The Life And Career Of Elvis Aron Presley: 1963

The new year began with a shock. "One Broken Heart For Sale" / "They Remind Me Too Much Of You" stalled at number 11 and therefore became the first Presley single with new songs since 1956, which failed to reach the top10.

Elvis himself was busy filming "Fun In Acapulco". Besides that, he had to re-organize his private life. Before the production of the movie was finalized, the Beaulieus were visiting the king to talk about his request to allow Priscilla to live in Memphis. The families finally agreed, that she would move in with Vernon and Dee and visit the local high school. It's questionable, that Anna and Paul Beaulieu believed in the accomodation arrangement.

In April RCA released "It Happened At The Worlds Fair". The chart peak at number 3 and the sales of 300,000 units were solid and comparable to Elvis' studio albums. But the previous soundtracks had sold in considerably larger numbers and therefore the result wasn't satisfactory. The movie also didn't meet the expectations. On the domestic market it earned rental fees of 2 million USD, which was far behind "GI Blues" or "Blue Hawaii".

On May 26th and 27th Elvis recorded 14 new tracks, enough for an album and a separate single. The 45 was released a few weeks later. "(You're The) Devil In Disguise" did much better than "One Broken Heart For Sale". It sold 700,000 copies and peaked at number 3. Even though the single was a success, the longplayer was postponed. Colonel Parker thought, a collection of well known hits would sell much better than an album of unkonwn songs. In the past 24 months Elvis had scored so many hits, that it was easy to fill a longplayer. The singer agreed to the plan and so "Elvis' Golden Records - Volume 3" was released. The album instantly sold 600,000 copies and was a major success. Because several people blamed the comparatively low sales of "It Happened At the World's Fair" on the short running time, it was decided to enhance the forthcoming "Fun In Acapulco" soundtrack with bonus songs. They were taken from the batch of tracks Elvis had produced in May. This meant, that there were not enough new songs left to fill an album. But with "It Happened At The World's Fair", "Elvis' Golden Records - Volume 3" and "Fun In Acapulco" the king would deliver the requested amount of albums anyway. It was considered to record some additional songs in late 1963 or early 1964 and compile a new studio album.

Before "Fun In Acapulco" hit the cinemas, Elvis started to work on "Viva Las Vegas". The production went from July 9th to September 11th and considerably exceeded the budget. Colonel Parker was furious, because the more the film cost, the later the profit participation kicked in. As a result, the next MGM movie was produced by Sam Katzman, who was known to work fast and cheap. From the planning to the finalization it just took from September 29th to Novemer 14th. Unfortunately the budget of "Viva Las Vegas" wasn't the only problem. During the production Elvis had started an affair with his co-star Ann Margret. That wasn't unusual, since the singer was known to have affairs with many ladies he met in Hollywood. But this time it was serious and the actress even made a public statement about her relationship with Elvis. The Presley people quickly advised their boss to stay with his underage girlfriend, if he wanted to avoid a lolita-scandal and the implosion of his career. Secretly Elvis and Ann Margret continued their affair, before the singer ended it and officially engaged with Priscilla in late 1966.

To promote the forthcoming "Fun In Acapulco" soundtrack, RCA released ""Bossa Nova Baby" / "Witchcraft". It sold a tad worse than the previous 45 and peaked at number 8. A few weeks later the album reached number 3 on the Billboard Charts with sales somewhere between "It Happened At The World's Fair" and "Elvis' Golden Records - Volume 3". The movie also was a success and was ranked at number 5 of the weekly Box Office Survey.

In 1963 the movies made Elvis 1,253,000 USD , which earned him the 7th place on the list of Hollywood's best paid actors. The recording business added nother 546,000 USD.