We felt that if we were gonna change with anything, we could get by with using that song.” They were right. Cut on May 25, 1955, the single was rushed into release in July, and shot to Number 13 on the charts. The gamble had paid off, and now the hits started coming: “I Don’t Believe You’ve Met My Baby,” “Hoping That You’re Hoping,” “You’re Running Wild,” “Cash on the Barrelhead.” By the end of 1956 the brothers were winning awards for Best Singing Group as well as Best Sacred Group. Nelson managed to hold on to their gospel audience by putting out gospel songs in album form, and using the best secular stuff for singles.
Neither brother lost interest in gospel, even when they toured with the hottest act in show business, Elvis Presley. Both Presley and his mother had been fans of the Louvins since Memphis days, and the Louvins could have had a major relationship with him but for an incident backstage on a 1956 tour. As was his custom, Elvis began playing gospel tunes on the piano and remarked, “This is really my favorite kind of music.” Ira, standing nearby, took offense. “If that’s your favorite music,” he shouted, “why don’t you play that out yonder, instead of that trash!” Presley lamely responded, “When I’m out there, I do what they want to hear.
When I’m back here, I do what I want to do.” Things almost came to blows. Charlie remarked: “If Elvis ever had any ideas about doing a Louvin Brothers song, he dropped them then.” Success was also tempered by Ira’s increasingly turbulent lifestyle. He soon won a reputation as the best tenor singer in Nashville, and as perhaps the best post–Hank Williams songwriter. He was also very much a ladies’ man, between and during his four marriages. He was also a driven man, capable of manic intensity one moment and wild humor the next.