The Enormous Influence Of Elvis’ ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ To The Beatles Career

Elvis Presley was a great inspiration to all of us. The king of rock & roll remained so iconic that even the titans in the industry offer their massive thanks to him, for helping them find the spark they needed to start their blasting careers; a fact that can be discovered inside the Beatles’ repertoire.

John Lennon, the ½ of the Lennon-McCartney songwriting partnership of the Beatles, explained in an interview how the songwriting process usually happens inside studio sessions. Lennon truthfully revealed that the Fab Four weren’t fond of arguing during the session, but there sure was a lot of tension that surrounded them.

“Getting four of you to groove at the same time is difficult with any band; any band goes through that,” Lennon explained. “You get two going, and somebody else drops out halfway through and gets paranoiac and screws it.”

He also said that writing lyrics does not take too long; only the mixing, editing, and overlaying since all four of them are perfectionists in their work.

Later in the interview, Lennon mentioned Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel” as one of the band’s go-to inspirations wherever they have the urge to write a new hit. “I usually say things like, “Well, ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ this is, and do it that way,’” he remembered. “I have some other song in mind to say it’s like that, that’s what I’m going for.” They used that trick many times in the early 60s, and EMI engineers would sometimes be lost in the conversation.

It wasn’t just the United States where “Heartbreak Hotel” found tremendous success; the rest of the world did as well. This was Presley’s first number-one single, and it stayed at the top of the charts for eight weeks. Since the song became a global hit, Lennon and the rest of The Beatles had easy access to it; serving as an inspiration for several of their iconic songs.