Elvis Presley 40th Anniversary Tribute Pt 2

American singer Elvis Presley served in the United States Army between March 1958 and March 1960. At the time of his draft, he was one of the most well-known names in the world of entertainment.

Before entering the U.S. Army, Presley had caused national outrage with his sexually charged performances and rock and roll music. Many parents, religious leaders, and teachers groups saw his draft, removing him from public view, as a positive thing. Despite being offered the chance to enlist in Special Services to entertain the troops and live in priority housing, Presley decided to serve as a regular soldier. This earned him the respect of many of his fellow soldiers and people back home who had previously viewed him in a negative light.

During his service, Presley’s life was affected in many ways, beginning with the death of his mother. Not long before he was to be stationed in Germany, Gladys Presley died of a heart attack brought on by Acute Hepatitis and Cirrhosis.

At age 24, when he was stationed in West Germany, he met his future wife Priscilla Beaulieu and became dependent on stimulants and barbiturates. This unhealthy addiction eventually led to his divorce, and ultimately his death at age 42 in 1977.

After his release from military service, Presley found a new fan base among an older age group, thanks in part to his army career and releases of ballads over rock and roll songs.

Induction

Presley being sworn into the U.S. Army at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas, March 24, 1958

Presley reported for his induction on March 24, 1958, a day dubbed “black Monday” for his fans by the press. Presley was given a physical and assigned Army serial number 53310761, before being sworn in and made

Presley was given a physical and assigned Army serial number 53310761, before being sworn in and made leader of his group. Parker, with the permission of the Army, had arranged for news crews from around the world to be on hand to report Presley’s entry into the Army.

After his final goodbyes to family and friends, Presley and his fellow recruits were taken by bus to Fort Chaffee, Arkansas

Fort Hood

Presley spent four days at Fort Chaffee before being transferred to Fort Hood in Texas. After being assigned to Company A of the Third Armored Division’s 1st Medium Tank Battalion, Presley completed basic training by June. He had become a pistol sharpshooter and expressed his enjoyment at the “rough and tumble” of the tanks obstacle course.To friends back home, however, he was less upbeat. In letters to friend Alan Fortas, Presley described his homesickness and insisted that he hated the training.[5] Eddie Fadal, another of Presley’s friends, remembers that Presley would worry about his career, fearing it was all over. One of Presley’s instructors, Bill Norwood, who let Presley use his phone to call home on many occasions, recalls Presley breaking down in tears during many of these phone calls.[5]To friends back home, however, he was less upbeat. In letters to friend Alan Fortas, Presley described his homesickness and insisted that he hated the training. Eddie Fadal, another of Presley’s friends, remembers that Presley would worry about his career, fearing it was all over. One of Presley’s instructors, Bill Norwood, who let Presley use his phone to call home on many occasions, recalls Presley breaking down in tears during many of these phone calls.

After a short break to record new material for RCA Victor in June, Presley returned to Fort Hood to finish his tank training. He was now living off post, in his own house, with his mother, father, grandmother, and friend Lamar Fike; soldiers who had dependents living off post were allowed to live with them.

Having his family close by cheered him up immensely, although he still spoke to friends about his fears for his career. Parker, who was often a visitor to Presley’s home, would attempt to reassure his client. Parker had arranged for enough material and merchandise to be available to keep Presley’s name in the public arena during his two years in the service. Although Presley nodded along in agreement with his manager, he was not really convinced that he could return to what he had known previously.

Mother’s death

In early August, while in Texas with her son, Gladys took ill. She had recently increased her alcohol intake to cope with her son’s fame and Army commitments, and she had also begun using diet pills to attempt to lose weight. This, coupled with a bad diet, had led to the deterioration of her liver. One afternoon, after a heated argument with her husband Vernon, Gladys collapsed from exhaustion. Presley arranged for her and Vernon to return to Memphis on August 8.

The next day Gladys’ condition worsened so rapidly that she was rushed to a hospital. On August 11, after calls from her doctor, Presley requested emergency leave to visit with his mother. After initially being turned down and threatening to go AWOL, Presley was eventually given permission to leave on August 12.The officer who initially denied Presley his emergency leave was later disciplined for his actions.

