Elvis Presley - The Man Who Would Be King

Jimmy Rabbit: "Elvis isn't soul". His father: "Elvis is God!".

This brief quote, taken from Alan Parker's film "The Commitments", helps us understand what Elvis Presley has been, is, and will be for millions of people. The numbers alone are telling: more than a billion records sold worldwide. Sixty-eight singles placed in the Billboard Top 20 between 1956 and 1977. Twenty-one singles topping the British charts, with eighty weeks spent at number one. The only artist inducted into no fewer than four Halls of Fame: rock, gospel, country and rockabilly. Millions of fan clubs scattered across every corner of the globe, keeping his memory alive through festivals and celebrations. Graceland, his residence, declared a national monument, is the second most visited site in the United States after the White House. The revenue generated by merchandising still amounts to millions of dollars a year. The numerous sightings and legends that have sprung up since his death show that, more than thirty years on, the void he left behind remains impossible to fill.

In musical terms, moreover, his influence has been, and continues to be, enormous. From the Beatles to the Stray Cats, from U2 to Bruce Springsteen, right down to our own little fan-clones like Little Tony, Bobby Solo and Ligabue, everyone has had to reckon with Elvis Presley.

Reeling off facts and figures, however, doesn't help us fully grasp Presley's importance to the world of music and culture. Far more illuminating, in this respect, are these statements from two world-famous artists who have repeatedly acknowledged his influence:

"Before Elvis there was nothing" (John Lennon)

"Hearing Elvis for the first time was like busting out of jail" (Bob Dylan)

Striking phrases, Lennon's and Dylan's, that nonetheless capture the thoughts and feelings of an entire generation of kids. Before Elvis, music wasn't aimed at the young. Singers like Nat "King" Cole, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Bing Crosby offered a kind of music suited to an already-adult audience. The way they presented themselves – in suit and tie, perfectly groomed and perfumed – didn't give teenagers anyone to identify with. And their singing style, melodic and technically flawless but also terribly aseptic, failed to get under the skin of teenagers. Elvis swept all of that away. After his arrival, everything that came before suddenly seemed prehistoric. He was the first true teen idol, a young man singing for the young. His music was innovative and revolutionary, rhythm pushing lyrics and melody into the background. Rock'n'roll's first stirrings had already happened, but they'd stayed confined to "black" music. Only Bill Haley, a singer with country roots, tried to bring rock'n'roll to a white audience with his "Rock Around The Clock", but he had neither the charisma nor the right look. Despite his extraordinary musicianship, his image – the typical chubby, good-natured American family man with a curl on his forehead – didn't let him overwhelm audiences emotionally. Elvis Presley, appearing on stage with a brand-new image, moves no one had ever seen before, and the sexiest voice anyone had ever heard, immediately won the hearts of teenagers, bringing a genre considered until then rock-bottom into the national spotlight and also helping the success of great Black artists such as Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Arthur Crudup. And yet, his legend began in a thoroughly ordinary way...

In the beginning

The Presley twins, Elvis Aaron and Jessie Garon, were born on January 8, 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi, to Vernon Presley and Gladys Smith. Jessie Garon died just hours after birth, and that loss led their mother to pour all her affection onto her one surviving son, forging an almost unbreakable bond between them. The future "King of Rock" grew up in a small town in the Deep South under decidedly precarious economic conditions. The effects of the 1929 "Great Depression" were still being felt: his father Vernon had no steady job, and his mother Gladys was forced to take on small evening jobs to scrape together some money. Their modest house stood in the poor part of town, close to the Black neighborhood – a fact that would prove crucial to young Elvis's musical education. Like many other artists of the era, Elvis discovered the joy of making music in the church his parents used to attend. It was in the choir of the "Assembly of God" that young Presley took his first steps into the musical world, learning to know and love the gospel sound that would influence the rest of his career so deeply. Elvis's musical talent soon became apparent when, for his eighth birthday, he asked for a guitar as a present and tried to reproduce the melodies he heard at family gatherings. Financially, though, things were going badly for the Presley family. Life grew harder and harder, and his father Vernon, out of work, decided to move the whole family to Memphis, Tennessee.

Fitting into his new urban surroundings was anything but easy for Elvis. He struggled to make friends with kids his own age, both because of his deeply introverted nature and because of his obsessive attachment to his parents. His look certainly didn't help either. While other boys wore short hair and T-shirts, Elvis sported a quiff, complete with a fine pair of sideburns. He loved dressing in loud colors, which made him thoroughly out of fashion and unpopular among his schoolmates. Because of his family's financial hardship, he was forced to buy his clothes on Beale Street, right in the heart of the Black neighborhood, where he could find anything cheap. It was precisely through this constant contact with the Black community that Elvis developed a thoroughly anti-racist outlook – a revolutionary stance for the era, for 1950s America, especially in the Southern states. Radio stations, for instance, were split between those that played "white" music and those that played "black" music. Elvis made no racial distinctions, either socially or musically. He attended white schools and shopped at Black markets; he listened to the blues of B.B. King and the country of Roy Acuff.

