Original subtitles

Man: All right, we have a wide shot, so no one can be in here.

Standing by.

9:12.

♪ ♪

Jerry Schilling: The ' 68 Special really showed

Elvis's career in its entirety.

They took Elvis's original songs

and they made 'em more modern.

Priscilla Presley: This was bringing him back to the beginning

but yet going into the future.

♪ Well, I quit my job down at the car wash ♪

♪ I left my mama a goodbye note ♪

Schilling: There was the jam session with his original musicians.

It had simplicity, spontaneity.

And it also had the choreographed pieces

that really was a reflection of the movies

and the post-Army years.

♪ But nobody wanted to hire a guitar man ♪

♪ ♪

Steve Binder: The real spine of the special

came from our writers.

They locked themselves in their office

and played every Elvis record you could find.

Chris Bearde: We wove a story of Elvis

from his beginnings to being a superstar.

It gave everybody a look at Elvis as a musician.

♪ I'm hopin' I can make myself a dollar ♪

♪ Makin' music on my guitar ♪

Priscilla: It's funny. It's telling Elvis's story, yes,

in a variety show.

It's got the girls. It's got him playing guitar.

I look back now...

his life was so big,

I don't know if you can get it in an hour. (laughs)

♪ ♪

Elvis: ♪ Yes, I'm gonna walk ♪

♪ On that milky white way ♪

♪ Oh Lord, some of these days ♪

Elvis: I started out when I was just out of high school,

I started out driving a truck,

and, uh, I was training to be an electrician.

♪ Some of these days ♪

♪ Well, well, well, well ♪

One day at my lunch break,

I went into this little record company to make a record.

The guy put the record out, and overnight, in my hometown,

people were saying, you know, "Who is he?"

♪ I'm gonna walk on that milky white way ♪

♪ Oh Lord, some of these days ♪

I started to play little nightclubs and little football fields.

Like a year and a half, I was doing this, I met Colonel Parker.

♪ My mother howdy, howdy, howdy... ♪

In 1956, they arranged to, uh, to put me on television.

So they dressed me in a tuxedo,

had me singing to a dog on a stool.

♪ My mother howdy when I get home ♪

I went to Hollywood and I did four pictures.

I was really getting used to the movie star bit.

♪ I'm gonna shake my mama's hand ♪

Just overnight it was all-- all changed.

♪ I will shake her hands that day ♪

I got drafted.

♪ That's when we walk ♪

♪ On that milky white way ♪

♪ Oh Lord, one of these days ♪

Choir: ♪ On some of these days ♪

Warren Zanes: Returning from the Army,

coming back home, getting ready to perform again,

it's obviously not the '60s.

Those '60s haven't come yet.

This is pre-civil rights.

Things are happening in that regard,

but it's not really coming to a head yet.

I'm sure he was aware of how much had gone on.

He could've gone in several directions.

Man: Well, Elvis, now you're really home.

How does it feel?

It's pretty hard to describe, I'll tell ya.

It's hard to get used to it, you know?

I mean, I've been looking forward to it for two years,

and, all of a sudden, here it is.

It's, uh...

It's not easy to adjust to it.

Man: Elvis, do you think the music has changed

since you've been out of the service?

I mean, since you've been in the service.

Possibly, yes. I-I... I can't say really.

I haven't been here long enough to even know.

♪ ♪

Elvis: The only thing I can say is if it has changed,

well, I would be foolish not to...

try to change with it, you know?

♪ ♪

John Jackson: When Elvis gets back from the Army,

he was still one of the biggest stars on the planet.

But rock and roll, that force that happened

between '54 and '59,

basically had evaporated while he was away.

And you see, immediately, the results of the Colonel plotting--

"How do I make him as widespread as possible and polish his image?"

Get him on the path towards being a Frank Sinatra

or a Dean Martin,

pop singers who have very long careers.

Alan Light: This was a curious crossroads in his career.

It was open field to see

what was he gonna do and where was he gonna go.

The work that he had done during his time in the Army

broadens the scope of the music

that he was interested in.

Priscilla: He didn't wanna do the same music.

He wanted to grow.

He wanted to evolve in a way

that he could offer something different in his music.

Ernst Jorgensen: With Elvis, it was always about the challenge, the motivation.

He's already in the recording studio in Nashville

two weeks after coming home.

He knew what was at stake,

so did the Colonel and the engineers, everybody.

There was this tension in the room: "What's it gonna be like?"

Man: You ready? (guitar plays)

Let's cut one.

LTWB0081, take one.

(train whistling) ♪ ♪

Elvis: ♪ I just got your letter, baby ♪

♪ Too bad you can't come home ♪

Jorgensen: They all relaxed after just a few takes

because he's so on top of it.

He's been longing for this moment--

both to get his career started

but also to express a new range of music,

his new understanding of music.

Everything he could do.

Elvis: ♪ I ain't slept a wink since Sunday ♪

♪ I can't eat a thing all day ♪

Light: Since the last Ed Sullivan Show appearance in 1957,

the Colonel decided to take Elvis off of television.

He didn't want to give Elvis away

when you could sell tickets in a movie theater.

Jorgensen: But in the relaunch,

he wasn't gonna gamble.

He wanted exposure to make sure they got a head start.

Now it was time to deliver.

Jackson: The Colonel's plan was get Elvis on television

in front of as many people as possible

with the world's other most famous singer.

Make it fun and exciting,

so that now the career can continue. (women screaming)

♪ I know that I ♪

♪ Held nothing ♪

♪ Waa-ooh-waa-ooh ♪

♪ If you should go away ♪

♪ But to know ♪

♪ That you love me brings ♪

Bruce Springsteen: The Sinatra show,

it was a very conservative move at the time.

It was just trying to find his place

after coming out of the Army.

He simply had to believe in himself,

and that's what Elvis did.

♪ ♪

♪ Fame and fortune ♪

♪ My way ♪

♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh ♪

(women screaming)

Springsteen: Elvis put himself forth as somebody who was not a flash in the pan

but who was in a long line of a tradition of American pop singers.

They were saying there's a life for Elvis after Elvis.

Elvis... (screaming continues)

I tell ya something, it was great!

Jon Landau: I remember when he appeared on the Frank Sinatra special.

That show was very much the opposite

of The Steve Allen Show.

There was a collegial atmosphere.

Frank Sinatra and Elvis had two different styles

but were in an incredibly exclusive club.

♪ ♪

We work in the same way only in different areas.

(laughter)

♪ Love me tender ♪

♪ Love me sweet ♪

♪ Never let me go ♪

Jackson: Trading their own hits with each other

is the big moment that the Colonel engineered for him.

♪ Those fingers in my hair ♪ (women screaming)

Jackson: You can hear the women in the crowd start screaming.

Elvis sexes it up a little bit.

♪ That strips my conscience bare ♪

♪ It's witchcraft ♪

♪ Love me tender ♪ (women screaming)

♪ Love me true ♪

Jackson: Sinatra, he's fitting "Love Me Tender"

into that swing thing. He's born on the beat.

♪ Oh my darling, I love you ♪

♪ And I always will ♪

♪ It's such an ancient pitch ♪

(women screaming)

♪ One I wouldn't switch ♪

♪ 'Cause there's no nicer witch ♪

♪ Than witchcraft ♪

♪ I love you ♪

♪ And I always will ♪

♪ ♪

(harmonizing) ♪ For my darling ♪

♪ I love you ♪

Man, that's pretty. (laughter)

Both: ♪ And I always will ♪

Jackson: He's embraced by the community

that had previously put him down,

and that signaled he was now ready

to take on this role of cultural icon.

Jorgensen: You get this new Elvis,

the Elvis that Colonel Parker wanted,

the Elvis that had grown up exactly the same way

that his core audience had grown older.

They were gone from being teenagers to being young adults.

So for him, it was the perfect launch.

The public widely accepted that,

but, obviously, this was a transition.

♪ ♪

Elvis: ♪ You gave me love to enjoy ♪

♪ Like a bright shiny toy to a baby ♪

♪ ♪

♪ No matter what you would do ♪

♪ I depended on you ♪

♪ Like a baby ♪

♪ ♪

Priscilla: He knew that next album was important.

He gave it a lot of thought.

Light: The Elvis is Back! album reveals new influences,

new interests, new arrangements.

Jackson: He had been getting ready for this mentally

while he was in Germany.

There's a little bit of R&B, there's a little bit of pop,

ballads, country.

♪ ♪

Light: New songs that represented a different vocal approach

than anything he had tried before that.

