The Life And Career Of Elvis Aron Presley: 1958/59

The first single of the year was "Don't" / "I Beg Of You". It became a number one hit, but sold less copies than the previous 45. Elvis himself started to work on January 13th with the recording of the soundtrack for "King Creole". The production of the movie ended on March 11th with location shots in New Orleans. During his last days as a civilian, the king often rented the Rainbow Rollerdrome, a skating rink in Memphis. During this period he met Sonny West, the cousin of his buddy Red. They kept in contact and when Elvis formed the Memphis Mafia in 1960, Sonny became a part of this group.

On March 21st RCA released "Elvis' Golden Records". During its initial sales period it moved 150,000 copies and therefore less than the previously released soundtrack album "Loving You". Three days later Elvis began his basic training at Fort Hood in Killeen/Texas.

In April the single "Wear My Ring Around Your Neck" / "Doncha' Think It's Time" was shipped and unfortunately it proved the current trend. Without doubt the people at RCA began to worry, if Elvis could keep up his popularity while in the Army. To give the label something to release during his Army stint, Elvis recorded several new songs on June 10th at RCA Studio B in Nashville. Instead of his old buddies and some additional musicians, the king now booked people like Hank Garland (guitar), Chet Atkins (guitar), Bob Moore (bass), Buddy Harmann (drums) and Floyd Cramer (piano). The Jordanaires were highly regarded professionals anyway. From the old gang just DJ Fontana was left and even he had to share his job with Buddy Harmann. Without doubt Elvis was improving and he more or less outgrew the ones, he had started with.

To coincide with the release of Paramount's "King Creole" RCA issued the single "Hard Headed Woman" / "Don't Ask Me Why". A few weeks later the extended players "King Creole - Volume 1" and "King Creole - Volume 2" followed. Without doubt all the records sold very well, but nevertheless neither RCA, nor Colonel Parker failed to notice, that the soundtrack of "Jailhouse Rock" had moved twice as many copies. Meanwhile Colonel Parker tried to strike a deal with Revlon. The company wanted Elvis to promote their hair care productline "Top Brass", but refused to pay 100,000 USD. With the Colonel refusing to lower his client's fee, the deal went sour and no contracts were signed.

Privately the king went through rough times. During the past few months Gladys' state of health had worsened, on August 14th Elvis' mother finally died at Methodist Hospital in Memphis. The US Army released him from his duties for seven days, later his break was extended by another five days.

On September 11th the singer was assigned to the 3rd Armored Division in West-Germany (at the time Germany was devided into the "German Democratic Republic" / "East Germany" and the "Federal Republic Of Germany" / "West Germany"). Ten days later the USS Randall departed from Brooklyn and the soldiers were on their way to Bremerhaven. Of course Colonel Parker had turned his client's departure into a media event. Before he went on board, Elvis gave a press conference and an interview. RCA tried to capitalize on the hype and released an album called "King Creole". With the exception of a single track it was nothing but a compilation of the extended players "King Creole - Volume 1" and "King Creole - Volume 2", but it sold 250,000 units and peaked at number two of the Billboard Charts. Besides that, there was an extended player called "Christmas With Elvis". It contained the final few songs from "Elvis' Christmas Album", that had not been issued in the ep-format yet.

On October 1st the king arrived in Bremahaven, where he was greeted by a huge crowd of German fans. He soon was brought to Ray Barracks in Friedberg, some 450 miles south, where another press conference was staged. Even though it was claimed, that Elvis was just one of the boys, he didn't have to live in a military barrack. Together with his father (Vernon), his grandmother (Minnie) and two of his buddies (Red West and Lamar Fike) he moved into Park Hotel Ritter. However, the group acted like a bunch of social misfits and kindly were asked to leave as soon as possible. As a result Elvis and his entourage rented a house in Bad Nauheim. In these early days of his Army stint Elvis and Charlie Hodge became close friends. Charlie would also become a part of the Memphis Mafia and would stay until the king's death in 1977. Vernon Presley met Davada Mae "Dee" Stanley and they both fell in love. Elvis was disgusted by the relationship. His mother wasn't gone for even a year and he couldn't stand to see them kiss or even hear some explicit noises from Vernon's room.

