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♪ NARRATOR: "Before Elvis," John Lennon once said, "There was nothing."

♪ There had never been anything like him before.

Some say, there never will be again.

NORBERT: Up here we had Elvis Presley ♪ and down here we had everyone else.

♪ Although it's always crowded ♪ ♪ You still can find some room ♪ MAC: Girls were just going totally crazy and the guys were like, wow.

♪ Well just take a walk down Lonely Street ♪ ♪ To Heartbreak Hotel ♪ JERRY: Elvis was a love affair, man.

(crowd cheering) ♪ LARRY: He's the biggest star that ever lived.

(crowd cheering) NARRATOR: "All the world's a stage," wrote Shakespeare, "And one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages."

♪ If so, then, whatever you think of his movies, Elvis was the finest actor the world has ever seen.

♪ ♪ In the space of 42 years he acted out every stage of human development: ♪ From a poverty- stricken childhood, to king of teenage rebellion.

Forced to grow up fast in the Army, then made respectable as a Hollywood ham.

From an unlikely comeback in his prime, ♪ That's all right now, mama ♪ ♪ Any way you choose ♪ To washed-up Vegas has-been.

♪ A hunk-a hunk-a burning love ♪ Finally, in death, an even bigger legend than he was in life.

DICK: There are 18,500 people in there to see Elvis, who's been dead for 40 years.

(crowd cheering) NARRATOR: These are the Seven Ages of Elvis.

(crowd cheering) DAVE: It was a tragedy but it was a success, and Shakespearean indeed.

(crowd cheering) ♪ NARRATOR: It began in the town of Tupelo, Mississippi.

America was in the grip of the Great Depression.

PRES.

ROOSEVELT: The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

NARRATOR: But despite President Roosevelt's words, there was plenty to fear in a place like Mississippi.

Blacks feared lynching.

And everyone feared the hunger, the disease and the destitution that the Depression brought to the rural South.

♪ Tupelo is divided by a railroad track.

Gladys and Vernon Presley lived on the wrong side of the tracks on the edge of what was then known as the colored section of town.

Where poor whites and poor Blacks shared the same land and the same poverty.

DAVE: The thing that's most commonly underestimated about Elvis, because people can't imagine it unless they've seen it or experienced it in some fashion themselves is how poor they were.

He came from the poorest of the poor.

It's hard to think who else was that poor who is white.

NARRATOR: Even in the racially segregated South in some ways the Presleys were at the very bottom of the social order.

MICHAEL: I do think that, with respectable whites and even respectable African-Americans, people in the middle class, people who have perceived themselves in the middle class, whether it was in the Black community or the white community, they perceived the Presleys as- as- as- as white trash.

GUY: My name is Guy Harris and I grew up with Elvis Presley here in East Tupelo.

NARRATOR: Elvis Aaron Presley was born in this two-room shack in the early hours of the 8th of January 1935.

Elvis arrived shortly after his twin brother Jesse, who did not survive.

GUY: His brother was born dead, was stillborn, you know?

He was born, Jesse was born at four o'clock in the morning and he was stillborn, and my mom was in there, and the doctor was pulling off his gloves and things and Gladys said, "Fay," and Fay was my mother.

She said, "Don't let Dr. Hunt get out of here 'cause my stomach feels- still feels funny."

She had no idea she's having twins (laughs).

So, so Dr. Hunt got tuned up there and got to checking, and said, "I- I- I believe I do hear another heartbeat."

Well, at 4:30 here came ol' Elvis, bouncing around like a ball.

NARRATOR: The beginning of Elvis's route from rags to riches was literally around the corner.

MICHAEL: Elvis heard a lot of music there.

His mother said when they'd go to church, when Elvis was just a little baby, in her lap, he would basically get off her lap to start singing, and- and so very big into the church very early on.

GUY: It all started right then and there in that little white church over there.

They'd get to praying.

And some of the people they would talk in tongues and they'd shout at one aisle down the other one, I've seen that happen in that church by some of the ladies I knew from the neighborhood here, you know?

They'd take us kids and put us in the choir on a Sunday night.

Elvis put a lot more into it than we did.

He liked to sing that "Old Shep" to us kids.

♪ When I was a lad ♪ ♪ and old Shep was a pup ♪ NARRATOR: Elvis sang "Old Shep" in his first public performance in October of 1945 at the annual Mississippi Fair & Dairy Show.

He came 5th winning free tickets to all the rides, the first indication of the rewards his voice might bring.

♪ We grew up together that way ♪ ♪ Three years later, the Presleys left Tupelo.

They headed to the city of Memphis, Tennessee, where Elvis' horizons would expand massively.

MICHAEL: When Elvis and his family moved to Memphis, he's exposed to a whole lot of different things in terms of popular culture, in terms of the media.

There was a lot more happening in terms of people diverging from what they were supposed to be doing.

BLANCHE: I'm Blanche Jordan Scott and I met Elvis when we were around 13, 14 years old.

We're both from small towns in Mississippi.

And so, we ended up in Humes High School.

A young Elvis Presley, skinny little old boy, but still s- skin smooth as silk and really good looking, and H- he was just pretty.

He was all boy, all man.

We just, kind of, bonded with each other and we could talk and tell each other what was going on in our lives.

GEORGE: I met Elvis (coughs) 1948 at Humes High School.

He and I were in the same class, we were both 12 years old and we had a real tough music teacher.

Elvis raised his hand, he said, "Miss Mormon, can I bring my guitar to class and sing?"

It wasn't cool, in 1948, for a 12 year old to bring his guitar to school but he brought it and so, he sang and I said to myself, that kid's not bad.

He's not, for a 12 year old.

♪ ♪ He is my friend ♪ NARRATOR: The Presleys lived here in Lauderdale Court, a government housing project reserved for white families on the lowest incomes.

But Elvis began exploring the places other residents feared to tread.

MICHAEL: Elvis would go down to East Trigg Baptist Church, which was an African- America church.

This was not something that was ordinary, for whites to go into the Black church, but he was doing that.

So I think a lot of the musical influences came there, but at the same time it's maybe developing a sensitivity as well, a racial sensitivity that was unusual.

♪ NARRATOR: And Elvis was about to be introduced to another part of town where he most definitely should not be, Beale Street.

♪ Not only one of the most notorious streets in Memphis, but renowned throughout the South for its bars, brothels and juke joints.

BLANCHE: We were walking Beale.

The Black entertainers were getting up and performing.

And so, I got Elvis to go down there with me and they'd get up on our lunch hours now and we were the only white faces down there.

Some of them that I worked with they didn't like it.

But we didn't care.

You know we did our own thing.

(laughs) ♪ They were putting on a show, well, they were also wearing pink shirts and silk shirts and silk pants.

So anyway, he said, "Where are the guys finding these clothes?"

And I said, well, they're getting their- their clothes from Lansky's.

HAL: My name is Hal Lansky.

My dad, Bernard Lansky, sold Elvis his clothes in the '50s, and Elvis shopped with us from the '50s 'til all the way to his death.

So, we're known as "Clothier to the King."

♪ NARRATOR: When Elvis discovered Lansky's, it provided him with a distinctive look that became his trademark.

HAL: Elvis looked in the windows, he saw those red pants, he saw those green shirts, and he- he loved to come in and, how my dad met Elvis, he saw this young man looking in the window, and he said, "Young man, come on in.

Let me show you around."

And this young man looked up, and he said, "Mr. Lansky, I don't have any money, "but one of these days I'm gonna come in and buy you out."

And my dad, Mr. Lansky, said, "Young man, you don't have to buy me out, just buy from me."

NARRATOR: Lansky let young Elvis buy clothes on credit.

He'd go on buying here for the rest of his life.

HAL: In my opinion this is the most iconic Elvis jacket.

If you are an Elvis fan you know this jacket.

This is Elvis's coat he wore in the movie Jailhouse Rock.

Over my shoulders is a photo of me from the '50s, that's a young Elvis.

And if you notice those big ears, I finally grew into my ears, but, I was probably nine years old in that photo.

Right here we call this the Dorsey Brother's coat.

This is one of the early coats Elvis wore on the Dorsey Brother's Show.

And if you notice this beautiful shirt with it.

This is the outfit Elvis wore when he signed his contract with RCA records.

BLANCHE: I was with him when he bought a pink silk shirt.

because he wanted to be different.

