In 1958, when the King of Rock and Roll was at the height of his career, he was forced to do military service. They were two low-key years, but his music continued to play on the radio and, when he returned, his fame was even greater.
There comes a time in a man's life when he must fulfill his civic duties. This is how Elvis Presley understood it when, at the end of 1957, he received a letter that summoned him to do mandatory military service. He was on the cusp, he had become the biggest star of his generation and he was the idol of the youth, but he decided to draft like a normal person. There were two years, between 1958 and 1960, in which the King of Rock took a break from his career to serve his country.
When Elvis turned 21 on January 8, 1956, he knew that he could be called up by the United States Armed Forces at any time. He finally received the notification around Christmas of the following year, but after requesting authorization from the Pentagon, he began training him only in March of '58 because he was committed to the production of the movie King Creole.
The initial intention of the army leadership was for the musician to be part of the so-called Special Forces and his function would consist mainly of giving shows for the soldiers, as the stars used to do at that time. He would only have to do six months of basic training and perform in front of the Marines when the government required him to. But his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, flatly refused. The shows that the artists did for the troops were recorded and sold to television channels and all the profits went to the army. Parker was not willing to let his client perform for free, let alone have a performance of hers televised without charging a dollar. No, Elvis was required to perform military service regularly without any special privileges.
Presley took the news with disgust but accepted the arguments of his manager, who saw the draft as a way to whitewash his image. Although Elvis was a role model for young people, adults saw him as a threat, a rebel who violated good morals with his hip movements, considered explicit and vulgar. Fulfilling his patriotic duty like any other person, the Colonel argued, he would be seen by all of society as a hero and would return to the stage with even greater popularity. On the other hand, having preferential treatment would increase the anger of American families, since it would not be fair that he, simply because he was famous, was not subjected to the same regime as the other boys his age.
What worried Elvis the most was what was going to happen to his career after two years in the army. He feared that his time out of the public sphere would ruin his success and that the rock and roll fad would disappear, or even worse, that the public would forget about him. He made sure that his role in King Creole was memorable so that he could resume acting upon his return, but he also recorded enough material to ensure that between 1958 and 1960 he always had a new song playing on the radio.
The King of Rock and Roll's entry into military service was made with great fanfare, although for his fans it was a hard blow. All the press was present when Elvis got on the bus that took him to Fort Chaffee, Arkansas, along with the rest of the recruits. There he received the classic military haircut in front of the cameras. Four days later he was transferred to Fort Hood, Texas, to complete his training in the tank division. The Armed Forces couldn't have Elvis to entertain the troops, but the photographers' tracking of his early days gave them unprecedented publicity.
In Fort Hood, the singer was allowed to settle in a house near the base with his entire family and go to the studio to record the songs that would be released in the following two years.
During her first months in the army, her mother Gladys's health deteriorated as she increased her alcohol intake due to the stress of her son's conscription. Alcoholism added to hepatitis, caused her death on August 14, 1958. He was only 46 years old. Elvis was devastated because he was the person he loved the most in his life. In fact, her first recordings were a gift to her, two songs that he recorded on acetate at the Sun Records studios, where he was discovered by Sam Phillips, the owner of the label who, shortly after hearing it, launched her career.
When he finished his training in the United States, he was transferred to the Third Armored Division (nicknamed the "spearhead") at Ray Barracks, located in Friedberg, West Germany. The transfer to the Old Continent was by boat and before setting sail the Colonel organized a farewell that included photographers, signing autographs, a band that instead of military marches sang the songs of the King, and a press conference with recruitment posters in the background that it would later be released on vinyl under the title of Elvis Sails.
In Germany, the musician was able to live outside the base, first in hotels and then in a house, together with his father, his grandmother, his bodyguards, and his secretary. A luxury that only a star of his caliber could afford. The fans flocked to each of the places where he lived. In the residence that he occupied in a small town near the base called Bad Nauheim, every day he signed autographs between 7:30 and 8 at night. Both that place and Friedberg today remember the stay of the King of rock and roll with allegorical traffic lights in which the famous figure of the Ampelmann used by many German cities was replaced by the silhouette of Elvis.
Under pressure from the RCA label, the Colonel sent him a recorder so that he could record some songs at home. The label was afraid of running out of material to edit and Parker refused to allow the musician to interrupt his duties to go to a studio. Presley recorded some versions of contemporary and classic gospel hits at his home in Bad Nauheim, but only a few were officially released in 1999 as The Home Recordings. Most are circulated as bootleg recordings.
In the army, Elvis fulfilled his tasks like any other and thanks to his good performance he became a sergeant. However, there he also sharpened his drug use. To the sedatives that he was taking, he added amphetamines that helped him endure fatigue and that he continued to consume after finishing his recruitment.
Not having to live in the barracks, the singer ate what he wanted, was able to buy sports cars, rent a piano, travel to Munich and Paris, see a Bill Haley & His Comets recital, go on countless dates, and attend parties. At one of them, held in his own home, he met Priscilla Beaulieu, who was a 14-year-old teenager at the time. She was the stepdaughter of a US Air Force officer who was on duty in the city of Wiesbaden, almost 70 kilometers from Bad Nauheim. Although Elvis continued dating other women, he maintained a special relationship with her that continued at a distance from her when he returned to his country.
After a couple of visits, Priscilla's parents allowed her daughter to move to the United States on the condition that she finish high school there and that she does not live with Elvis but in the home of his father and stepmother. musician. Despite this, the young woman spent a lot of time at the Graceland mansion in Memphis. They finally got married when she turned 21. The Colonel was one of those who pressured the marriage to take place since he feared that his client would be accused of having abused a minor and thus destroy her career.
Parker made sure that Elvis had everything ready for a triumphant return, in March 1960. The manager had already arranged everything for a new movie. The pre-production of G.I. Blues, which was released at the end of that year, was made in Germany, where director Norman Taurog filmed some scenes with Presley's double since he was only able to join the set after he finished his military service.
During those two years of absence, his songs did not stop playing. In fact, in that period, ten of them reached the top ten of the charts, such as "Hard Headed Woman" and "A Big Hunk O' Love." In addition, RCA released several compilations, including the successful Elvis' Golden Records and 50,000,000. Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong Less than a month after his arrival and he had already recorded a single, “Stuck On You”, a rock and roll that went straight to the top of the charts.
Almost simultaneously, the album Elvis Is Back! came out, which represented an evolution in his sound. Presley improved his singing techniques and dabbled in doo-wop and vocal pop, which was the music he dominated in those years before Beatlemania. Colonel Tom Parker had promised him that after the army he would be much more famous and he was not wrong: most of his best-selling singles belong to the years after this time, including "It's Now Or Never" and "Suspicious Minds". Presley already sensed that the first stage of rock and roll was coming to an end and with Elvis Is Back! He achieved a sophistication that attracted an adult public that no longer saw him as a criminal and would follow him until the end of his days, during which the King would dedicate himself fully to ballads.
In pop you can be at the top and from one moment to the next you can be completely forgotten. At that time, stars edited songs all the time so as not to disappear and make the most of their popularity. Colonel Parker's move to allow Elvis to do full military service and take two years away from the stage was risky, but it ended up paying off. He managed to keep his music alive during the singer's absence, he got the revolution he had caused in young people to cool down and brought him back to the entertainment industry as a national hero. His success continued until the mid-'60s, when the British Invasion, led by The Beatles, made it clear that the new style of the King of Rock belonged to a more conservative generation. Although the fire was out, Elvis Presley had finally conquered all of North America.
