‘Everytime I look at you I don’t understand Why you let the things you do get so out of hand.’ Superstar, Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber
The story of Elvis Presley’s life ends here. It’s rather like the Beatles’ argumentative ‘Let It Be’ sessions. The official parties would rather that it hadn’t been like that. Apple has never reissued the Let It Be film and similarly Graceland glosses over the final two years of Elvis’ life. But the decline is an important part of the overall story.
If you tour Graceland, they say Elvis died of heart failure. There are no further details or alternative hypotheses.
Elvis was no Howard Hughes; he was making appearances and putting down tracks but there were multiple problems. Things were bad at the start of 1976 and it was evident that it was going to get worse. This chapter, like the others, is in two parts. In the first, we ask ‘What if…’, what might have happened if Elvis had gone into rehab and got fully committed to his career again. There are some indicators that suggest what could have happened. In the second part, we find out what really happened.
Elvis Presley died on 16 August 1977 and we all wish he hadn’t. What if his heart attack had been a wake-up call? What if he had decided at long last to sort himself out? Which might he have done?
Songs were being submitted to Elvis and his advisors all the time and Elvis was hearing songs on the radio that he liked. We can make a reasonably accurate assessment of what would have been on Elvis’ next LP.
In January 2004, I saw Elvis Presley’s TCB band at the Olympia in Liverpool. The set, though very good, was predictable – with one exception. The bass player, Jerry Scheff, announced that they were going to play a song he had written for Elvis, ‘Fire down Below’. It’s true, as in October 1976 the backing track had been recorded ready for Elvis’ voice. When the TCB Band played it live, it sounded excellent, a forceful rocker like ‘Burning Love’. Not only would it have been a good track for Elvis’ next album, but it also sounded like a good title.
In January 1977, Elvis Presley went to Nashville for some sessions but flew home instead of going to the studio. It wasn’t because he disliked the songs but because he had fallen out with his girlfriend. Backing tracks were recorded but he never added his vocals. They were ‘That’s What You Do To Me’ (written by Bob Morrison and Johnny MacRae and a US Top 10 country hit for Charley McClain in 1978), ‘Energy’ (by Bob Morrison and Tommy Roe), ‘Rainy Night in Georgia’ (Tony Joe White’s song which was a US hit for Brook Benton in 1970), ‘By Day By Day’ (by Dennis Linde), ‘Let Me On’ (by Layng Martine Jr and recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis on Killer Country in 1980) and ‘Yes I Do’ (Alan Rush).
Dennis Linde, who wrote ‘Burning Love’, told Elvis – The Man and his Music, ‘The song ‘By Day by Day’ had gospel elements to it and I thought he could have done a terrific version. Felton played my demo to Elvis and he liked it.’
Alan Rush was a musician in Jubal with Dennis Linde, which recorded for Elektra. If Felton Jarvis felt that an Elvis session needed a bit of tweaking before release – an extra harmony or some more guitar – he would ask Jubal to resolve it. Another of Alan Rush’s songs, ‘Wild and Woolly Ways’, was recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis in 1978 and would have suited Elvis.
Although a backing track wasn’t recorded, there was a good chance that Elvis would record ‘Mustang Wine’, a song by a maverick songwriter who had moved to Nashville, Steve Earle. In the 1980s this was one of Earle’s stage favourites and it was recorded by Carl Perkins.
David Bellamy of the Bellamy Brothers told me, ‘Felton Jarvis, who was producing Elvis, got hold of our version of ‘Miss Misunderstood’ and they cut the backing track for Elvis to add his voice. He was going to put it on his next album and I’m mad at Elvis for leaving before he cut it. After his death, Felton Jarvis brought Carl Perkins in for the vocal but it was in the wrong key for him.’ Carl did record the song with a different accompaniment.
We know too that Bruce Springsteen had written a song for Elvis, ‘Fire’, which would have tied in neatly with ‘Fire down Below’ and the feeling of ‘Burning Love’. It could have been one of his biggest hits, as Springsteen passed it to the Pointer Sisters who took it to No.2 in the US in 1978. David Bowie thought that ‘Golden Years’ would suit Elvis: he’s right but Bowie’s image was way out of Elvis’ comfort zone. Dolly Parton’s ‘I Will Always Love You’ was still only a country hit and although Elvis recognised its potential to cross over, Dolly wouldn’t make a deal with Hill and Range.
When the country singer / songwriter Bob Cheevers lived in Memphis, he collected an annual charity cheque for $50,000 from Elvis Presley in Graceland. In 1963, he got the urge to use the toilet and Elvis told him where it was. ‘I took a dump in Elvis’ toilet,’ says Bob. Years later, Elvis died before he could record one of Bob’s songs, ‘Big City Gambler’, ‘and he died on the toilet, maybe the same one.’ It’s a funky composition in line with the songs Elvis was recording by Jerry Reed.
John Stewart, who wrote ‘Daydream Believer’, said, ‘A friend of mine, John Wilkinson, was playing rhythm guitar for Elvis and he told me that Elvis used to sing ‘July You’re A Woman’ in the dressing room before he went on stage. He never recorded it – it would have been the high point of my life to have Elvis doing one of my songs – but the fact that he loved the song and sang it is enough for me.’
Perhaps because Elvis liked ‘July You’re A Woman’, John Stewart had been asked to submit some new songs to Elvis. He recalls, ‘I got a call from RCA Victor, ‘Elvis wants you to write a song for him.’ He’d broken up with Priscilla and he was singing songs about breaking up with Priscilla. I guess it was so devastating for him that he wanted to sing what he felt, like we all do, I think. I wanted to write one like ‘Burning Love’, you know, something with that ‘Mystery Train’ feel. I wrote ‘Runaway Fool of Love’, sent it in and never heard a word. He never recorded it, but with all these sightings, I haven’t given up hope.’
Several writers who had previously written for Elvis had material for him. Elvis liked a new song by George Klein and Mark James’ ‘Loving You’s a Natural Thing’ and he was planning a disco single with Mark James’ ‘Disco Rider’.
Elvis had never completed Mac Davis’ ‘Poor Man’s Gold’ at American Sound and Mac had recorded it himself in 1974. It’s a sentimental song about the joy of having a new baby and it was worth completing.
Over the years, Paul Evans had written good material for Elvis including ‘I Gotta Know’, ‘Blue River’ and ‘The Next Step Is Love’ and he submitted some new songs shortly before Elvis died. ‘I had high hopes for ‘Quiet Desperation’,’ he says, ‘and the song is based on the quotation from Thoreau, ‘The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.’ It was going to be shown to Elvis and he never got a chance to cut it.’ ‘Quiet Desperation’ has the same intensity as ‘In the Ghetto’ and Paul’s demo has the changes in dynamics that Elvis loved so much. Paul also submitted a gentle love ballad with gospel overtones, ‘Tender Moments’, which again would have suited him. Both of Paul’s demos are included on his 2003 CD, Happy Go Lucky Me.
Elvis was prone to singing brief snatches of songs he liked and on stage in 1975, he broke into another Paul Evans song, ‘Roses Are Red (My Love)’, a US No.1 for Bobby Vinton in 1962. On several occasions he sang snippets of Roy Orbison’s ‘It’s Over’, ‘Running Scared’ and ‘Crying’. Elvis mentioned Jimmy Jones’ 1960 single, ‘Ready for Love, in rehearsals and he was partial to a 1958 hit, ‘The End’ by Earl Grant. It was written by Jimmy Krondes and after his death, his son John sang lead vocals in a tribute to Elvis featuring some original musicians, the Hit Making Team.