Despite these environmental and financial difficulties, Elvis tried to help his family by finding work as a truck driver for Crown Electric in Memphis. It was during one of his usual delivery runs that Elvis noticed, on Union Avenue, a small recording studio called Sun Studios, where you could cut a record for a dollar. It was July 5, 1954.

The Sun years

Elvis came to Sun Studios to cut a record as a gift for his mother ahead of her birthday. He walked into the recording room and sang "My Happiness", a traditional American song the Presley family had held dear since their Tupelo days. Young Presley's vocal timbre and his utterly groundbreaking singing style immediately struck Sun Records' owner, Sam Phillips (born in Florence, January 5, 1923 – died in Memphis, July 30, 2003), who burst out of the control room and stopped him on the spot. For some time Sam Phillips had been searching for a new sound, one able to fuse America's two musical souls – country and blues – and that odd kid with the quiff seemed like a gift from heaven. After calling in guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, two excellent session men, he kicked off a few trial sessions. After a night spent improvising with little success, Elvis launched into an old Arthur Crudup country number, "That's All Right Mama", and music changed forever. His version, marked by a wild rhythm and a vocal delivery never heard before, hit like a punch to the gut. Sensing the song's potential, Sam Phillips recorded it immediately and released it on July 19 of that same year. For the B-side, an equally revolutionary version of a Bill Monroe classic, "Blue Moon Of Kentucky", was chosen. Rock and roll was born.

The Sun single "That's All Right Mama"/"Blue Moon Of Kentucky" was a massive hit and put Elvis on the radar of American teenagers. A few days after the single's release, Elvis performed at the Overton Park Shell, where he was able to unleash his extraordinary gifts as a frontman. During the performance, driven both by the song's relentless rhythm and by the nervous energy of playing in front of a sizeable crowd, Elvis began shaking his hips and moving his legs to the beat. The effect on the audience was devastating. The women present went wild and started screaming. Bassist Bill Black began spinning and slapping his instrument, producing a percussive sound that suited the wild spirit of the performance perfectly. The die was cast. The fuse was lit, and demand for live shows grew by the day.

Within a few months, Elvis played the Eagle's Nest Club, gave a single, historic concert at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, and appeared on the Louisiana Hayride, one of the most listened-to radio programs across the entire American South. Still, he found time to return to the recording studio, and the results were, once again, astonishing. The follow-up singles, still released on Sun, only confirmed the enormous musical talent and the incredible commercial potential of the boy from Tupelo. Songs like Wynonie Harris's "Good Rockin' Tonight", Junior Parker's "Mystery Train" and Arthur Gunter's "Baby Let's Play House" became, in Elvis's hands, blazing rock'n'roll anthems. Scotty Moore's staccato guitar and Bill Black's percussive upright bass, combined with Presley's hiccupping vocal style, turned these three songs into rock'n'roll standards that artists would measure themselves against for years to come. American kids, utterly driven wild, called radio stations asking who that Black man singing country songs was, or who that white man singing blues songs was. His singles entered – something that had never happened before – the rhythm'n'blues and country charts simultaneously.

In other words, within a matter of days Elvis had become the brightest musical star of the Southern states and, without a doubt, one of the most promising artists in America. Sun Records, once an obscure small-town recording studio, found itself transformed into one of the most influential and innovative record labels of all time (Sam Phillips would go on to launch artists of the caliber of Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison and Carl Perkins), earning its rightful place in music history. Elvis's rapid rise, however, created serious problems for Sun Records, which lacked the financial resources to handle the enormous success of its prize racehorse. In November 1955, Sam Phillips sold Elvis's contract (along with all the masters, tapes and every other recorded piece of material) for the record sum of $35,000, handing the shy boy from Tupelo over to RCA, a label with national reach, certainly capable of launching the young talent into the firmament of the international star system.

The road to legend

Elvis's talent was entrusted to the care of Thomas Andrew Parker (born Andreas Cornelis Van Kuijk, Breda, June 26, 1909 – died Las Vegas, January 21, 1997), known as "The Colonel", who became the singer's manager for the rest of his career. In January 1956, Elvis held his first official RCA sessions in Nashville, Tennessee. Those sessions produced the new single "Heartbreak Hotel/I Was The One", released on January 27. Tom Parker, sensing the enormous potential of the fledgling medium of television, arranged a string of appearances for his client on major national broadcasts to promote the new single. On January 28, Elvis made his first national television appearance on Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey's "Stage Show". As expected, the single shot simultaneously to the top of the pop, country and r'n'b charts, becoming the record of the year. His presence on television was constant throughout 1956. He appeared on five more episodes of "Stage Show" and on one episode of the "Milton Berle Show" in front of an estimated audience of forty million people. Elvis thus officially entered every household in America, stirring up scandal and alarm. His way of dancing – shaking his hips and legs to the beat, which earned him the nickname "Elvis The Pelvis" – landed like a hydrogen bomb on buttoned-up, straight-laced 1950s America. Catholic associations, priests, psychoanalysts and politicians accused the singer of corrupting American youth with his obscene gyrations.

