9 Chapter 8 Elvis Flops

Chapter 8 Elvis Flops Elvis started making the same silly movies again, starting with G.I. Blues. Though he longed to make a great film, he played a singing lifeguard in Fun in Acapulco, a singing race-car driver in Spinout, and a singing doctor who falls in love with a nun in Change of Habit. Still, people kept buying tickets for Elvis Presley movies. The songs in the movies were good. There was "Can't Help Falling in Love" in a 1961 movie called Blue Hawaii. It remains a classic love ballad. The next year, he had another hit with "Return to Sender" from the movie Girls! Girls! Girls!

In real life, the only girl in his life was Priscilla. She and Elvis were reunited when she left Germany and came back to the United States.

The couple was married on May 1, 1967, at the Aladdin Hotel, in Las Vegas. Less than a year later, on February 1, 1968, their daughter Lisa Marie was born. But the happy times didn't last. Colonel Parker was working Elvis too hard. With an overloaded schedule, Elvis never had time for acting lessons. Sometimes he didn't start learning his lines until he was in the car driving to the movie set.

His movie schedule also prevented him from recording new music. There wasn't time to spend recording in a studio. And young people's tastes were changing. It was the 1960s. People were listening to Bob Dylan, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones. Folk singers were protesting the Vietnam War and racism. Then there was Elvis. He sang "Old MacDonald (Had a Farm)" in a terrible movie called Double Trouble. He seemed to belong to the past.

该页暂无翻译

Elvis's biggest fear was coming true. He was only thirty-two and no longer popular — not the way he had been before. People didn't take him seriously. Elvis felt trapped and jealous. When the Beatles came to his house to meet him, at first Elvis barely looked up at the younger musicians. He pretended to keep watching TV. In the end, they did "jam" together on a couple of songs. Elvis grew more and more depressed. All the work made it hard for him to get much rest. Once again, Elvis got in the habit of taking pills to stay awake. Then, when he needed rest, he took other pills to go to sleep. Elvis started staying up all night and then sleeping through the days. All the drugs made him puffy, and he started to gain weight. Worst of all, he and Priscilla, the wife he loved so much, started to argue a lot.