Well see the other kids thought he was weird and they made fun of him, but I knew what he was doing.

MICHAEL: He wanted to stand out.

He wanted to stand out.

And importantly, I think, for Elvis, he was not restricted, it seems, by many of the rules of his society.

He was able to transcend them, because in many ways, he was trying to find himself.

GEORGE: We had the senior class talent show and I was a producer.

And so there was three or four guys on the front row, sitting next to me, the same guys who had been giving Elvis a hard time at school.

They were making fun of his clothes, making the fun of his sideburns, making fun of his hair but when he won that talent show that night, they jumped up on the chairs and they were screaming like crazy.

(claps) I said, "What's wrong with you guys?

"For two years you gave him a- "you- you gave him a hard time "and now you- you say you love him.

You playin' before, and you're on his side."

They said, "Well, man, GK, we didn't know he was going to be this good."

And so things started changing.

♪ NARRATOR: After graduating from high school in 1953, Elvis began visiting a local recording studio where his voice was brought to the attention of the owner, Sam Phillips.

JERRY: My name is Jerry Phillips and my father was Sam Phillips who discovered Elvis Presley.

♪ NARRATOR: Sam Phillips had already discovered some of the greatest blues singers in America, such as Howlin' Wolf and BB King, making him a magnet for aspiring singers in the region.

♪ Phillips owned one of the few studios in eight Southern states that opened its doors to Black musicians.

JERRY: I think his mission really was giving people that weren't ever gonna have a chance, poor whites, poor Blacks, a chance to do something.

He saw all this poverty and he saw all this unfairness in the r- race relations, and- and felt the great music of the fields, you know, of these tremendously fabulous Black artists.

His mission really was to give those people an opportunity and I think you can stop it right there and say that- and it was Black and white, poor Blacks, poor whites.

NARRATOR: Phillips booked Elvis into the studio, along with guitarist Scotty Moore and bass player Bill Black.

But the session did not go well, and looked like being fruitless.

GEORGE: They were trying to do this song that Sam had.

It was like a Dean Martin or Frankie Lane song.

And El- it just wasn't Elvis's cup of tea so Sam was going through his file to find the fellas another song.

Elvis and them were just in the studio goofing around.

So Sam opened the door to the control room and said, "What are you guys doing?"

Scotty said, "Well, Sam, we're just fooling around til you can find him another song."

Sam said, "Well, that fooling around sounds pretty dadgum good."

♪ Well that's all right, mama ♪ ♪ That's all right for you ♪ ♪ That's all right, mama ♪ ♪ Just any way you do ♪ ♪ That's all right ♪ JERRY: My dad brought the "That's Alright Mama" record home and played it and said that, "I think I've found what I've been looking for and this is gonna change our lives."

He was really excited to share that with my brother and I, and my mother.

♪ Well my mama she done told me ♪ ♪ Papa done told me too ♪ NARRATOR: But the unique sound that made the record so exciting also posed a problem for Phillips when he tried to get airplay on the segregated radio stations of the day.

JERRY: When you- my dad would take those records into a white radio station, they would say, "Man, this- this guy sounds too- too Black, you know, too rhythm and blues-y," whatever.

Then the Black stations would say, "Nah, this guy sounds too- too white," you know?

And they worked hard, they worked really hard to get anybody to even play the dang thing.

NARRATOR: His breakthrough came with a maverick Memphis DJ called Dewey Phillips.

Although Sam and Dewey were not related, they shared the same musical passion.

GEORGE: Dewey Phillips was the number-one disc jockey in Memphis at that time.

He was a white guy but he played African- American music and he played "That's Alright Mama."

And the phones lit up.

Kids started calling in.

"Man, play that song again by that Memphis boy."

DAVE: The night that Elvis comes to the radio station in Memphis to play "That's Alright Mama," the first thing that the DJ does is tell the audience the name of his high school 'cause the name of his high school tells a radio audience his race.

You always need to know that, it's still the South.

♪ NARRATOR: Less than two months previously the Supreme Court had ruled that segregated schools were illegal.

The prospect of integration provoked violent outrage.

And against this backdrop, Elvis's hybrid sound was not welcomed.

♪ JERRY: He told me stories about how him and Elvis, he took Elvis on some of these radio trips, you know, to meet these DJs and- and some of them wouldn't even let Elvis use the bathroom, they were so, they didn't like him because of what he was doing, they thought he was, you know, ruining their daughters with this Black music that he was, you know, promoting.

And they thought Elvis was like, you know, just like the Black dudes, man, you know?

And they didn't want their daughters and stuff to be listening to that kind of stuff.

NARRATOR: But Elvis's personal appearances were generating an extraordinary reaction.

GEORGE: The next thing you know, Sam had him booked on some little shows and Elvis started making some noise, you know, doing pretty good.

And, there was an opening of a shopping center and they had built a radio booth.

They wanted me to play the music during the day.

People would come and buy their clothes and visit the new shopping center and so, they booked Elvis for that night.

And the girls, everybody out there, they would come up and, "Play that Elvis record.

Play that Elvis record.

Elvis may come up here."

And, sure enough, here comes Elvis.

He winks at the girls and hugs them, and signs autographs for them and all, but I knew something's going to happen with this.

He's too good.

(crowd cheering) ♪ NARRATOR: His growing following earned him a weekly slot on one of the most popular country music shows on radio, the Louisiana Hayride.

Listeners got to not only hear Elvis, but also the wild audience reaction he generated.

D.J.

: I'm D.J.

Fontana, and I was Elvis' drummer from '55 to '68.

He was a good-looking guy.

I mean, he was handsome.

(laughs) So when he walked out, man it was- it was like thunder roaring, and then he got to singing, it got worse.

We knew it was coming.

You could feel it, you know, on stage, and you hear all these people screaming and hollering and, So we knew it was coming sooner or later, sooner or later he was gonna break wide open.

♪ NARRATOR: As Elvis's popularity grew, more white radio stations played his music, despite its R&B influences.

And it became clear that their young white listeners also wanted to hear Black artists like Chuck Berry and Little Richard.

It marked the gradual end of segregated airplay.

JERRY: That's one of the things that I'm not sure everybody knows that Sam Phillips and Elvis Presley did was bust down racial barriers like, I mean, they blew the hinges off of it, you know, as far as radio was concerned and exposure.

♪ NARRATOR: In August 1955, Elvis signed with a new manager, a canny country music promoter called Colonel Tom Parker.

He would engineer Elvis's meteoric rise, starting by getting him a contract with America's biggest major label, RCA Victor.

ELVIS: Um.

NARRATOR: His first single for RCA in January 1956 thrust him into the new medium of television.

ELVIS: It's called "Heartbreak Hotel."

(crowd cheering) NARRATOR: Elvis's career was about to go into orbit.

♪ Well since my baby left me ♪ ♪ Well I found a new place to dwell ♪ ♪ Well it's down at the end of Lonely Street ♪ ♪ At Heartbreak Hotel ♪ ♪ I've been so lonely, baby ♪ ♪ Well I'm so lonely ♪ ♪ I've been so lonely I could die ♪ HAL: My dad saw him on that show.

My dad said, "Oh, my God, this guy's dynamite."

And at that time, he- he knew the sky was the limit for Elvis.

♪ For broken hearted lovers ♪ ♪ To cry there in their gloom ♪ HAL: Before then, he was just a- a young local guy, doing a little traveling, singing.

But after you saw him on national TV, that changed everybody's mind.

(crowd cheering) ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: "Heartbreak Hotel" went straight to number one and stayed there for seven weeks.

D.J.

: They called it rock and roll, rockabilly, all kinds of names, but I don't know if we were any of those.

♪ So if your baby leaves you ♪ D.J.

: Scotty was blues, Bill was country, and I played what I played, whatever that was.

Oh, we were just playing what we wanted to play, and somehow or another it worked out okay.

♪ I've been so lonely, baby ♪ ♪ Really lonely ♪ NARRATOR: In 1956 Elvis would rack up five number-one singles and two number-one albums occupying the top of the charts for a total of 37 weeks of the year.

(crowd cheering) ♪ You ain't nothing but a hound dog ♪ NARRATOR: In July, Elvis' latest single "Hound Dog" became his fourth consecutive number one.