It was above all the four appearances on Ed Sullivan's "Toast Of The Town" that went down in history; during those broadcasts, in fact, Elvis was censored, shown only from the waist up. Meanwhile, his success among the young reached absolute peaks. In March 1956 his first album was released: Elvis Presley (whose cover would inspire, twenty-five years later, that of the Clash's "London Calling"), containing tracks drawn both from the Sun Records sessions and from the RCA sessions. The record was an instant success, spending ten weeks at the top of the "Billboard" charts and becoming the first rock album to sell over a million copies. Songs like "Blue Suede Shoes", "Tutti Frutti" and "I Got Woman" changed the course of music history forever. Through his innate musical instinct, Presley reinvented songs by Carl Perkins, Little Richard and Ray Charles, instantly making them his own. His rhythmic surges and vocal shifts, swinging from a whisper to the raspiest of shouts, upended the original versions, making them wilder and more compelling. Even on gentler songs, such as "Blue Moon" or "I'll Never Let You Go (Li'l Darlin')", Elvis managed to convey tenderness and sensuality at once, thanks to his voice and to arrangements that brought out its softness and flexibility.

The incredible sales continued throughout 1956, during which Elvis placed no fewer than eleven singles in the Billboard Top 40, five of which reached the very top of the charts and stayed there for twenty-five weeks. Titles like "Hound Dog", "Don't Be Cruel" and "I Want You, I Need You, I Love You" instantly became classics, making Elvis the defining figure for millions of kids. It was above all the wild "Hound Dog" that captured the public imagination (it would even be referenced in Robert Zemeckis's "Forrest Gump", in which the title character teaches Presley his famous dance moves), thanks to its thunderous drum rolls between verses and the basset hound that accompanied its promotional campaign.

The success was repeated that October, with the release of his second LP, simply titled Elvis. Like its predecessor, the album spent four weeks at the top of the charts thanks to songs like "Ready Teddy", "Rip It Up", "Long Tall Sally" and the gorgeous "Love Me", which set the template for all the Presley ballads to come. It was this ballad, in particular, that sealed the collaboration between Elvis and two of the most prolific songwriters in music history, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who contributed to the singer's success almost as much as Colonel Parker did, churning out hit after hit.

Meanwhile, Presley's career was also evolving in other directions, both artistically and musically. Film producer Hal B. Wallis signed an exclusive contract with Colonel Parker to feature Elvis in his films, and on November 19, 1956, the singer's film debut, "Love Me Tender", was released. The title track, taken from the film's soundtrack, had been previewed on September 9, 1956, during the opening episode of "The Ed Sullivan Show", and it was an instant smash. This delicate song stands as one of the absolute high points of Presley's discography. His voice, backed only by a simple acoustic guitar, turns soft and desperate, trembling yet resolute at the same time.

Even though "Love Me Tender" wasn't yet available in stores, RCA received advance orders for over a million copies, so many that it had to seek help from other labels such as Decca, Capitol and MGM to keep up with the enormous demand. The song made clear how Elvis's singing style was changing, moving from the rock of "Blue Suede Shoes", "Hound Dog", "Jailhouse Rock" and "Don't Be Cruel" toward a softer, more melodic approach typical of crooners. Riding the wave of "Love Me Tender"'s success, two more films starring Presley came out in 1957: "Loving You" in July and "Jailhouse Rock" in October. Despite their modest cinematic merit, both films were enormous box-office hits.

From a recording standpoint, this was the period of the fantastic Elvis's Christmas Album, which would spawn a whole lineage of followers (Beatles, Beach Boys, the Philles Sound, right up to the recent Michael Bublé), as well as hugely impactful singles such as "Too Much", "All Shook Up", "Teddy Bear" and "Treat Me Nice". During this period Elvis's eclecticism and artistic versatility shine through in all their greatness. The singer moves from the wild rock'n'roll of "All Shook Up" and "Teddy Bear" to reinterpretations of Christmas classics such as "Silent Night" and "White Christmas".

Colonel Parker unleashed his inventiveness and business acumen, building a merchandising empire around Elvis's name made up of t-shirts, lipsticks and wallets, capable of grossing twenty million dollars a year (and this was 1957!). This seemingly unstoppable run was abruptly interrupted by a sensational event: on 20 January 1958 Elvis had to report to his hometown's military district to fulfil his draft obligations.

In the Army

A flurry of controversy immediately erupted. There were numerous scenes of hysteria among his female fans, as well as protests and requests for exemption sent directly to the President of the United States, Dwight Eisenhower. For his part, Elvis, who had already been declared fit for service in January 1957, did not oppose military service and accepted without complaint the two years away from home that the draft required. Paramount was the only party to request a deferment, so the singer could finish shooting his fourth film, "King Creole". On 24 March 1958 Elvis was enlisted at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas, before being transferred to Fort Hood, Texas, where he underwent training with his unit.

Despite the harshness of military life, things went fairly smoothly given the recruit's fame, but the hardest blow was still to come. On 14 August that year, Gladys Presley died of a heart attack brought on by the hepatitis she had long suffered from. For Elvis it was an unimaginable grief, given the almost morbid bond he had with his mother. A little over a month later, on 22 September, Presley boarded the aircraft carrier USS Randall bound for Bremerhaven, Germany. He was assigned to the 4th Armored Division stationed at Friedberg, where he served as a jeep and truck driver. The only privilege he was granted during his stay in Germany was being allowed to sleep outside the barracks, in a rented villa in Bad Nauheim, where he lived together with his father, his grandmother and all those "cousins" who surrounded him as bodyguards and personal secretaries.

His military service in Germany remained the only time Elvis ever visited Europe, since, apart from a few concerts in Canada, he never left the United States. The German interlude left a faint but real trace on Presley's discography: in 1960 (just back from military service) Elvis recorded "Wooden Heart", part of the soundtrack to the film "G.I. Blues" [Café Europa], in which two verses are sung in German. Meanwhile, back in the United States, both RCA and Colonel Parker worked hard to keep the public's interest in the singer alive. With new recordings impossible to make, previously recorded singles such as "Don't", "One Night", "I Got Stung" and "A Big Hunk O' Love" were released, and they achieved excellent sales results.

It was especially the raw, howling "One Night" and the pounding "I Got Stung", with its unforgettable a cappella intro and the Jordanaires' backing vocals, that captured the public's imagination.

On top of that, excellent compilations such as King Creole, Elvis' Golden Records, For LP Fans Only and A Date with Elvis were released, once again demonstrating the singer's extraordinary popularity.

Meanwhile, the 1950s were drawing to a close, and with them the "golden age" of rock'n'roll. Artists such as Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Gene Vincent and Buddy Holly were on an inexorable downward slide, and Elvis's career too was destined to head in other directions. On 1 March 1960, Sergeant Presley completed his military service, and his return to show business was celebrated triumphantly with an appearance on Frank Sinatra's TV show.

1960-1966: The road to Hollywood

Without wasting any more time, Elvis headed straight for the recording studio, and in April 1960 the single "Stuck On You"/"Fame And Fortune" was released. The time away seemed to have done nothing to dampen the public's affection for the singer, so much so that the single shot straight to the top of the charts, selling a million copies on pre-orders alone. The very same thing happened with the singles "It's Now Or Never", "Surrender" and "Are You Lonesome Tonight", which made it clear that Elvis's style had changed for good. There was no longer room for the wild rock of a few years earlier, only pleasant renditions of international hits ("It's Now Or Never" is a reworking of "'O Sole Mio" and "Surrender" of "Torna a Surriento") and strikingly effective ballads. It was especially the mellow, knowing "Are You Lonesome Tonight", with its characteristic spoken-word middle section, that highlighted the change. The King was widening his circle of subjects, moving into a style worthy of a great crooner.

Despite his musical successes, Presley turned increasingly toward cinema, becoming a fixture on the big screen.

In 1960 came "G.I. Blues", a light comedy, and "Flaming Star", a mediocre western that touched on racial issues. In 1961, after the drama "Wild in the Country", it was the turn of the enjoyable "Blue Hawaii", which finally nailed down the formula best suited to meeting audience expectations. From that point on, Elvis's films almost always followed the same cliché: a light comedy in which the hero fought for his future and for the girl of his dreams, all seasoned with dream locations and tailor-made songs. For a very long time, his films were the only way to see Presley sing; this explains the huge box-office success of movies that were often rather vapid, like those released between 1965 and 1967.

From a musical standpoint, even though his career was by then completely absorbed by cinema, Elvis still produced excellent albums such as Elvis Is Back!, from April 1960, considered one of the singer's best thanks to heartfelt performances of "Fever", "Reconsider Baby" and "Like a Baby".

In December 1960, the excellent His Hand in Mine was released, made up entirely of gospel music, with standout tracks such as "Milky White Way", "Mansion over the Hilltop" and "Joshua Fit the Battle". Six months later, in June 1961, came Something for Everybody, another gold record, driven by the hits "Gently", "Sentimental Me" and "It's a Sin".

The limited effort put into recording was more than made up for by his intense film work. As proof of this, in 1962 two films starring Elvis were released, "Follow That Dream" and "Kid Galahad", alongside just a single studio album, Pot Luck. Unlike his previous albums, Pot Luck did not enjoy the usual runaway sales success, despite containing thoroughly respectable tracks such as "Kiss Me Quick" and "I'm Yours". The reason for this dip in sales was the simultaneous release of soundtrack albums, which, buoyed by greater publicity and visibility, eclipsed all parallel releases. From that moment on, in fact, Elvis devoted himself almost exclusively to recording the musical themes of the films he starred in, although a few singles with no connection to his film career did still appear, such as "Good Luck Charm", "Little Sister" and "Crying in the Chapel".

Live performances disappeared altogether. February 25, 1961 and March 25 of that same year marked Presley's last public appearances. The first was a charity show in Memphis, the second a concert organized in Hawaii to raise funds for the "USS Arizona", a ship sunk at Pearl Harbor during World War II. Meanwhile, his Hollywood career was going full steam ahead, and in the years from 1963 to 1966 he starred in no fewer than eleven films. Titles such as "Girls! Girls! Girls!", "Fun In Acapulco" and "Viva Las Vegas" followed one another at a frantic pace (sometimes as many as three in a single year!), each duly accompanied by a soundtrack and related merchandising. By now light years away from the audience that had grown used to seeing him only on the big screen, Elvis found himself trapped in a role that wasn't really his. He wasn't an actor, he was the king of rock, and the moment soon came for him to reclaim his throne!

