*** Note – this article was not originally authored by Jeff Schrembs as is the case in 99.99% of the time. We do not know the origin but would like to give them credit for this well written and factually correct article.
ELVIS 1965 History:
By the time the turbulent Sixties were halfway through — really, before they’d even had a chance to become the Sixties we know fully — certain pop stars were already undergoing overwhelming personal transformations, questioning authority, consuming mind-altering drugs, reinvesting in their spirituality, looking for a purpose. That’s not news to anyone, unless you put Elvis in that number; by 1965, he was exhibiting all these behaviors and more, demonstrating that even as the entertainment world’s most pampered house pet, one seemingly removed from any sense of a normal interaction with the world, that he could still be reached and even changed. The pull of the turbulence now rolling under polite society was even stronger than The King. Without realizing it (or perhaps even wanting it), he’d help set in motion the very forces that would cause him to question his success.
Or maybe it was just that his success wasn’t deeply satisfying. In that same year, he made what’s usually considered the worst film of his career, Harem Scarum, a horrible pseudo-comedy that was filmed in just under a month, starred a former Miss America as a Middle Eastern princess, and used costumes and sets from 20-year-old films in lieu of anything resembling authenticity. Then there were the songs he recorded for this and two other films that year: “My Desert Serenade,” “Petunia, The Gardener’s Daughter,” “Queenie Wahine’s Papaya.” Who wouldn’t be looking for a deeper meaning?
It’s debatable, given how his life ended, that he found it. But he was looking, that’s the crucial point; as soulless and ignorant as his detractors have made him out to be, he cast off all his dreams (at least, in his own heart) when they failed to help him understand himself and went looking for other ones. Can you imagine the Colonel doing such a thing? No, Elvis was no dummy: he knew, sitting on a pile of money, cars, and women any man would kill for, that he’d been had. What he didn’t know was why — why, if there was someone behind the wheel, he’d focused his lightning on Elvis Presley. He may have been a truck driver from Memphis by way of Tupelo, but he wasn’t stupid enough to think he’d deserved it just by being born. Or what in God’s name he was meant to do with it now.
Recording:
February 24: “Shake That Tambourine” (RCA Studio B, Nashville, TN)
February 25: “So Close, Yet So Far (From Paradise),” “My Desert Serenade,” “Wisdom Of The Ages,” “Kismet,” “Hey Little Girl” (RCA Studio B, Nashville, TN)
February 26: “Golden Coins,” “Animal Instinct” (RCA Studio B, Nashville, TN)
March 9: “Harem Holiday,” “Go East, Young Man,” “Mirage” (RCA Studio B, Nashville, TN)
March 18: “Tomorrow Night” (RCA Studio B, Nashville, TN)
May 13: “Come Along,” “Beginner’s Luck,” “Down By The Riverside,” “When The Saints Go Marching’ In,” “Please Don’t Stop Loving Me,” “Shout It Out” (Radio Recorders, Hollywood, California)
May 14: “What Every Woman Lives For,” “Petunia, The Gardener’s Daughter,” “Look Out, Broadway,” “Everybody Come Aboard” (Radio Recorders, Hollywood, California)
May 15: “Chesay,” “Frankie And Johnny” (Radio Recorders, Hollywood, California)
May 19: “Hard Luck” (Goldwyn Studios, Hollywood, California)
August 2: “Drums Of The Island,” “This Is My Heaven” (Radio Recorders, Hollywood, California)