The British team of Chris Arnold, David Martin and Geoff Morrow had a new song for him. Geoff Morrow: ‘We wrote ‘Where Would I Be’ for Elvis and he was about to record it before he died. Some years ago I saw Gordon Hendricks, the boy who won Stars in Their Eyes as Elvis Presley, and he was very good and so I said, ‘Let’s record this with you’. He did it and it was a lot of fun.’
In the mid-Seventies, Russ Ballard, who had written ‘God Gave Rock and Roll to You’, met Elvis’ music publisher, Freddie Bienstock. ‘Freddie heard ‘She’s so in Love’ and said that song would suit Elvis, but he must have some of the publishing. He gave me a contract and it said that in the event of an Elvis Presley recording, Whitehaven Music had to have 50% of the publishing. I suppose it is good management to get as much as you can from the writer, but I would have given the whole song to him for an Elvis cut.’ Elvis never got round to ‘She’s so in Love’ but Lulu did cut the song.
There are several favourites that Elvis might have got round to recording at last including ‘Uncle Pen’ (Bill Monroe), ‘Satan’s Jewelled Crown’ (Louvin Brothers) and ‘Since I Don’t Have You’ (Skyliners). He identified with Kris Kristofferson’s songs and he surely would have recorded more of them – ‘If You Don’t Like Hank Williams (you can kiss my ass)’ surely appealed to him, not to mention the killer version of ‘Sunday Morning Comin’ Down’.
Cliff Richard had a huge UK hit in 1963 with the ballad, ‘The Next Time’ and the US songwriter Buddy Kaye was pressing Elvis to record it as he felt his version could sell millions.
Two big middle-of-the-road hits appealed to Elvis: Morris Albert’s ‘Feelings’ and the Captain and Tennille’s ‘Love Will Keep Us Together’, which was written by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield. He liked a 1975 country track by the Amazing Rhythm Aces about a dingy affair, ‘Third Rate Romance’. Remember too that the TV producer Steve Binder had said to Elvis, ‘Would you have recorded ‘MacArthur Park’ if Jimmy Webb had brought it to you?’ and Elvis had replied, ‘Definitely.’
For some years, it has been rumoured that Roy Wood had submitted songs to Elvis, but he told me, ‘I was with the same publishing company as Elvis and I know he had heard quite a few of my songs and really liked them. I was asked if I wanted to write something for him and I said I could only write songs in his old style. I couldn’t do the ‘Son of America’ stuff’. I wanted to meet him to talk about it but he fell ill and nothing happened.’ Which Roy Wood songs did Elvis like? Strikes me that he could have done a fine job of ‘Flowers in the Rain’.
Music writer Ray Connolly: ‘There are so many missed opportunities. Elvis had the best voice of his generation and he deserved the best songs. Why didn’t they ask Paul Simon or Carole King to write for him?’ We know that Elvis had little time for John Lennon but why didn’t he ask Paul or George for new songs as well as recording ‘Yesterday’ and ‘Something’.
The Irish Elvis, known as The King, made the albums, Gravelands and Return to Splendour, which featured Presley-styled arrangements of things he didn’t record. He never would have recorded ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ or ‘Pretty Vacant’ but Queen’s hit, ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’, does seem a possibility, although it dates from 1979. The mid-70s hit from The King’s repertoire that would be most likely to appeal to the real thing is surely Lynyrd Skynyrd’s ‘Sweet Home Alabama’. Elvis could have recorded a cracking version of that.
Elvis recorded many songs by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, but they stopped writing for him after an argument with Colonel Parker. Elvis liked their 1977 hit for Elkie Brooks’ ‘Pearl’s a Singer’ so let’s pretend that he overruled Colonel Parker on this. That song could easily be transferred to a honky tonk and it already has one of those burlesque endings that Elvis loved.
Would Kelly Marie have had a UK No.1 in 1980 with ‘Feels Like I’m in Love’ if Elvis had stayed alive? Ray Dorset from Mungo Jerry says, ‘I wrote it with Elvis Presley in mind and even recorded it Elvis-style on my demo. My producer Barry Murray was about to send it to Elvis when we got a phone call saying that Elvis had died. After that, I put it to bed for a while.’
All of the above is plausible if Elvis returned to work, but the seismic change would have been if he had broken his ties to Colonel Parker or just given the honorary colonel an honorary role. Maybe the TV producer Steve Binder would have been a good choice for a rebooted Elvis. Also, Elvis had invited the TV producer Jack Good to visit him at Graceland but we don’t know what he had in mind. Good was a very creative person who masterminded Tina Turner’s solo career in the early 1980s.
Surely Colonel Parker’s hold on Presley would have ended. Why didn’t some other manager like Allen Klein make a bid for Elvis? Admittedly, Klein is a terrible example, but he would have spotted the financial flaws. Maybe Elvis was too loyal to have insisted on an audit. In 1976, both Jerry Weintraub and Tom Hewlett at Concerts West had been thinking of sidestepping Parker in some way, possibly by telling Presley directly that he deserved a much better deal.
Priscilla was to show herself to be an excellent manager after his death – Parker wanted to sell Graceland and she wanted to open it to tourists – and maybe she should have attempted to get Elvis away from the toxic Parker in the mid-70s. She would have seen his return to film-making but exercised more control over their quality. She has said, ‘Elvis saw his potential as an actor. He felt he had the dramatic sensibility to pull off challenging parts.’
At the time of his death, Elvis had been talking about having a chain of karate schools and he wanted to make a karate or Kung Fu film like Bruce Lee. If Elvis had made an action film, it would have had the additional benefit of getting him fit again. Elvis did help George Waite by funding a documentary about karate The New Gladiators, but it was not released until 2002. It has music by David Crosby and Graham Nash.
Elvis’ film career was disappointing. There had been some excellent performances – Jailhouse Rock, King Creole – and with the right director, maybe he could have given Oscar-winning performances. Colonel Parker turned down The Defiant Ones, directed by Stanley Kramer, which was made in 1958 with Tony Curtis as the prisoner chained to Sidney Poitier.
Once a potential Oscar-winner was passed to Colonel Parker: he was told that this would win Elvis an Oscar but they could only pay $500,000 for his services. The Colonel said, ‘No, the fee is still the same – $1m a film, but if my boy wins an Oscar, I’ll give you $500,000 back.’
With this attitude, Colonel Parker rejected anything worthy. Elvis would have loved to have been in West Side Story but Parker thought not. Elvis would have had no problem with the ballads (‘Maria’, ‘Somewhere’) and can’t you imagine him enjoying ‘Gee, Officer Krupke, krupke you!’ and the action sequences. Was G.I. Blues really the better choice?
According to Lee Server’s biography of Robert Mitchum, intriguingly named after an Elvis song, Baby I Don’t Care, Mitchum turned up at Elvis’ hotel suite with a script in his hand. He wanted Elvis to play his younger brother in Thunder Road as he had a theory that anyone who could sing could also act. Mitchum told him of his wild escapades and then said, ‘Here’s the fucking script. Let’s get together and do it.’ Elvis said that he would have to discuss it with Parker. ‘Fuck that,’ said Mitchum, ‘I’m talking to you. Let’s do it.’ ‘No,’ said Elvis, ‘I have to see the Colonel.’ The Colonel quoted an astronomical fee for Presley and that was that.
Maybe Parker was right about Li’l Abner, as I’m sure Elvis wouldn’t have wanted to play in a light-hearted film about hillbillies, based on a comic strip and made in 1959 with Peter Palmer, Stella Stevens and Stubby Kaye.