♪ Crying all the time ♪ NARRATOR: A song originally recorded by blues singer, Big Mama Thornton in 1952.

The song's writers, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller had mixed feelings about Elvis's cover version.

MIKE: My name is Mike Stoller.

I'm half of a song-writing team, Leiber and Stoller.

Jerry came running up to me.

He said, "Mike, we got a smash hit."

(laughs) And I said, you're kidding.

He said, "No.

'Hound Dog'."

I said, Big Mama Thornton?

He said, "No, some white kid named Elvis Presley."

That's how I first heard of Elvis.

♪ You ain't nothing but a hound dog ♪ ♪ Been snoopin' round my door ♪ MIKE: It was a little disappointing because it didn't have the feel that Big Mama's record had.

The original song is a woman's song.

It's a- a woman singing to a gigolo or a freeloader, and the version that Elvis finally did sounds like he's singing to a dog.

♪ Well they said you was high class ♪ ♪ Well that was just a lie ♪ MIKE: However, as it sold about seven- million singles, I decided there must be some merit to it.

MICHAEL: His version was not based on Big Mama Thornton's version.

His version was based on Freddie Bell and the Bellboys, who actually had done it in Las Vegas when Elvis appeared there the first time.

I think in April of 1956 they were a lounge act.

♪ You ain't nothing but a hound dog, hound dog ♪ ♪ Cryin' all the time ♪ MICHAEL: One of the things that often is used as a criticism is that Elvis stole music from African- American performers.

In this particular case, the integrity of the song wasn't in question because he was doing- he was almost verbatim, the Freddie Bell version, (laughs) and wasn't even, it wasn't even Big Mama's ver- version.

(crowd cheering) ♪ NARRATOR: Elvis's stage concerts were marked by levels of hysteria that had never been seen before.

And worse than that were Elvis's movements, quickly branded as lascivious and vulgar.

MIKE: He was accused, of course, of being dirty, right?

That had to do with a sexually suppressed white community, The fact that Elvis moving his hips created a furor, that indicates the suppression.

(laughs) DAVE: Well, first of all you live- you're- you're in a puritanical society, and you're in a judgmental society.

Respectable people, North and South, did not comport themselves in that fashion, respectable people did not shake their booty, respectable people definitely did not sh- shake their crotch.

(laughs) You know.

And, you know, and his hair was too long.

BLANCHE: He told me how upset and crushed he was that they thought that he was vulgar in the way he was moving.

And he said, "I'm just feeling the music."

And he said, "You know I'd never do that and embarrass my mom."

I said, "Elvis, don't let anybody change you.

You keep moving the way you're moving."

♪ Down to the corner♪ ♪ Pick up my sweetie pie ♪ ♪ She's my rock and roll baby ♪ ♪ She's the apple of my eye ♪ (crowd cheering) ♪ Ready, ready, ready, I'm ready ♪ ♪ Ready, ready, ready, I'm ready ♪ ♪ Ready, ready, ready ♪ ♪ I'm ready ready ready to rock and roll ♪ ♪ Got the flat-top cats and the dungaree dogs ♪ ♪ Are headed for the gym to the sock hop ball ♪ ♪ The joint's really jumping ♪ ♪ The cats are going wild ♪ ♪ The music really sends me ♪ ♪ I dig that crazy style ♪ ♪ I'm ready, ready, ready, ready, I'm ready ♪ ♪ Ready, ready, ready, I'm ready ♪ ♪ Ready, ready, ready ♪ ♪ I'm ready, ready, ready to rock and roll ♪ (crowd cheering) ♪ MICHAEL: I think Elvis knew exactly what he was doing.

♪ When he shook a leg and he saw someone in the audience start s- squealing, he'd shake it a little bit more.

For many people that was liberating in terms of how the young women reacted and almost found their own selves and their own sexuality by what Elvis was doing on stage.

NARRATOR: Elvis's sex appeal was about to hit Hollywood.

Despite what his movie career would later become in the '60s, at this stage he was seen as raw and rebellious, and a relatively unknown quantity.

DOLORES: I'm Dolores Hart, Mother Dolores Hart now, but then I starred in two films with Mr. Elvis Presley.

NARRATOR: Today she's a Benedictine nun, but in 1957 she was an 18-year-old actress making her screen debut alongside Elvis in Loving You.

DOLORES: I had no idea who he was or what he did.

He was introduced, and I said, how do you do, Mr. Presley?

And he said, "Miss Dolores, I'm very glad to know you."

And then I made the stupidest remark.

(laughs) I said, "Well you're in the film.

What do you do?"

(laughs) And he said, "Oh, I sing."

(laughs) ♪ Chain around my neck ♪ ♪ And lead me anywhere ♪ ♪ Oh let me be ♪ NARRATOR: Loving You brought Elvis's live stage act to the big screen for the very first time.

ANNOUNCER: Follow him through the barnstorming days.

DOLORES: When I watched him on stage, he was riveting to observe.

I couldn't take my eyes off him, when he was singing, I had the feeling that he brought, to the entertainment industry, the maleness of sexuality.

And he did it like a guy standing on a bed.

I mean, you just felt he was electric.

He was a lover in his- what he did.

And he expressed it in his body.

♪ The warden threw a party in the county jail ♪ ♪ The prison band was there and they began to wail ♪ ♪ The band was jumpin' and the joint began to swing ♪ ♪ You should've heard those knocked out ♪ ♪ Jailbirds sing ♪ ♪ Let's rock ♪ ♪ Everybody, let's rock ♪ NARRATOR: As a singing convict in Jailhouse Rock, he had critics calling him the next James Dean.

It placed Elvis at his pinnacle.

ANNOUNCER: Vince Everett dynamically portrayed by Elvis Presley- NARRATOR: Movie stardom, global fame, and riches he could never have dreamed of.

And he lavished those riches on his mother.

DOLORES: I met his mother.

She began talking about how much she loved him, how much she appreciated what was happening, and she thanked me for being with him in the film.

He adored her, he loved her.

I mean, it was- it was clear in the room, I mean, I could tell that they were like this.

NARRATOR: He never bought a home for himself, instead he bought a bigger house to live in with his mother and father.

MICHAEL: He buys a home in Memphis on Audubon Park Drive, the people there were outraged, you have all these fans that are coming in and they're disrupting the neighborhood, but they're also upset because Gladys Presley is- is hanging out clothes on a line in the backyard.

Well, that's something that middle-class people in Memphis at this time apparently didn't do.

She wants to raise chickens, but you don't raise chickens in a- a upscale middle- class neighborhood, but Gladys Presley wanted to raise chickens.

NARRATOR: So he bought Graceland, a secluded mansion, where the neighbors could never complain, because there weren't any.

Wealth would never change Gladys.

And she would never stop worrying about Elvis.

GEORGE: Elvis loved his mother to death.

Whatever she said was rules.

If she said, "Elvis, we be traveling."

We'll come home, he'd pick up a girl from Hollywood, like Natalie Wood, who had been a big star, and other girls and Mrs. Presley would say, "Elvis," the next morning, she'd say, "Elvis, "that girl you brought home from Hollywood.

"I don't think she's your type.

I think you ought to send her back to Hollywood."

She'd be gone, back to Hollywood.

She'd pull me aside and she'd say, "George," she'd say, "You watch out for my son.

"I love him.

"He loves me.

Make sure nothing goes wro- goes crazy."

NARRATOR: Elvis would look back on 1958 as the summit of his career.

But Colonel Parker, the manager who'd steered his path, insisted on total control, even at the expense of some of Elvis's closest collaborators.

Including the writing team who'd written more hits for Elvis than anyone else, Leiber and Stoller.

MIKE: You know, we got in a fight with the Colonel.

Elvis said to me, and I remember, it was a- a Friday afternoon, he said, "Mike, I want you and Jerry "to write me a real pretty ballad, you know?"

You got it.

I called Jerry, Saturday we wrote a song, I got the demo, and I handed it to Elvis, and he loved it.

♪ Don't ♪ ♪ Don't ♪ ♪ Don't ♪ MIKE: The song was "Don't," and he recorded it.

But nevertheless, it caused this tremendous uproar, because I had dared to present a song to Elvis directly without going through the proper channels.

The Colonel said, "If you ever dare try to interfere "in the career of Elvis Presley, "you will never work again in Hollywood, New York, London or anywhere."

