The Life And Career Of Elvis Aron Presley: 1973

On January 9th Elvis arrived in Honolulu to begin the work on his television concert "Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite". Three days later a dress rehearsal was recorded and filmed by RCA and NBC, the main show began on January 14th at 00:30 am. The concert was beamed via satellite to the Asian-Oceanic region and at this point of the world it was television prime time. After the audience had left Elvis recorded some additonal material, that enabled NBC to lenghen the show and include another commercial break. While the king had watched his diet and avoided most of his "medication" before the shootings, he let go completely the very next day. When his entourage wanted to pick him up for a trip to the Arizona Memorial, he was hardly able to speak.

Elvis quickly returned to Los Angeles, where he began to prepare for his forthcoming Vegas engagement. Between January 26th and February 23rd the king performed twice each day at the Las Vegas Hilton. Even though he still looked great, he wasn't in good form. His voice sounded powerless and nasal at times and his show lacked all the energy and drive of his previous concerts. In his suite the mood was grim. Elvis' abuse of substances had reached a new level, one night even an emergency physician had to be called, because the singer had overdosed. His mental condition also got worse. After drunk tourists had attacked him on stage, his delusive mind turned them into  karate killers, sent by Mike Stone, Priscilla's new partner. Elvis even wanted to hire a hitman to kill Stone. No wonder, that the king's wife wanted to limit the visits of Lisa-Marie.

While the king destroyed himself, he was more successful than ever. The documentary "Elvis On Tour" won a Golden Globe, the soundtrack album "Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite" sold half a million copies within just four weeks and reached the top of the charts. The single "Steamroller Blues" / "Fool" became a top 20 hit and sold 400,000 units in its initial sales period.

Because Elvis needed money for his forthcoming divorce, he decided to sell the rights to royalties for all recordings he had made prior to 1973 (excluding the track "Fool", which was the b-side of his current single) to RCA. Even though his manager regarded the idea to be extremely short-sighted, the king couldn't refuse the opportunity to receive 5.4 million USD without having to do anything. The buy-out was connected with a new recording contract. For the next seven years Elvis was to receive guaranteed annual royalties of 500,000 USD. In return he had to deliver 24 masters each year. The publishing companies Elvis Presley Music Inc. and Gladys Music Inc. were layed to rest, Elvis Music Inc. and Whitehaven Music Inc. were established. With the approval of his client Colonel Parker made several side deals with RCA, regarding promotion and consultancy. Finally Presley and Parker also updated their business deals. In the future Elvis granted his manager 50% of the regular payments from RCA. He also agreed to regard the sale of the royalties a joint-venture. As a consequence the revenue was also split 50/50.

From April 22nd to 30th Elvis was on tour again. He had gained some weight since the "Aloha" event and at times his face looked bloated. But he obviously was motivated and in fine voice. Just four days after the end of the concert trip the king opened his second engagement at Del Webb's Sahara Tahoe Hotel. Out of the blue the singer told his entourage on May 17th, that he was too sick to perform and would cancel the remainder of the stint. He went to the local hospital, received a sick note and went back to Memphis. Soon afterwards a brand new car was delivered to the responsible physician. In contrast to the management of The Las Vegas Hilton, the executives of Del Webb's Sahara Tahoe Hotel were not willing to accept such mumbo jumbo and insisted on make up dates for the missed shows. It would take them until October 1974 to push their demand through. The next concert tour, it ran from June 20th to July 3rd, was executed as planned. While Elvis still was able to deliver very good shows, his addiction got worse. In St. Louis he overdosed again and survived by pure luck.