With rather more class, Elvis could have been right for The Fugitive Kind (1960), which had a screenplay by Tennessee Williams, and the role went to Marlon Brando after Parker turned it down. He also rejected Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Sweet Bird of Youth, again both Tennessee Williams, and both made with Paul Newman.
Colonel Parker was against a biopic of Hank Williams because Elvis couldn’t have the publishing on his Acuff-Rose songs. The film Your Cheatin’ Heart was eventually made in 1964 with George Hamilton and dubbed vocals from Hank Jr. It was directed by Gene Nelson who directed a couple of Elvis films, but most of all, Hank’s widow, Audrey, nixed the idea, fearing that Elvis would steal Hank’s glory. Playing Hank Williams is a poisoned chalice; ask Tom Hiddleston.
Parker turned down a film of The Threepenny Opera in 1960 and he blacklisted Leiber and Stoller after they had pitched Elvis a musical based on Nelson Algren’s novel, A Walk on the Wild Side. The film was made in 1962 without songs and starring Laurence Harvey and Jane Fonda.
When he was storyboarding Midnight Cowboy, the director John Schlesinger got a memo from the producer: ‘If we could clean this up and add a few songs, it could be a great vehicle for Elvis Presley.’ Elvis was indeed offered Jon Voight’s role but Parker thought such a sleazy film wasn’t right for Elvis. Both Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman were nominated for Oscars.
In the 1960s Colonel Parker had told Norman Taurog that Elvis couldn’t play a killer, and by way of contrast, it wasn’t a good idea for Elvis to make a guest appearance on his favourite show, Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In.
In 1971, Clint Eastwood not only had a hit film with Dirty Harry but also a major franchise. The role had been turned down by both Colonel Parker (for Presley) and Frank Sinatra. Elvis loved action movies and he saw the James Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me two days before his death – Elvis as James Bond would have been fanciful, but maybe not to Elvis.
In February 1975, Barbra Streisand and her partner Jon Peters visited Elvis in Las Vegas and asked him to co-star in a remake of A Star is Born. Presley would be the falling star and Streisand the rising one, but he was okay with that and he told both Gordon Stoker and Jerry Schilling that he was going to do it. Colonel Parker was less happy, especially as Elvis wouldn’t have sole top billing, and he kept raising Presley’s fee. Streisand made it with Kris Kristofferson and the film was a major box office hit, grossing $40m in North America alone. How Elvis must have hated seeing the billboards.
Music writer Ray Connolly: ‘Maybe the Colonel turned down A Star is Born because he thought Elvis wasn’t up to it. By then Elvis was on amphetamines, but I think he could have pulled it off. Look at how he slimmed down and came off the drugs for Aloha from Hawaii. The billing wouldn’t have been a problem. Streisand would have given up her star billing as being alongside Elvis Presley would have made her bigger as well. Maybe Elvis didn’t like the fact that he would have to die in the film, but he could have done it well in my opinion.’
It is possible that Elvis never wanted to immerse himself in a role. He would never have had the discipline for a Broadway run and we have noted before that he liked to learn his lines and blurt them out before he forgot them. Therefore if he returned to films, it is more likely that he would gone for light-hearted efforts like Any Which Way You Can which had Clint Eastwood co-starring with an orangutan. Elvis did once say, ‘All I do is sing to horses, chimps and dogs,’ and this would be another example, but somewhat superior. Considering the repetitive nature of so much of his work, Groundhog Day was right for Elvis.
Even though Elvis might have never have done Shakespeare, surely he was living it. Is there not a comparison with Hamlet at Elsinore and Elvis at Graceland? Maybe there could have been a restructuring of the staff at Graceland to ensure that the staff were actually contributing to Elvis’ success, rather than hampering it.
At the time of his death, Elvis was set to embark on even more touring dates. He wasn’t learning new songs but he was preparing to wear his jumpsuit with laser lights. He was in a rut just as when he was making films. He loved Las Vegas as a city and so he enjoyed that lifestyle, but with a new manager, his career could have been much better structured and he could have gone abroad. We know he wanted to tour the UK, Australia and Japan and so a two-year world tour would have done wonders for his career.
While he was in the UK, Elvis might have recorded with local producers, Dave Edmunds and Stuart Colman, both of whom had found new ways of updating rock’n’roll. Similarly, in the States, he could have worked with John Fogerty or Bruce Springsteen.
There was an unexpected development in the 1980s when José Carreras, Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti made million-selling albums and singles. The Three Tenors often recorded with rock stars and Elvis would been enjoyed the challenge. He had found his voice through trial and error but he would have learnt more about holding notes and breath control.
Although Elvis never set out to record duets with other stars, he did perform some in his films, and the ones with Ann-Margret are particularly effective. Parker turned down every request thinking it too much hassle, especially as Elvis would have to share the royalties.
Following Monterey and Woodstock, rock festivals came into their own and even if Elvis were reluctant to take part, it would have been hard to turn down Live Aid, especially for such a worthy cause.
Leopards don’t change their spots and, by and large, Elvis’ characteristics would be unlikely to change much. He was vain and the vast developments in plastic surgery would have intrigued him. In 1973 he did have a little surgery on a potential double chin and to remove fatty tissue around his eyes. There would have been more. If he had remained with Priscilla, maybe they would have discussed it together. Today she looks amazing for someone in her seventies, so how has she managed it?
I love the thought that while Elvis was having his plastic surgery, some guy was in the next bed having surgery to make him look like Elvis. ‘Hey,’ said Elvis, ‘You wanna look like me? You can take my place.’ I’d better stop now, as this is how conspiracy theories start.
After a few days in Memphis, Elvis, Linda Thompson and the retinue flew to Denver, Colorado for a holiday in the snow. Elvis had rented three lavish condos as well as snowmobiles, which, disobeying safety instructions, were used for exhilarating midnight rides down the slopes. Elvis spent his birthday house hunting in Vail, Colorado, looking like a terrorist in his ski mask and jumpsuit. For once, there was no impulse buying and to add to his medical problems, he developed a rash.
The cheque book was out on 14 January as Elvis bought cars for a disc-jockey and some local police officers. They gave him one of their uniforms and he was to wear it at a funeral for one of their number. On 17 January, the police warned Elvis to leave Colorado as he might get arrested for drug possession. He and Linda flew to LA where she auditioned for some TV shows.
RCA had kept so many of Elvis’ session tapes that they had at last decided to do something with them. In January 1974 they had released the first in a series of decently packaged LPs called A Legendary Performer, which included alternate takes and outtakes that hadn’t been heard before. The set was both popular and well-reviewed and led to a growing interest in what Elvis had left behind, leading eventually to the ground-breaking Follow That Dream series.
The real problem was what to do with Elvis now. He didn’t mind making records but he couldn’t be arsed to go to Nashville or Hollywood. Bringing the mountain to Muhammad, RCA took its mobile studio to Graceland. Elvis would record with his musicians in his Jungle Room, provided the waterfall feature was turned off first.
Over the course of a week, Elvis recorded 12 songs for Felton Jarvis and a further four in October. Elvis appeared at the first session dressed as a Denver policeman. When Colonel Parker arrived to see how the sessions were progressing, Elvis was launching into a porno version of Timi Yuro’s hit, ‘Hurt’.