August 3: “Sand Castles,” “Scratch My Back,” “Stop Where You Are,” “A House Of Sand” (Radio Recorders, Hollywood, California)
August 4: “Datin’,” “Queenie Wahine’s Papaya,” “Paradise Hawaiian Style,” “A Dog’s Life” (Radio Recorders, Hollywood, California)
Singles:
February 9: “Do The Clam” b/w “You’ll Be Gone” (RCA Victor 47-8500)
April 6: “Crying In The Chapel” b/w “I Believe In The Man In The Sky” (RCA Victor 447-0643)
May 28: “(Such An) Easy Question” b/w “It Feels So Right” (RCA Victor 47-8585)
August 10: “I’m Yours” b/w “(It’s A) Long Lonely Highway” (RCA Victor 47-8657)
October 20: “Puppet On A String” b/w “Wooden Heart” (RCA Victor 447-0650)
October 26: “Santa Claus Is Back In Town” b/w “Blue Christmas” (RCA Victor 447-0647)
December 3: “Tell Me Why” b/w “Blue River” (RCA Victor 47-8740)
EPs:
July:
Tickle Me (RCA EPA 4383):
Side 1:
“I Feel That I’ve Known You Forever”
“Slowly but Surely”
Side 2:
“Night Rider”
“Put the Blame on Me”
“Dirty Dirty Feeling”
Albums:
March 1:
Girl Happy (RCA LPM 3338):
Side 1:
“Girl Happy”
“Spring Fever”
“Fort Lauderdale Chamber Of Commerce”
“Startin’ Tonight”
“Wolf Call”
“Do Not Disturb”
Side 2:
“Cross My Heart And Hope To Die”
“Meanest Girl In town”
“Do The Clam”
“Puppet On A String”
”I’ve Got To Find My Baby”
“You’ll Be Gone”
October 20:
Roustabout (RCA LPM 3450):
Side 1:
“Your Cheating’ Heart”
“Summer Kisses, Winter Tears”
“Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers”
“In My Way”
“Tomorrow Night”
“Memphis, Tennessee”
Side 2:
“For The Millionth And Last Time”
“Forget Me Never”
“Sound Advice”
“Santa Lucia”
“I Met Her Today
“When It Rains, It Really Pours”
November 3:
Harem Sacrum (RCA LPM 3468):
Side 1:
“Harem Holiday”
“My Desert Serenade”
“Go East, Young Man”
“Mirage”
“Kismet”
“Shake That Tambourine”
Side 2:
“Hey Little Girl”
“Golden Coins”
“So Close Yet So Far (From Paradise)”
“Animal Instinct”
“Wisdom of The Ages”
Movies:
April 14: Girl Happy
Also starring: Shelley Fabre’s, Harold J. Stone, Gary Crosby, Joby Baker, Nita Talbot, Mary Ann Mobley, Fabrizio Mioni, Jimmy Hawkins, Jackie Coogan, Peter Brooks, John Fiedler, Chris Noel, Lyn Edgington, Gail Gilmore, Pamela Curran, Rusty Allen
Directed by: Boris Sagal
Screenwriters: Harvey Bullock, R.S. Allen
Produced by: Joe Pasternak
June 30: Tickle Me
Also starring: Julie Adams, Jocelyn Lane, Jack Mullaney, Merry Anders, Connie Gilchrist, Edward Faulkner, Bill Williams, Louie Elias, Barbara Werle, John Dennis, Laurie Burton, Allison Hayes, Linda Rogers, Ann Morell
Directed by: Norman Taurog
Screenwriters: Elwood Ullman, Edward Bernds
Produced by: Ben Schwalb
November 24: Harem Scarum
Also starring: Mary Ann Mobley, Fran Jeffries, Michael Ansara, Jay Novello, Phillip Reed, Theodore Marcuse, Billy Barty, Dirk Harvey, Jack Constanzo, Larry Chance, Barbara Werle, Brenda Benet, Gail Gilmore, Wilda Taylor
Directed by: Gene Nelson
Screenwriter: Gerald Drayson Adams
Produced by: Sam Katzman
January 8: Elvis turns 30, an event not unnoticed by several Memphis newspapers, who wonder if this, especially in the light of the British Invasion, isn’t the end of an era. For his part, The King celebrates quietly with Priscilla and family at Graceland.
February 24: After 38 frustrating, listless takes of a terrible song called “Shake Your Tambourine,” Elvis leaves the Memphis recording sessions for his 19th film, Harum Scarum. Elvis is quite vocal about his dissatisfaction with the latest batch of songs given him. Noting this, the Colonel moves Presley’s medical checkup to Memphis in order to keep him away from Hollywood as long as possible.