Elvis: ♪ I was blind, 'cause I just ♪

David Briggs: His voice was very much in tune always,

and that's because he didn't have to fight the band.

Those guys were soft and they didn't push him,

and they weren't too busy.

Jorgensen: The band had the ability to play all this music

that came from so many different sources.

Elvis: ♪ Like a baby ♪

Jorgensen: That was the true magic

of Elvis combining with this band.

They perfectly understood each other.

(Elvis vocalizing)

Red West: Those musicians were incredible.

Bobby Moore on bass,

Floyd Cramer on piano.

Man, those guys heard a demo once

and bam, they were ready to go.

Briggs: They were a real tight group.

Nobody played anything that didn't go

with what the other one was playing.

Elvis: ♪ I need soul ♪

Briggs: DJ and Scotty were still there,

but they began to play a lesser and lesser role

and that made it a little more sophisticated.

Elvis: ♪ Then I broke down and cried ♪

Priscilla: He liked the way the music sounded.

Technology, it evolved while he was gone.

Jackson: RCA Studios got a three-track recorder.

That immediately adds a technical professionalism

as recording technology is moving into the future.

Elvis: ♪ Like a baby ♪

Priscilla: He started feeling confidence,

because these were his song choices.

These were songs that he was singing in Germany.

That's the freedom that he wanted.

That's what he was looking for.

Elvis: ♪ Like a baby ♪

Priscilla: And that's why it was so successful.

Just blew people away.

Landau: Elvis, when he came back,

clearly in finding the songs and making the records,

was very driven.

His vision was very intact,

and I don't think he could be distracted.

Zanes: Elvis was so attuned to the emotional.

He was always on the search for emotional music.

Priscilla: I asked him one day,

"What makes you pick out your songs?"

He said, "I wanna be able to reach and feel

what we all go through as human beings."

♪ Ooh ♪

Zanes: This is the mysterious part about music.

How do we know when we're listening to a song

that someone means it?

We just know.

Elvis: ♪ Are you lonesome tonight ♪

Zanes: And the people who mean it

are generally the ones who are processing

some kind of loss through music,

and we can hear them negotiating their loss,

and we connect to it.

Elvis: ♪ Does your memory stray ♪

♪ To a bright summer day ♪

♪ When I kissed you ♪

♪ And called you sweetheart? ♪

David Porter: Those who are truly a recording artist,

you go into the artistic aspect

of what makes whatever you're doing

alive and unique for that song.

So he would lose himself in an artistic way

in order for people to feel it.

Elvis: ♪ And picture me ♪

Porter: That's called soul.

Elvis: ♪ Is your heart filled with pain? ♪

♪ Shall I come back again? ♪

♪ Tell me, dear ♪

♪ Are you lonesome tonight? ♪

Man: Usually when we chat, Elvis, we ask you to, uh,

select your favorite song of all your recordings.

What's the current favorite of yours?

Elvis: I think, uh, "Now or Never."

It's "Now or Never."

♪ Ooh ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh ♪

♪ ♪

Elvis: ♪ It's now or never ♪

Jorgensen: Everything was a level up on the '50s.

The three singles, "Stuck on You," "It's Now or Never"

and "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" were number one hits.

It was a true triumph

and a whole new ballgame of what pop music was.

Elvis: ♪ Tomorrow will be too late ♪

Landau: Rhythmically, his sense of time,

his phrasing, musicality, Elvis was impeccable.

Elvis: ♪ When I first saw you ♪

Priscilla: He loved opera singers.

He loved the range of an opera singer.

"It's Now or Never" is very much like that.

Elvis: ♪ My heart was captured ♪

Tom Petty: What he did that was unusual

was he could slide up the scale into a tenor voice

and then back down, you know.

And he's just having fun.

He's sliding all over the scale.

It's so human. It's so real.

Elvis: ♪ It's now or never ♪

♪ Come hold me tight ♪

Light: "It's Now or Never" was adapted from "O Sole Mio,"

the Italian song.

Elvis had always had this interest

in the Italian crooners.

When he was in the Army with Charlie Hodge,

they were exploring that kind of drama in his singing.

That sound, that style became one of the staples

of Elvis's musical range from then on.

Elvis: ♪ Just like a willow ♪

Jorgensen: It's about challenge.

It was the challenge that made him do that extra thing.

And hitting the high notes at the end

on "It's Now or Never" was the challenge.

Elvis: ♪ And sweet devotion ♪

Jorgensen: He can't really reach it, and the engineer says,

"We can cut the ending only," and Elvis goes back and says,

"No, if I can't sing it the whole way through, I'm not gonna do it."

Elvis: ♪ For who knows when ♪

Priscilla: He challenged himself.

He got a thrill out of hitting a note so high.

Elvis: ♪ It's now or never ♪

♪ My love won't wait ♪

♪ ♪

♪ It's now or never ♪

♪ My love won't wait ♪

(folk music playing)

♪ ♪

♪ Can't you see I love you? ♪

♪ Please don't break my heart in two ♪

♪ That's not hard to do ♪

♪ 'Cause I don't have a wooden heart ♪

(laughter)

♪ And if you say goodbye ♪

♪ Then I know that I would cry ♪

Jorgensen: For Elvis to have to do G.I. Blues,

reflecting his two years in the Army

in a way that probably doesn't compare a lot to what it was like,

I don't think he really enjoyed that.

G.I. Blues was a family type of film

moving Elvis's image in a completely different direction

from the very young, aggressive characters in the '50s movies.

But he was given the promise that there would be two films

for 20th Century Fox, following this,

that were serious roles.

It may have been a reasonable bargain for Elvis at the time.

Priscilla: When he found out the songs that he had to do in G.I. Blues,

he said, "Baby, I don't know how this is gonna go.

I'm a little disappointed."

Jorgensen: The songs they had to fit into the plot,

but musically, they were not where Elvis was at.

He makes a compromise.

That was the really disheartening part for Elvis.

The soundtrack of G.I. Blues,

it was the most successful album they had made.

It sold much more than the absolutely brilliant studio album

that came out some months before.

Schilling: Elvis is now a big business.

So instead of going out,

getting the best songwriters in general,

Hill & Range, from the Colonel,

were hiring a couple of songwriters

to write Elvis songs.

Briggs: They would bring all of the material,

that was the unspoken rule.

Nobody else was allowed

to bring any music into the session.

That was very tightly controlled by the Colonel,

by the publishing company,

and by the record company.

West: The Colonel eventually started getting

a percentage of everything.

He was a businessman.

He didn't give a damn if it was worth a crap.

Schilling: Elvis could care less about the songwriting,

publishing in general.

Some of it, he got and understood,

but he cared more about good material.

Petty: It was more about the Colonel owning the publishing,

which was a huge stone in his shoes the rest of his life.

It was this business of "We must own the copyright

or we don't want you to do it."

Priscilla: Elvis said, "I'm starting to feel the pressure.

"I'm obligated here.

I don't think there's a way out for me."

And I said, "Well, can't you talk to Colonel?"

And that's when I think he started getting disillusioned.

Basically, Colonel was part of it.

Already, he's feeling that he's not in control,

and this is really early on.

Gladys Presley: ♪ Oh, home sweet home ♪

♪ There's no place like home ♪

(song continues)

Priscilla: I already had a feeling of what Graceland was like

through Elvis's description.

He told me in Germany,

"I want you to come and see Graceland."

And he would give me images.

When I came, the first time,

he told me to close my eyes, and not to open them.

We're driving, and then he said, "Open them."

The gates of Graceland open up.

It was everything that he'd described.

It was bigger than life for me.

His safe haven.

Schilling: Graceland always represented

something more than just a house to Elvis.

Light: Graceland was something initially

that he had bought with and for his parents,

and it reminded him of his mother,

her presence and her influence in his life,

which didn't end after she died.

Priscilla: I opened up a closet

and it was filled with her clothes.

And I had such a sense of her.

She liked soft fabric.

Her hats, her shoes--

he hung on to those personal things.

Even though it had been a few years,

there was still a lingering scent there, of her.

It really showed me the love that he had for her.

Elvis: She never really wanted anything,

you know, anything fancy.

She just stayed the same all the way through the whole thing.

There's a lot of things happened,

and there are times when it feels like

I don't know what I'm gonna do next, you know?

Light: Once he got back to Graceland

and wanted to reconnect with the spirit he was brought up in

and the memory of his mother,

the best way was to go back to the music

that he had grown up with.