On August 14, Gladys died from Cirrhosis. The official cause of death was listed as heart attack, but the Presleys refused an autopsy to verify it. Presley and Vernon were both devastated by her death. Her funeral was held on August 15, and Presley collapsed several times before, during, and after the service. His mother had always been the most important person in his life, and now he felt as though everything he had worked for had been for nothing. Presley’s leave was extended by five days on August 18, and when he finally left to return to Fort Hood he left instructions that nothing in his mother’s room was to be altered.

After training at Fort Hood, Presley was assigned to the 3rd Armored Division in Friedberg, West Germany. He left Fort Hood on September 19, headed for Brooklyn Army Terminal in New York where he and his division would ship out to West Germany on September 22. After a short press conference arranged by Parker, which also involved Presley walking up and down the plank of the USS General George M. Randall eight times for cameras, the ship set sail and Presley would spend the rest of his service overseas.

During the crossing Presley became a friend of a fellow soldier named Charlie Hodge. Hodge, who had enjoyed some success as an entertainer himself before being drafted, encouraged Presley to help him put together a show for the troops. Presley accepted his request, but only agreed to play piano in the background; Parker had drilled into him that there would be no public performances of any kind during his service. Hodge would become such a close friend to Presley during their time in the Army that he was invited to work for him when they were both discharged.

On October 1 the General George M. Randall arrived in West Germany and Presley was once again offered the chance to join Special Services. Again he politely refused, and was instead given the task of driving the commanding officer of Company D, Captain Russell. Russell, however, did not take to the attention surrounding Presley, and he was transferred to driving duties for Reconnaissance Platoon Sergeant Ira Jones of Company C.

Shortly after arriving in West Germany, Presley was allowed to live off base. He and his family moved into Hilberts Park Hotel in Bad Nauheim, but within three weeks they had moved to the more elegant Hotel Grunewald. Parker wrote on a nearly daily basis to Presley about how things were going back home.

He had acquired deals with RCA and 20th Century-Fox to make sure Presley’s return to public life would go as smoothly as possible. RCA agreed to release an album of Presley’s press conference the day he left for West Germany; titled Elvis Sails, the album would pay Presley $0.22 per sale in royalties, guaranteed up to at least 100,000 copies.

20th Century-Fox had agreed upon a $200,000 fee for one Presley film, with options on a second for $250,000 and a 50/50 split on profits. Paramount, too, had signed deals to produce a number of new Presley films after his release; what would eventually become G.I. Blues was agreed upon for $175,000 and a three-picture option was also included. Parker also reassured his client about the press coverage he was receiving while overseas. News outlets were reporting regularly on stories, mostly released by Parker himself, about plans for Presley’s return to entertainment. Stories of wild parties in Presley’s hotel room were also making it into the papers regularly, and Parker was forced to hold a press conference to dispel these rumors. For Presley, however, being away in West Germany was not all happy times. He would often write home to friends and family about how homesick he was, how desperately he missed his mother, and of how his fears about his career still clouded his mind.

Introduced to amphetamines by a sergeant while on maneuvers, he became “practically evangelical about their benefits”—not only for energy, but for “strength” and weight loss, as well—and many of his friends in the outfit joined him in indulging. The Army also introduced Presley to karate, which he studied seriously, later including it in his live performances. Fellow soldiers have attested to Presley’s wish to be seen as an able, ordinary soldier, despite his fame, and to his generosity while in the service. He donated his Army pay to charity, purchased TV sets for the post, and bought an extra set of fatigues for everyone in his outfit.

1959

Presley in Germany

In early 1959, after complaints from other guests about the behavior of Presley and his friends, the group left the Grunewald Hotel and moved to a five bedroom house nearby.] Fans would congregate outside the house to see Presley as he came and went to work, and a sign was put up stating that autographs would be given between 7.30 and 8.00pm.

