Professor Elam

Elvis Presley What Could Have Been

Elvis Presley passed from this earth August 16, 1977. And so the fortieth anniversary of his passing has been noted in various media outlets this month. How did such a promising talent end up so badly? At his death, he was worth less than $3 M, a miniscule amount for such a prodigious outpouring of records, concerts, and movies. Since then he has become one of the biggest dead celebrities. Forbes estimates Elvis made $45 M in pre-tax earnings in 2005. Two of the finalists in The Next Best Thing on summer television were Elvis impersonators; one of them won the contest. What happened?

Elvis, as David Halberstam notes in The Fifties, was a watershed musical talent. Prior to this, America’s moms and dads had listened to gentler tunes like Jo Stafford’s 1951 Shrimp Boats are a Comin’. The one four five jump base of songs like Hound Dog or Jailhouse Rock was a clear departure from Big Band Music. Elvis was from the south and the south was the birth of the blues and what became known as rock and roll. Rock had its roots in black musicians like Lil’ Richard. Richard claims to this day to have invented rock and roll. But that honor has to be shared with artists like Chuck Berry. Black musicians were certainly the inspiration to Jerry Lee Lewis. Elvis combined this beat with a swivel hip performance. This was deemed to be so suggestive that in his first performance on Ed Sullivan’s show, the camera only showed Elvis from the waist up.

The suits didn’t think they could sell black musicians like Richard and Berry to the public. So musicians like Elvis and others from Sun Records like Jerry Lee and Carl Perkins came into vogue. Still all this was a bit much for the parents who after all fund the record purchases. And so middle of the road performers like Pat Boone and Fabian were manufactured for broader appeal. The were smoother but definitely not rock and rollers. Still the teenagers swooned for Elvis in a manner not seen since early Frank Sinatra or later until the Beatles. A star had been born.

Colonel Tom Parker came to manage Elvis and certainly what happened has to be laid at his doorstep. Elvis began doing movies to promote the record albums. The very first ones sparked with dynamism and real talent like Juliet Prowse. This era peaked with Viva Las Vegas in 1964. In Viva Elvis was paired with vivacious Ann Margaret, easily his own screen performing equal in song and dance routines. Speculation has it that she coaxed his best song and dance performance ever; indeed, even today it is a classic.

What do I mean? Think John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever and Grease. Travolta made a comeback in Pulp Fiction and now commands millions per movie. In retrospect, it was time for Elvis to get serious after Viva. Male stars like Steve McQueen, James Coburn, and Charles Bronson were emerging as real stars. But it was not to be. Parker decided a female would not potentially upstage Elvis in a movie again. The result was another sixteen movies, one just as vapid and empty as the last. Elvis gained weight, lost wives, and married a drug habit. Interestingly, Barbara Streisand’s first casting choice for her re makes of A Star is Born in 1976 was Elvis, not Kristofferson. Gee would that have rescued him from his death the following year?

We all make choices in the great decision tree that is life. Elvis never wrote a song. He never performed overseas. And by age 42 it was all over. He is more prosperous today than when he was alive. Like Lucy, there is probably someone listening to an Elvis impersonator or the real thing 24/7 somewhere on the planet. The last Japanese Prime Minister delighted in his tour of Graceland, hosted by the President no less. Too bad Elvis did not stick around and get his kicks.

Shifty henry said to bugs, for heavens sake,
No ones lookin, nows our chance to make a break.
Bugsy turned to shifty and he said, nix nix,
I wanna stick around a while and get my kicks.
Lets rock, everybody, lets rock.
Everybody in the whole cell block
Was dancin to the jailhouse rock.

Jailhouse Rock