Zanes: The theme of return,

and in Elvis's case, a return to gospel,

is part of how we all experience music.

There are these profound experiences

that happen with music at a younger age.

Through our lives, we're often chasing them.

If you were raised in the proximity of gospel,

that's what launched you into the world of emotional music.

West: He was getting into another phase in his life,

and gospel, religious music, was his favorite,

and that's why he did it.

Jorgensen: Just on the heels of G.I. Blues,

he goes in and records a complete album of gospel music

with songs from all his old heroes:

Blackwood Brothers, Golden Gate, Statesmen Quartet.

It's a tribute to everything he came from,

and he does it with a voice at his best ever.

Elvis: ♪ Why don't you swing low, sweet chariot ♪

♪ Stop and let me ride ♪

Tony Brown: It was so close to those records

that the Statesmen and Blackwoods were making.

It could've been those records.

Jorgensen: He had the Jordanaires as the key element

of developing a gospel feel

with a band feel that was true to the music

on the Elvis is Back! album.

Elvis: ♪ Let me ride ♪

♪ Rock me, Lord, rock me, Lord ♪

Jorgensen: Obviously, it's not really rock and roll,

but there's drums and there's saxophones.

There's a lot of swing to it.

♪ Sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet ♪

Elvis: ♪ Well, well ♪

Petty: The way he blended them together

is an incredibly original thing to do.

Sometimes, you know, he wasn't traveling very far away from the gospel.

I mean, some of it, it was just about putting a beat to it.

Elvis: ♪ Wasn't so particular about the chariot wheel ♪

Petty: That angle of the two and the four are

slightly different than gospel good.

Elvis: ♪ Why don't you swing down, sweet chariot, stop ♪

♪ And let me ride ♪

Jorgensen: You have a feeling that he's truly enjoying this.

It's a very joyous record to listen to.

Schilling: His Hand in Mine was a passion.

The whole gospel influence was as much a part of him,

and maybe even more so as the rhythm and blues.

This was just his opportunity to get it out.

Priscilla: And it was a mission to show others,

the listeners, that in these choices of music

and how it's embellished,

really what Elvis was looking for as an artist,

to have that freedom.

It's that simple.

Elvis: ♪ Just wanted to lay down this heavy load ♪

♪ Why don't you swing down, sweet chariot ♪

♪ Stop, let me ride ♪

Man: How's Blue Hawaii going?

Elvis: It's going on very well.

We leave tomorrow for Kauai, you know. Yeah.

I think we'll be there for about 10 days.

Man: Tell us about Blue Hawaii a bit.

Elvis: There's about 11 songs in it.

Some Hawaiian tunes? Yeah.

You got some special material written for you for the picture?

Elvis: Yeah, we had about 10 songs written especially for the picture.

We do that, you know, before the picture starts.

♪ ♪

Jorgensen: The film Blue Hawaii was an overwhelming success.

That is the point where it gets real interesting.

Jackson: The two dramas,

Wild in the Country and Flaming Star,

they're not as music heavy, and they actually lose money.

Priscilla: And that's when they told him,

"This is proof. This is what the public wants.

"People just wanna hear your music.

They wanna hear you sing in movies."

(crowd cheering)

Schilling: The last concert he played, for almost a decade,

was a charity show near Pearl Harbor.

♪ ♪

(women screaming)

Elvis: ♪ Well, so long ♪

Jackson: That was like the ultimate charity show,

because it was for the building

of the Pearl Harbor memorial.

Couldn't be more patriotic.

Couldn't have been more of a cause

that people could get behind.

He's back, he's served his time.

He's a great patriot.

It was more to build that piece of the story

that the Colonel wanted to tell.

He's cleaned up and he's a good boy.

Elvis: ♪ Let you go ahead on, baby ♪

♪ Pray that you'll come back home some time ♪

Boots Randolph. (women scream)

Jackson: The band that he brings with him is very interesting.

He has Scotty and DJ,

but he brings with him his all-star

Nashville, session guy band,

including Boots Randolph, who was a great saxophone player.

♪ ♪ (women screaming)

Jackson: Boots Randolph brings in a lead instrument

that can balance out Elvis's singing

in a way that Scotty playing rockabilly licks

didn't do previously.

So it just becomes a much more full sound.

♪ ♪

Light: It's a tragedy that he didn't continue

to play live for people at that point.

But the Colonel knew that the films

got Elvis in front of millions of people simultaneously

with as little work as possible.

Landau: The post-Army films, I went to them.

They were a separate category for what happened in the '50s.

He finds himself in a situation

where he's just churning out stuff

that he couldn't possibly have believed in.

Elvis: ♪ I said, take it easy, baby, I worked all day ♪

♪ And my feet feel just like lead ♪

♪ You got my shirttails flying all over the place ♪

♪ And the sweat poppin' outta my head ♪

♪ She said, Hey, bossa nova, baby, keep on workin' ♪

♪ For this ain't no time to quit ♪

♪ She said, Go bossa nova, baby, keep on dancin' ♪

♪ I'm about to have myself a fit ♪

♪ Bossa nova, bossa nova ♪

Schilling: The Colonel negotiated contract after contract.

MGM, Paramount, United Artists, you name it.

Hal Blaine: He was inundated with work, work, work, work.

Elvis: ♪ I can dance with a drink in my hand ♪

♪ She said, Hey, bossa nova, baby, keep on workin' ♪

♪ For this ain't no time to drink ♪

Blaine: Everybody was trying to get every penny they could

out of whatever they could.

♪ Bossa nova ♪

♪ ♪

Jackson: He had to make three movies a year.

So these soundtrack albums became a big part

of the contractual obligation to release music with RCA.

Elvis: ♪ Bossa nova ♪

West: That was not his music.

It was killing his recording career,

because they were movie songs, situation songs.

Priscilla: Obviously, in some of the movies, you got some hits--

"Viva Las Vegas," "Bossa Nova Baby."

They weren't all bad,

but because it was connected to a movie,

it wasn't like a real record.

The songs had to fit the scene.

Jorgensen: And the Colonel obviously knew that the best format

was girls and beautiful locations.

Robbie Robertson: I thought it was terrible direction--

the idea to do a bunch of corny-ass movies,

Where this is all being led? It's no-man's-land.

Petty: He-- he certainly knows this music is crap.

The movies were very harmful to his image.

As an innovator, as a great musician,

they were harmful.

He's very talented. I mean, he's very present.

It's an incredible image of him.

But where he had a nice start in the movies

and did do some creative things early on,

and you could see that there was great potential for this guy,

there was really no way for him

to become the huge movie star

that he would've liked to have been

and the Colonel keep control of it.

You know, there's too many

creative aspects gonna come in,

and they're gonna challenge

the Colonel's carnival mentality.

Colonel Tom Parker: Well, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no.

Far as I was concerned,

I was not involved other than making the contract.

He had the opportunity to say, "I don't want to do it

or I'd like to do it."

No one told him he had to make a picture

that he didn't want to do.

When we had a script, we'd deliver it to Elvis.

Schilling: Elvis did refuse a bad picture.

In comes the Colonel,

in comes the studios,

in comes the record company.

They would say to him,

"You don't fulfill your contracts,

you won't do anything."

♪ Well, come on everybody ♪

♪ And turn your head to the left ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Come on everybody ♪

Jackson: In Viva Las Vegas,

it's the closest he ever gets to having a true co-star.

♪ Take a real deep breath and repeat after me ♪

Jackson: That becomes a problem for the Colonel,

because he doesn't want anybody to even

come close to outshining Elvis.

♪ Hey, hey, hey and my baby loves me ♪

Chorus: ♪ My baby loves me ♪

♪ My baby loves me ♪ Chorus: ♪ My baby loves me ♪

♪ My baby loves me ♪

♪ I said, my baby ♪

Ha! ♪ My baby ♪

♪ Loves me ♪ Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

Ann-Margaret (laughing): Wee-ha!

Binder: The Colonel did not want Ann-Margaret in his world

after she got a lot of press.

Anybody who had influence on Elvis was a threat.

Landau: The tragedy of the old style of management

was to try and maintain control of the artist

by limiting their exposure to opportunities.

The Colonel was not interested

in Elvis becoming too independent of a thinker.

He needed Elvis to think that everything good came from the Colonel

and anything bad came from imagined enemies.

He kept that con game going for much too long.

Zanes: The years spent chasing the movies,

you know, seven years,

they were very destabilizing for Elvis,

because music was always the buoy.

