Love Letters (Elvis Presley)

10 AUGUST 1966


Elvis was having mostly minor hits at this time in his career, with ordinary songs pulled from his very ordinary movies, but the ballad ‘Love Letters’ was at a very respectable #6 on the UK charts, and #19 on the US Billboard Hot 100. This was not, however, the kind of chart-topping success he was once accustomed to.

The song itself dated from 1945, when it was written by Edward Heyman and Victor Young for the movie 'Love Letters'. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song that year. That Elvis - once the most controversial figure in popular music - would be recording such conservative, dated material in 1966 says a lot about where his career was at the time. His 1968 TV special wasn’t considered his ‘comeback’ for nothing.