And I said, "Tell him to go #*#*#*#* himself."

And (laughs) Jerry repeated, he said, "Mike said..." (laughs) And that kinda ended our relationship.

♪ Young dreams ♪ NARRATOR: Elvis's next movie, King Creole, gave him the finest dramatic role of his career, as a singing street hustler.

♪ And I'm longing to ♪ ♪ Share them all with you ♪ ANNOUNCER: There were to be many women in Danny's young life.

NARRATOR: His co-star was Dolores Hart.

ANNOUNCER: Nellie, who knew too little about love.

DOLORES: I've never been to a place like this before, but I wanna see you again.

DOLORES: At that time we couldn't go down on the street, because it was just packed with kids.

(crowd cheering) We got into the car to leave, and they could hardly move because they were just swarming to try to get near him.

I never imagined how anybody could live through that way.

And what's amazing to me is it never stopped.

It never stopped.

NARRATOR: But right at the peak of Elvis-mania, the life of the man dubbed the "Atomic Powered Singer" was about to undergo its greatest transition.

♪ At the height of his success, Elvis was drafted into the U.S. Army for two years of national service.

On March 24th 1958, Elvis reported for his induction.

Amongst the 11 other recruits was Bill Norvell.

BILL: I met Elvis down here in Memphis.

We were sworn in the same day.

MAN: I- ELVIS: I Elvis Presley- BILL: Elvis was teary that he was leaving his mother.

He- he loved his mother.

And I think she was really worried about him going in the Army, too.

'Cause she was crying when- when we got on the bus to go to Fort Chaffee.

ANNOUNCER: While in the Army in 1958, Elvis Presley will earn nearly two million dollars otherwise he will be like any other soldier.

♪ Almost.

♪ NARRATOR: Elvis had barely finished basic training when the event took place that would eclipse everything else in his Army career, the sudden death of his mother from heart failure.

GEORGE: I went to the airport with his daddy, to pick him up at the airport.

Immediately, we went to the hospital and we went in the next room and we sat with Elvis.

Elvis was in there crying.

Everybody was crying, man, we're trying to console Elvis, and, he kept saying, "George, I did this all for my mama.

"She wanted me to be a big star.

"And she wanted nice clothes "and wanted cars and a nice home, "so I did it for my mother.

Now she's gone, what am I going to do?"

BILL: He couldn't really grasp it, you know.

I guess 'cause, you know, he was a twin, and I guess she really, was really, you know, affectionate to him because she'd already lost one child.

DOLORES: He adored her, he loved her.

So when I heard that she died, I knew he was going through tortures of hell.

BILL: Oh, they was real close.

They was real close.

Yeah, he took it real hard.

He never got over that.

He never got over that.

NARRATOR: Just 10 days after his mother's funeral, Elvis had to return to active service.

GEORGE: Things had calmed down and Elvis well he had to go back to the Army and, he didn't want to go but he went anyway and, I said, "Elvis, is it real tough?"

He said, "Yeah, but I'm sticking it out," he said, "I'm serving my country.

"If I don't the people are gonna think bad of me, and I love America."

(clears throat) He said, "So I've got to stick out the two years."

♪ NARRATOR: Assigned to 3rd Armored Division, Elvis's unit was posted to Germany.

ELVIS: In the six months I've been in the Army, I've learned quite a bit.

Believe me.

INTERVIEWER: Well do you mi- do you miss the hysterical females, the- the adulation you got wherever you went?

ELVIS: Yes sir.

INTERVIEWER: I'm sure you don't- you don't get that in the barracks.

ELVIS: I certainly do.

I- I miss it INTERVIEWER: You do miss that?

Even- even those who grab your clothes and your hair and everything?

ELVIS: Because that- it's my- it's my greatest love, Like I said, entertaining people.

You know, I really miss it.

(explosion booming) NARRATOR: When Elvis disembarked in Germany, he was entering the front line of America's Cold War with the Soviet Union.

(gun firing) The nuclear arms race between the two super powers was escalating.

And Germany was split in two by the conflict.

With East Germany occupied by Soviet troops, America's Army on the Rhine was a thin green line protecting West Germany against the ever-present threat of Communist invasion.

BILL: We had the Cold War going on.

We had a serious situation.

The Russians were headed to taking over Poland and taking over Czechoslovakia and we used to go pull border guard on Czechoslovakia.

That's what we was over for, to stop the Russians if they ever s- come across the border.

We carried fully- loaded ammunition.

We carried loaded pistols.

And we didn't know when we went out if we was gonna be coming back.

♪ NARRATOR: But in March 1960, Elvis finally did come back, having completed his national service.

On his first day back at Graceland, he seemed keen to make it clear that his days of youthful rebellion were behind him.

INTERVIEWER: Do you have any advice for the boys your age who are now going to have to put in a certain amount of duty with- in the service?

ELVIS: The only thing I can say is to- to play it straight and- and- and do your best because you can't fight 'em.

(man laughs) GEORGE: He was more mature.

He was more conscious of what was happening in the world at that time.

He was the same old Elvis but he was a lot maturer- more mature.

NARRATOR: But could he rebuild his career after two long years away?

That was the question on everyone's lips, including his own.

D.J.

: He was worried about it.

He was worried about himself, would he come back and be the same guy, or the same artist that he was before?

And we kept saying, "Elvis, don't worry about it, you'll- you'll do good, you always do."

♪ NARRATOR: Elvis took comfort from the fact that the Colonel had a plan, trading on his Army service to rebrand Elvis as a symbol of mainstream American values: patriotic, wholesome and clean cut.

The subversive rebel of song who enlisted in 1958, was returning in 1960 as the boy next door in uniform.

♪ Stage one of Elvis's rehabilitation into show business was an appearance on The Frank Sinatra Show.

FRANK: We work in the same way only in different areas.

(audience laughing) ♪ Love me tender, love me sweet ♪ ♪ Never let me go ♪ NARRATOR: Sinatra made "Love Me Tender" sound bland.

Elvis made "Witchcraft" sound like his own... ♪ Fingers in my hair ♪ (crowd cheering) ♪ Sly come hither stare ♪ ♪ That strips my conscious bare ♪ ♪ It's witchcraft ♪ ♪ Love me tender ♪ NARRATOR: At this point Elvis had out-Sinatra'd Sinatra.

It was a moment that set the tone for Elvis's decade.

♪ I love you and I always will ♪ (crowd cheering) ♪ It's now or never ♪ ♪ Come hold me tight ♪ NARRATOR: The toned-down, tamer Elvis was a success, his first four singles after leaving the Army were what we'd now call power ballads, all them were number-one hits.

♪ My love won't wait ♪ NARRATOR: Then in 1961, Elvis made Blue Hawaii, the film that ruined him.

♪ Long way from the beach ♪ ♪ Take off your shoes Put down your hair ♪ ♪ Turn on the music and we'll get somewhere ♪ ♪ Dance, dance, dance, 'til your nose gets tan ♪ NARRATOR: This was the daddy of all Elvis movies.

A comedy musical packed with 14 songs.

And it was a box- office sensation, with the accompanying soundtrack spending 20 weeks at the top of the album charts.

♪ Blue Hawaii clinched the formula for the rest of Elvis's film career.

MAC: Having seen a few of his scripts and having written some songs myself for some of those movies, it was pretty much Elvis meets girl, Elvis sings.

Elvis meets girl's ex-boyfriend, Elvis fights, and Elvis gets back with girl, Elvis sings.

♪ Girls ♪ ♪ In bikinis ♪ ♪ Girls ♪ ♪ A walkin' and wigglin' by, yay, yay, yay ♪ NARRATOR: It was a formula that kept on working.

♪ Oh, what peaches ♪ ♪ So pretty, lord I could cry ♪ The only real variation apart from the locations, was the quantity of girls.

♪ Girls, girls ♪ Above all the movies were vehicles for a conveyor belt of chart-topping hits like "Return To Sender."

♪ ♪ Return to sender ♪ ♪ Return to sender ♪ ♪ I gave a letter to the postman ♪ ♪ He put it in his bag ♪ ♪ Bright and early next morning ♪ ♪ He brought my letter back ♪ LARRY: My name is Larry Geller.

I was Elvis's personal hairstylist.

I made 11 movies with Elvis.

