into words when he said, ”Without Elvis, there would be no Beatles.” And yet, by 1970, Elvis Presley had volunteered himself to partake in a secret FBI plot to have Lennon deported. A hell of a lot of culture happened between those points, and there are lessons for all of us when it comes to how it played out for the two leading parties.

When you find yourself in opposition to the current youth, remind yourself that you have simply grown old. A perfect paradigm for this patently evident rule is that Elvis was a hated radical shaking up the stilted state of affairs in the 1950s. Then suddenly, he found himself championing the same cynical conservative view brandished against him when it came to his successors. The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll transformed America with his hip-snaking ways, but unfortunately, he wasn’t much of a fan of what he had begotten.

The irony of his hatred of the revolutionaries that followed in his wake is profound. As one letter from a former Army Intelligence Service officer to FBI director J. Edgar Hoover stated in 1956: “[Elvis is] a definite danger to the security of the United States”. Continuing: “[His] actions and motions were such as to arouse the sexual passions of teenaged youth. One eye-witness described his actions as ‘sexual self-gratification on stage,’ – another as ‘a strip-tease with clothes on’.”

While that might make for very problematic reading, the fact that Elvis was toured around the FBI headquarters ten days after meeting Nixon in 1970 as an ally figure shows just how fast the sexual liberation of pop culture unfurled beyond his own liking. By the time ‘Hound Dog’ turned 40, it was The Beatles that he thought had sullied the fine nation of the United States of America the most. Lodged in the FBI vault is a 663-page report on “Presley, Elvis A”. Within that, we learn that “he thought the Beatles had been a real force for anti-American spirit.”

Furthermore, he was also “of the opinion that the Beatles laid the groundwork for many of the problems we are having with young people by their filthy unkempt appearances and suggestive music.” Yet, it was also that same music – and his not-so-secret admiration for it – that bellied that fact it was Elvis who had been suggestive to the same conservative propaganda that he sought to disrupt rather than the King being triggered by an inherent disgust for tracks like ‘I Want You (So Heavy)’. After all, wasn’t ‘Love Me Teder’ suggestive in the sultriest sense?

Elvis Presley - 1960s — Credit: Sony Music Entertainment

Over the years, his duplicitous opinion of the Fab Four became clear. He might have had a spat with Lennon and offered to spy on the Liverpudlians, but he also liked their music enough to cover it on several occasions. He might not have had the script hold over his creative autonomy, but there is no doubt he wouldn’t have dabbled in their discography unless he liked them at least a bit.

So, what songs by The Beatles did Elvis Presley cover?

Interestingly, Elvis didn’t start covering The Beatles until 1969. At that stage, he had already amassed a fair chunk of the 665 songs he would commit to record in his lifetime, and his ire aginst the plucky scousers was beginning to reach its most irksome. So, he neither needed to nor probably wanted to cover ‘Hey Jude’ in ’69, but he was moved enough by the brilliance of the beauteous anthem to go against his better/bitter judgement.

However, he mustn’t have been too pleased with the result because it wasn’t released until three years later. Nevertheless, he did mention that the track could be seamlessly blended with ‘Yesterday’, with the two songs having keys and melodies that comfortably tesselated. So, when he used to perform ‘Yesterday’ live quite extensively during his Las Vegas International Hotel stint, he often threw in snippets of ‘Hey Jude’ for a little extra electricity.

Of all the Beatles tracks he covered, ‘Something‘ seems the most apt. The George Harrison classic suited his smooth crooning pipes perfectly when he performed it as part of his Aloha From Hawaii. Almost to his chagrin, Elvis knew this too, and he began to weave it into his set throughout the ’70s. All told he covered the track 28 times over the years.

Lastly, there was an anthem that took him back to his rockier days, too. ‘Little Sister’ saw the singer return to a bluesy sound. And once again, he noticed the track tesselated quite nicely with ‘Get Back’, so he frequently blended the two together when he was playing live in the 1970s. Ironically, ‘Get Back’ symbolised the battle and begrudging respect between the two, because while Elvis might have covered it, it also wouldn’t have gone amiss to him that it also kept ‘In The Ghetto’ from the top spot in 1969—the first time the two huge giants went to battle in the charts.