ELVIS LIFE FROM - 1957 - 60

DRAUGHT NOTICE AND THE DEATH OF HIS MOTHER

In January of 1957, Elvis made his final appearance on the Ed Sullivan show. He ended his appearance with a Gospel song. In contrast to what Sullivan said about him earlier, he declared Elvis to be a fine young man. Not long after his appearance on Ed Sullivan show, the draft board announced Elvis Presley would probably be drafted; while he received notification of his draft, his records keep on going number one.

Early in 1957 each of his three singles were number one hits including "Teddy Bear", "Too Much" and "All Shook up". Despite his busy schedule with all the tours, recording sessions and movie deals, He made time to purchase a mansion eight miles from downtown Memphis for himself and his parents; this mansion would be known as Graceland.


While on tour in Seattle, Washington, and unknown to Presley at the time he made a big impression on a fourteen year old named Jimi Hendrix. Later, on December 20, 1957 shortly after completing the "Elvis Christmas Album", Elvis received his draft notice. However, he was granted a deferment to finish his King Creole movie.

Once his deferment was up, Presley was inducted into the Army at Fort Chaffee close to Fort Smith Arkansas. Once he arrived there the base was not prepared for the media attention Elvis caused. Soon after Elvis had started basic training at Fort Hood, During a two-week leave in early June 1958, Presley found time to record five songs in Nashville; afterwards he returned to training. In early August his mother became very ill and her condition worsened.


Elvis was granted emergency visitation to see his mother; On August 12th Presley arrived in Memphis. Two days later, Gladys Presley died of heat failure. Elvis was devastated; he and his mom were very close. After his training was completed at Ft Hood, Presley was assigned to the 3rd Armored Division in Germany October 1958. It was while Elvis was stationed in German that he met Priscilla Beaulieu.

During his time in the military, Elvis worried about his singing career; he was not alone the media worried too. However, RCA records planed ahead; there was enough unreleased songs to keep a steady stream of music while he was active military. From his induction to his discharge Elvis had ten top 40 hits.
Discharged from the Army and the 1960's

Presley returned to the United States in March of 1960; His rank when discharged was Sergent. Once he arrived in Memphis, he wasted no time in getting back to the recording studio. The Sessions in March and April yielded some of his best selling hits, including "Its Now or Never" and "Are You Lonesome Tonight".


Later in May 1960, Elvis returned to television on a guest on The Frank Sinatra Timex Special. Later in the year the sound track to GI Blues was released; it was a number one album in October. Two months later, Elvis released his first Gospel music album "His Hand in Mine"; it was number thirteen in the United States.

As the 1960's moved on, and with pressure from Col. Tom Parker, Elvis was forced into a heavy movie making schedule; as a result his music became secondary; of the 27 plus movies made during the 1960's more than fourteen had soundtracks, and as the decade went on the quality of the sound tracks got worst.

Often the music was written by people who didn't understand Elvis or Rock and Roll; But for the most part all the movies during this decade were profitable; a problem wasn't noticed by RCA till late in the 1960's when one of his soundtracks had poor sales; by then the damage was done. Also, during this time seven years later after they met, Elvis Presley married Priscilla Beaulieu on May 1, 1967.