Although it was rumored that Elvis Presley, The King of Rock and Roll, felt threatened by The Beatles and their success in the 1960s, he didn’t let that prevent him from singing several of their songs during the second half of his career. Beginning in 1969 when he returned to the concert stage after a 8-year absence, Presley incorporated several of The Beatles’ hits into his live act.

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In his 1968 “Comeback” television special, Presley talked about how the music business had changed since he first started in the 1950s. He then admitted: “I like a lot of the new groups, you know, The Beatles and The Byrds and the . . . whoever, but I really like a lot of the new music.”

Since Elvis was not a songwriter, he was always on the lookout for a good song to sing. He rose to worldwide fame in the 1950s as a result of having an uncanny ability to select the right songs that shot to the top of the charts. So it’s not surprising that Presley was astute enough to cover songs by The Beatles, a band who as John Lennon explained would not exist without Elvis.

However, none of the Beatles songs that Presley covered were “Lennon” songs. They were all “McCartney” songs except for one written by George Harrison.

The following are the five Beatles songs that Elvis Presley sang:

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Probably the most prominent Beatles’ song covered by Elvis is “Something” due to the fact that Presley sang it live during his “Aloha from Hawaii” concert special in 1973. This concert was broadcast all over the world via satellite and has been captured for posterity on the concert DVD and album.

George Harrison revealed in “The Beatles Anthology” from 1995 that he met Elvis a second time (after the Beatles infamous meeting with Presley in 1965) in New York at Elvis’ Madison Square Garden concert in 1972. Harrison intimated that at the time he did not like Elvis’ 1970s sound and wished he would go back to singing his old 1950s hits. Ironically, a few months later, Elvis showcased Harrison’s “Something” with a pinnacle performance in Aloha from Hawaii shown here.

Elvis joined the list of performers who have recorded “Yesterday”, the most covered song of all time, when he sang the song during his August 1969 shows in Las Vegas. The concert recording (click here for audio) was released the following year on the album called On Stage.

Watch Presley singing the song during the rehearsals for his 1970 Las Vegas concerts which were filmed for a documentary called That’s The Way It Is.

Watch Presley singing the song combo during the rehearsals for his 1970 Las Vegas concerts in That’s The Way It Is.

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Listen to the audio from a studio outtake of Elvis Presley singing The Beatles’ song, “Lady Madonna.”

In 2002, a rare EP collection containing all five songs was released on CD called Elvis Sings Beatles’ Songs.

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