- Banned in China: All films starring Elvis were banned in Mexico between 1960 and 1971 after riots broke out at Las Americas in Mexico City during screenings of King Creole and G.I. Blues.
- Breakaway Pop Hit: Many of his hits originated from the bevy of movies of questionable quality he did between 1957 and 1969, many of whom are actually Titled After the Song (Love Me Tender, Jailhouse Rock, Viva Las Vegas!). A posthumous case was "A Little Less Conversation", which came from his attempt at a Sex Comedy in Live a Little, Love a Little, and a Junkie XL remix in 2002 was a smash hit that exposed Elvis to a whole new generation.
- Breakthrough Hit: In 1955, he was charting only on the country chart with songs like "Mystery Train" and "That's Alright, Mama", and at the end of the year was climbing the charts with his first No. 1 country hit, "I Forgot to Remember to Forget". All of those titles were for the Sun Records label – legendary performances to be sure from the King of Rock and Roll, but still relatively niche and generally considered regional in nature. But then he signed with RCA in 1956, released a cover of a Mae Axton-penned tune called "Heartbreak Hotel" – and his career broke wide (and it really is WIDE) open.
- Bury Your Art:
- 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 songs 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).
- Elvis was livid by the release of the infamous "talking album" Having Fun with Elvis on Stage and intervened to have it removed from print as soon as possible. In the decades since, his estate has continued to suppress the album, having never made it available on CD or streaming.
- The posthumously-released television special Elvis In Concert, depicting one of his last performances, has never received an official home video release due to depicting Elvis in visibly poor health. The closest his estate has gotten to rereleasing the special have been allowing the use of archive footage in documentaries and the biographical film Elvis (2022), as well as keeping the soundtrack album in circulation.
- Career Resurrection: One of music's most famous. Elvis dominated the latter half of The '50s and took rock & roll music to the mainstream, then he sustained that success in The '60s after a stint in the Army. Yet as the decade wore on, Elvis' movie musicals were getting increasingly diminished returns, and a miserable Elvis was increasingly saddled with subpar material for the soundtracks. And then, the 1968 comeback special, Elvis, featuring many of his hits and a proto-Unplugged session with his band, was a hit with audiences and put Elvis Presley back on top (one critic commented that "on this night, he truly was the King"). A concert film in 1973, Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite, cemented his popularity. Though his health declined spectacularly in the mid-'70s from rampant drug addiction, he continued to have hit singles and albums, and a residency in Las Vegas, and attracted concert crowds until his untimely passing in 1977.
- Contractual Obligation Project:
- 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 Concert Films.
- When he renegotiated his contract with RCA in 1971, they demanded that he record a Christmas album and a Gospel Music album, since his previous efforts in those genres had been big long-term sellers for them. He obliged them with Elvis Sings the Wonderful World of Christmas and He Touched Me (the latter ended up winning him a Grammy).
- With all of his issues later in his life, he wasn't very motivated to go to recording studios (he even recorded his final two albums at Graceland), so to help cover his contracts his producers were forced to release live albums, or pad incomplete studio albums with live recordings. The final album released in his lifetime, Moody Blue, is an example of this, being a mix of live and studio recordings.
- Corpsing: Elvis throws in a random mondegreen in 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 has 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. - Creator Backlash:
- 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 things 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 (King Creole, his favorite role, for example), he never got the chance.
- In particular, 1965's Harum Scarum, a Cliché Storm of Middle Eastern stereotypes featuring some of the most insipid songs of his whole career, was an embarrassment to both Elvis and Colonel Tom Parker. Parker even wrote a letter to MGM scolding them for making such a horrible movie, warning them that it would take "a 55th cousin of P. T. Barnum" to convince audiences to see it, and making the (rejected) Parody Retcon suggestion of adding a talking camel as a narrator so that the film would look deliberately campy.
- Elvis would rather 1974's Having Fun with Elvis on Stage 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.
- Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who wrote "Hound Dog" for Big Mama Thornton, were not happy with Elvis's version, which used a rewritten set of lyrics that they didn't authorize. Though as Stoller later said, "after it sold 7 million singles, we began to see the good in Elvis's version."
- 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, Change of Habit, 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.
- He Also Did:
- 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 nude scene from behind. It was Presley's attempt to break into serious acting, and was the least successful of his films.note
- Presley was a martial artist and actually held the ranking of 8th Degree Black Belt in American Kenpo Karate. Had he outlived Ed Parker, he would have been the successor of the art.
- 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 The '60s 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).
- Magnum Opus Dissonance: Presley greatly preferred his gospel recordings to his more popular records (as did the Grammys; during his lifetime the only Grammys he won were for spiritual performances).
- Similarly Named Works:
- He recorded songs called "Trouble" (1958) and "T-R-O-U-B-L-E" (1975).
- Also, the completely separate songs "I'll Be Home for Christmas", "I'll Be Home on Christmas Day" and "If I Get Home on Christmas Day" (the latter two were even sequenced back-to-back on Elvis Sings the Wonderful World of Christmas, which had a title track, "The Wonderful World of Christmas", that had no connection to the earlier movie song "Wonderful World").
- What Could Have Been:
- Presley was to start another tour beginning on August 16, 1977 in Portland, Maine. However, he died that morning at the age of 42. The tour was supposed to end with two hometown shows at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis.