Elvis would have known ‘Hurt’ from Roy Hamilton’s recording in 1954 and Timi Yuro’s hit single in 1961. Elvis sang the song calmly with a narration and a Conway Twitty croak and then he pulled out all the stops for the final line, rather like his powerful endings for ‘Unchained Melody’ and ‘Softly as I Leave You’. It was a huge roar and you can sense his troubles, his real troubles. Johnny Cash’s career ended with an equally intense interpretation of a different song called ‘Hurt’.
Another big-voiced emotional ballad was ‘Solitaire’, written by Neil Sedaka and Phil Cody and a US hit for the Carpenters in 1975. It was the Andy Williams version that made the UK Top 10, but ‘Solitaire’ was baffling for UK listeners as ‘Solitaire’ is better known as Patience and indeed, Solitaire is a UK game involving marbles.
Neil Sedaka: ‘Solitaire sounds better than Patience as it is a very lonely game where one person plays by himself. I was inspired by Roberta Flack’s voice which I loved and I can hear some Chopin in that melody too. I remember Andy Williams asking us to change the lyric. He didn’t like ‘A little hope goes up in smoke.’ It was too spacey for him, but that is something I like about the song. Phil Cody was able to write more poetic lyrics than Howard Greenfield and he could come up with images like that.’
And then Elvis recorded a fine version. ‘I’d like to have written for Elvis in the 60s but I always felt that he had very specific writers like Doc and Mort and I wouldn’t get in the door. Leba and I did see him at the Las Vegas Hilton. He invited us backstage and he gave Leba a scarf that she has to this day and he and I sat at the piano and sang a gospel song. It was very flattering to hear Elvis do ‘Solitaire’, but Karen Carpenter sang it beautifully too.’ So which version did Neil like best? ‘No doubt about that – mine!’
Elvis sang another song from Larry Gatlin, ‘Bitter They Are, Harder They Fall’, which can be taken as an Elvis and Priscilla song. The song had been a small country hit for Gatlin himself in 1974. Larry Gatlin: ‘Elvis wasn’t taking care of himself and that would cost him his life, but his voice was still sounding good, and I like what he did with the song.’
Elvis delved back into old country favourites for ‘Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain’, a hit for Roy Acuff in 1947 and recently revived by Willie Nelson. It is unfortunate that Elvis hadn’t gone for a stripped-down arrangement like Willie. There was too much going on and it detracted from the composition. The same is true of Elvis’ treatment of George Jones’ country hit, ‘She Thinks I Still Care’. In 1980, Felton Jarvis took Elvis’ voice from an alternative take and added a new backing. It is marginally better but Elvis pitched it wrong. This is a song for man down on his luck and it needed to be more plaintive.
What was the point of Elvis singing ‘He’ll Have to Go’ with all the passion of a sleepwalker? Listen to how warmly Jim Reeves sings the song and there’s no comparison. Everybody makes bad records but Elvis shouldn’t be making bad records.
The bearded balladeer, Roger Whittaker, a British singer born in Kenya, had his only major US hit with ‘The Last Farewell’ in 1975. It had the feel of an old-time ballad with its talk of war and with ‘thee’ instead of ‘you’, although that may have been to get the rhyme right. The arrangement started like a British war film but it’s a good interpretation from Elvis, who had been recommended the song by a girlfriend, Barbara Bonner.
‘The Last Farewell’ was written following a BBC radio series in which Roger had asked listeners for lyrics. ‘I figured that it’s easy enough to write lyrics and I was proved right. I received half a million lyrics in 13 weeks. We had lyrics from bus drivers, taxi drivers, housewives, everyone. Nearly every song was a love song. I had a small team to sort through them but I did read a hell of a lot of them myself. There wasn’t much of a prize on the show but if a record sells a million, then you could have £60,000 in the bank.’ So well done, Ron Webster, for co-writing a million seller.
A genuine song of conflict, ‘Danny Boy’, was written in 1913 by Fred Weatherly with music taken from ‘The Londonderry Air’. Conway Twitty had rocked it up for a US hit single in 1959 but Elvis sang it straight.
In 1962 Lonnie Donegan and his guitarist Jimmy Currie took a folk song, ‘Wanderin’’, which Josh White and Burl Ives had recorded, and they rewrote the lyric and expanded the melody, turning it into ‘I’ll Never Fall In Love Again.’ Lonnie said, ‘I took a folk song that wasn’t a very long one, and I rewrote the lyrics and added a chorus. That was a deliberate attempt on my part to sound like Ray Charles, but I failed miserably. I didn’t sound like Ray Charles and the record meant nothing to the great British public. Later on, Tom Jones was round at my house, thumbing through my records, and he said, ‘I don’t remember this one, boyo.’ He played it and borrowed it and recorded it himself.’
Tom Jones’ version of ‘I’ll Never Fall in Love Again’ made No.2 in 1967. It also made the US Top 10, where Sammy Kaye’s treatment of the folk song had been a hit in 1950. Lonnie Donegan: ‘Tom Jones has told me that ‘I’ll Never Fall in Love Again’ is his favourite song of all-time. Tom was in Las Vegas and Elvis saw his show many times. They hobnobbed and Elvis liked it too and recorded it.’ Did Colonel Parker make you give up some of your royalties? ‘No, but now you mention it, it’s quite surprising, isn’t it?’
Yet another British song was ‘It’s Easy for You’ by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, although it didn’t come from a musical. Tim Rice remembers, ‘Elvis was a hero to both of us and we always hoped that Elvis would sing one of our songs. He was doing covers towards the end of his life – in fact, he did covers for most of his life – and we thought it would be terrific if he would cover something of ours. We sent him the Joseph LP, but we never got any response. We knew Freddy Bienstock, who said, ‘If you have a couple of original songs for Elvis and if Elvis’ company has the publishing, there’s a good chance that Elvis will record them.’ I thought, ‘Great! Publishing is a small deal and Elvis can have my house and my car if he records something of mine.’ Andrew and I wrote a couple of songs and one of them was ‘It’s Easy for You’. We sent it to Freddy in the middle of 1974 and we kept hearing, ‘Yes, he’s going to record it, he’s going to record it’, but nothing happened until 1976, one of his last sessions at Graceland.’
But Elvis’ regular writers were not at their best. Mark James’ ‘Moody Blue’ sounded like a Tony Christie song from the UK club circuit. Track down Take 3 on The Jungle Room Sessions (2000) as Elvis stumbled on his words and went into Mexican. He could have sung this song better as he kept walking around by the piano and then the drums and the engineer had trouble balancing what he was doing.
Dennis Linde’s ‘For the Heart’ was disappointing: it had a funky rhythm but the whole thing was all over the shop. The song had previously been recorded by Teresa Brewer, also produced by Felton Jarvis. Jerry Chesnut was below par on ‘Never Again’, which he wrote with Billy Edd Wheeler, and why give it an ‘American Trilogy’ ending? Chesnut’s ‘Love Coming Down’, previously recorded by Razzy Bailey, had possibilities as a country hit but was let down by another ‘kitchen sink’ arrangement.
The only R&B song was ‘Pledging My Love’, a success for another Memphis singer, Johnny Ace, in 1954. Ace never enjoyed his success as he chose to play Russian Roulette on Christmas Eve that year and never saw Christmas Day. It was a decent version by Elvis, but you can’t beat the cheaply-made but oh so touching original. Paul Simon recorded a tribute song, ‘The Late Great Johnny Ace’.
