The story behind the song
Elvis Presley recorded Ain’t That Loving You Baby on June 10, 1958. RCA Victor kept the song unreleased for six years, then issued it as a single in September 1964. Written in the mid 1950s by Clyde Otis and Ivory Joe Hunter, it became a Top 20 pop hit.
Singer Eddie Riff recorded its first version in 1956.
On June 10, 1958, Elvis went to RCA Studio B in Nashville, during a short break from U.S. Army basic training. The session was meant to produce unreleased singles that RCA could put out while he was serving in West Germany, helping keep his name on the charts.
The recording brought together a top Nashville group: Hank Garland on lead guitar, Floyd Cramer on piano, Bob Moore on double bass, and drummers D. J. Fontana and Buddy Harman. Elvis and the musicians recorded the song as a standard E-major shuffle, choosing Take 4 as the master. They also recorded a faster, more energetic version during the session.
By the early 1960s, Elvis had stopped performing live to concentrate on Hollywood films. RCA then searched its 1958 recordings and released Ain’t That Loving You Baby as a single on September 22, 1964, with Ask Me on the B-side.
The single stayed on the Billboard Hot 100 for 10 weeks and reached number 16. Both songs from the 1964 single appeared on the 1968 compilation album Elvis’ Gold Records Volume 4. In 1985, RCA released the faster alternate take from the 1958 session on the blues compilation Reconsider Baby.
NOTE: This song is not the same composition as Jimmy Reed’s 1956 blues hit Ain’t That Lovin’ You Baby, even though they have similar titles.
AT A GLANCE