Although Presley’s manager had forbidden him from performing while in the Army, pressure from RCA for him to record new material led to Parker sending a microphone and a tape recorder to West Germany. Presley had recorded a handful of songs before he left for West Germany to cover his time away, but RCA was worried that they would run out of material before March 1960. In a letter to his client, Parker explained that recordings of Presley with just a piano for accompaniment, singing gospel songs would be good enough; his fans would just want to hear him sing anything.

Presley used the recorder to mess around with friends and family, singing mainly gospel and current hits, but none of these recordings were sent back for release by RCA. Decades later these recordings would be released officially on titles such as Private Presley and Home Recordings. In June, with 15 days leave to enjoy, Presley and his friends traveled to Munich and Paris. Two days in Munich were followed by over a week of partying in Paris where, on several occasions, Presley would invite the whole chorus line of girls from The 4 O’Clock club back to his hotel.

Dee Stanley

Around this time Presley’s father, Vernon, had been getting close to a woman named Dee Stanley, the wife of Army sergeant Bill Stanley. Originally Dee had written to Presley inviting him to dinner. She had seen him live during one of his earliest performances in the fifties, and she was keen to meet a star of his stature.

Presley, not interested in dinner with someone he knew was considerably older, sent his father in his place. Most biographers state that Dee was already in the process of divorcing her husband when she met Vernon, but some others claim that Vernon had gotten to know both of them together, and was even asked by Bill to help him save his marriage.

When Presley heard of the relationship between his father and Dee he flew into a rage; in his mind his father had no business to be setting up with another woman so soon after the death of Gladys. Dee returned to the USA in the summer of 1959, closely followed by Vernon, and the pair returned to West Germany together.

Close friends of Presley have stated that Bill received a “handsome payoff” for his signature on the divorce papers. Dee and Vernon would eventually marry in 1960, with her children becoming stepbrothers to Presley. Although Presley never liked Dee, he became very close to her young children and welcomed them to his home as the brothers he never had; in later years they would be employed as bodyguards and drivers. Dee Stanley Presley died on September 28, 2013.

Priscilla

On September 13, airman Currie Grant, who had met Presley a couple of months earlier, introduced him to 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu during a party at Bob’s home. Witnesses recall that Presley took an instant liking to Priscilla, and the pair were practically inseparable during the rest of his time in West Germany. They would eventually marry after a seven-and-a-half-year courtship.

In her autobiography, Priscilla says that despite his worries that it would ruin his career, Parker convinced Presley that to gain popular respect, he should serve his country as a regular soldier rather than in Special Services, where he would have been able to give some musical performances and stay in touch with the public.

Media reports echoed Presley’s concerns about his career, but RCA producer Steve Sholes and Freddy Bienstock of Hill and Range had carefully prepared for his two-year hiatus. Armed with a substantial amount of unreleased material, they kept up a regular stream of successful releases.

Between his induction and discharge, Presley had ten top 40 hits, including “Wear My Ring Around Your Neck”, the best-selling “Hard Headed Woman”, and “One Night” in 1958, and “(Now and Then There’s) A Fool Such as I” and the number one “A Big Hunk o’ Love” in 1959.

RCA also managed to generate four albums compiling old material during this period, most successfully Elvis’ Golden Records (1958), which hit number three on the LP chart

Discharge

On January 20, 1960, Presley was promoted to sergeant. The army held a press conference on March 1 before Presley departed from West Germany. Presley was asked about his decision to serve as a regular soldier instead of as part of the service club. He said, “I was in a funny position. Actually, that’s the only way it could be. People were expecting me to mess up, to goof up in one way or another. They thought I couldn’t take it and so forth, and I was determined to go to any limits to prove otherwise, not only to the people who were wondering, but to myself”.

On March 2, with Priscilla in attendance, Presley waved goodbye to the fans and media of Germany and flew home to the U.S. En route his plane stopped at Prestwick Airport in Scotland to refuel; this was the one and only time that Presley would set foot in the United Kingdom. On March 3 Presley’s plane arrived at McGuire Air Force Base near Fort Dix, New Jersey at 7:42 am. Nancy Sinatra, RCA representatives, and Parker were there to welcome him home, as well as a huge crowd of fans. Two days later, on March 5, Presley was officially discharged from active duty.