The country songwriter, Layng Martine Jr, felt he had written a good song for Elvis Presley, ‘Way Down’, and he asked his publisher, Ray Stevens, to help him with a demo. They recorded it as close to Elvis’s style as possible with Stevens slowing down the tape to emulate J.D. Sumner. Layng sent it to Felton Jarvis and heard nothing. Having faith in it, he submitted it again, only to be told, ‘You know, Elvis has already recorded this.’ Layng went to the mixing session and Felton Jarvis told him, ‘We’re selling excitement here.’ It had similarities to ‘Burning Love’ in that combined a contemporary sound with a 50s feel.
Elvis had decided on a different touring format for 1976 – he would have two weeks on and three weeks off, but he was feeling bad. He started though with just a week in the southern states. On 20 March, a young woman bit Elvis’ lip as she went to kiss him and the following day he split another jumpsuit on stage. So much as there can be an average day on the road, this is what it was like for Elvis:
4 pm – Elvis wakes up. Breakfast of two cheese omelettes, a pound of burnt bacon, a melon and black coffee.
8 pm – Getting dressed for the show, while the Stamps are doing their opening set.
8.30pm – Off to the show with his bodyguards and local police, perhaps 15 people.
9 pm – Elvis bursts into ‘See See Rider’ to open his show. There is an oxygen cylinder backstage just in case…(One night in Tahoe, he brought it on stage, ‘You always wondered how I keep my strength up at this altitude. Here it is.’)
9.50pm – Bodyguards all around Elvis as he ends with ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’. The fans surge forward, and the lower the stage, the more the trouble.
10pm – Elvis is hustled into a limousine and taken to the airport. Dr. Nichopoulos is on hand to bring him down.
10.15pm – Elvis, wearing pyjamas and a bath robe, starts eating – lots.
Midnight in the next city – Elvis puts a jumpsuit over his pyjamas. He’s taken to the hotel. Colonel Parker and his team are already there, ready to move to the next city in the morning. More food.
12.30am – Another meeting with Dr. Nichopoulos and then cheeseburgers and ribs. Elvis’ girlfriend, whoever she is, is in the bedroom. Elvis reads the Bible and books on the occult.
5am – After some more pills, Elvis falls asleep.
4pm – Elvis wakes up. Another day, another show.
From time to time, something dragged Elvis out of his lethargy. On 26 March it was witnessing a car accident in Memphis. Elvis got out of his car, pulled out a police badge and offered help.
On 12 April 1976, the building started on Elvis Presley Centre Courts Inc. This was a racquetball project – a form of squash – designed to make Elvis super-rich and Joe Esposito and Dr. Nichopoulos exceedingly wealthy…if it took off. Elvis was getting 25% of the stock for $1.3m and the plan was to build 50 courts in the US. Colonel Parker was furious when he heard of this – Elvis Presley had never endorsed anything and his name was worth far more than this.
In June, ten of the songs from the Jungle Room were issued under the name, From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee. The album only sold to dedicated fans but the singles of ‘Hurt’ (28) and ‘Moody Blue’ (31, and not on the album) did okay. Although ‘Moody Blue’ wasn’t really country, it became a US country No.1, his last country chart-topper being that other famous country song, ‘Jailhouse Rock’ in 1957.
On 27 June, Elton John and Bernie Taupin met a drugged and dazed Elvis Presley at the Capitol Centre, Largo, Maryland. It led to Elton and Bernie writing ‘Idol’ for the October release, Blue Moves. As it is a jazz song, listeners might not have picked up that it was about Elvis. After meeting Elvis, Elton said, ‘He’s not long for this world’ and although the song isn’t that harsh (or that accurate), it is not a flattering picture. Ironically, Elton didn’t learn from Elvis’ excesses although he was to combat it with more success.
On 4 July 1976, Elvis appeared before 12,000 people at Oral Roberts University, Tulsa, Oklahoma. He wore his patriotic, bicentennial jumpsuit with the Liberty Bell in studs. It was his heaviest suit at 30 pounds and he hated wearing it.
On 13 July, while Elvis was on holiday in Palm Springs, Vernon, acting on Elvis’ instructions, sacked Red West, Sonny West and Dave Hebler. One of the contributory factors must have been the compensation that Elvis had to pay to people they had mishandled.
Elvis was becoming very tired on stage and he looked bloated and ill. On 28 August he gave an incoherent, stumbling, mumbling show at the Hofheinz Pavilion in Houston and was only on stage for 22 minutes.
On 7 September, an exhausted Elvis joined Priscilla and Lisa Marie in Palm Springs. The rest did him some good as the October concerts, especially Minneapolis on 17 October, were much better, but it was a brief respite.
At the end of the month, Elvis bought a Lincoln Continental for J.D. but Linda Thompson told him that she had had enough. His drug use was too much for her to handle. Perhaps the final straw was when Elvis wanted her in the next bed when he was in hospital. Although that ended her relationship with Elvis, she had a new one with his keyboard player, David Briggs.
Not to worry, Elvis met his next partner – Ginger Alden. At first he was going to date her older sister who was Miss USA, but then chose Ginger. Her father, an army officer, was in the draft office when Elvis was enlisted. Within a month he had bought her a Lincoln Continental and a Cadillac. Other girlfriends included a Los Angeles model, Mindy Miller, who was alarmed by his condition and Alicia Kerwin, who was on his final flight to Las Vegas. There was a Memphis schoolgirl, Rise Smith, who soon realised she was out of her depth.
Paul and Linda McCartney, on holiday in Nashville, met someone who knew the late Bill Black’s family. His double-bass was standing in a barn and Linda bought it for Paul’s birthday. It had some hay in it and a packet for a guitar string. Scotty may have changed a string on stage and dropped the packet in there.
Elvis’ people had found out that Red, Sonny and Dave were writing a book about Elvis, and Steve Dunleavy was to put it together. They were offered $50,000 to stop, so Elvis knew he had much to hide. They turned it down: ‘Everybody is going to hate me,’ said Elvis, ‘I’ll kill them.’ John O’Grady told Elvis that the best way to counter any attack would be to enter rehab immediately. Elvis replied, ‘Go to hell!’
Elvis must have wondered how much worse it could get when an equally drugged Jerry Lee Lewis showed up at Graceland with a gun, threatening to shoot him. Fortunately, Elvis wasn’t home, although I wonder what would have happened if he had been: two zonked-out patients of Dr. Nick having a go at each other. Jerry Lee’s biographer, Chas White (Dr. Rock) says, ‘Elvis loved Jerry Lee’s piano playing and always liked him. This thing about them being arch-enemies was partly concocted by the media and partly by Jerry Lee himself in his impish ways. When Elvis died, a camera crew went into Jerry’s dressing room and he said, ‘I’m glad. Now I’ll be able to show them who is the King’. He wasn’t thinking – he didn’t realise that 50 million viewers would hear him say that. Jerry Lee was on about three times as many drugs as Elvis.’
Early in December, Elvis was back in Las Vegas with his weight slightly reduced. On 5 December he sat on a chair to perform as he had sprained his ankle in the bathroom. Not sure I believe this but I’ve been told that he was doing ‘Hurt’ so forcefully that the glasses were vibrating on the front tables.
He brought Lisa Marie on stage and gave her a golf cart for Christmas. Elvis gave a few concerts between Christmas and the New Year. He was in excellent form for the New Year’s Eve concert in Pittsburgh, and maybe he was the only person ever to lose weight over Christmas.
The New Year started badly as Ginger didn’t want to accompany Elvis to some late-night sessions at Buzz Cason’s Creative Workshop in Nashville. Elvis went to Nashville but returned the next day without having stepped in the studio. Felton Jarvis, a cool character with immense patience, offered to bring the equipment to Graceland again but Elvis said he was too ill. He was taking pills at a phenomenal rate.