And every movie that we made, I altered his hair just a little bit.

In one movie, I made his sideburns a little longer, another, the pompadour fell on this side a little bit, and this side this came up a little, I always made it just to fit the character.

Even though the character was the same, I had to do something.

(hands slap legs) Who gave a damn about the movies?

They wanted to see Elvis.

He was the biggest star that ever lived.

Ever.

Who sold more records and albums than Elvis Presley?

The highest paid actor in Hollywood?

Who's the most photographed person ever?

Elvis Presley.

♪ NARRATOR: The new happy-go-lucky Elvis image also captured the spirit of the times.

It was an era of unparalleled prosperity and progress in America, of Martin Luther King's Dream and JFK's New Frontier, an idyllic time of optimism before the rot set in.

♪ The Colonel's asking price for his superstar was now one million dollars per film, making Elvis the highest paid actor in the history of Hollywood.

For the rest of the decade, Elvis would average three movies a year.

There was just one problem, Elvis hated making them.

LARRY: Elvis said to me, he said, "Look, I want you to know something, those movies "they are embarrassing the hell out of me.

"What am I doing, man?

"I'm making these teeny-bopper movies "one after another.

"It's the same old flick.

"All they do is change the character's name.

"I'm making the same movie over and over and over again."

♪ No room to rhumba in a sports car ♪ NARRATOR: And there was another problem, the songs were becoming awful.

Titles like "No Room to Rhumba in a Sports Car" and "Queenie Wahine's Papaya" spoke for themselves.

The songs were as bad as the titles.

♪ Queenie Wahine's papaya rates higher ♪ ♪ Than pineapple, pumpkin or poi ♪ Most of the soundtrack recordings took place at RCA Studio B in Nashville, Tennessee, where Elvis assembled some of the finest musicians of the era, to record some of the worst songs ever written.

D.J.

: The songs were bad and we knew it, he knew it.

We couldn't do nothing- nothing about it, so we had to do the best we could.

That's what he told us.

He said, "Boys, these songs are no good, but do the best you can with them."

NARRATOR: Charlie McCoy had just finished working on Bob Dylan's Blonde On Blonde album when he was booked with Elvis for one of his worst soundtrack albums, Harum Scarum.

CHARLIE: I must say, I was disappointed in the songs for Harum Scarum, all the- as were everyone else, as was Elvis.

INTERVIEWER: Does anything stand out in your mind as being particularly bad?

CHARLIE: Uh, to be honest, I don't remember the music from Harum Scarum.

Frankie and Johnny I remember, because I had a big solo in Frankie and Johnny.

(laughs) INTERVIEWER: Is that the film that included the track "Petunia the Gardener's Daughter?"

CHARLIE: Yes, I think so.

Yeah, I know.

I know.

Same thought we had.

(laughs) ♪ I love Petunia the gardener's daughter ♪ INTERVIEWER: What was the worst song you ever played on with Elvis?

D.J.

: Oh, shoot.

(laughs) There was so many of them, I- I can't keep up with them.

♪ I'm as daffy as a daffodil ♪ NARRATOR: But Elvis's song choices were surprisingly limited.

Because the Colonel insisted that Elvis only record material that he controlled the publishing rights to.

DAVE: He was being given songs from the song mill that Colonel Parker was an associate of and they didn't care which ones he did as long as he did a certain number.

♪ NARRATOR: In 1965, for the very first time in Elvis's career he went a whole year without a number one record.

His sales were starting to slump dramatically.

America was undergoing rapid change by the mid-'60s, thrown into turmoil by the assassination of JFK, the Vietnam War and endless protests on the streets.

And musically a revolution had happened when The Beatles invaded America making Elvis seem increasingly outdated and irrelevant.

(crowd cheering) JERRY: I don't think he changed significantly but I think, you know, The Beatles had crashed the party, so to speak.

You know, the English Invasion.

And I do think that Elvis was a little worried about, you know, whether his career might be over.

♪ NARRATOR: The Beatles concert tours of the U.S. mirrored the impact Elvis had enjoyed in the 1950s, only more so.

After a personal audience with Muhammed Ali, The Beatles went to meet the man they had rendered a rock and roll relic.

LARRY: Everyone's introduced and the four Beatles, John, Paul, George and Ringo, sit on the floor like disciples in front of Elvis, and they're all- all cross-legged.

And they're all like this.

They're staring at Elvis.

And all of a sudden, Elvis said, (claps) "Hey, you guys are not gonna talk to me, I'm going to my bedroom," and everyone laughed, and it broke the ice.

♪ And all of a sudden John said, "Elvis, can I- can I play your guitar?"

And Paul said, "Elvis, can I play your..." Elvis said, "Yeah, man."

Elvis turns around, picks up his Martin, and they start jamming.

John started singing "Memphis Tennessee."

And they sang "Johnny B. Goode" and one or two others.

And I'm sitting there.

(exhaling) I can't be-, what?

Elvis, Paul, John.

I'm thinking, "Son of a bitch, I can't believe this."

This is history, this is beyond history.

Now, Colonel Parker was a control freak.

He wouldn't allow even one photograph to be taken, let alone that music being recorded.

So, it's in my memory.

That's it.

♪ NARRATOR: In the wake of The Beatles visit, Elvis's career continued to plummet.

His movies stopped making money and his songs stopped making the charts.

Then during 1967, the lowest-achieving year of his career, the unthinkable happened.

ANNOUNCER: Elvis Presley weds Priscilla Ann Beaulieu and one of America's richest teenage singing idols promises to love, honor and obey.

♪ NARRATOR: At the beginning of 1968, Elvis and Priscilla's daughter, Lisa Marie was born.

With his last soundtrack album peaking at number 82 in the charts, Elvis's career was facing make or break as he began filming his 28th movie.

CELESTE: My name is Celeste Yarnall, and I co-starred with Elvis in Live a Little, Love a Little.

NARRATOR: The production got off to a promising start, when Elvis discovered she'd recently appeared in one of his favorite TV shows.

CELESTE: He gave me the biggest hug, and he said, "I just couldn't wait to meet you.

"I knew you were coming.

"And I know you from Star Trek."

Elvis was a Star Trek fan.

He even had a horse named Star Trek.

We became very, very dear friends and very close very quickly.

Here's this great opportunity that I'm working with Elvis Presley and I'm at MGM and I'm, you know, doing this fun, wonderful movie, and here this tragedy is unfolding.

♪ NARRATOR: While they were filming, news reached the set that Martin Luther King had been shot dead, in Elvis's home town of Memphis.

Gunned down by a sniper on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, just a stone's throw from Beale Street where Elvis used to hang out as a teenager.

♪ CELESTE: Elvis's reaction to the assassination of MLK was huge.

He was devastated.

Elvis said to me, "You know, Celeste, "this is where I grew up, these are my people.

"This is my community and look what's happened, and I can't do anything about it."

♪ It was coming up on lunchtime and he said, "Celeste, "the MLK funeral's gonna be on, and I wanna watch it with you."

(exhales) I thought, "Oh, boy."

So, we went, you know, to his dressing room and we ordered lunch there, and the funeral was on and Elvis just said, "I can't take it," and he stood up a capella and sang "Amazing Grace."

♪ Performance of a lifetime that nobody got to see but me.

You know, it's like, I just flashback and I'm there, it was, you know, to see Elvis Presley just break down after that.

He sang the song and then he sobbed in my arms.

Elvis was aghast at how anything like this could happen in America.

♪ NARRATOR: While he was filming, Elvis was also preparing to appear on a TV special, for which a song had been composed that gave vent to his feelings.

♪ ♪ There must be light burning brighter ♪ ♪ Somewhere ♪ STEVE: My name is Steve Binder.

I'm probably professionally best-known as the producer and director of the Elvis Presley Special.

NARRATOR: Just before Elvis recorded the song another tragic event had rocked America.

STEVE: We happened to be together one night at my offices when Bobby Kennedy was assassinated.

And then we spent the whole evening until about maybe three, four in the morning talking about what's going on in America.

What are all these assassinations about?

What's happening to our country.

I think there'd be a lot of rednecks in America shocked about how liberal Elvis really was.

♪ If I can dream of a better land ♪ ♪ Where all my brothers walk hand in hand ♪ ♪ Tell me why, oh why ♪ ♪ Oh why can't my dream come true ♪ NARRATOR: Later known as the Comeback Special, this would be the watershed moment of Elvis's career.

