diff --git a/wp-includes/formatting.php b/wp-includes/formatting.php
index ff4167d227..cb8e5ba590 100644
--- a/wp-includes/formatting.php
+++ b/wp-includes/formatting.php
@@ -233,6 +233,10 @@ function wptexturize( $text, $reset = false ) {
 				continue;
 			} else {
 				// This is an HTML element delimiter.
+
+				// Replace each & with & unless it already looks like an entity.
+				$curl = preg_replace( '/&(?!#(?:\d+|x[a-f0-9]+);|[a-z1-4]{1,8};)/i', '&', $curl );
+
 				_wptexturize_pushpop_element( $curl, $no_texturize_tags_stack, $no_texturize_tags );
 			}
 
diff --git a/wp-includes/version.php b/wp-includes/version.php
index 3d0b0ada41..d016de24cf 100644
--- a/wp-includes/version.php
+++ b/wp-includes/version.php
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
  *
  * @global string $wp_version
  */
-$wp_version = '4.4.1-alpha-36035';
+$wp_version = '4.4.1-alpha-36037';
 
 /**
  * Holds the WordPress DB revision, increments when changes are made to the WordPress DB schema.