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When The Beatles met Elvis Presley (BBC website) - gryphon - 05-10-2011
[h=1]When The Beatles met Elvis Presley[/h]
![[Image: _55827783_3271974.jpg]](http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/55827000/jpg/_55827783_3271974.jpg)
Beatlemania was at its height when the group met Elvis during their US tour Continue reading the main story [h=2]Related Stories[/h]
On the evening of 27 August 1965, Elvis Presley and The Beatles, the music world's biggest music stars, met for the first and only time.
When the Fab Four went to see the King of Rock 'n' Roll at his Beverley Hills mansion on a night off from their US tour, the initially awkward small talk gave way to an impromptu jam session.
But there are no recordings or photographs of the event.
Tony Barrow, who was The Beatles' press officer between 1962 and 1968, was also in the room. As a new exhibition about The Beatles and Elvis opens at The Beatles Story in Liverpool, he recalls that memorable night:
"When I put the idea of meeting Elvis to John, Paul, George and Ringo, they were initially put off by the fact that the press might be involved.
![[Image: _55827455_000979607-1.jpg]](http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/55827000/jpg/_55827455_000979607-1.jpg)
Elvis was in the middle of filming his movie Paradise Hawaiian Style at the time of the meeting "I remember George saying 'if this is going to be another dirty big publicity circus, let's forget it'. They did want to meet their rock 'n' roll idol, but not with a gang of reporters and photographers around to hassle them.
"The first fundamental ground rules to be set were: no press to be invited, no pictures to be taken, no recordings to be made and no leaking of our plans in advance.
"It was shortly before 10pm when we drove over. We were in a convoy of three big black limousines, led by [Elvis' manager] Colonel Parker and his people.
"The property consisted of two storeys nestled into a hillside. It was a vast, round building with a lot of windows and a spacious front garden. There was a Rolls Royce and a couple of Cadillacs lining the drive.
"Members of the famous 'Memphis Mafia' guarded the tall gates but they waved our line of limousines straight through.
"Once inside the front door, our feet seemed to sink inches into deep white shag pile carpeting.
![[Image: _55827852_rexfeatures_13217b.jpg]](http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/55827000/jpg/_55827852_rexfeatures_13217b.jpg)
Tony Barrow (right, pictured with Brian Epstein) had to keep the plans secret from the press pack "We arrived in the centre of the building, into this massive circular room bathed in red and blue light, and this was where the King entertained.
"This was Elvis Presley's giant playpen, complete with a colour television, a jukebox, a deep crescent-shaped couch, a couple of pool and games tables and a well-stocked bar.
"I would say, at a guess, that Presley's army of henchmen and their womenfolk must have totalled about 20 people, well outnumbering our little group.
"As the two teams faced one another, there was a weird silence and it was John who spoke first, rather awkwardly blurting out a stream of questions at Elvis, saying: 'Why do you do all these soft-centred ballads for the cinema these days? What happened to good old rock 'n' roll?'
"Elvis was fairly quiet - that was my first reaction. He smiled a lot and shook hands with everybody.
"The ice didn't really break in the early stages at all. The boys and Elvis swapped tour stories, but it hadn't got going.
Continue reading the main story [h=2]âStart Quote[/h] [INDENT]Music was their natural meeting point, their most intelligent means of communicationâ
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"They quickly exhausted their initial bout of small talk and there was this embarrassing silence between the mega-famous five, stood there facing each other, with very little of import being said.
"Apart from anything else, I think it was just that each was in awe of the other. Elvis didn't have that much confidence, as far as I could see. He was a fairly easily embarrassed person by the look of him.
"But Elvis suddenly plugged the gap by calling for some guitars to be handed out to John, Paul and George, and a piano was hauled into view.
"Up to that point, the party really had been a bit lifeless and unexciting. But as soon as Presley and The Beatles began to play together, the atmosphere livened up.