Jackson: It's clear about halfway through that period,

he becomes very restless,

and very annoyed with the whole process.

Schilling: Elvis didn't have script approval.

There weren't great budgets.

Priscilla: The humdrum movies that he was given--

boy chase girl, boy gets girl,

they get married, and it's happily ever after--

that was not Elvis Presley.

He was not that man.

He was much deeper than that.

He had no inspiration whatsoever.

He knew he had to make it work.

He knew he was under a contract,

and he walked through every one of them.

After a movie, he felt trapped.

He dreaded the next script,

because he knew it would be the same thing over and over again.

But the disconnect,

the disconnect in the two

was really wearing on his mind--

that Colonel was not taking him to the place he needed to be.

Petty: This is what we'll never understand

is why did Colonel Parker have

this kind of influence over him.

Why was he willing to knowingly humiliate himself for this man,

or for the money promised him by this man?

He puts up with it.

Porter: I have never felt Elvis was lost.

He knew with all those movies,

as is the case with every artist,

that they're taking themselves away from their strength.

Many artists can't get back to where their strengths are.

Emmylou Harris: An artist has to constantly grow,

and to continue creating,

and changing, and being inspired by things around him

in a spiritual or a personal way.

♪ ♪

Elvis: I'd like to stay in the same vein.

I-I mean, I wouldn't like to, uh,

be at a standstill, you know what I mean?

I'd like-- I'd like to progress.

I'd like to do a lot of things, but I...

I realize, uh, that it takes time,

and you can't, uh,

you can't go out of your, uh, capa-- uh, your limitations.

You have to know your capabilities, you know.

Like I have people to say to me all the time,

(stammering)

"Why don't you do an artistic picture?

"Why don't you do this picture and that picture?

Why don't you go do something blah, blah?"

Well, that's fine, but, uh...

Uh, I would like to.

I'd like to do something someday

where I feel that I really done a good job.

You know, as an actor in a certain type role,

if what you're doing is doing okay,

you're better off sticking with it until, you know,

until just time itself changes things.

♪ ♪

Zanes: The great irony is that Elvis was such a significant force

in the launch of rock and roll,

and the very revolution that he sparked

carries on without him.

There is a renaissance that is underway,

and he is, in effect, in a bubble in Hollywood,

as it passes him by.

Priscilla: '63, '64, '65, when all the bands were coming in,

he just didn't really wanna hear music.

He didn't wanna hear the songs.

Was there room for him now, being a solo artist?

Elvis really wasn't interested in writing his own music,

and all these other groups coming up,

The Beatles, Bob Dylan, the Beach Boys,

they all wrote their own songs,

so they could direct their careers

in a way Elvis couldn't.

Petty: There is no road map at this point

as to what a rock and roller does

when he gets older.

The Beatles had each other.

You know, they had four people together to go through it.

And Elvis was totally alone.

There was no one vaguely his equal.

There was nobody he could bounce anything off of.

Priscilla: Elvis really didn't ask for anybody's advice.

He didn't ask the guys for their advice.

Oh my gosh, he would never.

I mean, you didn't tell Elvis what to sing

or what movie he should be in.

Elvis was truly his own man.

He needed someone to come in with a game plan and offer it to him.

"What do you think of this?"

But he hung out with the same people all the time.

We all lived in this bubble.

Very few outsiders came in.

His world was really quite small,

and only consisted of us, people that he trusted.

You didn't really talk about the movies around Elvis.

We didn't go there. Why get him upset?

And people-- the guys were around to bring him up.

Schilling: Elvis was going to us and saying,

"Damn it, I know there's good music out there.

I hear it. Why am I not getting it?"

Petty: You can tell his interest in making records

has kind of gone away.

You don't get him in the studio a lot.

Priscilla: He was just struggling with what to do next

and where to go, trying to figure out his purpose again.

It was very difficult to watch.

♪ ♪

Odetta: ♪ How many roads ♪

♪ Must a man walk down ♪

♪ Before you call him a man ♪

Light: By this point,

Elvis had grown so disconnected from the music

that he was recording.

He knew that it was inauthentic.

He knew that it was insincere.

And he was looking for some connection to music

that still made him feel the way

that music had made him feel when he was younger.

Odetta: ♪ How many times ♪

♪ Must a cannonball fly ♪

Light: He was interested in this new folk music--

Peter, Paul, & Mary, the songs of Bob Dylan.

He didn't love Bob Dylan's voice,

but he was interested in this imagery

and this language that drew from the gospel and the blues.

Priscilla: And here he has Odetta singing.

When you hear the song,

now you've got the lyrics that match his feelings,

you've got the lyrics that he can see himself singing.

Odetta: ♪ Only if my true love was waitin' ♪

♪ ♪

♪ If I... ♪

Zanes: Many of his relationships

with the culture of the day were circuitous,

because he was Elvis and he was behind a-- a high wall.

Elvis: ♪ Only she was ♪

♪ Lying by me ♪

♪ Then I'd lie ♪

♪ In my bed once again ♪

♪ ♪

Priscilla: Elvis, a lot of times when everyone had gone to bed,

or there was no one around,

he would go into the music room at Graceland.

Just sit there totally in solitude,

as if even I wasn't around, and just start playing.

Always it was gospel.

Always it was "Precious Lord."

Elvis: ♪ Precious Lord ♪

♪ Take my hand ♪

Priscilla: When he would sing,

it was like a character study watching him get lost.

Elvis: ♪ I'm tired ♪

♪ I'm weak ♪

♪ I'm worn ♪

♪ Through the storm ♪

Priscilla: And then, he'd look over to see how I was relating to it.

He'd look over and wink at me.

Elvis: ♪ Lead me on ♪

Priscilla: Those were times that I cherish the most, actually.

He wasn't really trying to impress anyone.

He was doing it for himself

and just getting in touch,

getting in touch with his maker.

It was a plea.

Elvis: ♪ Well, you may run on for a long time ♪

Chorus: ♪ Run on for a long time ♪

Elvis: ♪ Run on for a long time ♪

♪ Let me tell you, God Almighty's gonna cut you down ♪

Jorgensen: He didn't have a burning desire anymore

to record songs.

Elvis: ♪ Midnight rider ♪

Jorgensen: The real interesting element in that

is that when he regains his appetite for recording

and wants to prove a point in 1966,

he makes a gospel record again.

Elvis: ♪ Talkin' to the man from Galilee ♪

Jorgensen: During the middle of The Beatles,

and The Birds and The Stones,

and Elvis makes a gospel record when he wants to come back.

Elvis: ♪ Great God Almighty, let me tell you what he said ♪

♪ Go tell that long-tongued liar ♪

♪ Go tell that midnight rider ♪

♪ Tell the gambler, rambler ♪

Light: Elvis is connecting to new music.

He wants a more modern sound,

a more aggressive rhythm section,

a rock and roll mix.

Elvis: ♪ Run on for a long time ♪

♪ Let me tell you, God Almighty's gonna cut you down ♪

♪ You may throw your rock and hide your hand ♪

Springsteen: I think Elvis's return to gospel

was a part of simply the deep religiousness of the South

and his upbringing.

But in the late '60s, people were having a hard time

looking past the kitsch aspect

of some of the things that Elvis did.

Elvis: ♪ You gonna reap just what you sow ♪

Springsteen: To appreciate that music,

that stuff couldn't bother you.

Chorus: ♪ Long time ♪

Elvis: ♪ Run on for a long time ♪

(film projector whirring)

♪ ♪

Man: What do you think of yourself now?

Elvis: You mean, uh, as an entertainer

or an individual or what?

Man: Both.

Elvis: I can sum it up fairly easily.

I, uh, as a-- as a human being, really,

who's been very extremely fortunate in so many ways...

I've a lot that I'd like to do,

a lot that I'd like to accomplish.

I'd like to get married. I'd like to have a family.

I suppose the most important thing

in a person's life is, uh, is happiness.

I mean, not wordly things, because...

You realize, I mean, you can have cars.

You can have money. You can have a fabulous home.

You can have everything.

If you're not happy, what have you got?

♪ ♪

Priscilla: I was very young and very in love,

and I wanted to be with him a lot.

The times that we were together,

I-I cherished.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Woman: ♪ I picked up my bag ♪

♪ And went looking for a place to hide ♪

♪ When I saw old Carmen and the devil ♪

♪ Walking side by side ♪

Springsteen: I mean, 1968 was a wild

and violent year in American history.