And it came about because the Colonel's movie deals had dried up.

So instead he landed a TV deal for a Christmas music special.

BONES: My name is Bones Howe, and I was a co-producer of the Elvis Comeback Special.

NARRATOR: The Colonel set his heart on a traditional festive show, full of cozy Christmas carols.

But Binder and Howe planned something very different.

BONES: One of the things that I thought was important was, and Steve and I talked about this, we thought the music would be the thing that would make him feel, you know, get the old feel going again.

STEVE: I knew I didn't wanna do any- any Christmas show of just having an artist sing, you know, "Sleigh Bells" and- and, you know, "I'll Be Home for Christmas" and things like that.

NARRATOR: A meeting with Elvis would now decide the show's fate.

STEVE: When we first met, one of the first things he asked me, he said, "What do you think of my career?"

Well, I was in the music business at the time, with- with Bones, and I said, "Elvis, I- I truthfully, I think your career is in the toilet."

(laughs) He looked at me for a second in shock, and then he started laughing out loud.

He said, "Finally, "somebody's leveling with me."

♪ NARRATOR: Instead of the Colonel's traditional Christmas theme, the show was populated with new songs and edgy themes.

But the core of the show was to be an acoustic jam session on a small stage in front of a live studio audience.

It was a daring proposition.

Elvis had not performed live for over seven years.

CELESTE: Elvis was so worried that he'd lost his fan base.

It's something he talked about all the time, and he would turn to me and he'd say, "Celeste, do you think they'll really still remember me?"

There was a lot of fear coming from him at that time as to whether he still had it.

NARRATOR: On the day of recording, Elvis dropped a bombshell.

STEVE: I go to the make-up room, and he said, "Steve, I hate to do this to you, but I've changed my mind."

I said, "What do you mean, you changed your mind?"

He said, "I can't do it.

I can't go out there."

I could tell he was- he was scared to death.

He was panicked and decided that he wasn't going to do it.

BONES: The idea of getting up on stage again with a live audience, he hadn't been in that position for years, and he didn't know if they were gonna laugh at him or throw things at him.

STEVE: I turned my back on Elvis and I said, you know, "You've got to go out there."

I left the room not looking at him, not waiting for a response.

I head to the control booth not knowing whether he's going to come out or not.

All of a sudden, on one of my camera's monitors, I see him walking up to the stage.

(audience applauding) NARRATOR: Elvis was about to dig deep and go back to his roots ELVIS: The very first thing... was an old rhythm and blues-type song and if I fall asleep here, I'm just kidding.

It was an old rhythm and blues-type song called "That's Alright, Little Mama."

And we only had two or three inst- instruments at the time.

And... (laughs) Where you at?

(audience member giggles) (guitar strums) We had a guitar, a bass, and another guitar.

And it went like this.

♪ ♪ Well that's all right, mama ♪ ♪ That's all right with you ♪ ♪ That's all right, mama ♪ ♪ Just anyway you do ♪ ♪ That's all right ♪ BONES: He started singing, in two seconds he had them all, you know, in the palm of his hand, and he knew it.

It was the old Elvis back again, ♪ Mama, she done told me ♪ ♪ Papa done told me too ♪ ♪ Son that gal you're fooling with ♪ ♪ She ain't no good for you ♪ ♪ That's all right ♪ ♪ That's all right ♪ ♪ That's all right, now mama ♪ ♪ Anyway you do ♪ NARRATOR: After years of movie hype, here was a man rediscovering himself in the simplest of settings.

Drummer D.J.

Fontana didn't even have space for a drum kit.

D.J.

: I had a box and a pair of sticks, and that's what I beat on.

He was nervous.

He didn't want to go there and jeopardize his voice and everything else, but he did it, and did a good job.

That brought him back to life again.

STEVE: I'm ecstatic.

I mean, it was like looking through a- a door keyhole, and you're not supposed to see what's going on inside.

I'm thinking, this is phenomenal.

MAN: What?

♪ ELVIS: Dead serious.

(whistling) STEVE: Nobody had ever seen Elvis Presley as Elvis Presley.

They'd only seen this public relations, you know, image.

♪ Do you miss me tonight ♪ ♪ Are you sorry we drifted ♪ ELVIS: My lip still does that, man, you know?

(audience laughs) STEVE: He did two hours, at the end I w- I was laughing, like Vaudeville, let's get the hook, you know, and get him off the stage.

He was having such a ball.

(Elvis vocalizing) ELVIS: I wonder if you're out somewhere.

(laughs) ♪ ♪ Are you sorry we drifted ♪ NARRATOR: With the show recorded there was, however, a major problem.

The Colonel, angry at having been defied, was refusing to allow the show to be broadcast.

STEVE: He said, "It's been called," very serious, "It's been called to my attention "that you've not scheduled "any Christmas songs in the show.

Is that true?"

And I said, "Yeah, it's true."

(laughs) He said, "Well, we're not going to do the show unless you have a Christmas song in it."

Then I remembered that Elvis had, kind of improvised, though I never told him to do it, to sing "Blue Christmas," or at least a short version of "Blue Christmas."

ELVIS: My favorite Christmas song of all the ones I've recorded.

(crowd exclaiming) ♪ I'll have a blue Christmas without you ♪ STEVE: Once NBC heard that I had this "Blue Christmas" song in the improv, they turned to the Colonel and said, "Colonel, if we put that in, will that satisfy you, and we can broadcast the show?"

And he said, "Yes."

♪ And when those blue snowflakes ♪ STEVE: You could kind of hear him goofing around and laughing, and at one point saying, "Sing it dirty, Elvis, sing it dirty."

♪ MAN: Aw, play it dirty, play it dirty.

♪ You'll be doing all right ♪ ♪ In your Christmas of white ♪ ♪ But I'll have a blue ♪ ♪ Blue, blue, blue Christmas ♪ (crowd cheering) NARRATOR: Aired in December 1968, the TV special did the seemingly impossible, it resurrected Elvis's career.

Undoing the damage inflicted by eight years of movie soundtracks, it restored not only his record sales but, more importantly, his credibility.

STEVE: What he told me is that, "After we finish the special, "I'm never going to sing a song again "that I don't believe in, and I'm never going to make a movie that I don't like the script."

I don't think anybody, to this day, has made a comeback like him, ever.

NARRATOR: It's shocking to think that at the moment of his greatest triumph, clad in black and seemingly with the world at his feet, Elvis had only nine years left to live.

DAVE: The TV special in '68 was a rebellion.

He went out, he took the challenges, he accepted them and he triumphed.

And I think that's- that's the thing is, that is the moment at which the adult Elvis is seen kind of whole, as whole as he got.

And then it's back to paying the bills, you know, it's just about like that.

♪ NARRATOR: Finally free of his film obligations, Elvis could return to the thing he loved best, live concerts.

Having not toured since before he entered the Army in 1958, he was about to return to the stage.

♪ In Las Vegas, a new hotel was opening.

The Hilton International was the largest hotel ever built.

And the Colonel had signed him up to perform two shows a day for four weeks for a record-breaking fee of $100,000 a week.

♪ JERRY: Went to the International Hotel, I think it was 1969, in Vegas to open out there but he was still worried about it because he...

He padded the audience, with the- He called us, my father, and said, "Look, I want you guys to come out, you know, be in the audience, and he- a lot of his friends were in the audience, 'cause he- he really didn't know exactly how he was going to be accepted.

MAC: The publicity was amazing, the PR, that h- that town was- it was li- almost like a heavyweight championship, you know, Las Vegas transformed when there was a heavyweight championship, people dressed differently and a different kind of crowd showed up.

This was where Elvis had always been a, an artist of the people and the little guy and all- all of the sudden it was, you know, it was a tough ticket and you had to have some cash to get in there and get a good seat.

NARRATOR: Elvis had previously played live with a three-piece band.

But now he'd be by backed by a completely new lineup of six musicians and nine backing singers along with a 30-piece orchestra.

JERRY: Elvis was worried.

He w- I mean, he was worried whether this was gonna really be great or not and my dad said, "Well, Elvis when you play with a big band like that, you make sure that rhythm section's right in there behind you.

You keep that rhythm section right up your ass," is basically what you told him, you know, and he did.