Elvis Is Back

Presley returned to the United States on March 2, 1960, and was honorably discharged with the rank of sergeant on March 5. The train that carried him from New Jersey to Tennessee was mobbed all the way, and Presley was called upon to appear at scheduled stops to please his fans.

On the night of March 20, he entered RCA’s Nashville studio to cut tracks for a new album along with a single, “Stuck on You”, which was rushed into release and swiftly became a number one hit.

Another Nashville session two weeks later yielded a pair of his best-selling singles, the ballads “It’s Now or Never” and “Are You Lonesome Tonight?”, along with the rest of Elvis Is Back! The album features several songs described by Greil Marcus as full of Chicago blues “menace, driven by Presley’s own super-miked acoustic guitar, brilliant playing by Scotty Moore, and demonic sax work from Boots Randolph. Elvis’s singing wasn’t sexy, it was pornographic.”

As a whole, the record “conjured up the vision of a performer who could be all things”, in the words of music historian John Robertson: “a flirtatious teenage idol with a heart of gold; a tempestuous, dangerous lover; a gutbucket blues singer; a sophisticated nightclub entertainer; [a] raucous rocker”.

Presley returned to television on May 12 as a guest on The Frank Sinatra Timex Special—ironic for both stars, given Sinatra’s not-so-distant excoriation of rock and roll. Also known as Welcome Home Elvis, the show had been taped in late March, the only time all year Presley performed in front of an audience. Parker secured an unheard-of $125,000 fee for eight minutes of singing. The broadcast drew an enormous viewership.

G.I. Blues, the soundtrack to Presley’s first film since his return, was a number one album in October. His first LP of sacred material, His Hand in Mine, followed two months later. It reached number 13 on the U.S. pop chart and number 3 in the UK, remarkable figures for a gospel album.

In February 1961, Presley performed two shows for a benefit event in Memphis, on behalf of 24 local charities. During a luncheon preceding the event, RCA presented him with a plaque certifying worldwide sales of over 75 million records.

A 12-hour Nashville session in mid-March yielded nearly all of Presley’s next studio album, Something for Everybody. As described by John Robertson, it exemplifies the Nashville sound, the restrained, cosmopolitan style that would define country music in the 1960s. Presaging much of what was to come from Presley himself over the next half-decade, the album is largely “a pleasant, unthreatening pastiche of the music that had once been Elvis’s birthright.”

It would be his sixth number one LP. Another benefit concert, raising money for a Pearl Harbor memorial, was staged on March 25, in Hawaii. It was to be Presley’s last public performance for seven years.

Lost in Hollywood

Parker had by now pushed Presley into a heavy film making schedule, focused on formulaic, modestly budgeted musical comedies. Presley at first insisted on pursuing more serious roles, but when two films in a more dramatic vein—Flaming Star (1960) and Wild in the Country (1961)—were less commercially successful, he reverted to the formula. Among the 27 films he made during the 1960s, there were few further exceptions.

His films were almost universally panned; critic Andrew Caine dismissed them as a “pantheon of bad taste”. Nonetheless, they were virtually all profitable. Hal Wallis, who produced nine of them, declared, “A Presley picture is the only sure thing in Hollywood.”

Of Presley’s films in the 1960s, 15 were accompanied by soundtrack albums and another 5 by soundtrack EPs. The films’ rapid production and release schedules—he frequently starred in three a year—affected his music. According to Jerry Leiber, the soundtrack formula was already evident before Presley left for the Army: “three ballads, one medium-tempo [number], one up-tempo, and one break blues boogie”.

As the decade wore on, the quality of the soundtrack songs grew “progressively worse”. Julie Parrish, who appeared in Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966), says that he hated many of the songs chosen for his films. The Jordanaires’ Gordon Stoker describes how Presley would retreat from the studio microphone: “The material was so bad that he felt like he couldn’t sing it.”