Woman: ♪ She said I gotta go ♪

♪ But my friend here can stick around ♪

Light: At the beginning of the year, Lisa Marie is born.

And then a couple of months later,

Martin Luther King is assassinated.

Woman: ♪ Take a load off, Fanny ♪

Schilling: We were making a movie at MGM

when we heard on the radio about Martin Luther King.

King was that hope to bring us all together,

and Elvis knew that.

Elvis looked down and he said,

"He always told the truth."

Woman: ♪ It's just old Luke ♪

♪ And Luke's waiting on Judgment Day ♪

Light: There's this contentious presidential election going on.

Bobby Kennedy is assassinated.

There's chaos at the Democratic convention in Chicago.

Woman: ♪ Baby now, won't you stay ♪

Priscilla: Things were just in disarray,

and it was never the same after that.

♪ ♪

Nik Cohn: By '68,

most Elvis fans had, more or less, given up the ghost.

There'd been so many poor movies,

so many throwaway singles.

Jackson: Elvis starts to think about,

"Okay, so how can I play live again?

There's no infrastructure for me to do that."

Landau: A couple of really bright guys who got Elvis

talked their way into making a TV special.

Their mission was to remind everybody

just who Elvis had been,

and who he still was--

in a sense, to erase the last seven years

of the movie soundtracks.

Light: When the opportunity for the TV special is presented,

he hasn't performed for an audience for years.

Priscilla: He was actually thinking what he would do

if everything went wrong.

This was his career. This was his life.

This was the moment of realization that this is it,

that this is gonna be either a complete failure

or it'll change everything.

Springsteen: Well, I remember I waited

for weeks for the '68 Special

'cause I knew it was coming.

I can remember exactly where our TV

was set up in the dining room,

the exact place I was sitting.

I mean, it's one of those things

that's imprinted on my memory forever.

But you weren't sure if he had the ability to focus

and gather it all together one more time

to create musical explosiveness.

Host: Uh, welcome to NBC,

and the Elvis Presley Special.

(cheers, applause)

You can do better than that. I'm gonna say it all over again.

Now, I wanna really hear something.

Schilling: When I went with him to NBC,

he was very quiet.

He didn't know how people were gonna feel about it.

Priscilla: He was extremely nervous that night.

It's all new again,

and I'd never seen Elvis perform live before.

I didn't really know what to expect.

Binder: We didn't know where it was gonna go, period.

Just before it began, on the first taping,

Elvis called me into the makeup room.

He was sitting there and he asked everybody in the room to leave,

so he could just be with me one on one.

I said, "What's-- what's the problem?"

"Problem is I changed my mind.

I don't wanna do this."

Man: May we strike the coil and cable off the platform, please?

Priscilla: We weren't seeing, sitting in the audience,

what was going on.

I'd stayed away from the dressing room.

He didn't want anyone around.

I was sitting there going, "Oh my gosh," you know.

"Is he gonna be able to pull this off?"

Binder: I said, "What are you talking about?"

And he said, "I don't remember anything I sang in the dressing room.

"I don't remember any stories that I told.

"My mind is a blank, Steve.

Let's just call it off. It's not gonna happen."

Binder: I said, "Elvis, I've never asked you to do anything

that you don't wanna do..."

Host: Mr. Elvis Presley. (crowd cheering)

Binder: "...but you've got to go out there."

♪ ♪

Thank you very much.

Schilling: I don't know how this happened,

but I saw him relax.

Elvis: They want me to sit on the floor!

(women cheer)

(playing guitar)

♪ ♪

(band joins in)

Man: ♪ It's all right ♪

♪ It's all right ♪

♪ It's all right ♪

♪ Yeah, man ♪ ♪ It's all right ♪

♪ It's all right ♪

♪ It's all right ♪

(Elvis growls) ♪ It's all right ♪

Oh, yeah!

♪ ♪

Binder: I had no knowledge or understanding

about how incredibly talented he really was until that show.

♪ ♪

Zanes: He's having an experience in the moment.

During the years he was doing Hollywood movies,

you never got to see him in the moment.

(screaming)

Yeah, baby!

♪ ♪

(speaking indistinctly)

♪ We're goin' up, we're goin' down ♪

♪ We're going up, down, down, up any way you want ♪

♪ Let's roll ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ You got me doin' what you want me ♪

♪ Oh baby, what do you want me to do? ♪

Schilling: The interplay with Scotty and DJ

who's playing drums on the back of a guitar case.

DJ Fontana: It felt like we were back home again.

♪ ♪

Yeah!

♪ All right ♪

Hep, hep, hep, hep, hep, hep!

Boones Howe: Those are guys who grew up together,

and they suddenly have a moment

of reflection.

The past, their early days.

♪ Down, any way you wanna let it roll ♪

Cohn: He was rediscovering the sheer animal joy

of making music, and realizing, for the first time in years,

just how good he was.

♪ Baby, what do you want me to do? ♪

♪ You got me doing what you want me ♪

♪ Oh baby, what do you want me to do? ♪

(applause) Man: All right! You got it!

Landau: That show was 1,000% Elvis.

His fingerprint was on the first frame to the last frame.

He was a man on a mission.

Priscilla: And that night when it premiered on TV,

we were all silent.

We just sat there and watched the show

and never said a word.

And then, of course, the telephone calls were coming in, and reviews.

And, oh my gosh, it was such a relief.

It was so great to see him smile again.

♪ ♪

Elvis: ♪ We're caught in a trap ♪

Schilling: After the comeback special,

Elvis didn't have to look too far

to find his way back to the source.

Elvis: ♪ Because I love you too much, baby ♪

Springsteen: It was the old story.

You could take the boy out of Memphis.

You really couldn't take Memphis

out of the boy, you know?

The roots that you come from

are always compelling to return to

no matter how far away you get.

Schilling: By that point, he only had a couple of movies left.

And so when he went back to the studio,

he wanted to do things differently.

Preston Lauterbach: Elvis returned home to restart

his career as a recording artist,

with local musicians,

with a local producer in a little humble storefront, north Memphis,

that's where Elvis returned to essentially save his career.

♪ ♪

Porter: Chips Moman, his job was writer and producer.

Lauterbach: He had evolved from Stax Records

as a producer primarily associated with soul

and with black artists.

But Chips was one of these trans-racial kinda figures.

He thought in terms of style, in terms of sound.

And he really did embody Memphis music.

Elvis: ♪ Asking where I've been ♪

Priscilla: It was the greatest sessions, the greatest.

My gosh, I mean, he came alive again.

He was liberated.

It was, uh, a beautiful marriage. (chuckles)

Elvis: ♪ We can't go on together ♪

♪ With suspicious minds ♪

♪ And we can't build our dreams ♪

Schilling: He told Elvis, "I have a stack of records here

"I think are hits,

"and you don't have any publishing.

What do you wanna do?"

Elvis: ♪ Oh, let our love survive ♪

Schilling: Elvis said, "Chips, I need hit records."

Elvis: ♪ I'll dry the tears from your eyes ♪

♪ Let's don't let a good thing die ♪

Petty: He decides he's gonna sing contemporary material.

Publishing be damned. He's gonna do what he wants.

Elvis: ♪ Lied to you ♪

♪ Ooh ♪

♪ Yes, yes ♪

♪ We're caught in a trap ♪

West: The songs, every one of 'em, was a hit.

That's the biggest sales Elvis had had ever.

Elvis: ♪ Love you too much baby ♪

Schilling: You would think that would've been

the next recording session.

Never recorded with Chips again.

Elvis: ♪ I can't walk out ♪

(match strikes, flares)

♪ ♪

Ronnie Tutt: August '69, he got a chance to play live

at the International Hotel.

Schilling: Vegas was a huge event for him.

Back in the '50s, he wasn't accepted too much then in Vegas.

Howe: Vegas, it's not about teenyboppers.

It's aimed at a particular audience--

people interested in a show that's there,

so that they'll stop in the casino,

on the way in or out, and drop some money.

Petty: Their burning thing to go to Las Vegas

and play long stands, you know,

that doesn't happen till they've virtually run aground in the film business.

There isn't a single studio

that will throw down any significant money

for Elvis in a movie.

So, they look around go, "Well, what we gonna do now?"

Elvis is going on stage, you know. Thank God.

And "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me, and, uh... (indistinct)

Schilling: I was able to witness him put a band together.

When he goes out to Vegas,

he's really making decisions

that are a little more for Elvis

than what came before.

Zanes: He's wanting to play with the band.

