Previous Page The tug of war cycle that had been going on since 1960 continued into 1962 as Elvis alternated between studio commitments and soundtrack work. He finished his next studio album in March of that year, with only a few songs worth mentioning. One of them was another which he co-wrote, a Latin-infused tune entitled “You’ll Be Gone.” The song “She’s Not You” was recorded near the end of the session and was immediately selected by Elvis as his next single (it went to number one, continuing his streak of personally selecting chart-topping tracks). It’s one of the few he recorded this year that was good enough to stand alongside the suburb material he produced in 1960. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content The only other notable recording was a track called “Suspicion.” The arrangement, especially it’s almost-haunting refrain, made it almost a guaranteed hit, but it was never given a single release. With so many other albums and songs being released, there wasn’t enough room on the calendar to put out “Suspicion” and “She’s Not You” both as singles. The latter song was released and even though it went to number one, the quality of the former song was confirmed a year later. Presley sound-alike Terry Stafford recorded a cover of “Suspicion” and turned it into a one-hit-wonder. His version reached number three, but that number three came in the Spring of 1963, when the newly-discovered (in America) Beatles had a monopoly on Billboard’s top five spots. Passing on “Suspicion” as a single was the first big missed opportunity for Elvis but it would not be the last; a similar situation would occur a couple of years later, when he declined to release a cover of Chuck Berry’s “Memphis, Tennessee” and watched as Johnny Rivers turned the forgotten 1950’s song into a #2 hit. Girls! Girls! Girls! was the Blue Hawaii-inspired followup movie that was destined to disappoint in comparison to the charming and instantly-beloved original. Its soundtrack was equally as second-rate, with only a few of the eighteen tracks carrying any quality worthy of radio play. The title track was fun but hallow. There was another Latin-sounding tune, “We’ll Be Together,” that had some promise but nothing like “It’s Now or Never” or “Surrender.” The transcendent “Return to Sender” was probably the only song recorded that had any potential to be a hit, and it peaked at number two. The less said about “Plantation Rock” or “Earth Boy” the better. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content None of his three 1962 films reached the success of Blue Hawaii or GI Blues. And as he returned to the studio in the fall of 1962, to record the soundtrack for his 1963 film It Happened at the World’s Fair, it was clear—if the quality of these songs was any indication—that his next film would not captivate the world either. None of Elvis’s movies throughout the early-to-mid 1960s failed to turn a profit. To the extent that they kept his name famous and kept Hollywood and RCA happy, they were successes. In terms of their artistic achievement, however, rarely did they ever rise above “good enough” and most of the time they were simply “not good.” The music from It Happened At the World’s Fair was a case-in-point. Twelve songs were recorded, but two were held off the album to be released as a single…and those are the only two songs worth noting. The ballad “They Remind Me Too Much of You” probably would have been cut from Elvis Is Back, but it would have been good enough to make it onto Something For Everybody. The uptempo “One Broken Heart For Sale” was called out by Elvis as his next big hit, but his predicting-streak ended here as it only reached number-eleven and became the lowest charting single Elvis had released since “Shake Rattle and Roll” in 1956. The song wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good enough to pull him out of the decaying spiral he had found himself in. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content As he ended 1962, Elvis’s passion for performing on stage had been taken away from him, and his passion for acting was being sucked out of him. His only remaining passion—taking a well-written song and working it over and over in the studio until it was uniquely his—was also running out of steam. 1963 offered more movies, more soundtracks, and—at least initially—more studio albums to work on. There was a tug of war going on between Elvis and his handlers: He wanted to do what he loved; they wanted him to be a machine that cranked out more and more “product.” The beginning of the 1960s demonstrated Elvis’s initial willingness to try new things. This was not new, in fact; even before joining the Army, Presley was already experimenting with new sounds and styles beyond “rock and roll.” After all, his first number-one hit “Heartbreak Hotel,” was nothing like “That’s All Right,” or anything anyone would call “rock and roll.” His biggest single of the 1950s (the double A-side “Hound Dog/Don’t Be Cruel”) featured two “up-tempo” songs that could not be more distinct. His 1958 recordings just before and just after being drafted showed off an eagerness to expand the arrangements and instruments in his music. His 1960 recordings offered the culmination of that desire to experiment and evolve. But as he moved into 1961 and 1962 it became clear that Elvis was the only one between himself, Parker and RCA that wanted to make the art of music his priority. The tug of war that had been waged throughout the opening of the decade was coming to an end and unfortunately, the art of his music was losing. As the middle of the decade approached, Elvis was nearing the tenth anniversary of the start of his musical career. It was a career that had already reached heights some of the more famous entertainers in popular culture only dreamed of. But the bottom was about to fall out. > PART FIVE: TEN YEARS IN…
