"A Big Hunk o' Love" is a song originally recorded by

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...

and released as a single on June 23, 1959 by RCA Victor, which topped the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 for two weeks. The song was revived by Presley in 1972 during his engagements at the Las Vegas Hilton in February 1972 and was used regularly in his live shows until mid-1973. It was performed live for the last time on January 26, 1974. The song is included in the 1972 documentary ''Elvis On Tour'' and his 1973 show broadcast via satellite, ''Aloha from Hawaii''. During this time period, it was played by the Elvis' TCB Band, and featured Glen D. Hardin and James Burton. The song was written by

Aaron Schroeder Aaron Harold Schroeder (September 7, 1926 – December 2, 2009) was an American songwriter and music publisher. Early years Born in Brooklyn, Schroeder graduated from the school now known as the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art a ...

and Sidney Wyche, under the name Sid Jaxon and published by Elvis Presley's company Gladys Music, Inc. Aaron Schroeder (along with Wally Gold), also wrote " It's Now or Never" and " Good Luck Charm", both of which, like "A Big Hunk o' Love", were originally recorded by American

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...

icon Elvis Presley. Syd Wyche is best known for writing the jazz standard " Alright, Okay, You Win", whereas Aaron Schroeder co-wrote many hits in the rock`n`roll area, from "Fools Hall of Fame" (

Pat Boone Patrick Charles Eugene Boone (born June 1, 1934) is an American singer, songwriter, actor, author, television personality, radio host and philanthropist. He sold nearly 50 million records, had 38 Top 40 hits, and has acted in many films. Boone ...

) to " Because They're Young" ( Duane Eddy). In an interview conducted by Jan-Erik Kjeseth, he also revealed that in fact he worked with his partner Wally Gold in order to improve a song submitted by another writer, and the result was " It's My Party", a big hit for Lesley Gore. Schroeder and Gold tossed a coin as to whose name should go on the record, and Gold "won". The song appeared on the 1959 compilation '' 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong'', the 2002 career retrospective '' ELV1S: 30#1 Hits'', and the 2016 compilation ''The Wonder of You''.

Recording

"A Big Hunk o' Love", a hard, driving rocker, was recorded at Elvis' first and only session during his two years of Army service. The session took place on June 10, 1958, in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

. It was the first session that did not include

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselve ...

Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, who had both worked with Elvis since his first recordings for Sam Phillips at the Memphis Recording Service, which later became known as Sun Studios. The recording featured Elvis' drummer D.J. Fontana and backing vocalists the Jordanaires, who would continue to work with Elvis until Elvis' appearance at the Hilton in

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

. The rest of the musicians were noted Nashville session men, such as guitarist

Hank Garland Walter Louis Garland (November 11, 1930 – December 27, 2004), known professionally as Hank Garland, was an American guitarist and songwriter. He started as a country musician, played rock and roll as it became popular in the 1950s, and release ...

on a Gibson Byrdland guitar, Floyd Cramer on piano, Bob Moore on double bass, and Buddy Harman and D.J. Fontana on drums. The song was recorded in four takes, the released version is actually spliced from takes three and four.

Personnel

–

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a guitar technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse (music), pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., d ...

Chet Atkins Chester Burton Atkins (June 20, 1924 – June 30, 2001), also known as "Mister Guitar" and "the Country Gentleman", was an American musician who, along with Owen Bradley and Bob Ferguson (musician), Bob Ferguson, helped create the Nash ...

– rhythm guitar *

–

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

* Bob Moore –

double bass The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...

* D.J. Fontana, Buddy Harman –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

Floyd Cramer Floyd Cramer (October 27, 1933 – December 31, 1997) was an American pianist who became famous for his use of melodic "whole-step" attacks. He was inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His signatur ...

–

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

* Steve Sholes – producer *Bob Ferris –

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

Release and chart performance

RCA Victor had paired "A Big Hunk o' Love" for release as a single with " My Wish Came True" as the B-side in both the United States and England. When the single was released on June 23, it was the third release to come from Elvis' army session after "I Got Stung" on October 21, 1958, and " I Need Your Love Tonight" b/w " (Now and Then There's) A Fool Such as I" on March 10, 1959. The A-side spent two weeks at No. 1 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 while the B-side peaked at No. 12. The single was less successful on the '' Cashbox'' Top 100 with the A-side peaking at No. 2 and the B-side at No. 23. On the UK Singles Chart the A-side peaked at No. 4, while the B-side did not appear on the chart. The A-side also peaked at No. 10 on ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' magazine's R&B Singles chart. Presley's next single was another Aaron Schroeder co-composition, " Stuck on You". "A Big Hunk o' Love" was the first of four of Schroeder's songs that became No. 1 hits for Presley. "A Big Hunk o' Love" b/w " My Wish Came True" was Presley's last commercially released Canadian 78 RPM. It was Elvis' first single to not receive a 78 RPM pressing in the United States.

Single track listings

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Big Hunk O' Love, A 1959 singles Elvis Presley songs RCA Records singles Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles Songs written by Aaron Schroeder 1959 songs RCA Victor singles Songs written by Sid Wyche

Recording

Personnel

Release and chart performance

Single track listings

See also

References