Because the king hadn't recorded anything in the studio since March 1972, the management of RCA wrote him a letter and reminded him of his duties. In July they expected to receive 24 new masters, preferably a gospel album (10 tracks), a pop album (10 tracks) and two separate singles (2 tracks each). Because it was just a car ride of ten minutes from Graceland, Elvis booked the STAX Studios in Memphis. The sessions went from July 21st to 25th and turned out to be almost disastrous. The king's obvious lack of interest in recording was the slightest problem. He almost always appeared to be under the influence of something, slurred his speech and sounded weak. When the sessions were over, RCA didn't even have enough material for a single album. In the meantime the label compiled a longplayer of unreleased cuts from 1971/72. Those were the most recent recordings they had aquired from Elvis in March. On the outside "Elvis" looked like a new album of the king, but the label didn't have to pay any royalties to the artist. The success of "Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite" was expected to have renewed the interest in Elvis' current work, but obviously the audience just cared for the legacy. The album stagnated at number 52 of the Billboard Charts and moved just 200,000 copies during its initial sales period.

Because Elvis' contract with the Las Vegas Hilton ran out after the forthcoming engagement, Colonel Parker looked out for other deals. Even though his client was tired of the casino engagements, it finally was decided to stay with the Hilton Group. In contrast to the tours nobody had to travel, the equipment needn't to be constantly installed and removed and besides that, Elvis continued to be the highest paid act in town. As usual the king had to perform at 9:00 pm and 1:00 am for 45 minutes each, so he had a contractually determinded workload of 90 minutes each day with a break of three hours in-between. However, the length of the engagements was halved.

On July 29th the king flew to Los Angeles to prepare for the "Elvis Summer Festival 1973". When he finally went on stage, the new songs appeared to be under-rehearsed. The next day the singer went back to his usual set list and just kept two of the new tunes in the show. On some evenings he was great, on others the press attested, that he was bored and aping his former self. As the stint continued Elvis more and more appeared to be under the influence of something, during the closing show he obviously was high as a kite. Colonel Parker was beside himself, shortly after the concert he stormed into his client's dressing room and it was the first time the men could be heared yelling at each other. Elvis fired Parker, but after the manager had presented a list of financial claims, he took it all back. Certainly the Colonel's list wasn't worth the paper it was written on, but I guess deep down the king knew, that he was the one, who had wrecked it and he certainly knew, that Parker was the best thing that ever had happened to him. However, after this incident, the relationship of the men was impaired.

Because RCA still hadn't a new lp to release, mobile equipment was sent to Elvis' home in Palm Springs. On September 22nd and 23rd the king taped three additional songs and therefore enabled the record company to compile a ten-track album of new material. While the longplayer was assembled, the single "Raised On Rock" / "For Ol' Times Sake" was released as a forerunner. On the charts it didn't make it past number 41 and during the initial sales period no more than 250,000 units were sold.  The longplayer, also named "Raised On Rock / For Ol' Times Sake", feared even worse. On the charts it stagnated at number 50 and not even sold a quarter of a million copies. It seemed that Elvis wasn't able to keep the audience, he had won with his "Aloha" show.

On October 9th Elvis and Priscilla got divorced in Santa Monica. Despite the king's addiction and mental condition the former couple shared custody of Lisa Marie. The king had to pay monthly fees of 4,000 USD (child support) and 10,200 USD (spousal support). After a year the spousal support was to be reduced to 6,000 USD. Additionally Priscilla received half of the earnings from the sale of their house in Beverly Hills as well as 5% of Elvis Music Inc. and Whitehaven Music Inc and a one-off sum of 750,000 USD. On October 15th Elvis was hospitalized due to heavy respiratory problems. As it turned out, the singer was abusing Demerol, a fully synthetic opiate, which had been created in 1937 by the German company IG Farben and was also known under the name Pethidin. The physicians detoxed Elvis for two weeks, but the singer refused to accept medical and psychological help.

However, after his stay at the hospital Elvis appeared to be in better shape. From December 10th to 16th he once again recorded at STAX and delivered 18 new masters. He was awake, motivated and his voice sounded as good as ever.

Financially 1973 was Elvis' best year so far. Due to the success of the album "Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite" the king had earned a whopping 4,214,000 USD from the recording business. Another 3,860,000 USD came from his concert engagements. The previous years' movie "Elvis On Tour" earned him another 143,000 USD. On top of that came the lump sum, the singer had received from RCA for the rights to royalties.