History Trivia / ElvisPresley

* EvenTheGuysWantHim: A number of men who worked with Elvis throughout his career later swore that even the straightest man in the world could not deny the King was attractive, with one former band member describing him as "[[{{Bishonen}} damn near too pretty to be a man.]]" Music/PaulMcCartney's reaction to seeing a photo of Elvis for the first time was to think, "Wow! He's so good-looking...he's perfect. The Messiah has arrived." By all accounts, his allure was a combination of his physical good looks and the fact that he just seemed to ooze sensuality.

* DeathByIrony: When Elvis was drafted, many MoralGuardians regarded it as something that would finally straighten out the notorious bad boy of American popular music, and indeed, his image became much LighterAndSofter after he left the Army. It was in the military where he was first introduced to barbiturates and amphetamines, an addiction that would plague him for the rest of his life and ultimately kill him.

* DeathByIrony: When Elvis was drafted, many MoralGuardians regarded it as something that would finally straighten out the notorious bad boy of American popular music, and indeed, his image became much LighterAndSofter after he left the Army. It was in the military where he was first introduced to the barbiturates and amphetamines, an addiction that would plague him for the rest of his life and ultimately kill him.

* {{Corpsing}}: Elvis throws in a random mondegreen in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cgvWKyKW7A this]] live performance of "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" ("Do you gaze at your bald head and wish you had hair?") He thought it was funny and could not stop laughing. But after a while, neither could the audience. Legend says it that the laughter was brought on by a combination of seeing a bald man in the audience as he sang the line and got more hysterical from the lone backup singer just carrying on as if nothing happened.

** Presley grew to hate the movies he was starring in (several sources such as the documentary ''This is Elvis'' suggest he even got physically ill from them at one point), and certainly you can scour Presley's live performances from 1969 to 1977 and except for one or two exceptions that became regular parts of his act (most notably his sign-off, "Can't Help Falling in Love") you'll find very few performances of movie songs from the post-1960 era.
** A big part of the reason he hated his movies was that he was actually a terrific actor in a way most musicians who make films aren't, and he knew it. Elvis wanted nothing more than to put his chops to the test with real film roles and bar a couple of occasions (''Film/KingCreole,'' his favorite role, for example), he never got the chance.

** Elvis wasn't a huge fan of many of his movie soundtracks, either. Except for a couple of standouts such as "Can't Help Falling in Love", and (on rare occasions) "Return to Sender", he generally refused to perform songs from his 1960s movies during his Vegas era. One biography cited an incident during a Las Vegas show where an audience member requested "Viva Las Vegas" and Presley replied that was one song he definitely ''wasn't'' going to do. Fortunately for him, the only film he released concurrently with his return to live performances, ''Film/ChangeOfHabit'', included "Rubberneckin'", a track borrowed from his groundbreaking American Studios sessions in Memphis. Technically it wasn't a movie song, so he had no problems performing it early on.

*** Music/JimmyBuffett wrote "Margaritaville" with the intention of giving it to Presley, only for the latter's death to nix those plans. Buffett instead recorded the song himself earning one of his most famous singles in the process.

** Elvis would rather 1974's ''Music/HavingFunWithElvisOnStage'' never existed. It was Colonel Tom Parker's attempt to have an Elvis album he owned outright - as in, bypass paying royalties to [=RCA=] for use of any actual ''songs'' - and kickstart a record label for himself, Boxcar. It's nothing but stage banter from an Elvis concert, with all the music cut out. This "talking album only" (as described on the cover) wound up being re-released on [=RCA=], who were able to deny Parker's attempt to circumvent them because they had legal claim to ''any'' sound recording released under Elvis' name. Somehow, the re-release briefly charted, but only then did Elvis find out about the album's release. Naturally, Elvis was ''furious'', and personally made sure it was withdrawn from the market.

** While his name appeared in some of his early songwriting credits as part of publishing deals, it was well-known that he didn't really write them and he's always had a reputation for not actually writing songs. But he recorded two songs at the start of TheSixties that he genuinely helped write: the ballad "That's Someone You Never Forget" (co-written with old school buddy/bodyguard Red West) and the Flamenco-tinged "You'll Be Gone" (co-written with West and longtime second banana Charlie Hodge). After his death, a third song - the only one to credit Elvis as sole songwriter - was found in a studio outtake, the jam session "I Didn't Make it on Playing Guitar" (though the song title is the extent of the tune's lyrics).