NARRATOR: 11 days after the first man set foot on the moon, Elvis stepped out on the stage for his first show in Vegas.

♪ JERRY: I just remember he came backing out from the curtain with his band playing and the place just went crazy, and from that point on, you know, he had- he had everybody.

♪ ♪ Oh see, see see rider ♪ ♪ Oh, see what you have done ♪ MAC: It (exhales), I don't even know how to describe it.

The- these are grown women now as well as teenagers but it was like, you know, the zombie movie and everybody's crawling all over to get- to get to the top?

That's what it was like, it was these women were, like, totally changed from the persona that walked through the door into these desperately wanting to get a kiss or touch him.

DICK: My name is Dick Grob, I was Elvis Presley's bodyguard, chief of security for over 10 years.

When he played the Hilton here, you could almost watch women from the very back start running down the aisle, and they would jump on the tables at- right at the end and run down the length of the table to jump on the stage to try to get to Elvis.

NARRATOR: Elvis's Vegas performance became legendary.

His 56 shows in 28 days smashed the world record for concert attendance.

STEVE: He was every bit as good as when I worked with him on the special.

He was phenomenal.

He had this huge orchestra, he was having the time of his life.

I mean, it was- it was electric moment when you- the audience and the artist are fused into one.

I then went to try and see him backstage to congratulate him, and I hadn't seen him in a year or so, and I was not allowed to see him.

(laughs) I went to the artists' entrance and I was told he was unavailable, and, after I announced myself, so I figured, you know, that's the way it is, that's fine.

(audience applauding) ♪ ELVIS: What are you looking at now?

NARRATOR: In January 1970, Elvis returned to Las Vegas for his 2nd month-long booking, wearing the first of the one-piece jumpsuits that would become his trademark.

ELVIS: How many of you all there been down South too much?

I'm gonna tell you a little story so that you can understand what I'm talking about.

♪ Down there we have a plant that grows out in the woods, in the fields.

♪ It looks something like a turnip green.

Everybody calls it polk salad.

♪ And that's polk!

Salad.

Polk.

JERRY: I have to give him a lot of credit for reinventing himself, you know?

I saw those Vegas shows and they were- I mean, I gotta say they were good.

♪ Polk salad Annie ♪ ♪ The gators got your granny ♪ JERRY: Some of the jump suits I thought were pretty cool, you know what I mean?

I thought he looked, I thought he looked pretty good.

I don't see how you can be more successful in a jumpsuit than he was.

♪ NARRATOR: And we'd be seeing a lot more of those jumpsuits because the Colonel secured an extraordinary deal, even by Elvis standards, a million-dollar contract to play Vegas for two months a year, every year.

Leaving the rest of the year free for concert tours across America.

Because the public couldn't get enough of Elvis in a jumpsuit.

Soon he'd be playing up to 167 concerts a year and squeezing in studio sessions too.

NORBERT: I'm Norbert Putman, I played bass on 120 tracks with the greatest artist in the world, Elvis Presley.

NARRATOR: That summer, Putnam joined Elvis for the most prolific recording session of his career.

In just five nights Elvis would record 35 tracks, enough material for three albums and six singles.

NORBERT: Presley was, first of all, his- his physique, it was 1970, he was in flawless physical condition, and when he started he was so focused.

♪ One, two, three, four ♪ ♪ NORBERT: "Patch it Up Baby," there's a killer bass part on "Patch it Up Baby," ♪ We got to patch it up baby ♪ ♪ Before we fall apart at the seams ♪ NORBERT: He would learn that song in two or three takes.

We'd literally play it through one time for the engineer and Elvis would say, "Let's do it.

Come on guys."

And then I'd watch him start to, sort of, (inhaling) he's taking deep breaths, it's almost like an athlete, like, "Give me the ball, I'll score."

He's pumping, he's saying, "Guys, we're going to nail this first take, come on."

He was intense, okay, and it was like, hang on.

And we're playing our parts and we're following his emotion, and it's a tremendous emotion.

First time through.

It's- he's phenomenal, (laughs) and he just- he just heard this song for the first time 10 minutes ago, ♪ Well bless my soul, what's wrong with me ♪ NARRATOR: But aged just 35, Elvis had reached a summit he would never occupy again.

In September, he was back in Vegas, and showing the first signs that two shows a day for four weeks straight was not the creative challenge he needed.

♪ Yeah, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh ♪ STEVE: I went back to see him in 1970, a year later and I- I knew it was over.

I sat there in the audience, the audience didn't know it, but I could tell he was now performing to the musicians behind him and not the audience in front of him.

So I knew he was bored.

I was so disappointed for him.

NARRATOR: Perhaps the realization was dawning that he would be performing eight weeks a year in Las Vegas for the rest of his life, selling his soul in Sin City.

Elvis had set a new benchmark for money-making in the world capital of greed.

And it would never let him go.

♪ Ticket sales alone were generating nearly half a million dollars a week, multiplied many times over by the cash spent on hotel rooms, food, drink, and, of course, gambling.

♪ 56 shows in Vegas, one day off, then a six-city tour, three weeks off, and then an eight-city tour.

And so on and so on.

(traffic sounds) No-one took much notice of the signs of erratic behavior, like buying $20,000 worth of guns in three days.

Or even the time in December when he turned up at the White House unannounced to see President Richard Nixon.

Nor was anyone alarmed when he produced a Colt 45 with silver bullets in the Oval Office and presented them as a gift.

After all, he was Elvis.

So, when he asked for a Federal Bureau of Narcotics badge, Nixon smiled and obliged.

♪ MIKE: He became a caricature of himself.

Yes, he could still sing, he sure could, but he became a caricature of himself on the Vegas stage with all the- the scarves and tossing them out to the- the sweaty scarves to the girls in the audience.

And even, you know, making fun of himself.

He could still sing, and people still, they loved him, and they- those of us who remembered him where- when he was the original Elvis remember him fondly, and, I guess that's why in spite of what, to me, was demeaning, on- on the Vegas stage, he still remains great.

♪ NARRATOR: Everything that followed blurred into a downward spiral of endless touring, perpetual Vegas shows, ill health, depression and pills.

His descent was rapid.

♪ When his marriage broke down, Elvis binged on more concert bookings.

Perhaps, like the pills and the food, they'd help him forget.

♪ And when he recorded new songs once or twice a year, the session musicians were alarmed by the change in his appearance.

♪ NORBERT: I watch him go from being in flawless physical condition to starting to gain a little weight.

When he- In '73, when he came into Stax Studio, he was wearing one of those jogging outfits that were popular back in those days, big bulky things, and he was a little puffy up here, you know.

And, and he just didn't seem to be as sharp mentally as he had been in the past, as focused, and then with each passing year, he was gaining weight, gaining weight.

♪ ♪ Maybe I didn't treat you ♪ ♪ Quite as good as I should have ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: Vegas Elvis became synonymous with maudlin, sentimental ballads about failed relationships, emotional pain and regret.

But wherever he went, the demand for tickets only grew.

In many ways, the specter of Elvis in decline was perfect for the times.

America's national esteem had been battered by defeat in Vietnam, the scandal of Watergate, unemployment and inflation.

'70s America, like Elvis, was feeling a little sorry for itself.

And Elvis provided the musical comfort food for the decade.

♪ In the middle of the worst economic recession since the 1930s, every show Elvis played was sold out.

DICK: His joy was performing for people.

Unfortunately, he was, like so many of us, he doesn't want to admit that he's incapable, and he would get sick, he would have constipation terribly, you know, and then the reverse of constipation would be- come in there too.

So, he would get sick on things and he'd go out on tour, and that necessarily caused some cancellations and things.

♪ NARRATOR: The spirit was willing but, increasingly, the performer was weak.

By 1975 he would cancel a quarter of all his bookings.

♪ When Elvis could no longer be persuaded to go to the recording studio, RCA took the studio to him.

Sound equipment was installed at Graceland.

Elvis's final two albums were recorded from the comfort of his living room.

♪ NORBERT: When he came downstairs, I hardly recognized Elvis Presley, he appeared to me to be 40-pounds, 50-pounds overweight, okay, puffy face, shallow complexion, and I remember thinking, (clears throat) someone has to do something.

Someone needs to look at this man, he's not healthy.

