The Life And Career Of Elvis Aron Presley: 1962
The new year began with a new arrangement between Elvis and RCA. To get rid of the weekly fees of 1,000 USD, which had been agreed upon back in 1955, the label payed him off with 346,660 USD. For his forthcoming sales Elvis received annual, non-refundable prepayments of 400,000 USD and 200,000 USD. These amounts were later to be settled against the properly calculated royalties. Additionally to the four singles and two albums per year, RCA got the right to issue two singles or extended players of released recordings every twelfe months. The royalties for marketing were raised from 0.75% to 1.00%. Besides that, the monies were not payed to Parker anymore, but split between the manager and his client. All projects, not mentioned in the new contract with RCA, were from now on regarded to be joint ventures between Elvis and the Colonel. Therefore the earnings from these products were split 50/50 between the two men. The arrangement had a running time of five years.
On January 10th the IRS (Internal Revenue Service, a department of the American financial authorities) began to audit the king's income. All tax statements for 1955 to 1960 were checked, the main main criticism was the paraphrase "expenses" in the singer's movie contracts. In fact, these lump-sum fees were never meant to cover any costs, they simply were a part of the payment.
In February RCA released "Good Luck Charm" / "Anyhting That's Part Of You". On the Billboard Charts the single became a number one hit, but it sold less units than the previous 45. The king's next project was a movie called "Girls! Girls! Girls!". On March 18th and 19th Elvis recorded the soundtrack. Meanwhile RCA released the extended player "Follow That Dream". On the spot it sold half a million copies, which was quite an archivement, considering the rapidly declining popularity of this format. The accordant movie was rolled out on May 23rd and peaked at number 5 of the weekly Box Office Survey. Commercially the Mirisch production couldn't compete with the musicals Elvis had made for Paramount.
On July 17th, two weeks after the production of "Girls! Girls! Girls!" had been finalized, Priscilla arrived in Memphis. She stayed for two weeks. The same month RCA released the album "Pot Luck With Elvis". It peaked at number four of the Billbaord Charts and sold 300,000 copies during its initial sales period. Therefore the new longplayer was as successful as "Elvis Is Back!" (1960) and "Something For Everybody" (1961). The new single "She's Not You" / "Just Tell Her Jim Said Hello" also matched the sales of the previous 45, but due to stronger competition it stalled at number 5.
Meanwhile there were some changes in the king's private life. Until now Anita Wood had accepted her boyfriend's various affairs, but the visit of Priscilla was the final nail in their relationship's coffin and she officially announced the separation from Elvis. The singer didn't seem to care all that much. On July 12th he invested in the future, lend 134,000 USD against Graceland Mansion and bought property opposite to his estate.
On July 28th MGM started the production of "It Happened At The World's Fair", Elvis' first movie for the studio since 1957. The work would be finished on November 9th. While the king was filming the musical, Mirisch put "Kid Galahad" in the cinemas. Just like the previously released "Follow That Dream" the film couldn't compete with the musicals Elvis had made for Paramount. Just like 20th Century Fox had done the previous year, Mirisch also decided not to hire the king again. The soundtrack sold 400,000 units, a little less than the one of "Follow That Dream". The reason might have been the competition from the longplayer "Pot Luck With Elvis" and the single "She's Not You". We have to remember, that in those days the music could not be streamed, but had to be bought on physical sound carriers. The budget of the fans was limited, so they had to decide, which record to buy.
While his client was busy making movies and RCA churned out one record after another, Colonel Parker had re-negotiated Elvis' contract with the label. The royalties for marketing were raised to 2%, which was twice as much as RCA had paid before. Additionally the company had to pay an annual bonus of 100,000 USD, reduced to 75,000 USD after four years. In return the label got the option to extend the contract for another two years after it expired in 1966.
In the run up to the release of "Girls! Girls! Girls!" RCA shiped "Return To Sender" / "Where Do You Come From". The single peaked at number two and sold in comparable numbers to the mega hit "Are You Lonesome Tonight". A month later the accordant soundtrack album followed. It became a top3 hit and sold twice as much as "Pot Luck With Elvis" or "Something For Everybody". The movie also peaked at number 3 (but of course not on the Billboard Charts, but on the Box Office Survey) and earned domestic rental fees of 2.6 million USD.
Regarding the movies Colonel Parker had learned his lesson. "Flaming Star", "Wild In The Country", "Follow That Dream" and "Kid Galahad" all had focused on the story and contained little music. And all of them had performed considerably worse than "GI Blues", "Blue Hawaii" and "Girls! Girls! Girls!". Besides that, the accordant soundtracks had sold at least twice as many units than the regular studio albums. The audience wanted lightweight musicals and edgeless, fluffy movie tunes. That's were the money was.
On December 19th Priscilla arrived in Memphis for another visit. Because she couldn't sleep, Elvis gave her some of his chemical crutches. At 17 years of age she wasn't used to such heavy medication and got knocked-out for two days. Of course her parents never learned about the "mishap".
Financially the year was great. The movies earned Elvis 902,000 USD, the music another 775,000 USD. Because the king didn't hire a tax consultant and preferred to have the accounting and tax notifications done by his father, an unskilled worker, he had to pay the absurd amount of 800,000 USD to the IRS.