Elvis Presley: The Searcher Page #14

---

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

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes