The Life And Career Of Elvis Aron Presley: 1972
In early January RCA released "Until It's Time For You To Go" / "We Can Make The Morning". It sells just 275,000 units and stagnates at number 40 of the Billboard Charts. So it's not the hit everyone had hoped for. Elvis himself began his work year on the 13th of the month, when he started to prepare for his upcoming Vegas engagement. The venue had now officially been named The Las Vegas Hilton, Colonel Parker advertised the stint with the slogan "Elvis Now". As usual the engagement went from January 26th to Februar 23rd, the opening night aside he was on stage twice each day. Between February 14th and 17th RCA recorded parts of the concerts. Elvis planned to release a new live album in the style of "On Stage - February 1970". During this engagement Priscilla informed Elvis, that their separation was for good and she wanted a divorce.
While his client performed in Vegas, Colonel Parker looked for an alternative to Management III. He wasn't happy with the concert promoter and so he convinced the management of RCA to establish their own company. It was called RCA Record Tours and was de facto controlled by Parker himself. The forthcoming concert tour in April would be a joint venture of Management III and RCA Record Tours.
Also in February RCA released a new album of the king. It was a compilation of recordings Elvis had made between 1969 and 1971, just like the current Vegas stint the longplayer was called "Elvis Now". During the initial sales period 400,000 units were retailed, on the charts it stalled at number 43. The next single, a combination of the religious songs "Bosom Of Abraham" and "He Touched Me", sold just 50,000 units and wasn't listed on any chart.
In the meantime Colonel Parker negotiated another movie project with MGM. While "That's The Way It Is" had documented a Vegas engagement, the new movie was to show the king's life on the road. The film was to be called "Standing Room Only" and would make Elvis a whopping million USD - twice as much as he had been paid for "That's The Way It Is" two years before.
On March 27th Elvis recorded new songs at RCA Studio C in Hollywood/California. Because he had no intention to have cameras around while producing new songs, a recording session was faked after the real one had been finished. Elvis and his group also gathered for a rehearsal session. Usually he didn't do that before a concert tour, but for MGM the guys went through some of the songs of the set list. The tour itself ran from April 6th to 19th, four of the concerts were filmed by MGM and recorded by RCA. Elvis looked less healthy than in Vegas. At times his face was somewhat boated and pale, his eyelids appeared to be swollen. After having reviewed the first concert footage, the movie team tried to cover it up by using light brown spotlights instead of the usual white ones.
Also in April RCA issued the single "An American Trilogy" / "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and the gospel album "He Touched Me". On the charts the single stagnated at number 66, the album at number 79. In their initial sales period 100,000 (single) and 200,000 (album) units were retailed. The list of low-sellers started to grow long.
While Elvis' career as a recording artist faltered, the concert business was doing great. The management of The Las Vegas Hilton raised the king's weekly fee to 130,000 USD (for the next two engagements) and 150,000 USD (for the final two engagements of the current contract). Of course there was a reason for the generosity. Kirk Kerkorian, the previous owner of the hotel, had started to build The MGM Grand. The new mega resort would open for business in the summer of 1973, just at the time Elvis' contract with the Hilton ran out. The management simply feared, that their golden goose would leave for Kerkorian and so they did everything they could to appease and delight it.
Before Elvis opened his summer tour on June 9th at the prestigious Madison Square Garden, he held a press conference at the New York Hilton. He was the first performer, who was able to fill the vast arena four times in a row. Nowadays it almost looks funny, because Harry Styles played 15 consecutive sold out concerts at the MSG in 2022 and Billy Joel filled the venue once each month for years. In total he did it 150 times. But in the 70s of the previous century much less people could afford to visit a concert performance and it seemed unbelievable, that anyone could sell out the large arena more than once. Due to the huge media hype, it was decided to record both concerts on June 10th and release the better one on an album. The evening show was selected and just a week after the event "Elvis As Recorded At Madison Square Garden" hit the stores. During its initial sales period the album sold 500,000 copies and peaked at number 11 on Billboard's "Top LPs Chart". The tour also became a huge success and earned the singer 1.2 million USD. CAMDEN's budget album "Elvis Sings Hits From His Movies - Volume 1" got a lot less attention, but the compilation of old movie tunes sold 130,000 copies and peaked at number 87.
