They’ve now both been dead for longer than they were alive and both Elvis Presley and John Lennon had quite the connection.
The Beatles and The King are the highest-grossing music artists of all time, and together their stars start the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
But did you know that John Lennon was so influenced by Elvis that he felt there would be no Beatles without The King?
Of course, Elvis was famous before the Fab Four and ended up having a profound effect on the Liverpudlian group, especially Lennon.
The late Beatle once said: “Nothing affected me until I heard Elvis. Without Elvis, there would be no Beatles.”
When Elvis suddenly hit the UK charts in the mid-1950s it was Heartbreak Hotel, which The King recorded 68 years ago today, that captured the imagination of The Beatles.
According to The Beatles Story, McCartney said: “There was an advert for Heartbreak Hotel. Elvis looked so great: ‘That’s him, that’s him – the Messiah has arrived!’ Then when we heard the song, there was the proof. That was followed by his first album, which I still love the best of all his records. It was so fantastic we played it endlessly and tried to learn it all. Everything we did was based on that album.”
Yet it was Lennon who was particularly affected by Elvis’ talents in Heartbreak Hotel.
He once said: “When I heard [Heartbreak Hotel], it was the end for me. Once I heard it and got into it, that was life, there was no other thing. I thought of nothing else but rock ‘n’ roll.”
In the end, The Beatles eventually meet their idol, with Lennon being particularly nervous, as recounted by Priscilla Presley.
Priscilla Presley once said of the meeting in 1965 Los Angeles: “I was amazed at how shy they were. They were speechless. They were truly like kids meeting their idol, especially John Lennon. John was shy, timid, looking at him… I really believe that he just couldn’t believe that he was actually there with Elvis Presley. It was a little bit awkward because they just kept looking at him and not really saying anything and not really sitting down, just staring at him.”
In the end, The King had to break the ice by joking he’d have to go to bed if they just sat in silence. Luckily this worked a treat and rumour has it the five men ended up jamming together.
