This was written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller as a country and western parody with lines such as ‘Treat me like a fool/Treat me mean and cruel/But love me’.
The future King recorded it on September 1, 1956, for his second album, Elvis. It was also released on the EP Elvis Vol 1 which got to No 2 in the United States, a first for a non-single issue. It was not released as a single to avoid confusion with Love Me Tender which Elvis released the same year.
He sang Love Me on the Ed Sullivan Show of October 28, 1956, backed by the Jordanaires. He was 21 at the time and in my opinion at the very height of his looks and his powers. I love the way he respectfully says ‘Thank you very much, Mr Sullivan’ to the host. Incidentally this clip proves that the story that Sullivan was so horrified by Elvis’s moves that he ordered his camera team to show him only from the waist up was a myth.