The Life And Career Of Elvis Aron Presley: 1964
On January 12th Elvis arrived in Nashville and held a short recording session. It would take him two years, before he would tape anything else than movie songs again.
In the name of his client Colonel Parker bought the USS Potomac. He paid 55,000 USD for the ship, which once had been owned by president Franklin D. Roosevelt. It was planned to stage a media event and donate the ship to the March Of Dimes. Unfortunately the organization wasn't interested in receiving a cost-intensive, old boat and so Parker had to look for someone else to take it. On February 14th it finally was given to the St. Jude's Hospital. Because the USS Potomac looked somewhat disheveled, the Colonel had it painted. But only on the side, that was visible to the press.
Also in February RCA released "Kissin' Cousins" / "It Hurts Me". The single failed to reach the top10, but sold 700,000 copies. Before Elvis started to work on the movie "Roustabout", Hal B. Wallis (the producer) wrote a letter to Colonel Parker to voice his dislike of the king's current appearance. His face was too soft, his hair looked artificially black and in general he didn't give the impression of a rebel. When Elvis arrived on April 26th, he still didn't look like a hard-edged biker, but at least he looked more natural than in "Viva Las Vegas".
On the 30th of the month Elvis met a hairdresser named Larry Geller. The men instantly hit off and had long conversations about religious and spiritual questions. Soon Larry became the king's personal hairstylist and therefore part of his entourage, the Memphis Mafia. He started to supply his employer with books about religion, spiritualism and new age. Elvis eagerly soaked it up, because he desperately was looking for answers. At 29 he had no idea, what he wanted to do with his life and career.
Meanwhile RCA was flooding the market. In April there was the soundtrack album "Kissin' Cousins" as well as a soundtrack single from "Viva Las Vegas" and another 45 with two old songs from the album "Pot Luck With Elvis". With 500,000 units the longplayer sold as well as Elvis' previous ones, but "Viva Las Vegas" / "What I Say" marked the worst selling Presley single with new songs so far. "Kiss Me Quick" / "Suspicion" was RCA's try to jump on the bandwagon of Terry Stafford, who had covered Elvis' version of "Suspicion" and currently enjoyed a number 3 hit with the track. The plan didn't work out and the king's original recording didn't make it past number 34. In May RCA issued the soundtrack ep of "Viva Las Vegas", which barely sold 150,000 units and stalled at number 92 on the Billboard Charts.
The movies seemed to come as fast and furious as the records. Just four weeks after having completed Paramount's "Roustabout", Elvis attended the first meeting for "Girl Happy", a MGM production. It would be finalized on August 3rd, but for some reason it took the studio nine days longer to release the king from his contract.
In contrast to the accordant records the movie "Viva Las Vegas" performed extremely well. It didn't just overtake The Beatles' "A Hard Days Night", but also became Elvis' most successful motion picture. RCA once again tried to cash-in on someone else's success. Because Conway Twitty was going strong with his cover version of "Such A Night", the label quickly threw Elvis' recording on the market. This time it worked out. Even though the track had been available on the album "Elvis Is Back!" since 1960, the king was able to score a top20 hit and sell 300,000 units.
At the same time Colonel Parker tried to get his client back on track. To him Larry Geller was even worse company than the other members of the Memphis Mafia, which the manager considered to be nothing but costly parasites. As usual, Parker loudly voiced his opinion and accused Elvis to be on a religious trip. The king didn't care about the thoughts of his manager, kept Geller in the crew and continued his religious studies.
In late August Elvis signed a deal with Allied Artists. To star in a comedy named "Isle Of Paradise" the studio paid a fee of 750,000 USD as well as 50% of the earnings, reduced of the fixed payment. To save money, no songs were written and recorded especially for the movie. Instead Elvis' previous albums were plundered. The production went from October 6th to November 24th. The final product would later be called "Tickle Me".
With "Ain't That Loving You Baby" / "Ask Me" RCA combined an unreleased recording from 1958 and one of Elvis' recent cuts from February. Both songs reached the top20 of the Billboard Charts, during its initial sales period the single was picked up 700,000 times. The soundtrack album "Roustabout" moved 450,000 units and became a number one hit. Therefore it sold better than the three previous longplayers with movie tunes. The film performed very well, too. On the weekly Box Office Survey it reached number eight. RCA ended the business year (regarding their best selling artist) with the single "Blue Christmas" / "Wooden Heart" and provided Elvis with a number one hit on Billboard's Christmas Chart.
Also in December Colonel Parker finalized two movie contracts for his client. United Artists paid 1.3 million USD for two pictures, MGM even wanted Elvis for three further projects. Each of them was paid with 750,000 USD and 40% of the earnings (reduced of the fee). Because the management of the studio knew about the king's increasing reluctance towards making movies, they also offered him a bonus of 250,000 USD (to be paid in monthly installments of 1,000 USD) just for signing the contract. Of course he accepted both deals.
In 1965 the movie business generated 1,508,000 USD, which made Elvis number 6 on the list of the best paid Hollywood stars. But in contrast to his competitors he also made money with his records. In this case it was 506,000 USD.