"The boys found that they could make much better conversation with their guitars than they could with their spoken word. Music was their natural meeting point, their most intelligent means of communication.
"I can't remember all the things that they played but I do remember one of the songs was I Feel Fine. And I remember Ringo, who of course didn't have an instrument, tapping out the backbeat with his fingers on the nearest bits of wooden furniture.
"Everybody was singing. Elvis strummed a few bass guitar chords for Paul and said: 'See, I'm practising.' And Paul came back with some quip about: 'Don't worry, between us, me and Brian Epstein will make a star of you soon.'
"It would be wonderful to have either photographs or recordings. That recording would be invaluable, surely. It would be a multi-million dollar piece of tape. But it wasn't to be. It was an amazing session to listen to.
"Parker and Epstein lost interest - they were leaving the children to play. Parker put his plump arm around Brian Epstein's shoulder and led him away to a quiet corner of this playroom.
"Epstein at this point grabbed his chance to bring up the subject he'd been waiting to raise, which was his secret agenda. He hoped to persuade Parker to let him present Elvis in a series of UK concerts.
'Elvis was stoned' "It was a hopeless project from the outset, although at the time, Parker pretended to leave the door open by saying he'd think about it.
"The party ended when Colonel Parker decided that it was time for it to end. He started dishing out presents, which mostly consisted of piles of Elvis Presley albums.
"I remember, as we went out to our limousines, John put on his Adolf Hitler accent and shouted: 'Long live ze king.' Also, John said, as we got into our limousines: 'Elvis was stoned.' George Harrison responded very quietly: 'Aren't we all?'
"They tried to make light of it and not show too much adoration for their idol, but Elvis Presley was their idol and one of the prime influences of The Beatles' music."
When The Beatles met Elvis Presley (BBC website) - CRAZY-HORSE - 05-10-2011
nice article Gryphon....
it says somewhere in there about Elvis lacking 'confidence'....Elvis was a very shy and reserved person(due to his poorer than poor southern upbringing and humble nature,same goes for John Cash.) and only appeared confident on stage, thus the guys playing music would have got him in his element....
even when he went to RCA Studio B in Nashville(MH and i visited there) he used to play the piano and sing for a good couple of hours prior to opening up to the band and studio personell.
a recorded jam featuring The King and the Fab Four would be priceless, moreso than the famous "million dollar quartet" jams at Sun Studios....
and there aint no way Parker would have allowed Epstein or anyone to take Elvis on a UK tour or a tour anywhere else for that matter...Parker was an utter control freak who had to have 100% control over a niave hillbilly who knew no better when it came to business or money....Parker took between 40 and 60% of everything Elvis ever earned,thus if he went with Epstein to the UK he would have seen that Parker was ripping him off.
Parker was as big a sharlaton to the music industry as Don King was to Boxing
When The Beatles met Elvis Presley (BBC website) - gryphon - 05-10-2011
I'm not sure that Brian would have seen the rip off............Around 1966 Brian was very troubled with the deals he had made with merchandising in the US ( The so called seltaeb deals ) in which Brian gave 90 or 95 % of the monies from Beatles licensing to the licensing people and 5 to 10 % to The Beatles.........some people believe that this could have been the reasoning behind his suicide as at 1967 he had not told the Beatles of these mistakes.
When The Beatles met Elvis Presley (BBC website) - SteveO - 11-10-2011
Thanks, Gryph for another one of many interesting reads on the Fab Four !!!!!
I would have loved to have been there for the Beatles/Elvis jam !!!!!
gryphon Wrote:I'm not sure that Brian would have seen the rip off............Around 1966 Brian was very troubled with the deals he had made with merchandising in the US ( The so called seltaeb deals ) in which Brian gave 90 or 95 % of the monies from Beatles licensing to the licensing people and 5 to 10 % to The Beatles.........some people believe that this could have been the reasoning behind his suicide as at 1967 he had not told the Beatles of these mistakes.