The King's Return

1967 was the turning point. Three events marked the decisive change of course in Elvis's career and life: the release of an album entirely removed from the world of cinema, his marriage to Priscilla Beaulieu, and the release of the single "Big Boss Man". Between February 25 and 28, 1966, temporarily free from film commitments, Elvis went to RCA's Nashville studios for some recording sessions. Backed by excellent session musicians such as The Jordanaires on backing vocals, Scotty Moore on guitar and Charlie McCoy on bass, he recorded gospel standards that made up the album How Great Thou Art. Peerless renditions of American traditional songs such as "Father Along", "So High" and "By and By" showed Presley's renewed love for the music of his roots. The record, released in February 1967, immediately went multi-platinum, won a Grammy Award that same year, and peaked at number eighteen on the Billboard chart.

A few months later Elvis announced his marriage to Priscilla Beaulieu (born in Brooklyn on May 24, 1945), the daughter of a United States Air Force colonel, whom he had met while serving in Germany. On May 1, 1967, the two married in a brief ceremony in a suite at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas. On September 26 of that same year the single "Big Boss Man/You Don't Know Me" was released, marking Elvis's return to his first love: rock'n'roll. Even so, his career struggled to regain its former glory, and not even the birth of his only daughter, Lisa Marie, on February 1, 1968, did anything to ease his growing dissatisfaction. The public, tired of silly little songs and insipid films, was starting to turn its back on him. Of the ten singles released between January 1967 and May 1968, only two made the Billboard Top 40, and neither went higher than number 28. The last soundtrack he released, taken from the film "Speedway", didn't get past number eighty-two on the chart.

A grand-scale comeback was therefore needed, one capable of restoring the shine to Presley's image, somewhat dulled by his Hollywood years. Elvis's last TV appearance dated back to Frank Sinatra's Timex Show, way back in 1960, right after his return from military service, and so Colonel Parker decided the time had come for a new television special. The manager worked so hard that he eventually managed to convince NBC to finance, produce and tape a special episode that would air during the holiday season.

In June 1968 Elvis went into a studio in Los Angeles to record what became known as the "Burbank Sessions". Backed by some of the finest musicians in America (including Scotty Moore and D.J. Fontana), he appeared, for the first time in seven years, in front of a flesh-and-blood audience to revive his faded image as the "king of rock and roll". On that occasion, dressed head to toe in black leather (in the finest rockabilly tradition), Elvis recorded several hours of audio and video footage that would go on to make up what became the "Elvis NBC TV Special", better known as "Elvis '68: Comeback Special".

It was the turning point. Thanks to memorable performances of old and new hits (worth singling out are the fantastic renditions of "One Night", "Can't Help Falling In Love" and the "Heartbreak Hotel/Hound Dog/All Shook Up" medley) and an uncommon stage presence, Elvis showed the whole world that he was still The King, undeterred by the growing British Invasion and the newly emerged psychedelia. Aired on December 3, 1968, the Comeback Special won over both critics and audiences alike, reaching a 42% viewer share that instantly made it the biggest TV success of the year. Numerous journalists showered praise on the historic broadcast, with reviews such as:

"There is something magical about watching a man who has lost himself find his way back home. He sang with the kind of power people no longer expect to find in rock'n'roll singers. The way he moved his body must have made Jim Morrison green with envy" (Jon Landau).

"A broadcast of emotional grandeur and historical resonance" (Dave Marsh).

The King had won back his subjects through a spectacular show of strength. From that moment on, his career soared higher than ever. The single "If I Can Dream", written specifically for the special and released in January 1969, reached number twelve on the chart, while the soundtrack taken from the Comeback Special shot straight into the Top Ten.

Neverending Tour

The magic moment continued with the release, in June 1969, of the excellent album From Elvis In Memphis, with which he proved he had completely abandoned movies and soundtracks (his last film was "Change Of Habit", released that same year). Recorded in Memphis between February and March 1969 at Chips Moman's American Sound Studio, the album was enriched by some of Elvis's finest performances, including "Long Black Limousine", "Only The Strong Survive", "Any Day Now" and the hugely famous "In The Ghetto". The same sessions also yielded the stellar pop/soul masterpiece "Suspicious Minds", which, released as a single in September 1969, took Presley back to the top of the charts for the first time in over ten years. The distinctive guitar riff that opens the song and the perfect interplay between Elvis and the chorus give "Suspicious Minds" the status of an absolute masterpiece, making it one of the best-selling singles of all time.

Meanwhile, on July 31 of that same year, Elvis debuted at the International Hotel in Las Vegas with a series of sold-out shows. Backed by a team of formidable musicians including James Burton on lead guitar, Ronnie Tutt on drums, Jerry Scheff on bass and John Wilkinson on rhythm guitar — the so-called TCB Band (short for "Taking Care of Business Band") — Elvis delivered performances of rare power.