He's wanting to go through a deep catalog,

you know, big parts of which remind him or his own youth.

♪ Well, you may go to college ♪

♪ May go to school ♪

♪ You may get religion, baby ♪

♪ Don't you be nobody's fool ♪

♪ Now baby, come back, baby ♪

Tutt: I personally went to him and said, "Elvis,

"I wanted to know if you wanted me

"to try to duplicate classic songs.

What was done previously."

He said, "Absolutely not.

Just do what you do, that's why you're here."

I thought it was good that he would try different songs

that he liked the sound of.

Glen D. was the arranger,

and he would write these great arrangements for him,

and they would-- they would be exciting.

Elvis: ♪ Come back, baby, come ♪

♪ Come back, baby, I wanna play house with you ♪

Elvis: Then it goes into this one.

I wanna try something.

And since, this is last verse...

Schilling: I think the vocals were just as important to Elvis.

Okay. The horns are answering it then.

Schilling: He had to have The Sweet Inspirations.

They had been working with Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin.

♪ Talk in everlasting words ♪ ♪ Talk, words ♪

♪ And dedicate them all to me ♪

♪ Dedicate them all to me ♪

Cissy Houston: Elvis did whatever he wanted to do.

If he was feeling it, we had to feel it too.

And we could connect,

because we were from gospel.

We were raised gospel.

♪ You think that I don't even mean ♪

♪ A single word I say ♪

♪ It's only words ♪

♪ And words are all I have ♪

♪ To steal your heart away ♪

Schilling: Colonel Parker, he had billboards all over.

There was a vibe.

Everybody knew that Elvis was there.

He was a nervous wreck.

It's one thing to have a small invited audience.

Now he's going on the biggest stage in the world.

It's Las Vegas.

This is the nitty-gritty time

as far as being nervous, you know.

Opening night, man.

West: He was excited, and also nervous.

He didn't know exactly how he was gonna be received,

and he wanted the best of everything.

Tutt: There were all these big goals as far as attendance,

and he had a very competitive nature.

So he wanted to be able to be as powerful

and popular as Sinatra, Tom Jones.

He wanted to take his music to a whole different level.

(drums roll, play rock beat)

(band joins in)

Priscilla: The first time I ever saw him on stage,

was the first time he played in Vegas in '69.

The '68 special, it was more of a controlled environment.

It was for television.

But in Vegas, to actually see him walk out there

and own that stage,

it was like, "Oh my gosh, I get it.

I get it!"

♪ Well, that's all right, mama ♪

♪ That's all right with you ♪

♪ That's all right, mama ♪

♪ Do it any way you do ♪

♪ That's all right ♪ ♪ That's all right ♪

♪ Yeah, that's all right ♪ ♪ That's all right ♪

♪ That's all right, mama ♪ ♪ That's all right ♪

♪ Any way you do ♪

♪ Well, Mama, she done told me ♪

♪ Papa done told me too ♪

♪ Son, that gal you foolin' with ♪

♪ She ain't no good for you ♪

♪ Well, that's all right ♪ ♪ That's all right ♪

♪ Yeah, that's all right now ♪ ♪ That's all right ♪

♪ That's all right now, mama ♪

♪ Any way you do ♪

Play it.

♪ ♪

Priscilla: I remember looking around.

They're all applauding.

So drawn into him.

I'd never seen anyone control an audience that way.

It was like he rehearsed that show all his life.

(Elvis scatting)

♪ That's all right ♪ ♪ That's all right ♪

♪ Yeah, that's all right ♪ ♪ That's all right ♪

♪ That's all right now, mama ♪

♪ Any way you do ♪

♪ Well, that's all right now, mama ♪

♪ Any way you do ♪

(song ending) (cheers and applause)

♪ ♪

Woman: ♪ There's a place on Lonely Street ♪

♪ They call it Heartbreak Hotel ♪

♪ Where brokenhearted lovers go ♪

Schilling: It was great, staying up all night, being in Vegas.

We never left the hotel.

But psychologically,

at a point, it weighs on you,

and you may not even know it.

Woman: ♪ Heartbreak Hotel, where I'll be ♪

♪ I'll be so lonely ♪

♪ I'll be so lonely, I could die ♪

♪ Although it's always crowded ♪

♪ You still can find a room ♪

♪ For brokenhearted lovers ♪

Schilling: Thirty days, 61 shows, first engagement.

Six months later, the second engagement.

The third engagement.

Woman: ♪ Die ♪

Schilling: Playing that much for weeks on time,

not seeing daylight.

Dave Marsh: Locked up in a hotel room, what is there to do?

Talking to the same 15 guys every day?

Bored out of your mind,

and it all kind of conspires to make Elvis vulnerable

in ways that if he had a more rational life,

he would not be vulnerable.

Woman: ♪ You got a tale to tell ♪

Bearde: And that's when the Colonel took over

and went back into modus operandi.

Let's see as much money as we can make out of Elvis for as long as we can.

Tutt: It worked great in the beginning.

It just got to be same old stuff.

Woman: ♪ Die ♪

Tutt: He realized that fans want to hear the hits--

kind of painted himself into a corner, so to speak.

(cheers and applause)

Brown: Back in those days,

there was a dinner show and then a late show.

So all the tables up front,

they were serving dinner and drinks and stuff.

And the only people that could afford the up-front seats

were the high-rollers, the older cats.

Elvis needed connection with the audience.

And Vegas, it was a very reserved, rich crowd

dressed up for the Elvis show.

It frustrated Elvis that he couldn't quite seem

to get the mayhem going.

Priscilla: He felt like really what he needed

was to get outside of Vegas and go out

and get connected with people

though he hadn't been on tour for over 13 years.

Man: What, uh, what made you decide to come to Texas?

Well, I think the most important thing is the, uh,

the inspiration that I get from a live audience. I was missing that.

♪ Well, I never been to Heaven ♪

♪ But I've been to Oklahoma ♪

♪ Well, they tell me I was born there ♪

♪ But I really don't remember ♪

♪ In Oklahoma ♪

♪ Or Arizona ♪

♪ Yeah, what does it matter? ♪

♪ What does it matter? ♪

Landau: Back in the 1970s,

I was working for Rolling Stone.

They sent me to Boston to review an Elvis concert.

"He stands there in a black jumpsuit,

"gold spangles and an orange cape.

"When he stretches out his hands,

"the cape forms a half-sun

"under his outstretched arms,

and he looks like the true king of rock and roll.

"He parades in front of 15,000 people,

"and waits for the applause to wash over,

"and it comes as it always does

"and as he knows it will.

"Elvis Presley has lived through

"the greatest superstar trip of any performer,

"and he survived it in his own kind of way.

"Elvis participates in a pure one-to-one relationship with his audience.

"When he steps on the stage,

"it is he and he alone who is the subject

of the manic, ecstatic, irrational adoration."

Elvis: ♪ I've never been to Heaven ♪

Landau: "His brilliance is reflected in his control."

♪ But I've been to Oklahoma ♪

Landau: "He never moves too far in any one direction,

and never loses his grip."

♪ They tell me I was born there ♪

♪ ♪

♪ But I really don't remember ♪

♪ In Oklahoma ♪

♪ Or Arizona ♪

Landau: "To me, no matter how frustrating

"the lapses in his career have been,

he remains an artist..."

Elvis: ♪ In Oklahoma ♪

♪ Or Arizona ♪

Landau: "...an American artist, whom we should be proud to claim as our own."

Elvis: ♪ Yeah, yeah ♪

(song ending)

Thank you. (applause)

Brown: Elvis, in concert, covered all kinda genres, you know.

And he came out and he would do all those songs

from the '50s and '60s that he broke with.

But during the show, there was a lot of country standards.

He just did things that he liked.

Man: You have any thoughts about

the rising interest in country music?

I think it's fantastic.

You see, country music was always a part of the influence

on my-- on my type of music anyway.

It's a combination of, uh...

country music, and gospel,

and rhythm and blues all combined.

That's what it really was.

As a child, I was influenced by all of that.

But I like the blues, and I like, uh, the gospel music,

gospel quartets and all that.

Thank you. Good rehearsal, see you soon.

Springsteen: If you look at the band he put together

for the '70s shows, there was a huge gospel contingent.

Those sections of the show were so powerful.

Straight out of white and black gospel tradition.

Elvis: ♪ Hallelujah ♪

Springsteen: In the '70s, Elvis had moved on to "American Trilogy."

His show was consisting of a huge cross-cultural picture

of America and Americana.