- He never toured outside of the US (except briefly in Canada in 1957), mainly because Parker refused to get a passport. Only known to a select few at the time (and Elvis wasn't one of them), Thomas Andrew Parker was born Andreas van Kuijk in The Netherlands, and illegally emigrated to the US at age 19 in 1929, and he was fearful of this information getting exposed. The money-grubbing Parker obviously was aware of the potential financial windfall from overseas touring, and with his persuasive skills and his huge network of connections with powerful people (including Lyndon Johnson), he wouldn't have had any trouble getting amnesty or obtaining American citizenship, if he'd wanted to. The fact he didn't try is probably the biggest mystery in the whole Elvis saga.Background
- Barbra Streisand wanted Presley to star with her in her remake of A Star Is Born but Col. Parker nixed it, insisting Elvis get top billing and a huge amount of money. Parker also didn't like the fact that producer Jon Peters was virtually unknown at the time. Kris Kristofferson got the role instead.
- Perhaps the biggest was Presley getting offered the role of Tony in West Side Story. Granted Elvis wasn't a Broadway singer, but there's a good chance he wouldn't have had to have been dubbed like Richard Beymer and Natalie Wood were. And Elvis literally playing a modern day Romeo? A role like that was made for him (besides, he had a brief romance with Wood in 1956).
- 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).
- When Sam Phillips decided to sell Presley's contract in 1955, Atlantic Records entered into the bidding for him. Atlantic bid $30,000, but was outbid by RCA Victor who paid $40,000. Atlantic vice president Jerry Wexler loved Presley's singing and bid aggressively, although he later admitted he didn't know how Atlantic could have raised the $30,000 if their offer had been accepted. Atlantic president Ahmet Ertegun later noted, ironically, that David Sarnoff, president of RCA Victor's corporate parent, Radio Corporation of America, had previously been extensively quoted in Variety magazine as damning rock and roll and R&B music as immoral, and only stopped after Presley was signed.
- According to Meat Loaf, Elvis Presley was being considered to play the role of Eddie in the film adaptation of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
- Memphis wrestling legend Jerry Lawler wrote in his book It's Good To Be The King... Sometimes about how he almost managed to get Presley involved with Memphis Wrestling in some capacity — ostensibly, as a way to exploit Elvis' fascination with martial arts, perhaps even make a wrestling vs martial arts match — and even got to speak with his father, Vernon Presley, on the phone to iron out some details about it. Unfortunately, this was 1977, and we all know what kind of condition Presley was in by then - in fact, a few weeks after that phone call, Memphis was down a King, as Elvis had died.
- In October 1958, Bill Haley & His Comets toured Germany. Presley attended at least two of the concerts (one in uniform, the other in civilian clothes) and there was talk of him doing a number or two with Haley, but owing to the riots and other violence already plaguing Haley's performances, it was decided this was too risky.
- There's a big list of songs that were floated as possibilities for him to record, but for various reasons he never did.
- According to the book Elvis: The Illustrated Record, a number of top songwriters of the 1970s, including no less than Bruce Springsteen and John Lennon, 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 to 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, Johnny Cash, actually did record an album of Williams covers.)
- Elvis wanted to perform a cover of "I Will Always Love You", which had just been a #1 country hit for young Dolly Parton, and Parton (a huge fan) was all for it, but Tom Parker insisted that Elvis would get half the royalties. Dolly refused to sign them away, a decision that saved her millions of dollars when Whitney Houston covered the song for The Bodyguard in 1992.
- At the suggestion of Tom Parker, RCA Records labelmate David Bowie 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 Station to Station.
- He'd planned to include a cover of the Carpenters classic "Merry Christmas Darling" on Elvis Sings The Wonderful World of Christmas in 1971, but he had trouble learning the song's bridge and finally just gave up on it during the sessions.
- Jimmy Buffett 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.
- As noted earlier, Elvis Presley was awarded the ranking of 8th Degree Black Belt in American Kenpo Karate. Had he outlived Ed Parker, the founder of the style, Elvis would have been the successor. (This was actually a move by Parker to try and bring fame to the art. It may have been better that this didn't come to pass as Elvis was a significantly better singer than a martial artist...)
- The Harold Robbins novel A Stone for Danny Fisher, which became the basis for the movie King Creole, was originally optioned to star James Dean.
- This one is more hypothetical than dealing with anything specific, but absolutely the single biggest turning point in the Elvis saga, which often gets overlooked, is his mother Gladys dying in 1958 at age 46. It's important on two fronts—the obvious one is that Elvis was extraordinarily close to her, and her death no doubt was a major contributor to his myriad of personal issues. The other side is that Gladys didn't much like Tom Parker (and the feeling was mutual). With her now out of the way, Parker could bond with Elvis' dad Vernon, a wishy-washy guy who, like Parker, felt that raking in money was the most important thing Elvis could do. Gladys, had she lived, likely would've challenged some of Parker's bad decisions, but Vernon gladly enabled them once Parker convinced him that it was good for the bottom line.
- Parker discussed Elvis headlining a closed-circuit TV concert (a technology used at the time mainly for big-time sporting events) around 1960 and again in 1970. This eventually evolved into the Aloha from Hawaii show, the first major satellite-fed entertainment event, in 1973.note
- Why Fandom Can't Have Nice Things: After riots broke out in Mexico City during screenings of consecutive Elvis films, the government responded by banning all Elvis films for over a decade.
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