I just thought, perhaps, it was obesity, but we now know it was much more than that, it was obesity along with a ton of pharmaceuticals that he could obtain from a lot of different people.

NARRATOR: Yet he still toured relentlessly, right up until six weeks before his death, despite his ailing condition.

LARRY: He was getting puffy from his illness, and from his lifestyle.

Constantly working, and he wouldn't stop, he wouldn't stop, he wouldn't stop taking the pills.

And his eating habits, and he was just tired, he was getting- he was drained.

And he looks at me and he said, "Larry, I know what my fans probably think.

"That I'm just plain fat.

"And the truth of the matter is, "I'm embarrassed to go out there tonight.

"But you know what?

"I'm going to go out there, and I'm going "to give them everything I've got, if it's the last thing I do."

That's all he cared about.

♪ NARRATOR: On August 16th 1977 Elvis was due to set off on another tour, 10 cities in 12 days.

But at 2:33 that afternoon an ambulance arrived at Graceland.

DICK: I had been with him until 5:30 that morning, we had talked and then I- I went home.

I'd just gotten up, I was starting to pack when I got the call that he was on his way to hospital.

And I went down to the hospital and I was there when they finally said, "No, there's nothing we can do."

And they pronounced him.

♪ REPORTER: Good evening.

Elvis Presley died today.

He was 42, apparently it was a heart attack...' NORBERT: I turned on the radio, and I just sat there and cried like a baby.

I felt so guilty.

First- first feeling I had, besides great remorse, was guilt, that I hadn't done anything, and then, why didn't somebody do something?

MIKE: I had sublet my apartment to a guy, and I went up to get my mail.

And he said, "Your secretary called, "and I don't know why you'd be interested particularly, but she said to tell you that Elvis died."

Um... And it was like my knees almost buckled, I couldn't believe it.

NARRATOR: Elvis's father, Vernon, asked Larry Geller to go to the morgue as soon as the autopsy was complete to help prepare Elvis for the funeral.

LARRY: Elvis is lying on a table with a sheet up to here, and I didn't accept it.

I- I thought, no, no, no, no, no.

This is not real.

I see the incision marks in his body.

You know, I know that there's this- there's a cult- several cults that Elvis is still alive and it was all planned, and you know, this- it's- it's ridiculous and it's insensitive for people to re- I had to sit there and I had to take care of Elvis.

We know that Elvis Presley died.

I know it for sure.

I had to work on him.

NARRATOR: Within hours of Elvis's death being reported, thousands began to gather outside the gates of Graceland.

DICK: We had anywhere from 250,000 to 300,000 people out there, the weather was terrible, it was hot, it was humid, people were dropping.

Ultimately, I made the decision that we would bring people who were injured or sick from the heat and that in and lay them on the ground by the gate, and we had first aid people down there, ambulances down there.

We eventually had to call out the Air Force National Guard Unit for the people outside, you know.

That was the biggest problem, is crowd control.

LARRY: After the funeral, a few other people went to the back room where Elvis' body was in a casket.

And the funeral director said, "We have- I've gotta close it now."

And I made a decision.

I wanted to be the last person to touch Elvis.

(inhales) And I'm standing right next to Vernon, and I put my hand in on Elvis' forehead, and I said something.

I closed my eyes real quick and said something privately.

And I knew the lid was coming down and I pulled my hand out, (hand slaps) and that's the way it is.

STEVE: I don't remember wh- where I was or what my reaction is.

I do know that when the Colonel heard that Elvis died, everybody assumed he was rushing to Memphis.

He headed to New York to have a meeting with RCA to tell them to press a lot more records, (laughs) and then went to- to Memphis for the funeral.

MIKE: I remember the quote from the Colonel, it was in the papers that, "Elvis is gonna be bigger than ever, now."

(sighing) And it was ugly, I thought.

True as it may have been.

♪ NARRATOR: The death of Elvis is not the end of this story.

In merchandising terms, it's only the beginning.

For as soon as Elvis had passed away, he was worth even more money than he had ever been alive.

Elvis has sold three times as many records since his death as he did in his lifetime, the only singer totaling over a billion sales.

His home town of Memphis has become a virtual Elvis shrine.

HAL: It's like the clocks stopped in 1977.

A lot of us are benefiting from his death.

I don't know how many millions and millions of dollars a year, but people people from all over the world come to Memphis.

They wanna talk to people that knew Elvis.

They wanna walk on the streets that Elvis walked on.

They wanna shop in the stores Elvis shopped in.

Elvis is still- still our- our King around here.

♪ NARRATOR: But Dead Elvis is far more than a tourist attraction.

Most remarkable of all is his resurgent presence in the pop charts decades after his death.

♪ In 2002, Dutch DJ, Junkie XL's inspired remix transformed a 35- year-old Elvis song into an unlikely number-one hit.

♪ A little less conversation ♪ ♪ A little more action, please ♪ ♪ All this aggravation ain't satisfaction in me ♪ MAC: I suddenly went up street cred in my kids' eyes.

They said, "All the kids "at school are singing that, are you kidding?

You wrote that?"

I said, "Yeah, I did."

♪ Satisfy me baby ♪ MAC: Even after his death, he never lost his gleam.

I'm so grateful and so thankful that he did my stuff.

Wish he's still around, I'd like to shake his hand.

♪ Girl, girl, girl, you gonna set me on fire ♪ NARRATOR: But perhaps the strangest of all has been the phenomenon of Dead Elvis's live concerts.

Las Vegas, fittingly, led the way with the Cirque Du Soliel's Viva Elvis, a re-imagining of his music using performance footage.

♪ You light my morning sky ♪ ♪ Burning love ♪ It's a format that enabled his former backing band to go on the road, performing live music in front of Elvis singing on a giant screen.

Yes, even in death, Elvis is still on tour.

JERRY: That traveling show, where they've got the picture of him and the live orchestra, his- his whole band's playing to that.

I've been to that twice and, I mean, you- you get so mesmerized that you think Elvis is still alive.

And it- and it sells out to FedEx Forum in Memphis.

I mean, these- these big arenas, he's dead.

He's been dead since 1977 (laughs) but it's packed out man, packed out.

So that, you know, I don't feel- I don't know how you can explain that kind of- that kind of hold that he had on people, still has it.

NARRATOR: Sometimes it seems that Elvis is all around us, in 1977 there were 170 Elvis impersonators in the world.

Today there are 85,000.

At this rate by 2040, almost one in 10 of us will be Elvis.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ When no one else can understand me ♪ Teaming Elvis up with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra gave him yet another chart-topping album in 2015 plus his very first number one on the U.S.

Classical Chart.

DICK: I was just fortunate enough to be over in London at the O2 when they had the Elvis thing with the Royal Philharmonic there.

And I'm in this arena and I'm looking around, and there are 18,500 people in there to see Elvis, who's been dead for 40 years, almost, and they're all applauding, they're all cheering.

Now, why is that?

Because of his music, his ability, the life he led, that's the Elvis mystique.

♪ That's the wonder ♪ ♪ The wonder of you ♪ NARRATOR: But the real wonder of Elvis is the way he's become a shared cultural reference point across the generations.

STEVE: It's great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, their children and grandchildren.

It crosses all lines, all nationalities.

He's just special.

It's- you know, you can't define it.

It's- it's charisma and beyond charisma.

LARRY: Once a year, there's a candlelight vigil the night that Elvis passed.

August 16th.

They come from all around the world.

Who else on planet Earth has a candlelight vigil?

I mean, we're talking about something else here.

♪ NARRATOR: When he died, Elvis's estimated wealth was less than five million dollars.

Today his estate generates more than $50 million a year.

He's worth more than Frank Sinatra, John Lennon and David Bowie combined.

♪ DAVE: Well, the big mistake is to reduce his life to the money he made and to the fame he acquired.

He was a real person and we lose- that's what we're losing.

It was a tragedy but it was a success, and Shakespearean indeed.

♪ You know, Shakespearean indeed.

♪ NARRATOR: Perhaps in our post-modern world, Elvis is ultimately the ideal celebrity: a timeless icon who can never get old.

We can all aspire to his rags-to-riches rise and empathize with his tragic fall from grace.

♪ Maybe there's a little bit of Elvis in all of us.

♪ ♪ ANNOUNCER: This program is available with Passport because of your generous donation to your local PBS station.

Thank you.