(Elvis vocalizing)

Springsteen: He was trying to encompass

an image of the country as a whole

that he could be a vessel that could contain

the entirety of American experience.

♪ Oh hush, little baby ♪

♪ Don't you cry ♪

Petty: You know, that version of "Dixie"

and uh, the "Battle Hymn of the Republic,"

it's so beautiful!

You know, the band he's put together is so over-the-top,

and only Elvis would have that kinda spending power,

and just audacious craziness.

Choirs, and orchestras, and a great rhythm section,

maybe another gospel group on the side.

None of it makes sense until you suddenly

hear something like that,

and they're all playing a role in that,

and it's very moving music.

(flute playing)

When you see him do that music

in those little pieces of film that I've seen of him,

that's the pure joy of music in the man.

You know, that's when I see everything stop.

(music crescendoes)

♪ ♪

♪ Glory, glory ♪

♪ Hallelujah ♪

♪ His truth is ♪

♪ Marching ♪

♪ On ♪

♪ His truth is ♪

♪ Marching ♪

♪ On ♪

(wild cheering) Elvis: Whoo!

Thank you, thank you.

Whew! Boy.

How was the sound in that building?

Very good, very good. Here. Hold on.

Strickland: That was his life. He lived to sing and perform.

It's a hot time in Florida.

Man: Boy, it is.

Springsteen: An artist like Elvis is,

rather than pretending when he goes on the stage,

he's actually pretending, when he's home, to be normal.

And when he goes out on stage at night,

it's who he actually is.

It's a very difficult dichotomy.

Priscilla: To see him become even bigger than life,

he had so much so soon.

Harris: He was snatched from the ordinary life

of a-- of a young man

into a place that no one else had ever been

in society or in our culture.

Zanes: To have that success, and to experience it,

he had to hand over significant portions of youth.

That was the trade.

He is unmoored from the Earth experience.

Priscilla: We were living two different lives.

He was performing, and, uh,

and he was home very, very little.

It was very difficult to communicate at that time.

Uh, Elvis had a horrible fear of not sleeping.

He would spend many, many nights alone,

and he would think and that would keep him up.

So he started on sleeping pills,

and he thought that he had it under control.

Everything that he ever had was prescribed.

(indistinct chatter)

Man: Are you satisfied with the image you've established?

Uh... well, the image is one thing,

and a human being is another, you know, so.

Man: How close does the image come to the man?

It's very hard to live up to an image, I'll put it that way.

Parker: Come on, bring your cameras over here.

Come on through here.

Elvis: Soon as the Colonel gets through talking, I'll tell you--

I'm-- I'm sorry.

Oh, yeah, I'd like to do something.

Uh, there's so many places that I haven't been yet.

I'd like to go to Europe.

I'd like to go to Japan and all those places.

I-I've never been out of this country

except in the service, you know.

Light: Elvis, from early on,

had expressed interest in touring overseas

having no idea

that Colonel Parker was never going to let him.

Because if the Colonel went with him,

he was afraid he was not gonna be let back into America.

Schilling: Colonel knowing that Elvis wanted to tour overseas,

colonel not wanting anybody to know

that he wasn't a US citizen,

how could he answer Elvis

but come up with something that nobody had ever done.

Jackson: Instead of shutting down the idea

of Elvis playing in different countries

and just sort of curtailing it for now,

he actually uses it to his advantage,

and creates the first-ever live concert simulcast

on satellite television,

so that people in every country all over the world

can see Elvis play a concert.

Light: By the time of the Aloha special,

Elvis had been touring non-stop.

His health wasn't great, his weight wasn't great,

and now he was confronted with this performance

that was gonna be seen by a billion people around the world.

Whew!

It's so very hard to comprehend it,

because I...

In 15 years, it's hard to comprehend that happening.

To all the countries all over the world via satellite,

it's very difficult to comprehend.

Jackson: It becomes the biggest media moment

of his career up to that point.

And he knows this. He's trimmed down for it.

He looks amazing.

The band is super tight.

Light: Aloha does represent Elvis music,

the moment that Elvis brought together all of his influences

to solidify an image of Elvis,

a look and a style and a presentation

that seals in amber, this is what Elvis is.

Zanes: Elvis was the first major

televisual musical star.

We can see him, but we can't touch him.

Elvis, without intending to,

created an image of himself

he would never live past.

♪ Yeah, now this time ♪

♪ Lord, you gave me ♪

♪ A mountain ♪

♪ A mountain ♪

♪ I may never climb ♪

♪ It isn't ♪

Landau: That show was another way

in which he was truly disserved by the Colonel.

It's a bit of a metaphor for keeping the blinders on,

which is what I think the Colonel is all about.

Petty: My picture of the Colonel really is

someone that loves selling merchandise,

you know, that wants it to the end,

walk the aisle selling posters and ballpoint pens.

It doesn't make any sense really

to keep him from touring other countries,

to keep him from really going to, you know,

the whole way with the music,

like, letting him be an artist.

(crowd cheering)

Elvis: Thank you!

Schilling: I think the troubles between Elvis and the Colonel

started getting worse at that point.

There was the bond,

but they were two very different people.

Priscilla: Elvis outgrew Colonel Parker as an artist,

but he, um, didn't know how to cut the strings.

Light: By this time, he had started to turn to prescription drugs

to keep himself going.

He was on a relentless wheel

of performance to travel to performance to travel,

and you start to see the stress of that.

Binder: All the things he told me that he wanted to do--

travel the world, meet new audiences--

none of that happened.

All the light went out of his eyes.

Zanes: With an addiction to prescription pills,

if you are a performer,

what you're after is the anesthetizing part of it.

But that's gonna take you away

from your powers as a performer,

and he's gonna go on stage nonetheless.

Landau: He had many afflictions,

and he hurt himself in many ways.

But there was a core in there,

that, if you let it, would shine through,

and sometimes in the most unlikely places.

♪ ♪

♪ Lord Almighty ♪

♪ I feel my temperature rising ♪

♪ Hmm ♪

Tutt: We has basically tried to influence him

to do more rock and roll.

"Burning Love," that one had some potential.

He never felt comfortable with it,

because he had a hard time with the lyrics.

Priscilla: He was going through a lot at that time,

so he didn't want to do the song,

and the guys kept expressing that he should do it,

and he was really fighting it.

Landau: "Burning Love,"

well, it's one of the greatest records he ever made.

♪ Like the sweet song of the choir ♪

♪ And you light my morning sky ♪

♪ With burning love ♪

♪ With burning love ♪

Chorus: ♪ Hunk of burning love ♪

Elvis: ♪ Just a hunk of hunk of burning love ♪

Chorus: Ahhh! ♪ A hunk of hunk of burning love ♪

Chorus: Ahhh! ♪ A hunk of hunk of-- ♪

(music stops)

Priscilla: It was a hard song for him to sing

and to get into.

About them lyrics... (laughter)

It was only one, and I hit my mouth.

Priscilla: He wanted to let out his feelings

in a-- in a song that related to how he felt.

It was difficult to be given music

for something that's really uplifting, upbeat,

and that's not matching his tone,

that's not matching his feelings.

♪ ♪

♪ I see a change ♪

♪ Is coming to our lives ♪

♪ It's not the same as it used to be ♪

♪ And it's not too late ♪

♪ To realize our mistake ♪

♪ We're just not right ♪

♪ For each other ♪

♪ Love has slipped away ♪

♪ Left us only friends ♪

♪ We almost seem like strangers ♪

♪ All that's left between us ♪

♪ Are the memories we share ♪

♪ Of times we thought we cared ♪

♪ For each other ♪

Priscilla: Elvis was very family oriented.

He did cherish family,

but Elvis wanted it all. (laughs)

♪ Pieces left behind us ♪

Priscilla: It takes two in a relationship.

Having a child, not being able to do the traveling.

I was a mother.

He always used to say, "You can't serve two masters."

♪ ♪

(chorus vocalizing)

♪ Someday when she's older ♪

♪ Maybe she will understand ♪

♪ Why her mom and dad are not together ♪

♪ The tears that she will cry ♪

♪ When I have to say goodbye ♪

♪ They tear at my heart ♪

♪ Forever ♪

♪ There's nothing left to do ♪

♪ But go our separate ways ♪

Schilling: After he recorded "Separate Ways,"

he wanted to go into the control room

and listen to that song for hours.

And he would just look up and shake his head,

'cause I know he still always loved Priscilla.

Priscilla: Elvis and I,

you know, we held hands in court.