Elvis started touring again in February 1977, his first concert being at the Sportatorium in Hollywood, Florida, close to Fort Lauderdale. Elvis giggled as he sang ‘Release Me’, another bad sign. On the other hand, he gave a very good show in Charlotte, North Carolina.
On 30 March he changed the first line of ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love’ to ‘Wise men know when it’s time to go’. The next four dates were cancelled and he spent a week in Memphis Baptist Hospital.
Donna Presley Early: ‘My mother said to him, ‘Baby, you need to take some time off and get well’, and Elvis, thinking of everyone but himself, said, ‘Aunt Nash, if I take off six months or a year, that is not a problem for me, but it is for the people who work with me as their livelihoods depend on me. If I don’t work, then they don’t work and they can’t feed their families and I can’t do that to them’.’
In May in Landover, Maryland, he said he had to leave the stage for ‘nature’s call’. He returned to finish his performance.
Elvis was performing until his death but his concerts had become erratic and shambolic. Word was spreading as, for the first time in his life, they were not all sellouts. Elvis collapsed on stage in Louisville and Dr. Nichopoulos had to bring him round. Elvis now struggled through songs he had sung with ease. You’ll have seen him out of breath, looking as though he will never finish ‘My Way’. Sinatra at 53 had been too young to sing, ‘And now the end is near, And so I face the final curtain’, but for Elvis at 42, it was perfect.
According to Paul Anka, Presley changed the nature of ‘My Way’. ‘That song had resonance for him but not in the way I intended. Given his pathetic state at the end, it was the opposite sense of what the words meant for Sinatra. There was nothing defiant or heroic about Elvis at that point.’
Elvis was worried about the bodyguards’ book which would be published soon. It was already being serialised very unflatteringly, The Sun running UK exclusives, and Elvis knew it would be hard to reject their claims.
Elvis was pleased that his father and Dee Stanley had had a quickie divorce in the Dominican Republic, but Vernon’s health was deteriorating with one cardiac complaint after another. Both Elvis and Vernon had fallen out with the Colonel as they had finally twigged that Elvis was covering his gambling debts in Vegas. The only thing that gave Elvis any satisfaction was riding his motorbike.
‘Way Down’ was released as a single in June 1977 and the songwriter Layng Martine commented, ‘To see my name on a record with Elvis seemed completely impossible.’ It was included on Elvis’ new album, Moody Blue, the title track being a single which had only sold moderately well. There were ten tracks: the six remaining ones from the Jungle Room and four live cuts – ‘Let Me Be There’ taken from his live album in Memphis and three from the Civic Centre in Saginaw, Michigan: a very passionate ‘Unchained Melody’ with Elvis at the piano, another Olivia pop / country song, ‘If You Love Me (Let Me Know)’ and a goodtime version of the Diamonds’ ‘Little Darlin’’. The album was pressed on blue plastic but soon there would be another sure-fire tactic to encourage sales.
Tim Rice: ‘The song that Andrew and I wrote, ‘It’s Easy for You’ was the final track on Moody Blue and I only had the album a couple of days before his death. I had two days of listening to this wonderful voice making a reasonable fist of our nice but lightweight song. I was so pleased that Elvis had actually spent five minutes learning our song and recording it. Elvis moved to that great jukebox in the sky, and so I had the last track on the last side of his last album while he was still alive. About the same time, I had the last track on the last side of the last album of Bing Crosby which was a song I wrote with Marvin Hamlisch called ironically ‘The Only Way To Go’, and I thought, ‘Oh my goodness, there’s a curse here.’
CBS broadcast a TV special, Elvis in Concert, which featured two of his latter-day concerts: 19 June at Omaha, Nebraska and 21 June at Rapid City, South Dakota. It was a 50-minute programme with documentary material from Vernon Presley and the fans and just 30 minutes of music. The producers did their best, but Elvis looked unwell and his breathing was bad. Elvis did one of his daft narrations in ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight’ in Rapid City, but Elvis always struggled with the song. A live version from 1969 where he cracks up was released in 1982 and made the UK Top 30: the public have argued over this – was this evidence that Elvis was strung out or was it just Elvis having fun? In this instance, the latter.
The songs in the documentary were familiar but it wasn’t often that he returned to ‘Hawaiian Wedding Song’. He was no longer learning new material for the stage but he had a new opening for ‘It’s Now or Never’ in which Shaun Nielsen sang ‘O Sole Mio’.
On 24 June, Elvis and his bodyguards were on his way from a stadium in Madison, Wisconsin. They saw someone being beaten up so out stepped Elvis with his police badge and Derringer. He told the lads to take him out instead but Elvis was the peacemaker. Soon everyone was friendly and posing for pictures. Elvis gave them a little lecture about God’s good graces and said goodbye.
The next night he apologised for being late at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio as he had been to the dentist: we’ve heard that one before. He included ‘My Way’ but read the lyrics.
The following day was his final concert appearance at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis, Indiana. He wore his Aztec jumpsuit and included a brilliantly sung version of ‘Bridge over Troubled Water’. In a surprisingly apt moment, Vernon Presley appeared on stage with him. Since 1969, Elvis had given 1,120 stage performances, with over 800 of them in Nevada.
Elvis’ next concert was in Portland, Maine on August 17 and, as he had no other commitments, he had seven weeks’ holiday. At times he was in good spirits, hiring the Libertyland Amusement Park for nine-year-old Lisa Marie and her friends, but there were black moments.
Elvis threw some notes away on 5 December 1976, but they were saved. He was fed up with Vegas and he wrote, ‘I feel so alone sometimes, the night is quiet for me. I would love to be able to sleep.’ He added, ‘I don’t know who I can talk to anymore. Or turn to. I only have myself and the Lord. Help me, Lord, to know the right thing.’ Wayne Newton has written a song, ‘The Letter’, around this.
Elvis weighed 18 stone, which isn’t excessive for a six foot male, and he was planning rapid weight loss; he wanted to be down to 15 stone for the next dates. He did some exercise, playing racquetball and riding his motorbike. The book, Elvis – What Happened?, was published on 1 August 1977. The book was embarrassing enough but the fans might avoid it. However, they couldn’t miss the sleazy serialisations in the newspapers. Elvis had a whole other life that relatively few people knew about: millions of people still thought he didn’t even smoke or drink. According to the book, Elvis liked to visit a funeral parlour and sit with the corpses.
Donna Presley Early: ‘It hurt him terribly to think that three men he had shared his life with and become brothers with had been so disloyal. Elvis was an extremely loyal person and he did call them and say, ‘I can’t tell you it didn’t hurt me because it did, but if you ever need me, I’m here.’ Isn’t that a wonderful thing to do? I don’t know what they were thinking of but it was not something that they should have done. No one is perfect and Elvis certainly wasn’t, but neither were they.’
Elvis felt betrayed by the book, which made him out to be worse than the 60s counterculture he had been condemning. David Stanley; ‘I was in Mobile, Alabama with him. He was sitting on a bed and saying, ‘My life is over’. He felt that he had been exposed and that this life was over. But if he had said, ‘Okay’ and dealt with his demons in public, the world would have embraced him all the more and he would have remained alive.’
Around the time of his death, Johnny Cash was recording a TV special with Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison and Jerry Lee Lewis. If Elvis could visit President Nixon on a whim, why didn’t he just go along to the TV studios and have a great time? Wouldn’t that have been the best answer to his critics?