On July 8th Colonel Parker announced a second television special of his client. This time it would be a concert performance, beamed all around the world via satellite in October or November.
Twelfe days later Elvis taped an interview for the forthcoming MGM documentary, on July 27th he started to prepare for the "Elvis Summer Festival 1972" at the Las Vegas Hilton. Once again the singer performed two shows each day for four weeks. After all expenses were paid, he took home 266,000 USD. On the final day of the stint Elvis and Rocco Laginestra, the vice president of RCA, gave an update about the forthcoming tv concert. Now it was to be called "Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite" and would air on January 14, 1973. Originally Colonel Parker had planned to produce the special during his client's tour in the fall, but MGM made clear, that they wouldn't accept their business with "Elvis On Tour" to be jeopardized by something similar, shown on television for free. On the other hand NBC didn't want to wait until the singer had finished his Vegas engagement in late February 1973. So it was decided to carry out the tv special in early January.
Because Elvis and Priscilla had done their best to keep their separation in private, it had taken the press a few months to find out. But finally they did and by August everyone knew, that the king's wife and their daughter were living with Mike Stone, a well known martial arts fighter and owner of a karate school. Priscilla would leave him in 1975 after Stone went to the press with a story called "How I Stole Elvis Presley's Wife From Him". The king himself started a relationship with Linda Thompson. They would remain a couple until late 1976.
In August RCA released "Burning Love" / "It's A Matter Of Time". On the Billboard Charts it reached number 2 and was certified Gold just a few weeks after it hit the market. After almost two years Elvis finally came up with another hit-single! On November 1st MGM rolled out "Elvis On Tour". It peaked at number 13 of the movie charts, which was quite an archivement for a documentary. The following year the movie would win a Golden Globe.
While the concert tours in April and June had been joint ventures between Management III and the newly established RCA Record Tours, Colonel Parker assigned the tour in November as well as all concert tours of 1973 to the new company. Elvis was to receive 65% of the box office, 4 million USD had to be paid to the singer in advance. The tour began on November 8th in Lubbock/Texas and ended on the 18th of the month in Honolulu/Hawaii. Here Elvis once again held a press conference, this time it was announced, that the tv special had been turned into a charity event in favor of the Kui Lee Cancer Fund. Of course it was also mentioned, that Presley and Laginestra had donated 1,000 USD each. Compared to his recent Vegas stint Elvis had gained a little weight, which was also noticed by Marty Pasetta, the producer of the tv event. He told the king right away, that he would have to loose a few pounds and that his show was a bit boring, because he didn't move all that much anymore. Elvis wasn't used to so much honesty, but appreciated it and started a diet. He also reduced the amount of "medication" he was taking. This was the most important change, because by now the singer used chemical crutches on a daily basis.
In November CAMDEN released an album called "Burning Love And Hits From His Movies". It was the first time ever, that a current chart hit was used on a budget album. Otherwise the longplayer was filled with movie tunes of the previous decade, but it sold a staggering 700,000 copies during its initial sales period and therefore did much better than the king's last few studio albums. For Colonel Parker it also was a great deal, because the CAMDEN releases were regarded to be joint ventures, of which he got 50% instead of the regular 25%. Because of this, his client's next single suffered the same fate. Just like the single "Separate Ways" / "Always On My Mind", CAMDEN's "Separate Ways" album didn't sell as well as the previous one. Nevertheless it did better than releases like "Elvis Now" (1972) or "Love Letters From Elvis" (1971). Even though he had to grand his manager twice as much for compilation albums of this kind, the king approved the procedure. Simply, because he made money without having to do anything.
Financially 1972 marked another record for the king. The live performances had made him 4.3 million USD, another 1.1 million USD came from the recording business. Compared to these figures, the $356,000 he made with the movie "Elvis On Tour" almost looked like pocket money.