March 5: A milestone in Elvis’ personal life. While driving to Los Angeles to begin work on his latest film, the singer tells Larry Geller that he feels their recent religious studies haven’t produced a bonafide religious “experience.” Not long after, Elvis pulls over and runs into the middle of the desert when he sees a cloud formation that looks like Russian dictator Josef Stalin. As he watches, it turns into a face Elvis interprets as that of Jesus Christ. As Geller recalls it in Peter Guralnick’s acclaimed book Careless Love:
“It’s God!” Elvis cried. “It’s God!” Tears streamed down his face as he hugged me tightly and said, “…I thank you from the bottom of my heart. You got me here. I’ll never forget, never, man. It really happened. I saw the face of Stalin and I thought to myself, Why Stalin? Is it a projection of something that’s inside of me? Is God trying to show me what he thinks of me? And then it happened! The face of Stalin turned right into the face of Jesus, and he smiled at me, and every fiber of my being felt it… Oh, God. Oh, God,” Elvis kept saying. Then he paused and added a peculiar aside. “Can you imagine what the fans would think if they saw me like this?”
“They’d only love you all the more,” Geller said.
“Yeah,” he said, “Well, I hope that’s true.”
Visibly shaken, he resumes the trip, although most of the Memphis Mafia are skeptical about the validity of this “sign.”
March 15: Elvis begins filming Harum Scarum. He also rehires Joe Esposito.
March 17: Presley joins a religious group based in Pacific Palisades, CA, called the Self-Realization Fellowship, led by Sri Daya Mata, whom Elvis will turn to for spiritual guidance on and off for the rest of his life. Elvis asks Mata, whom he came to call “Mother,” the question that had been troubling him: “Why did God make me Elvis Presley?” and Mata responds by giving him some ancient literature.
Elvis tells a fellow initiate that “People don’t know my life or that I sometimes cry myself to sleep because I don’t know God.” Later, Elvis reportedly tells a friend: “I know some of the things that I think are kind of far out…and I don’t meet a lot of people that I can relate to, and those that I do meet that need to know more about their spiritual selves, I do the best that I can, but I would like to be in a position to reach these people that are out there, I know that, and I can’t get in that position. My career won’t allow it, my management won’t allow it, my friends won’t allow it… I’ve been fortunate in that I can, if I read something that somebody has written, and I’m intrigued by it, or I need to know more, I can contact them, and chances are, they’ll respond because of who I am, and that’s good because it’s helped me, and in helping me, they’ve helped other people, but I have this need for more, and its driving me crazy, it’s driving me crazy. I’m going to be a blundering fool if I don’t solve this somehow. I don’t know, maybe time will straighten it out. Time has a way of doing that, you know.”
April 4: Elvis sees Jerry Schilling’s new Triumph motorcycle and immediately buys one for every member of the Mafia, including himself.
April 19: With production already completed on Harum Scarum, Elvis stays on in Los Angeles to await the filming of his next movie.
May 12: During the recording of the soundtrack for his 20th film, Frankie and Johnny, Elvis, clearly angered by the material, blows up at the musicians and storms out of the studio. The band continues to lay down tracks without him; Elvis returns and does the vocals the next day.
May 24: Elvis begins filming Frankie and Johnny.
June 18: The final cut of Harum Scarum is screened for studio executives, and the Colonel, aghast, declares “It would take a fifty-fifth cousin to P.T. Barnum to sell this picture… The best thing to do is to book it fast, get the money, then try again.”
June 24: Elvis does some publicity stills for Frankie and Johnny and attends a special on-set ceremony where he contributes $50,000 to the Motion Picture Relief Fund, which helps out-of-work actors. Frank Sinatra and Barbara Stanwyck are presenters.
June 26th: The Colonel turns 56, for which Elvis presents him with an electric golf cart.
July 7th: Having heard of the religious experiences some are having while taking (the still legal) LSD, Elvis talks Mafia members Red West, Sonny West, and Alan Fortas into taking the drug, and also has marijuana brownies made for the gang, though he himself does not partake.
July 20th: The colonel, still distressed by the results of Harum Scarum, suggests having the film narrated by a talking camel, so that audiences will think the movie is intentionally stupid. The studio declines his suggestion.
August 2: Elvis arrives a week late at Paramount Studios to begin work on his 21st film, Paradise, Hawaiian Style.