From this series of concerts came an LP released on October 14 of that year, together with a new album of unreleased material drawn from the prolific American Sound Studios sessions: From Memphis To Vegas/From Vegas To Memphis. This work was both Elvis's first double album and his first official live album. Divided into Elvis In Person At The International Hotel — the live album — and Back In Memphis — the studio album — the record showed audiences an artist in peak form, equally at ease ranging from early rock'n'roll ("Johnny B. Goode", "Blue Suede Shoes") to deeply intense ballads ("In The Ghetto", "Can't Help Falling In Love"). The previously unreleased tracks, including "From A Jack To A King", "Without Love" and "Stranger In My Own Hometown", confirmed he was at a true peak of physical shape and musical inspiration.

The following decade opened with a new series of shows, once again at the International Hotel in Las Vegas, scheduled between January 26 and February 23, 1970. After so many years away, Elvis seemed determined to make up for all the lost time away from his audience, dramatically ramping up his live activity.

On the recording front, after the staggering successes of the late Sixties, Elvis confirmed his rediscovered glory with the release of the singles "Kentucky Rain," which reached a solid number sixteen on the charts, and "The Wonder Of You." Having severed all ties with the film industry, the only filmed record of Elvis from this period was the documentary "Elvis: That's The Way It Is."

Requests for concerts grew by the day, and there was frequent talk of possible European or world tours, but Elvis, to everyone's surprise, chose never to leave the United States. His refusal to perform outside the country's borders remained for years one of the most controversial aspects of his career, and one of the questions most often asked by his vast army of disappointed fans. One official explanation was his growing patriotism, which led him, in December 1970, to meet Richard Nixon. At the singer's explicit request, the President of the United States received him at the White House for a private conversation in which Elvis repeatedly declared his fervent Americanism and his disgust for the hippie-driven drug culture.

Between June 4 and 8, 1970, he went to RCA's studios in Nashville to record the tracks that would make up the LP Elvis Country (I'm 10,000 Years Old), released on January 2, 1971, two years after its predecessor. Regarded as one of the finest works by the Tupelo-born artist, it marked a further return to his roots, conceived as a concept album built mainly around country and bluegrass standards. A superbly crafted record, it boasted gems such as "Little Cabin On The Hill," "I Really Don't Want To Know" and "There Goes My Everything."

So much material emerged from the Elvis Country sessions that RCA executives decided to put together another album from it. The selected "leftover" tracks were reworked with overdubs by producer Felton Jarvis and released under the title Love Letters From Elvis in June 1971. Markedly inferior in quality to the previous albums, the record was panned by critics and audiences alike, and failed even to crack Billboard's Top 20. Still, it did contain some fine tracks, such as "Love Letters," "Got My Mojo Workin'" and "Heart Of Rome." The title track, above all, rightfully earned its place among the highlights of Presley's repertoire, thanks to the splendid piano accompaniment that underscores the warm, baritone richness of his voice.

But the failure didn't discourage RCA, who promptly released Elvis Sings The Wonderful World Of Christmas, an ideal follow-up to the 1957 Christmas record. Released in October 1971 and followed by the single "Merry Christmas Baby"/"O Come All Ye Faithful" the following November, the album, despite decent commercial results, failed to recapture the appeal of the Elvis Christmas Album. Alongside the tracks already mentioned, it featured a spine-tingling version of "The First Noel" and an excellent rendition of "Silver Bells."

The near-constant touring prevented Elvis from producing much fresh material in the studio. Indeed, almost all the albums released in the early Seventies were drawn from sessions held at RCA Studios straddling the turn of the decade.

The album Elvis Now, released in February 1972, was no exception: it was assembled largely from a mixed bag of material recorded by Elvis three years earlier, with the rest coming from sessions held between March and June 1971. Unlike his most recent efforts, this album followed no unifying thread, coming across instead as a patchy, uneven product: from the cover of "Hey Jude," to the country flavor of "I Was Born Ten Thousand Year Ago," to the ballad "Sylvia."

Sales were unimpressive, although the single lifted from it, "Until It's Time for You to Go"/"We Can Make The Morning," reached number nine on the charts. The March/June 1971 sessions also yielded the album He Touched Me, released just two months after Elvis Now. Presley returned to the concept-album format, releasing the third gospel record of his career. Carried by the splendid "Amazing Grace," "An Evening Prayer" and "Reach Out To Jesus," the album won a Grammy Award for Best Inspirational Performance and spent a full 10 weeks on the Billboard chart, peaking at number 79.

Metro Goldwyn Mayer, for its part, filmed a series of concerts in April 1972 and released the film Elvis On Tour, which won the Golden Globe for Best Documentary that same year. The run of shows Elvis played at New York's Madison Square Garden sold out for four consecutive nights, a first in the venue's history. The album drawn from the New York shows, Elvis: As Recorded At Madison Square Garden, released in June 1972, immediately became a million seller. Right after the tour, the single "Burning Love" matched the success of the live album, propelling Elvis back into the Top Ten for the last time.

So much success and glory, however, always come at a price - sometimes, a very high one.