Most of the film albums featured a song or two from respected writers such as the team of Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman. But by and large, according to biographer Jerry Hopkins, the numbers seemed to be “written on order by men who never really understood Elvis or rock and roll.” Regardless of the songs’ quality, it has been argued that Presley generally sang them well, with commitment.

Critic Dave Marsh heard the opposite: “Presley isn’t trying, probably the wisest course in the face of material like ‘No Room to Rumba in a Sports Car’ and ‘Rock-a-Hula Baby.'”

In the first half of the decade, three of Presley’s soundtrack albums hit number one on the pop charts, and a few of his most popular songs came from his films, such as “Can’t Help Falling in Love” (1961) and “Return to Sender” (1962). (“Viva Las Vegas”, the title track to the 1964 film, was a minor hit as a B-side, and became truly popular only later.)

But, as with artistic merit, the commercial returns steadily diminished. During a five-year span—1964 through 1968—Presley had only one top-ten hit: “Crying in the Chapel” (1965), a gospel number recorded back in 1960. As for non-film albums, between the June 1962 release of Pot Luck and the November 1968 release of the soundtrack to the television special that signaled his comeback, only one LP of new material by Presley was issued: the gospel album How Great Thou Art (1967).

It won him his first Grammy Award, for Best Sacred Performance. As Marsh described, Presley was “arguably the greatest white gospel singer of his time [and] really the last rock & roll artist to make gospel as vital a component of his musical personality as his secular songs.”

Shortly before Christmas 1966, more than seven years since they first met, Presley proposed to Priscilla Beaulieu. They were married on May 1, 1967, in a brief ceremony in their suite at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas.

Elvis: the ’68 Comeback Special

The Presleys with newborn Lisa Marie, February 1968

Presley’s only child, Lisa Marie, was born on February 1, 1968, during a period when he had grown deeply unhappy with his career. Of the eight Presley singles released between January 1967 and May 1968, only two charted in the top 40, and none higher than number 28.

His forthcoming soundtrack album, Speedway, would die at number 82 on the Billboard chart. Parker had already shifted his plans to television, where Presley had not appeared since the Sinatra Timex show in 1960. He maneuvered a deal with NBC that committed the network to both finance a theatrical feature and broadcast a Christmas special.

Recorded in late June in Burbank, California, the special, called simply Elvis, aired on December 3, 1968. Later known as the ’68 Comeback Special, the show featured lavishly staged studio productions as well as songs performed with a band in front of a small audience—Presley’s first live performances since 1961.

The ’68 Comeback Special produced “one of the most famous images” of Presley, taken on June 29, 1968

The live segments saw Presley clad in tight black leather, singing and playing guitar in an uninhibited style reminiscent of his early rock-and-roll days. Bill Belew, who designed this outfit, gave it a Napoleonic standing collar (Presley customarily wore high collars because he believed his neck looked too long), a design feature that he would later make a major trademark of the outfits Presley wore on stage in his later years. Director and coproducer Steve Binder had worked hard to reassure the nervous singer and to produce a show that was far from the hour of Christmas songs Parker had originally planned.

The show, NBC’s highest rated that season, captured 42 percent of the total viewing audience. Jon Landau of Eye magazine remarked, “There is something magical about watching a man who has lost himself find his way back home. He sang with the kind of power people no longer expect of rock ‘n’ roll singers. He moved his body with a lack of pretension and effort that must have made Jim Morrison green with envy.” Dave Marsh calls the performance one of “emotional grandeur and historical resonance.”

By January 1969, the single “If I Can Dream”, written for the special, reached number 12. The soundtrack album broke into the top ten. According to friend Jerry Schilling, the special reminded Presley of what “he had not been able to do for years, being able to choose the people; being able to choose what songs and not being told what had to be on the soundtrack. … He was out of prison, man.”

Binder said of Presley’s reaction, “I played Elvis the 60-minute show, and he told me in the screening room, ‘Steve, it’s the greatest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I give you my word I will never sing a song I don’t believe in.