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The Beatles and Elvis
I never knew John Lennon was such a huge Elvis fan until reading this interesting article. I knew they admired Elvis and met him at his mansion in the early 60s in an arranged meeting. I thought it was more for publicity that anything, and seeing this video where George, Paul, and Ringo talk about their meeting Elvis, it would appear so, but it seems for John Lennon Elvis was his idol growing up and throughout his life. It looks like great legends inspire other legends that follow:
“Without Elvis, there would be no Beatles,” John Lennon stated matter-of-factly in a 1980 interview.
However, Lennon’s love for Presley came full circle when his sons, Julian and Sean, helped induct Elvis into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. Ten-year-old Sean, dressed in a white tuxedo, was wearing his dad’s rhinestone “Elvis” pin.
That night at the induction ceremony, Julian Lennon read a direct quote from John Lennon, which spoke volumes: “Elvis was the thing, whatever people say, he was it. I was not competing against Elvis, rock happened to be the media I was born into – it was the one, that’s all. Those people who picked up paintbrushes, like Van Gogh, probably wanted to be Renoir or whomever went before him. I wanted to be Elvis.”
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13 Replies
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George, Paul, and Ringo talk about meeting Elvis
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Unfortunately some accounts paint a negative picture of how Elvis felt about the Beatles. The admiration and affection (especially from John Lennon) the Beatles had for Elvis was not mutual. It doesn’t appear Elvis had anything personal against the Beatles, but his reservations had more to do with fear as per the account below:
However, Fortas, Lacker, and Billy Smith all recall that Elvis considered The Beatles a threat to his own popularity. “Beatlemania was in full bloom,” said Fortas, “and Elvis was scared … His records occasionally broke into the Top 10, but he knew he was really just hanging on … The Memphis Mafia, however, knew better than to mention the Beatles in Elvis’s presence.”
….Elvis apparently had nothing personal against John, Paul, George, and Ringo. He actually liked some of their songs, including Yesterday and Hey Jude. Billy Smith contends that Elvis actually felt a musical connection with The Beatles. He explained as follows:
“He thought the early Beatles were really similar to his early music. He loved the loud, hard-driving sound that they had. He wanted that himself. Elvis was always fighting for his records to sound some other way than how they did … he wanted his records to sound raw … He’d play a Beatles record, and he’d say, ‘This is what I’m looking for right here. I want that drive back.’”
For me what stands out the most is John Lennon’s admiration and affection for Elvis as his hero, despite the resentment towards Elvis that resulted by the other Beatles in response to some of the negativity demonstrated by Elvis towards them, John overlooked the politics and appreciated Elvis for the music and the passion it gave him. It’s great that at that first meeting with Elvis, John got to do a jam session with Elvis that must have been such a joy for John.
“But Lennon’s teenage love for Elvis didn’t stop when he became an adult. In fact, throughout his life, even though he criticized Presley in his later years, Lennon never stopped being a fan. Just like any other passionate music fan, Lennon had a lifelong obsession for The King of Rock and Roll.”
I found this remark by John, when he first met Elvis, a little heart warming.
“After the infamous meeting, John Lennon told Presley’s friend, Jerry Schilling:
“I couldn’t say this to Elvis last night, but you see these sideburns? I almost got kicked out of high school trying to be like Elvis.”
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I thought only fitting to include this 1956 Elvis hit “Heart Break Hotel” that according to John Lennon and Paul McCartney had a big influence on them.
It all started in April 1956 when Lennon heard Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel” for the first time, shortly after its release in the U.K. in March. “Heartbreak Hotel” seemed to change everything, not just for John Lennon, but also for rock and roll history.
Both Paul McCartney and George Harrison have stated how “Heartbreak Hotel” was a big influence on them.
“When I first heard ‘Heartbreak Hotel’… me whole life changed from then on, I was just completely shaken by it,” John Lennon said.
After the release of “Heartbreak Hotel”, “We all automatically wanted to dress like Elvis, look like Elvis, swagger, strut and sneer like Elvis,” described Lennon’s best friend, Pete Shotton, “
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A seminal moment in rock-and-roll history to be sure, Jung.
When the girls screamed after Elvis’ first mention of Heartbreak Hotel in this video, it transported me back to my childhood, when I audio taped (and essentially memorized) an episode of Happy Days where the same thing happened at the same point in the same song when the Fonz performed it.
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Happy Days, yes one of my faves TV series! I must have missed that episodes back then though. Just found it on youtube and had a look, and it looks like the Fonz invented Hip Hop with his version of Heart Break Hotel! 🙂
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Yeah, kinda hard to tell what key he’s singing in, isn’t it?
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I kinda recall that episode… I too was a huge fan… That’s how I got hooked onto Laverne and Shirley… But my fave episodes were with Leather and Pinky Tuscadaro and The Mila hi Bros….
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I get you, Jacki. It’s those special two- and three-part episodes that stick with you. Instead of all the loose ends being happily tied up in 30 minutes, you have to stew for a whole week over an unresolved crisis.
Oh no, the Malachi brothers put Pinky in the hospital! Oh no, Joanie’s gonna run off and join Leather and the Suedes! Oh no, Fonzie’s gonna jump his bike over 14 garbage cans, and/or water ski jump over a shark!
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A couple of days ago we celebrated my dad’s 94th birthday. Hearing stories from my older brother about my dad’s younger days, I learned my dad was a big Elvis fan, and he use to watch a lot of Elvis movies. Wow! Was before my time and and I never would have guessed. Reminded me of this I posted last year, about John Lennon’s admiration of Elvis. According to John Lennon:
“Without Elvis, there would be no Beatles,” John Lennon stated matter-of-factly in a 1980 interview.
So even if you are not a huge Elvis fan, we owe him a debt of gratitude for the Beatles.
Here are some Elvis movie songs.
I like his earlier stuff.
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MLT honours Elvis with this superb cover performance.
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Hi Jung,
an interesting topic. As far as I have gathered from documentaries and interviews, Elvis actually saw the Beatles as competition and therefore did not want them to enter the North American continent (as you have already described above). Especially since his career as a musician stumbled in the early 60s, not least because of his relationship with the very young Priscilla.
I have to admit: Elvis is not my great love. Often very schmaltzy songs. Perhaps he too was just another celebrity victim of the music industry. The kind of music he would have liked to sing, namely “Raw” Rock’n Roll as he had called it, he was not allowed to produce because his managers had given him a different image. At a certain point in his career, probably only the sales figures were in the foreground, not his music and his passion. And I think towards the end of his career he was a very lonely person. Maybe that’s also what he envied about the Beatles: they never walked alone, not always harmonious, but never the lone riders in the music business like he was. But still, he produced some very beautiful songs. The following is my favourite song of his:
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Definitely not a favourite song of mine, but certainly a nice gesture to the residents of the Hessian town of Friedberg, where he was stationed as a soldier:
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Hi Jurgen. Nice Elvis song, thanks. I liked Elvis early music and his image and style, but lost me by the late 60s and into the 70s. I agree, I think he was important and influential as a rock artist for the raw rock emotions of his early songs and the youthful, rebellious image and passion he embodied. He was the image of rock and roll that inspired many who would follow like John Lennon. It’s too bad he lost that passion and fell into emotional burn out and substance abuse.
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