Elvis balked about recording the oversexed 'Burning Love.' Then it became his last hit.

By all objective measures, Elvis Presley was a hunk, a hunk of burning love. But he clearly wasn’t feeling it when he heard a demo of “Burning Love” at RCA Hollywood Studios in March 1972.

The song, a slightly shocking blend of the spiritual and sexual, seemed like a hit to those in the room, with its reverent, raunchy intro:

Lord Almighty, I feel my temperature rising, mmm.Higher, higher, it's burning through to my soul.Girl, girl, girl, girl, you're gonna set me on fire.My brain is flaming, I don't know which way to go, yeah.

“Elvis didn’t hate the song, he just wasn’t in the mood for it,” Jerry Schilling, Elvis’ longtime friend who attended the session, tells USA TODAY.

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