There was still a lot of love there.

He was a doting father.

We kept that relationship very close.

I know he was always there for me,

and for Lisa as well,

but the breakup of the marriage

was painful for both of us.

(vocalizing)

Gordon Stoker: He was never the same after that.

He just changed. He was very moody.

He just wasn't well doing two shows a night.

And he had to take uppers to get him going

and downers to put him to sleep.

Parker: Well, I don't know, but I know one thing.

When I told Elvis to slow down,

he said, "I wanna play more dates."

So I booked more dates.

I said, "Well, I don't think you should,"

and he said, "Well, it's what I wanna do."

He was very unhappy, so we started all over again.

Announcer: With some 25 colored portraits available...

Man: Souvenirs!

Hey! Take home a little bit of Elvis!

Elvis super souvenirs!

Cohn: I think night by night, it became harder for him to--

to carry on being Elvis.

Drugs and the self-destructiveness

were all punishments.

He was in great pain, and yet, he gave so much pleasure.

He would go offstage and collapse,

and the audience would go out buoyed up and joyous,

spiritually blessed.

Priscilla: Elvis was always searching for answers.

Why him?

"Well, maybe God had something else planned for me.

Am I supposed to be giving a message?"

Not realizing he was doing

what he was supposed to be doing.

Petty: The last days of his life was not his best work.

He had a lot of problems.

He had gained weight

which is a cardinal sin in show business.

Isolation, you know,

that-- that brings on the drug abuse.

He's lost touch with his father.

His mom's gone.

His wife is gone.

It had to be very lonely, we know that.

There's a point when-- when you have success,

and you get really wealthy

and there is that day where the letter comes

that none of this is gonna make me happy.

And he knew he had to try to find some-- something, you know,

but I think he gave up.

I think he felt out-gunned and gave up.

Priscilla: Those last shows,

those shows those last couple of years

were not the most memorable as far as performance.

Sometimes he didn't get through a-- a song.

I think the last year, he was pretty much over it.

I don't even know why, you know, he went on stage.

They're just hard to watch.

Sometimes, I think it was better, maybe,

if they just canceled the show.

Brown: We got the call that Elvis wanted to record in Memphis.

Strickland: Whenever we got the call,

we would be there at his beck and call

whenever they were ready.

Brown: In my mind, we're going to, like,

Sun Records or someplace over there, Chips Moman's studio.

But we pull into Graceland,

and I say, "Well, what are we doing here?"

They said, "We're cutting here."

Strickland: He wouldn't go to the studio.

The studio had to come to him, right in the Jungle Room there.

Man: It's hard to get him to go into a studio environment,

because he was uncomfortable there.

Man 2: Didn't wanna go to Nashville,

didn't want to go to Stax,

didn't want to go to Chips Moman's.

He wanted to stay at home.

Strickland: We would come over from Nashville,

check into a hotel that was just right down the street.

Man: And then, we'd all be ready there to go,

and they'd say, "Elvis is still not up."

Strickland: He could come down at midnight

or it could be two o'clock in the morning.

You never knew what the night was gonna hold.

Springsteen: Elvis ended up back in the Jungle Room,

recording his last record.

Graceland can be something that's--

that gives you a sense of-- of place,

and of-- of center.

Uh, but it can also be a place where--

that you just disappear into.

It seemed to me that Elvis was caught in-between

doing a little bit of both there.

Petty: Seems to be, he's picking songs

that somewhat reflect his state of mind.

Like "Hurt" which is one of the-- the very last ones.

I think he's-- he's feeling very hurt.

He's very down. He's very alone.

He doesn't understand what's happened to music,

and he got left out of that.

He had become a thing.

He was no longer Elvis Presley.

He was "Elvis."

Norbert Putnam: Well, when I first came over to the Jungle Room,

they had removed all the furniture.

They covered the walls in blankets.

Strickland: There was a semi,

like a very large tractor trailer, out behind the house.

It was RCA's complete mobile recording studio.

They would run all their recording lines

into the Jungle Room.

Brown: It looks like you're in Tahiti or something.

It looked like you were in the islands.

But we're all just crammed into this tiny little space.

Tutt: It was a nightmare for the recording engineers

to keep that sound clean without too much bleed

with open microphones,

and we did our best to do the recordings as best we could.

Strickland: It wasn't like we did a lot of rehearsal

for the recordings.

It was "Turn the machine on, and he's gonna sing."

We would all watch each other doing it on the fly.

And you know, I-I remember one of the first songs

that I recorded with him, uh, was "Hurt."

We didn't have a clue of how it was gonna go down

or how he would perform it.

All of a sudden, he takes his stance.

♪ ♪

Elvis: ♪ I'm ♪

♪ So hurt ♪

♪ To think that you lied to me ♪

♪ I'm hurt ♪

♪ Way down deep inside of me ♪

♪ You said ♪

♪ Our love was true ♪

♪ And we'd never ♪

♪ Never part ♪

♪ Now you want someone new ♪

♪ And it breaks my heart ♪

♪ Oh, I'm hurt ♪

♪ Much more ♪

♪ Than you'll ever know ♪

♪ Yes, darling ♪

♪ I'm so hurt ♪

♪ Because ♪

♪ I still love you so ♪

♪ But you know ♪

♪ Even though you hurt me ♪

♪ Like nobody else ♪

♪ Could ever do ♪

♪ I would never ever ♪

♪ Hurt ♪

♪ You ♪

♪ Yeah, you ♪

(song ends)

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Bearde: Elvis wanted to finish the '68 Special on a big note.

Quite frankly, we didn't know how to finish the show.

Binder: Every day at four o'clock,

we would all sit in the piano room, of our offices,

rehearsing with Elvis.

Bearde: While we were sitting in Steve's office with Elvis,

we had a little black and white television in the corner.

(indistinct chatter) On that TV...

Robert Kennedy was assassinated.

(indistinct shouting)

Elvis picked up a guitar,

and he started playing.

Talking at a mile a minute.

He said, "I want you to understand me,

"because this is a moment in time

where we all have to understand each other."

♪ ♪

♪ There must be lights burning brighter ♪

♪ Somewhere ♪

♪ Got to be birds flying higher ♪

♪ In a sky more blue ♪

♪ If I can dream of a better land ♪

♪ Where all my brothers walk hand in hand ♪

♪ Tell me why ♪

♪ Oh, why ♪

♪ Oh, why can't my dream come true ♪

♪ Oh, why ♪

♪ There must be peace and understanding ♪

♪ Sometime ♪

♪ Strong winds of promise ♪

♪ That will blow away all the doubt ♪

♪ And fear ♪

♪ If I can dream of a warmer sun ♪

♪ Where hope keeps shining on everyone ♪

♪ Tell me why ♪

♪ Oh, why ♪

♪ Oh, why won't that sun ♪

♪ Appear ♪

♪ We're lost in a cloud ♪

♪ With too much rain ♪

♪ We're trapped in a world ♪

♪ That's troubled with pain ♪

♪ But as long as a man has the strength to dream ♪

♪ He can redeem his soul ♪

♪ And fly ♪

Choir: ♪ He can fly ♪

♪ Deep in my heart ♪

♪ There's a trembling question ♪

♪ Still I am sure that the answer ♪

♪ Answer's gonna come somehow ♪

♪ Out there in the dark ♪

♪ There's a beckoning candle ♪

♪ Oh yeah, and while I can think ♪

♪ While I can talk ♪

♪ While I can stand ♪

♪ While I can walk ♪

♪ While I can dream ♪

♪ Please let my dream ♪

♪ Come true ♪

♪ Oh ♪

♪ Right now ♪

♪ Oh, let it come true right now ♪

♪ Oh, yeah ♪

(song ends)

(film reel whirring)

♪ ♪

Petty: ♪ Can't you see ♪

♪ I love you ♪

♪ Please don't break my heart in two ♪

♪ That's not hard to do ♪

♪ 'Cause I don't have a wooden heart ♪

♪ And if you say goodbye ♪

♪ Then I know that I would cry ♪

♪ Maybe I would die ♪

♪ 'Cause I don't have a wooden heart ♪

♪ There's no strings ♪

♪ Upon this love of mine ♪

♪ It was always you from the start ♪

♪ Treat me nice ♪

♪ Treat me good ♪

♪ Treat me like you really should ♪

♪ 'Cause I'm not made of wood ♪

♪ And I don't have a wooden heart ♪

♪ No, I don't have a wooden heart ♪

(music ends)