* OldShame:
** His appearance on Steve Allen's show. Right before Elvis was due to perform, Steve Allen ambushed him by bringing a basset hound out, thus making Elvis sing "Hound Dog" to an actual hound dog. It was Allen's attempt at keeping Elvis family-friendly, during a time when Elvis's hip-gyrations were a hot-button topic. Elvis laughed it off and played along, but later admitted to the press how embarrassed he was over it, saying "it was the most ridiculous appearance I ever did."
** Elvis wasn't a huge fan of many of his movie soundtracks, either. Except for a couple of standouts such as "Can't Help Falling in Love", and (on rare occasions) "Return to Sender", he generally refused to perform songs from his 1960s movies during his Vegas era. One biography cited an incident during a Las Vegas show where an audience member requested "Viva Las Vegas" and Presley replied that was one song he definitely ''wasn't'' going to do. Fortunately for him, the only film he released concurrently with his return to live performances, ''Film/ChangeOfHabit'', included "Rubberneckin'", a track borrowed from his groundbreaking American Studios sessions in Memphis. Technically it wasn't a movie song, so he had no problems performing it early on.
** Elvis recorded the occasional track that he felt was either too low-quality or too silly to be commercially released, and with a few exceptions was successful in preventing many of these "old shames" from being officially released during his lifetime. Chief among these was "Dominic" from the 1968 movie ''Stay Away, Joe'', sung to a bull who won't mate, which he talked RCA out of releasing at the time (it finally came out in 1994).

** According to the book ''Elvis: The Illustrated Record'', a number of top songwriters of the 1970s, including no less than Music/BruceSpringsteen and Music/JohnLennon, were on record as offering to write songs for Presley, but there's no indication of their offers ever being taken up (allegedly Springsteen wrote "Fire" with Elvis in mind).
** Also according ''Elvis: The Illustrated Record'', Presley at one point wanted to record albums devoted to the music of Hank Williams and Chuck Berry, but the idea was vetoed. (Coincidentally, one of Elvis' colleagues at Sun Records, Music/JohnnyCash, actually did record an album of Williams covers.)

** Elvis wanted to perform a cover of "I Will Always Love You" by the up-and-coming singer-songwriter Creator/DollyParton, and Parton (a huge fan) was all for it, but Tom Parker [[ExecutiveMeddling insisted that Elvis would get half the royalties]]. Dolly refused to sign them away, a decision that saved her millions of dollars when Music/WhitneyHouston covered the song for ''Film/TheBodyguard'' in 1992.
** At the suggestion of Tom Parker, Creator/RCARecords labelmate Music/DavidBowie wrote "Golden Years" with the intention of giving it to Elvis, with whom he shared a birthday. The idea fell through (accounts differ as to whether Elvis turned it down or if negotiations with Parker simply stalled), leading Bowie to instead record it himself for ''Music/StationToStation''.

* BreakawayPopHit: Many of his hits originated from the bevy of movies of questionable quality he did between 1957 and 1969, many of whom are actually TitledAfterTheSong (''Love Me Tender'', ''Film/JailhouseRock'', ''Film/VivaLasVegas''). A posthumous case was "A Little Less Conversation", which came from his attempt at a SexComedy in ''Film/LiveALittleLoveALittle'', and a Music/JunkieXL remix in 2002 was a smash hit that exposed Elvis to a whole new generation.

** Basically every movie he did after ''Viva Las Vegas'' counts. Parker worked out a deal with MGM to have a new film in theaters every few months, without much concern for quality. Eventually, they just gave up on doing narrative films and his final two movies were [[ConcertFilm Concert Films]].

** Besides the ''A Star Is Born'' example above, let's just say all of Presley's film career is a WCHB. He demonstrated a great sense of humor and comedic timing that could have made him a big comedy star, but Parker killed any potential acting career. It can't have helped that the Western ''Flaming Star'', one of the few movies he made where music was on the backburner, was a box office disappointment (though considered one of his best screen turns).

** A big part of the reason he hated his movies was that he was actually a terrific actor in a way most musicians who make films aren't, and he knew it. Elvis wanted nothing more than to put his chops to the test with real film roles and bar a couple of occasions (''King Creole,'' his favorite role, for example), he never got the chance.

** Among Presley's filmography is the 1969 Western ''Charro!'', the only film Presley appears in where he does ''not'' sing (except in the opening credits); has a full beard; and also has a very brief [[MrFanservice nude scene from behind]]. It was Presley's attempt to break into serious acting, and was the least successful of his films.[[note]]Although critics at the time noted that Presley was not to blame; he put a strong performance into a mediocre, poorly-paced script that was looked up as an attempt at replicating the then-popular ''Creator/ClintEastwood'' "spaghetti western" genre.[[/note]]

* BreakawayPopHit: Many of his hits originated from the bevy of movies of questionable quality he did between 1957 and 1969, many of whom are actually TitledAfterTheSong (''Love Me Tender'', ''Film/JailhouseRock'', ''Film/VivaLasVegas''). A posthumous case was "A Little Less Conversation", which came from his attempt at a SexComedy in ''Live a Little, Love a Little'', and a Music/JunkieXL remix in 2002 was a smash hit that exposed Elvis to a whole new generation.