The Life And Career Of Elvis Aron Presley: 1974

On January 11th RCA released "I've Got A Thing About You Baby" / "Take Good Care Of Her". In the initial sales period the 45 sold half a million copies and charted at number 39. To exploit the recently bought catalogue of the king the label also issued a longplayer named "A Legendary Performer". The compilation of archive material sold 750,000 copies and peaked at number 43.

To prepare for his forthcoming Vegas stint, Elvis started a string of rehearsal sessions on the 15th of the month. From January 26th to February 9th the king was on stage twice each day. Compared to the previous year he had gained some weight, but he was in good mood, fine voice and appeared to be quite motivated. The show also was paced very well. On March 1st the king went on another concert tour, which ended on the 20th of the month and was his longest and financially most successful road trip to date. One of the stops was Houston, where Elvis performed in connection with The Houston Livestock Show And Rodeo. With his afternoon show he broke his own attendance record, which he had set at the same place four years earlier. It didn't last long, before he broke the new record again with the evening show. The finale of the tour was taped by RCA for another live album. But first RCA released a studio lp named "Good Times". With 200,000 copies it barely sold a third of "A Legendary Performer" and charted not higher than number 90. Obviously the fans preferred the legacy to the recent output.

Between May 10th and 13th Elvis went on a whirlwind tour through California. Three days later he opened at Del Webb's Sahara Tahoe Hotel in Stateline/Nevada, where he performed twice each day until May 26th. RCA released "If You Talk In Your Sleep" / "Help Me", which peaked at number 17. According to the chart position it was the king's biggest hit since a year, but this was mostly caused by radio airplay. The sales were 150,000 units below the previous release, which had peaked at number 39.

On June 11th Vernon Presley officially separated from Dee, his second wife. The following day Elvis went on another concert tour, which lasted until July 2nd and generated a box office of 3 million USD. Therefore the king surpassed the success of the tour in March. Compared to his looks in the first quarter of the year, the king had lost several pounds, displayed a nice tan and looked as healthy as usual. On July 4th he took part in a martial arts demonstration at The Tennessee Karate Institute, ran by his cousin Bobby Wren and his bodyguard and long-term friend Red West. During the event the idea was born, to produce a documentary film about karate with Elvis as narrator and participant. Meanwhile RCA had released the album "Elvis Recorded Live On Stage In Memphis". It sold half a million copies and charted at number 33. In the following year his performance of the gospel hymn "How Great Thou Art" would win him another Grammy Award.

The preparations for the "Elvis Summer Festival 1974" started on August 14th. The engagement ran from the 19th of the month until September 2nd. On opening night the king presented a new show format, but returned to the old one on the very next day. Once again Elvis displayed a strange and childish behavior. On August 24th he and his friends painted one of the cherubs black. His monologues grew longer and at times he talked about karate for 20 minutes. When a syringe was found in one of the trash cans in his suite, the rumor was spread, that Elvis was on heroin. In fact the singer was abusing Demerol, an opioid that had been created and sold in Germany under the name "Pethidin". But the main driver of the king's behavior was liquid cocaine, which he had recently added to his pool of drugs. The closing show became an embarrassment. Elvis was obviously under the influence of something, humiliated his ex-wife Priscilla and threatened to pull the tongue out of the person's mouth, who spread the rumor, he was on heroin.

While his client got out of control, Colonel Parker established a company named All Star Shows. Parker himself held 56% of the shares, Tom Diskin and Elvis held 22% each. The goal was the distribution of Presley merchandise, but also the establishment of other artists. The first project of the new company was an album named "Having Fun With Elvis On Stage". Since the king's stage comeback the sound engineers had recorded countless shows through the mixing desk, but Elvis' contract with RCA forbade to release any singing performance. So the idea was to compile monologues, dialogues and jokes. The product was sold during the "Elvis Summer Festival 1974" and RCA showed interest to release the longplayer as a regular Presley album. Elvis agreed to the plan, because the label paid 100,000 USD in advance without requesting anything from him. But before "Having Fun With Elvis On Stage" was released as one of the king's regular longplayers, RCA put out the single "It's Midnight" / "Promised Land". The radio stations went for Elvis' cover version of the Chuck Berry tune, the fans and Billboard Magazine followed. And so "Promised Land" peaked at number 14 and became the king's biggest hit since "Burning Love".

On September 16th Elvis was filmed for the planned karate documentary, eleven days later he went on tour again. But he didn't look as healthy as in the summer, had gained some weight and sounded flat and nasal at times. But the worst thing was, that he appeared to be drugged. He was all hyped up and it wasn't hard to figure out, that he still was on liquid cocaine most of the time. After the final concert the group flew to Stateline, where Elvis had to make up for the concerts he had missed the previous year. Meanwhile Dr. Nicopoulos had joined the group and tried to control his patients abuse of medication. Compared to some of the recent tour shows the eight concerts in Stateline were solid, but still the singer acted somewhat overstimulated. In early November 1974 the production of the karate film picked up speed. After shootings in Europe and Asia a draft version was created and shown to possible investors. Even though the first screening was quite successful, the project was burried just six weeks later. The abrupt decision was explained with Elvis' bad health.

On December 30th Colonel Parker contacted the management of the Las Vegas Hilton and postponed his client's forthcoming engagement with the same justification. It was agreed to reschedule the stint and to use the opening of the new hotel wing as an official explanation. So Elvis had time to get back on track until March 1975. He urgently needed to do so. His drug consumption was out of control and his weight was ballooning. He was a shadow of his former self.

Financially 1974 had been a good year for Elvis. His concert performances earned him 4.7 million USD, the sales of records added another 750,000 USD.