RCA opened the new year with "Guitar Man" / "Hi-Heel Sneakers" and "Elvis' Gold Records - Volume 4". The single sold less than 300,000 units and stagnated at number 43. Of the longplayer 350,000 copies were retailed. Therefore it did better than the king's recent albums, but far worse than the previous editions of the "Gold" series.
The king himself signed a deal with NBC/Universal. For 1.1 million USD and an additional cost lump sum of 25,000 USD he was to star in a feature film and a Xmas show. The tv production would mark the first time in eight years, that the king appeared on the small screen.
On February 1st Lisa Marie, the daughter of Elvis and Priscilla, was born. Of course the occurrence made headlines all around the world.
The same month RCA issued "Stay Away" / "US Male". On the charts the a-side didn't make it past number 67, but "US Male" was played quite often on the radio. Therefore the release got some promotion, which lead to a peak position of number 28 and sales of 500,000 copies. Even though it wasn't a real hit, the single became Elvis' most successful one in three years. Before the king began his work on the MGM production "Live A Little, Love A Little", he bought a new house in Los Angeles. Elvis and Priscilla hoped for a better private sphere than they had in Memphis. At the time the singer appeared to be in great shape. He was slim, looked healthy and had updated his look. The sideburns were longer and his hairdo somewhat reassembled the style of the 1950s. Visually he gave the impression of the King Of Rock'n'Roll 2.0.
On April 8th MGM released "Stay Away, Joe". In the US and Canada the movie generated rental fees of 1.5 million USD and therefore didn't even earn back its costs. On the yearly box office survey it was ranked at number 65. Unfortunately the music business wasn't any better. In its initial sales period "We Call On Him" / "You'll Never Walk Alone" just sold 50,000 copies. A little later RCA released "Your Time Hasn't Come Yet Baby" / "Let Yourself Go". The new single was retailed 300,000 times more, but didn't make it past number 71 of the Billboard Charts. The soundtrack album "Speedway" was ranked at an abysmal number 82 and quickly turned out to be Elvis' worst selling album so far. While the king was virtually left without a recording career, the movie "Speedway" performed surprisingly well. On the domestic market it earned twice as much as "Stay Away Joe". It wasn't a huge success, but at least no commercial disaster.
The production of "Live A Little, Love A Little" was wrapped on May 1st. The same day the executives of NBC decided upon changes, Elvis had requested regarding his television special. Bob Finkel (the producer of the show) and the king had come to the conclusion, that a rockin' retrospective of his career was a better idea than the Christmas special Elvis had signed and was paid for. Colonel Parker tried his best to talk his client out of it, because he feared, that future business partners may consider his star to be unreliable and were afraight, Elvis could change his mind anytime, regardless what he had signed to do. But Mr. Presley was the boss and therefore he had to present the new concept to the decision makers of NBC. Finally they agreed, providing the budget was not exceeded.
After he had vacationed on the Hawaiian islands, Elvis began to work on the tv special on June 2nd. The new concept included live performances, so the king was to sing in front of an audience for the first time since 1961. These scenes also featured Scotty Moore and DJ Fontana. Even though Elvis and his old buddies talked about future recording sessions in Scotty's studio, it would be the last time, the trio worked together. His manager contacted them once more to ask, if they would perform with Elvis in Vegas. But after they had turned down the offer due to the ridiculously low payment, Elvis never tried to get in touch again.
The production of the tv special was finalized on June 30th, eight days later Elvis started to prepare for a western movie called "Charro!". Before the shootings ended on August 28th, Colonel Parker tried to squeeze out some additonal money from RCA. Because his client already had delivered the two albums and four singles his contract called for, the manager demanded a lump sum of 10,000 USD for the planned two singles from the soundtrack of "Live A Little, Love A Little". The label would also have to pay another 10,000 USD for the soundtrack album of the tv special. Of course these payments were not to be settled against royalties for the sales of these records. Additionally Parker demanded 50,000 USD from RCA for his promotional work as well as the cost absorption for 250,000 promo photos, which he planned to use for future campaigns. As usual the Colonel got what he wanted.
Meanwhile a raw edit of "SINGER presents Elvis" had been shown to the tv station's executives and the sponsor's people in charge. NBC (and Colonel Parker, who wanted to teach his client and Bob Finkel a lesson) requested the insertion of a Xmas song, the SINGER representatives didn't approve a scene, that was supposed to take place in a brothel. So "Tiger Man" was substituted by "Blue Christmas" and the ovensive sequence was left out.
After the comparatively successful "Speedway" some people might have hoped for a comeback of Elvis in the cinemas. If that was the case, the commercial performance of "Live A Little, Love A Little" quickly proved them wrong. The accordant single "Almost In Love" / "A Little Less Conversation" barely moved 100,000 copies during its initial sales period and everyone agreed to do without a second soundtrack single. Nevertheless MGM had to produce another Presley flick according to their contract with the star. The movie was called "The Trouble With Girls (And How To Get Into It)" and was made between October 22nd and December 18th. It was clear to everyone, that there wouldn't be any future projects. None of the films had lost money, but the revenue they made was not worth the effort.
As the sponsor of the forthcoming tv special, the Singer Sewing Machine Company had the right to distribute a special album of the king exclusively through their stores. The longplayer was called "SINGER Presents Elvis Singing Flaming Star & Others" and was a compilation of (with the exception of "Flaming Star") unreleased songs from 1960 to 1968. The album was available for three months. In November RCA issued the single "If I Can Dream" / "Edge Of Reality" and the soundtrack album of the tv special "SINGER presents Elvis". The show aired on December 3rd and archived a rating of 42%. Boosted by the success the single sold 800,000 copies and peaked at number 12. The soundtrack album moved 500,000 units and reached number 8. Therefore "If I Can Dream" and "Elvis" were the most successful Presley records of the last four years.
Seven days after the airing of the tv special, Colonel Parker informed the William Morris Agency, that his client was available for live performances in Las Vegas. An engagement of four weeks was to be paid with 500,000 USD, two weeks would cost 300,000 USD. Elvis would appear once each day, on Saturdays and Sundays he would perform twice. Monday would be his day off. One didn't have to be a genius to realize, how outrageous these demands were. Shortly afterwards Kirk Kerkorian made a counter offer. Elvis had to perform at the soon to be opened International Hotel twice each day without a day off. Besides that, he would receive 100,000 USD per week. Knowing, that this would make Elvis the highest paid act in Vegas, Kerkorian offered a penalty of 50,000 USD, if the king found better conditions within the following 12 months. Of course it didn't take Elvis and his manager long to accept. Also in December Colonel Parker made a deal with RCA. For his promotional activities in 1969 he would receive 100,000 USD.
In 1968 Elvis had earned a lot of money. The movies made him 2.6 million USD, the records added another 532,000 USD and the television deal generated 350,000 USD. Financially the declining sales of his records and the lack of moviegoers didn't hurt the king all that much. Just before the business had started to falter, Colonel Parker had dealed out the highest paid contracts of his clients career. Over the past two years this pretty much had compensated the vanishing popularity. As the horse was finally dead, Presley and Parker were quick to jump on another one. Instead of movies Elvis would do live performances. And once again the Colonel had managed to put Elvis on top of the salary scale.