“I’m trying to keep a level head. You have to be careful out in the world. It’s so easy to get turned.”

– Elvis Presley

After the holidays, Elvis had very little time to relax. It was straight into making movies. Elvis was becoming restless of the scripts and songs he was forced to perform with. He does not enjoy the films as he has before and wants to do live performances again. The movies must be made, so he heads into the studios to begin recording songs. The LP of Roustabout reached #1. This would be Elvis’s last album to hit the top until 1973. This news puts Elvis in good spirit when he heads to Los Angeles to begin filming for Harum Scarum.

Girl Happy opens April 7^th to positive reviews and does well at the box office. This spring break musical is exactly what Elvis needed to give him the motivation to press forward with the already contracted films he had to make. Girl Happy, the single, remains on the chart for 31 weeks. Elvis is doing better on the charts, having Crying In The Chapel staying on the chart for 14 weeks and selling over two million copies by December. The song tops the Beatles in England. He headed back into the studio to record songs for his next film Frankie and Johnny.

Crying In The Chapel

There is time for a little break in June before he heads to Hawaii to film Paradise, Hawaiian Style. Elvis is attempted to spend his July relaxing and learns after Variety reported that Tickle Me will save Allied Artists because the film grossed over $3,000,000. Elvis was released from his no-motorcycle clause he signed before filming Tickle Me and road off with the “El’s Angels” as they called them. He heads back into the studio to record songs for Paradise, Hawaiian Style and begins filming again August 5^th.

Elvis For Everyone enters the chart and stays for 27 weeks. In 1961, Elvis held a benefit concert to help build the memorial to the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor. August 15^th, 1965, Elvis and the Colonel visit the memorial and are given a personal tour. Elvis places wreaths around the base of the memorial and is given an award for his work to preserve the Arizona. Filming for Paradise, Hawaiian Style ends shooting in Hawaii a few days later and he signs another long-term deal with Hal B. Wallis to please the Colonel.

Elvis Meets The Beatles – 1965

August 27^th was a historic day as Elvis meets the Beatles. They visit him in his Los Angeles home. They hung out for a few hours, playing games, and singing. (Can you imagine their jam session?!). After extending his deal with Hal B. Wallis, Elvis also extends his contract with RCA. The deal is for another 10 years. Elvis loves having fun, so once he returns to Graceland he buys go-karts and races around the home. Anything with Elvis’s name on it has sold more than $30,000,000 so far in 1965 even though he’s only received $60,000 in royalties.

The Harum Scarum LP gets on the charts and remains there for 23 weeks only peaking at number 8. The film is released November 24^th and has the usual mixed reviews for Elvis films. Elvis has always been charitable, but with him loving Christmas so much, he gets extremely charitable around the holidays. He read in the paper an elderly woman’s motorized wheelchair had died on her so he gives her one for Christmas. Elvis was very difficult to buy presents for, as he could buy anything for himself. His favorite present that year was a racing set from Priscilla. He had a track spanning across Graceland and would play for hours. A recap of Elvis’s earnings for the years was released

December 31^st. Harum Scarum – $1,000,000; Frankie and Johnny – $650,000; Paradise, Hawaiian Style – $350,000; Tickle Me – $850,000; RCA royalties – $1,125,000; music publishing royalties – $400,000; merchandising royalties – $60,000. The total is close to $5.5 million giving Elvis a pretty good year though the films did not have the best reviews.

TCB,

Little Sister