Stardust

If Elvis's career was sailing ahead at full speed, the same could not be said of his private life. The constant travel demanded by his hectic touring schedule led him to neglect his wife Priscilla and daughter Lisa Marie more and more. An almost unbridgeable gulf had opened up between them, even though they still lived under the same roof. In 1971, moreover, Elvis had an affair with Joyce Bova, a former White House employee, who became pregnant and later had an abortion (without the singer's knowledge). Elvis even considered bringing her to live with him at Graceland, convinced that his marriage would soon be over. The Presleys separated on February 23, 1972, after Priscilla confessed to having had an affair with Mike Stone, a karate instructor Elvis himself had recommended to her. The singer's reaction, according to his wife's account, was extremely violent, and divorce became inevitable. Five months later, Linda Thompson, a former Memphis beauty queen and the singer's new girlfriend, moved into Graceland.

It was precisely during this period, so turbulent on a personal and emotional level, that Elvis achieved what was perhaps the greatest professional triumph of his career. On January 14, 1973, a show he performed in Honolulu, Elvis: Aloha From Hawaii, was broadcast live around the world via satellite, reaching an estimated audience of a billion viewers across forty countries. It was a historic event: no artist before him had ever reached such a vast audience. The album drawn from the concert, Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite, became the first quadraphonic record to become a million seller. The outfit Elvis wore for the occasion also made history, eclipsing even the flashy jackets of his early days and the leather suit from the Comeback Special.

But it was also Elvis Presley's swan song. He would never again reach such heights, partly due to the progressive decline of his physical and mental health. During a show that same month, he was attacked by a fan; thanks to his knowledge of martial arts, he managed to throw the man off the stage, but the incident only deepened his growing distrust and fear of strangers. From that point on, he surrounded himself with an almost impenetrable wall of relatives, friends and bodyguards, ironically nicknamed the "Memphis Mafia," which effectively cut him off from any contact with the outside world. In truth, ever since returning from military service in 1960, Elvis had developed a strong wariness of people, making himself nearly unapproachable, but by the early Seventies he was living, in practice, like a recluse. The presence of the Memphis Mafia was perhaps one of the likely causes behind Elvis's divorce from Priscilla, which became final on October 9, 1973. This progressive withdrawal from the outside world paradoxically drove him to seek ever more contact with his audience. The relentless pace of touring, combined with a body out of shape and mounting depression, led Elvis to a reckless overuse of medication. Barbiturates, tranquilizers and amphetamines forced him into several hospital stays as early as late 1973. A chaotic diet also caused him to put on considerable weight, reducing him to a shadow of what he had been just three years earlier.

On the musical and recording front, this mental and physical decline had significant consequences. Mounting anxiety, combined with a severe form of paranoia, led Elvis to lose almost all interest in the recording studio. In December 1973, RCA organized sessions at Stax Studios in Memphis that produced eighteen tracks. Some of them ended up on the album Elvis (The "Fool" Album), released the following July. Originally conceived as half studio recordings and half live tracks, it was heavily reworked to give it greater consistency. The live tracks were entirely cut (except for "It's Impossible") and replaced with pieces of a more melodic, pop-leaning cast.

The album became famous for Presley himself playing piano on tracks like “It’s Still Here,” “I’ll Take You Home Again,” “Kathleen” and “I Will Be True.” Sales were excellent (buoyed by the success of “Aloha From Hawaii”), helped also by some interesting moments like the title track “Fool” and the excellent, full-on country-style cover of the Dylan song “Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right.”

The follow-up, Raised On Rock/For Ol’ Times Shake, also benefited from that slipstream effect. Released just two months after “The Fool Album,” the record marked a shift toward sounds more oriented to funk and black music. Despite the heavy presence of remakes of already-known songs like “Are You Sincere,” the album also included original pieces united by a romantic theme, such as “If You Don’t Come Back,” “I Miss You” and “Girl Of Mine.” Throughout 1974, Elvis didn't set foot in a studio, tied up as he was with yet another tour. On this occasion, audiences found themselves facing a figure that bore no resemblance whatsoever to the electrifying performer who had dazzled the world at the Honolulu concert. Bloated, worn out, visibly dazed by drug abuse, Elvis could barely even remember the words to his most famous songs. His temperament grew increasingly unstable, and his behavior took on more and more manic traits. During this period, for instance, he liked to walk around armed with three or four pistols, and it wasn't unusual to see him practicing kung-fu moves during concerts or recording sessions.

Young people began to turn their backs on him, regarding him now as a relic, a caricature. Cultural critic Marjorie Garber wrote of him: “By now his fans were middle-aged matrons and blue-haired grandmothers.” Nevertheless, in March 1974 Good Times was released, once again assembled from tracks recorded more than a year earlier. The album wasn't a big success, although it was later reassessed as one of the most significant albums of Presley's 70s output, on the strength of songs like “Talk About The Good Times,” “I’ve Got A Thing About You Baby” and excellent covers such as “Spanish Eyes” and “She Wears My Ring.”

Presley's slow decline was confirmed by the commercial flop of the following album, Promised Land. Released in March 1975 and named after the Chuck Berry song that opens side A, the album was put together entirely from leftover tracks cut from the previous Good Times. Only the single containing the title track achieved much success. The other single pulled from the album, “If You Talk In Your Sleep,” sank into obscurity.