On August 15, Elvis had been out on his Harley. He visited his dentist for genuine dental work at 10.30pm. There was no need to visit the dentist for drugs as Dr. Nichopoulos had completed a prescription for over 600 pills. The singer received 20cc and 50 pills of Dilaudid (a powerful painkiller usually given as a last resort to cancer sufferers), 100 Percodans, 150 Quaaludes, 178 Dexedrine pills, 12 Amytal pills and 100 Biphetamine pills. The pills also indicated his depression. Rick Stanley had been to collect the prescription and when he returned, Presley asked him to pray for salvation with him.
Elvis was back at Graceland in the early hours of the morning. First he wanted peach ice cream and chocolate chip cookies and then he had what he called his ‘first attack’ about 4am, which was an envelope containing many different pills, prepared by his nurse. Before he went to bed, he kissed Lisa Marie goodnight for the last time.
Around 4.30am, he played racquetball with Billy and Jo Smith; presumably poor Billy and his wife had been sleeping soundly. He was wearing his blue sweater with DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) on the front. The game continued on and off until 6am and then he played ‘Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain’. It would be the last song he would sing: ‘Someday when we meet up yonder, We’ll walk hand in hand again.’ He told the cook that he was not hungry and wanted to rest.
Elvis took some medication to sleep but Ginger sat with him in his bedroom until 9am. He rang Nurse Cocke and asked her to rub his back before he had to leave at 5pm. He told Ginger he was going to the bathroom and he took a book, A Scientific Search for the Face of Jesus by Frank Adams, given to him by Larry Geller. There was a barber’s chair in the bathroom for when he had his hair dyed and Ginger told him not to fall asleep. Elvis last words were ‘Okay, I won’t.’
Ginger went to sleep herself and awoke five hours later at 1.30pm. Elvis wasn’t next to her. She knocked on the bathroom door and as there was no answer, she looked inside. Elvis was curled up on the floor. She called for Joe Esposito who confirmed that he was not breathing. He called for an ambulance and Elvis was taken to the Baptist Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 3.30pm. Ginger told Lisa Marie, who immediately wanted to call Linda Thompson, whom she liked very much, and tell her.
Within minutes, the Memphis radio station WMPS broke the story. The hospital, perhaps with prompting from Dr. Nichopoulos, completed a death certificate saying that he had died of heart disease. The coroner told the TV reporters that Elvis Presley had died from cardiac arrhythmia, an irregular heartbeat, but the investigations hadn’t been completed.
It was thought to be a heart attack brought on by colonic problems. In short, Elvis Presley was desperate to open his bowels and strained too hard. Had constipation killed the King? An autopsy showed that his bowels were blocked by a clay-like substance which acted as a barrier against his regular food intake.
Donna Presley Early: ‘We all knew that Elvis had infirmities in his body and he wasn’t well, but Elvis was someone who was larger than life and you could never see anything like that coming. His passing took all of us by surprise and it left a huge hole in our families and in our hearts, but when you love someone and you continue your love for them, they are with you always.’
Dr. Nichopoulos was keen to point out that there was no drug abuse. Almost certainly, he wanted to avoid a full autopsy.
Meanwhile, sensing trouble, Elvis’ room was cleared of drugs.
On 17 August 1977, Elvis was meant to be at Portland, Maine. Then he was to play New York, Connecticut, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and on 27/28 August, Memphis. Instead, he would lie in state at Graceland. The gates were opened at 3pm and several thousand mourners saw Elvis, dressed in a white suit made by Lansky’s, light blue shirt and silver tie, his body in a white casket. Many thousands didn’t get to see him and scuffles broke out. Over 100 fans fainted with the heat.
Elvis’ death and its aftermath was to occupy the front pages of national newspapers for over a week. There were 3,000 floral tributes at Graceland.
Bruce Springsteen, who had tickets to see him at Madison Square Garden, said, ‘It was like somebody took a piece out of me. There have been pretenders. There have been contenders. But there is only one King.’
President Carter said, ‘Elvis’ death deprives our country of a part of itself. He was unique and irreplaceable. His music and his personality permanently changed the face of American popular culture.’
James Brown: ‘Elvis gave black people a voice.’
Bob Dylan: ‘If it wasn’t for Elvis and Hank Williams, I couldn’t be doing what I do today.’
The Times did not agree. Its uncredited leader proclaimed, ‘While Presley himself was an indifferent singer and musician, performing for the most part mediocre songs, a poor actor and it seems, a totally uninteresting person, the phenomenon which he became was of considerable social significance.’ It prompted Tim Rice to respond, ‘This is simply not true and I would be interested to know which popular singers you consider to be superior to Presley. Or are you unwilling to admit that any popular singers have any merit whatsoever?’
R.G. Short wrote, ‘Your leading articles implied that Elvis Presley’s huge popularity was somehow in spite of, rather than because of, his music. This sneer is untrue and unfair. People did not buy Elvis Presley’s records in order to annoy their parents. They bought them because they derived enormous pleasure from them.’
The funeral, organised at lightning speed, was at Graceland at 2pm the following day. The roads were packed with people and many climbed trees to get a better view. There would also be a candlelit vigil the next night. The hotels were already busy because of a Shriners’ Convention, so they became filled to capacity.
The authorities in Memphis didn’t like the idea of Presley being buried at Graceland but Vernon saw the Mayor and it was agreed that the bodies could be kept at Forest Hill until Graceland was ready.
The mourners included Burt Reynolds, John Wayne, Ann-Margret and President Kennedy’s daughter, Caroline. The service was conducted by the evangelist Rex Humbard. The organist played ‘Danny Boy’, Kathy Westmoreland sang ‘My Heavenly Father Watches over Me’, Jake Hess of the Statesmen sang ‘Known Only to Him’, James Blackwood ‘How Great Thou Art’, J.D. Sumner and the Stamps ‘His Hand in Mine’, and Jackie Kahane said, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has left the building for the last time.’ His body was taken three miles to the Forest Hill cemetery.
Donna Presley Early: ‘When we headed back to where Elvis was going to be interred, the roads were five or six deep with thousands and thousands of fans. Elvis made a difference to people’s lives, he touched people in their hearts and when you can touch people in their hearts, then they raise their children and their grandchildren on you.’
Elvis was placed close to his mother in a mausoleum. But not for long. There were attempts to steal his body, though what the body-snatchers would have done with it is unknown. It was taken back to the cemetery and then Elvis and Gladys were brought to Graceland.
Colonel Parker had been at the funeral, dressed in an Hawaiian shirt, an embarrassment to everyone. Maybe he was having a hard time himself – his wife had dementia and his stepson Bobby had died from multiple sclerosis – but surely all his experience should have stopped him from making ridiculous statements – ‘This changes nothing. It’s like when he was away in the army. I’ll go right on managing him.’ Parker was acknowledging that Elvis was worth more dead than alive.
He then flew to New York to see RCA and ensure that they would meet the demands for Elvis products. Several performers have told me that their own records were put on hold as everybody was working on Elvis.
Death had revitalised Elvis’ career and yet the US chart placings don’t really confirm this story. The US single of ‘Way Down’ was on the charts for three months and although it didn’t climb higher than No.18, it was a No.1 country hit. The album of Moody Blue went to No.3, and if the back catalogue was shifting as well, it was not in sufficient quantities to reach the charts.
In the UK, the sales were more noticeable and ‘Way Down’ was No.1 for five weeks. ‘Way Down’ became Elvis’s 17th number one, putting him on a par with the Beatles. Until 2002, that is.