August 5: The Mafia, with Elvis, show up in Hawaii two days early for location shooting.
August 15: While in Hawaii, Elvis, Vernon and the Colonel visit the USS Arizona, bombed in Pearl Harbor, and place there a wreath of 1,177 carnations — one for each man on the ship as it went down. Tom Moffat, disc jockey for KPOI in Hawaii, arranges for Herman’s Hermits lead singer Peter Noone to interview the King live from his bungalow. “Who’s your favorite group?” Noone asks. “The Boston Pops,” Elvis replies, laughing.
August 16: Dave Dexter, head of Capitol Records, sends a telegram to Elvis inviting him to Los Angeles for a cocktail party in the Beatles’ honor. He sends no reply.
August 27: The Colonel contacts Brian Epstein to let him know that Elvis will agree to meet the Beatles in his Los Angeles mansion on Perugia Way. When the group arrive, stoned on marijuana, The King is in the darkened living room, surrounded by his entourage, sitting on an L-shaped couch, looking at the TV with the sound off, fooling around on a bass guitar. “Hi, Elvis,” says the group, almost all at once. “Hey, you guys want a drink?” Elvis offers.
The four sit down to watch TV with Elvis and are taken with his early-model remote control, still a novelty. The group is also thrilled by the King’s pool table, and plays a few games with the Mafia, while Presley’s jukebox plays Charlie Rich’s “Mohair Sam” over and over. Priscilla is presented to the group and then quickly whisked away, dressed, according to Paul, “in a purple gingham dress, with a gingham bow in her very beehive hair, with lots of makeup.”
Awed somewhat by each other’s presence, conversation does not come easily, but John thinks to ask if Elvis is working on a new movie. “I sure am,” he replies. “I play a country boy with a guitar who meets a few gals along the way, and I sing a few songs.” “We all looked at one another,” remembers John. “Finally Presley and Colonel Parker laughed and explained that the only time they departed from that formula – for Wild in the Country – they lost money.”
Paul offers to give Elvis some lessons on the bass; the group eventually falls into a very informal, brief, and anticlimactic jam session. Everyone seems pleased with the experience, however: John Lennon, upon leaving, tells Jerry Schilling to make sure Elvis knows that “if it hadn’t been for him, the Beatles would be nothing.”
September 11: The Colonel tells a Memphis newspaper that “sooner or later, someone is going to have to take over the reins” regarding his client’s recent unprofessional behavior.
October 1: Having completed filming on Paradise, Hawaiian Style the previous day, Elvis and his entourage head back to Memphis.
October 7: Construction is completed on Graceland’s Meditation Garden, inspired by the Self-Realization group’s own park in Pacific Palisades. Cost: $21,000.
October 21: Bill Black, the bass player on Elvis’ legendary Sun Records sides, dies of a brain tumor at Memphis’ Baptist Hospital. The local newspaper The Memphis Commercial Appeal quotes the King as saying, “He was a great man and and a person everyone loved. This comes as such a shock to me that I can hardly explain how much I loved Bill.” Elvis, fearing a scene, does not attend the funeral, but sends Vernon and his second wife, Dee, in his place.
October 22: The Colonel manages to get Elvis’ RCA contract extended to 1972, despite a serious recent slump in record sales.
December 7: As he does every holiday season, Elvis donates $50,000 to local charities.
December 14: Elvis buys a number of jewelry items for Christmas presents, including personalized gold watches, diamond rings, and bracelets.
December 25: Knowing how much he loves the hobby since being introduced to it in L.A., Priscilla’s Christmas gift to Elvis is a slot-car racetrack; mindful of his recent experience, the Memphis Mafia’s 1965 gift is a statue of Jesus that Elvis immediately has placed in the Meditation Garden. It remains there to this day.
December 28: Elvis, surrounded by friends including Larry Geller, “drops” LSD for the first time, joined by Priscilla. After staring at each other’s distorted faces, the tropical fish in his aquarium, and, the next day, at dew drops on the breathing grass, both decide that they’d be risking their sanity to try the drug again.
December 31: Elvis rings in 1966 at Memphis’ Manhattan Club in a semi-private affair.
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