In March 1975, Elvis finally returned to the recording studio at RCA Studios in Hollywood, California. In two days he recorded the material needed for Today!, perhaps the last gasp of his career. The track “T-R-O-U-B-L-E” brought him back into the US Top 40, while his cover of a Tom Jones song, “Green Green Grass Of Home,” climbed to the top of the charts in the UK as well. The album's tracklist was rounded out with fine renditions of songs by Don McLean (“And I Love You So”), Troy Seals (“Piece Of My Life”) and Greg Gordon (“Bringing It Back”). This was the last time Elvis would ever set foot in a recording studio. Life was slipping ever further out of his hands.

The King Is Dead! Long Live The King!

Given the considerable drop in popularity, Colonel Parker and RCA deemed it essential for Presley to return to the recording studio to produce original material. The singer's extremely unstable temperament, and his refusal to set foot in a studio, preferring to perform live instead, forced his manager and record label to ship everything necessary directly to Graceland so Elvis could record comfortably at home. The equipment was set up in the so-called Jungle Room (a room decorated in Polynesian style), but despite this convenience, the new sessions were plagued by the artist's whims and eccentricities.

RCA expected no fewer than twenty new tracks, but in the end only about half that number were recorded. Elvis seemed increasingly confused and distant, spending entire days in bed or entertaining his friends in the most unusual ways. These difficulties didn't stop the label from releasing the album From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee in May 1976. The standout track chosen for the record was the magnificent “Hurt,” written by Jimmie Crane and Al Jacobs, which Elvis delivered with a stunning performance, while “For The Heart,” rooted in classic rock, also found good success.

The album also included, as filler, melodic tracks such as “Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain,” “Love Coming Down” and “Never Again.”

Financial troubles also began to mount. Colonel Parker's substantial gambling debts, the extravagant spending to satisfy his and the Memphis Mafia's whims, combined with a career clearly on the decline, forced Elvis into increasingly grueling tours. The only one to oppose this absurd spiral that was literally killing the singer was his own father, Vernon Presley, who in July 1976 fired several bodyguards from the Memphis Mafia, citing the need for a fair, if drastic, cut in expenses. But it was already too late; “Elvis was a bank, and as such, had to stay open.” For this reason, live engagements kept piling up without a break.

The performances, however, got worse on every front, often reduced to pitiful spectacles. Presley, by now physically and mentally broken, was no longer able to get through a concert. Most of the time he mumbled nonsensical words into the microphone; other times, when he was particularly on edge, he would let loose with strings of profanity. There were an increasing number of occasions when Elvis didn't even show up on stage, unable to get out of bed. During this period, in fact, he suffered from glaucoma, high blood pressure, spastic colitis and liver problems, all made worse by drug abuse. His psychological troubles also worsened, keeping him bedridden for days at a time. Numerous tours were cancelled, and recording sessions became virtually nonexistent.

Elvis Presley's last live appearance was on June 26, 1977, at Market Square Arena in Indianapolis, where he delivered extraordinary versions of the Righteous Brothers' “Unchained Melody” and Simon & Garfunkel's “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” A month later, his final official album was released: Moody Blue. RCA tried to schedule sessions in January 1977 to record material for the new album, but Elvis never showed up at the studio. The record was pieced together from Presley's last recording session at Graceland in 1976, completed with a number of live tracks. The title track, released as a single, sold well. Also included were the aforementioned “Unchained Melody,” “Let Me Be There” and “Way Down” (which became a posthumous hit). While the album was being released, Elvis was at Graceland for a period of rest, planning the new tour set to begin on August 17 in Portland. Departure from Memphis was scheduled for the late afternoon of August 16, 1977, but that tour never began.

In the late morning of that sad day, Ginger Alden, the singer's new girlfriend, found Presley's lifeless body slumped on the bathroom floor. The various attempts at resuscitation and the emergency admission to Baptist Memorial Hospital were all in vain. The King was pronounced dead at 3:30 p.m. Cause of death: heart attack. He was only 42 years old.

He had slipped away quietly, alone, in the most remote and humble room of his impregnable fortress, the one that isolated and protected him from the world. But by now he could no longer hide. News of Elvis Presley's death spread at lightning speed. Within a few hours, more than 80,000 people had gathered outside the gates of Graceland. Memphis florists were overwhelmed with requests for wreaths and floral pillows. Special flights were organized to carry tributes in from every corner of the United States. The funeral, held on August 18 at Graceland, was watched live on television by millions of people. Outside the gates, an enormous crowd waited for the funeral procession to accompany the King on his final journey. Numerous fans were overcome by fainting spells and outbursts of hysteria. The hearse, caught in the crush, killed two women and seriously injured a third. Presley's body was buried at Forest Hill Cemetery next to his mother Gladys, but following an attempted theft of the body toward the end of August, it was moved on October 2 to the Meditation Garden at Graceland, where it still rests today.

The endless pilgrimage of fans who, for thirty-five years, have continued without pause to visit his grave; the nonstop stream of biographies (true or otherwise), videos, rarities and everything else, proves, if proof were ever needed, that Presley didn't die to go to Heaven, but to be transformed, once and for all, into legend.

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google