In October RCA released "One Night" / "I Got Stung" and finally Elvis was able to replicate the success of his earlier singles. Colonel Parker also came up with good news. He had been able to raise his clients fee for the next two movies for 20th Century Fox by 50,000 USD each. Besides that, he had made a deal with RCA to release a recording of the press conference. The ep was to be called "Elvis Sails" and would make the singer 0.13 USD per sold unit for the recording and another 0,09 USD for the picture on the cover. The label also guaranteed payments for 100,000 units, regardless the actual sales figures. It turned out to be a good deal, because even though the record peaked at number 2 of Billboard's EPs Chart, it didn't sell more than 60,000 copies during its initial sales period.

Despite Elvis had spent three quarters of the year serving the US Army, he had earned 1,001,727.89 USD. The question was, if Colonel Parker would be able to keep the momentum in 1959. His client had still appeared in public and generated publicity. But the next year he would be away and his career had to go on without any input from his side.

Fearing, that the stunt won't work, Parker asked Elvis to record some tracks at home. He obviously had an extended player on his mind with four to six tunes on which his client accompanied himself on piano. The manager must have been sure about the idea, because he even announced a surprise to some executives of RCA. Finally Elvis recorded some songs, but none of them was ever considered for release. Instead RCA compiled an album called "For LP Fans Only". It contained songs, that had only been available on extended players and singles before. The longplayer became a top20 hit and sold 200,000 copies.

In March Colonel Parker supplied RCA with new pictures of his client and received 7,500 USD in return. The same month the label issued "A Fool Such As I" / "I Need Your Love Tonight". The single turned out to be a success, for the first time since "Don't Be Cruel" / "Hound Dog" both tracks of the same single were listed in the top5 of Billboard's Singles Chart.

Even though Elvis himself was gone, RCA kept churning out the records. In April they issued an extended player called "A Touch Of Gold". It didn't chart anywhere, but sold 130,000 copies. In June there was the single "A Big Hunk O' Love" / "My Wish Came True", a month later the label shipped the longplayer "A Date With Elvis". Once again it was a compilation of already available material, but once again the songs had never been released on an album. While the collection of well known songs stagnated at number 32, the single became a number one hit. In September a second volume of "A Touch Of Gold" hit the stores, two months later the current singles were compiled on an album called "50,000,000 Elvis' Fans Can't Be Wrong - Elvis' Gold Records Volume 2". While the extended player didn't do too well, the album sold in solid quantities. Nobody can deny, that the sales figures of many releases of 1958/59 couldn't compete with the ones of 1956/57, but the market environment had changed. After a period of shock-induced paralysis, the competitors had finally reacted and placed similar products on the market. Suddenly "teenage music" was a generally accepted business segment and other stars were established. But Elvis still was the number one, even though he wasn't able to appear in person.

While his career went on surprisingly well, Elvis was laying the groundwork for his future life. He discovered karate for himself and eagerly took lessons from Juergen Seidel, who had founded Germany's first karate club in 1957 and would remain the only German karateka with a dan until 1965. Elvis also became friends with Joe Esposito. Just like Charlie Hodge, he would become one of the key members of the Memphis Mafia. But there were two other, much less positive incidents. First, there was his love for Priscilla Ann Beaulieu. At the time she was barely 14 years of age and therefore the relationship was inappropriate for the singer, who was 24 years old. Second, Elvis discovered the effects of uppers and downers and soon began to use these chemical crutches on a regular basis. Both issues would turn out to have a huge impact on the king's private and professional life, his passion for the effects of drugs and the resulting addictions would even cost his life.