It was 61 years ago this Friday that Presley completed his two years within the army in Germany. The young star said goodbye to his future wife Priscilla and headed home to the USA to continue his Hollywood movie career.
However, The Beatles legends Lennon and McCartney felt Elvis was never been an equivalent again.
The Beatles had grown up in Liverpool taking note of Elvis’ 1950s hits from hound to Heartbreak Hotel.
In fact, the Fab Four are attributed as saying that without The King there would be no Elvis.
But when the star returned to the US after his time within the army, they felt his military service had “ruined” him.
According to Paul McCartney’s 1997 authorised biography, a few years From Now, the Beatle said: “I always thought [his time within the military] ruined Elvis.”
McCartney said: “We liked Elvis’ freedom as a trucker, as a man in jeans and swivelin’ hips.”
“But [we] didn’t like him with the short haircut within the army calling everyone ‘sir.'”
On Elvis’ post-army songs like Hard-Headed Woman, Paul said: “There’s a dreadful great big trombone right within the middle of it, and that we thought, ‘What in hell has happened?'
“It just seemed he’d gone establishment, and his records then weren’t so good.”
While in one among his final interviews, just two days before his death, Lennon also said the military was an enormous turning point for The King.
Lennon told BBC Radio 1: “When Elvis died, people were harassing me in Tokyo for a comment.
“Well I’ll provides it yer now, he died when he went within the army. Hat’s once they killed him. The remainder of it had been just a misery .”
The 40-year-old felt the experience was the equivalent of Elvis getting to a monastery to withdraw.
Lennon continued: “But [it wasn’t like] getting to a Zen monastery and getting to India to meditate.
“Or getting to Scotland and growing melons or something, whatever they’re doing up there therein place.”
Elvis Presley died on August 16, 1977, at the age of 42 and would be 86-years-old this year.
While just two days after giving this interview Lennon was murdered on Immaculate Conception , 1980.
The Beatles and Elvis famously met in 1965 when The King invited the Fab Four to his LA home during the time in his life when he was busy making plenty of Hollywood movies.
The story goes that The Beatles were speechless at seeing their idol that Elvis had to interrupt the ice by saying he’d need to attend bed if they didn’t ask him.
Luckily, The King’s charm worked and therefore the five young men ended up jamming together. Just imagine seeing that!
Both The Beatles and Elvis remain the foremost successful music artists of all time. The Fab Four are not any 1, but The King by himself is that the top solo artist.
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