In the UK, the RCA records were normally pressed at a factory in Washington, County Durham. Because of flagging demand, they had issued 90 redundancy notices. These were withdrawn but the unions objected, saying that the workers must have a 12-month guarantee of work. It was soon resolved as the workers wanted to work and 16 of Presley’s 36 albums moved into the Top 200 album sellers.
In the UK, RCA reissued all his No.1 singles at 70p each and a box of all 16 for £12. Seven made the Top 50 on September 3 with ‘It’s Now or Never’ faring best at No.39. On the LP front, Moody Blue went to No.3 and a collection of country sides, Welcome to My World, which hadn’t made the listings early in 1977, was a Top 10 album. It included just one new track, a live version of ‘I Can’t Stop Loving You’. The most successful of the vintage products was G I Blues, reaching No.14. In October, Charly put early performances together with some reminiscences for The Sun Years: it made No.31. In 1982, Magnum Force issued an album of broadcast tributes to Elvis, compiled by Tony Prince of Radio Luxembourg.
RCA had licensed tracks for a TV-advertised compilation, 40 Greatest Hits, on Arcade and it had topped the album charts in 1975. Arcade’s licence to press any more had expired but they continued to do so, enabling the product to return to the top of the album charts. Eventually RCA took over the compilation and marketed it themselves for Christmas 1978. An identical product issued by K-Tel in France was exported to the UK and sold here. There was a successful mail order collection of a 7-LP boxed-set through Reader’s Digest.
In Germany, ‘Way Down’ was No.5 and a reissue of ‘Love Me Tender’, No.40. In France, ‘Way Down’ was in the Top 10. It wasn’t Elvis’ best record by any means and the title was unfortunate but then you can’t pick your moment.
Rolling Stone had its writers and designers working for four days straight to produce a special issue devoted to Elvis. The London office solicited opinions from the new British punk scene.
In a wonderfully defiant moment, Melody Maker had twin lead stories – one about Elvis Presley, one about the Sex Pistols. A young British singer and songwriter Declan MacManus had made his first album, My Aim Is True. He called himself Elvis Costello which now seemed a bad joke. Stiff Records worked this round to Elvis’ advantage and it became a seminal New Wave album.
Elvis Costello: ‘Declan was a difficult name for people to grasp as it is not very common in England, and MacManus made it even more difficult. If I rang someone to say I was coming down to play, they could never grasp my name, so I needed something easier on the ear. I picked Costello from the family rather than something out of thin air. My first manager chose the Elvis part which was a double dare – you look people straight in the face and say, ‘I am called Elvis’. It was outrageous but it was not as much a liability as being called Sid Vicious. I took the name in 1976 and I was putting out records at the back end of 1976 while I was still in a day job. As soon as the first album came out, I had to take the plunge and go professional. A week later I was on the cover of Melody Maker and it was like five years’ rehearsal for overnight success.’ (My friend Steve Davies always refers to Costello as ‘the proper Elvis’. Also, there is a French rock’n’roll singer with several albums to his credit known as Jesse Garon, the name of Elvis’ twin.)
Elvis Presley died at the very moment that punk was taking off. Johnny Rotten called his death ‘fuckin’ good riddance to bad rubbish’. Danny Baker at the London punk club, the Vortex, was infuriated by the contempt for Elvis. He told the audience that Elvis was the first punk and got hit by a bottle.
Danny Baker was right. The Clash sang ‘No Elvis, no Beatles, no Rolling Stones’ but they were wrong and they knew it. Their lead singer, Joe Strummer, like Elvis Costello and Billy Idol was creating his own version of Elvis. The plain-spoken lyrics and bog-standard chords of rockabilly were the inspiration for punk, which was the new rockabilly. Strip away the bedraggled clothes, the unkempt appearances, the safety pins and tattoos, and there was rockabilly. The Vegas Presley was not for them but the 1950s Presley certainly was. Presley’s sneer was pure punk.
The outpouring of public grief for a celebrity had never been seen on this level before and there were several comments in the British press that this was tacky and distasteful, that it was somehow typical of Americans, shedding tears for somebody that they hadn’t even met. However, it wasn’t a one-off and it set a new standard for superstar deaths. We have seen similar displays for John Lennon (1980), Michael Jackson (2009), Whitney Houston (2012) and David Bowie (2016).
In the next chapter, I will look at some of the sightings of Elvis. Before Elvis, there had been many sightings of Hitler and there have also been many sightings of Lord Lucan and Shergar but so far as I know there have been none for Princess Diana. It seems odd that nobody has claimed to have seen (or to have been healed by) Diana: could it be that the press has curbed such stories as the watchdogs would take a dim view. My own theory is that, although greatly loved, Elvis had become a figure of fun by the time of his death and the sightings continue from that. Diana was a folk hero at the time of her death in 1997 and her death was so unexpected that it was taken far more seriously.
Curiously though the flash cars and the ostentatious bling of the Vegas period became an inspiration for rappers.
Even though there was a studio version, a live take of ‘My Way’ was the first single to be released after Elvis’ death and it went to No.9 in the UK; by reaching No.22 it became the highest-placed version of the song on the US chart. Sid Vicious chose to spit out the words for a single, made with jazz musicians in France, and his version was a UK Top 10 hit in 1978, helped by a video in which he gunned down all in sight before collapsing himself. This version was used at the end of Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas. Another wrecked celebrity, Shane McGowan of the Pogues, returned the song to the Top 30 in 1996.
As well as records, the fans were buying posters, souvenir magazines, books, badges and belt buckles – anything with ‘Elvis’ on it. His last will and testament, dating from March 1977, was selling at £2 a copy, a genuine copy, though not an official product. Priscilla and Ginger were not beneficiaries, although Ginger was a witness to it. He left everything to Lisa Marie, his grandmother Minnie Mae and his father Vernon. If they died, the assets would revert to Lisa Marie at the age of 25. No charities were mentioned.
In 1978 Elvis was nominated for a Grammy for ‘Softly as I Leave You’. The category was Best Country Vocal Performance, and which country did the judges have in mind? Willie Nelson with ‘Georgia on My Mind’ was the popular winner, so much so that one of the losers, Johnny Paycheck, shouted out, ‘Way to go, Willie!’
As soon as Elvis had died, Vernon told Dr. Nichopoulos to maintain his payments on a $250,000 loan and said he would no longer be his own doctor. But there was good news for Dr. Nick. At the autopsy, Dr. Jerry Francisco, the Shelby County medical examiner, said that Presley was killed by cardiac arrhythmia and arterial sclerosis. The death was not drug-related, although there were traces of potentially dangerous drugs in his body. Elvis’ circulation was unusual for a 42-year-old man. His liver was in bad shape, three times the normal size, his heart was enlarged, twice the normal size, and his colon was twisted.
In 1980, Dr. Nichopoulos was acquitted on grounds of unethical conduct and malpractice but he was convicted of dispensing controlled substances ‘not in good faith’ to relieve suffering. Nine other patients were listed including Jerry Lee Lewis.
James Thompson and Charles Cole published The Death of Elvis; What Really Happened in 1991, which revealed the staggering amount of drugs that Dr. Nichopoulos had prescribed. As a result, the evidence was re-examined and in 1995, Dr. Nick lost his licence. He worked for four years as Jerry Lee Lewis’ road manager followed by six years of pushing papers at FedEx. He then sold his Elvis memorabilia and wrote The King and Dr. Nichopoulos in a desperate attempt to clear his name, but offering no explanation for his own behaviour. According to Dr. Nick, Elvis collapsed on the floor and suffocated in the shag-pile. If Elvis had had linoleum in his bathroom, he would still be alive.