Timeline:
January 3: For the second time in his career, Elvis makes a formal complaint to RCA about the mastering of his latest single, in this case "Guitar Man," which has again been remixed in the process to bring Elvis' vocal way out front.January 12: NBC publicly announces Elvis' upcoming Christmas TV special, for which he will be paid $250,000. A unnamed film as part of the package will net the singer $850,000.
January 16: Jerry Reed returns for an Elvis recording session, and when the King wonders aloud about finding a good new song, Reed suggests his composition "U.S. Male," which is recorded on the spot. (For his "insolence" in pitching an outside song, Reed is later severely upbraided by the Colonel.)
February 1: Lisa Marie Presley is born at Memphis' Baptist Hospital at 5:01 p.m, as the proud papa -- in the custom of the times -- waits in the lounge. She weighs six pounds fifteen ounces, and is twenty inches long. Mother and daughter will remain in the hospital for four days, guarded by off-duty Memphis policemen.
February 6: Elvis grants power of attorney to his father, Vernon, should something happen to him.
February 25: For the first time, Elvis and his immediate family enter their new L.A. home, located at 1174 Hillcrest.
March 7: Elvis records a tune written by little-known songwriter Mac Davis called "A Little Less Conversation." Davis will go on to become a country-pop star in his own right in the 70s; "Conversation," a soundtrack item, will be nearly forgotten until an alternate recording is remixed and released as a single in 2001.
March 13: Elvis begins filming his twenty-eighth movie, Live A Little, Love A Little (wisely changed from its original title, Kiss My Firm But Pliant Lips, which was the book this film was based on). Racier and grittier than most Elvis fare, it features only four songs.
April 6: Elvis and Priscilla fly to Vegas and catch Tom Jones' show at the Flamingo; Elvis and Jones would go on to become good friends for the remainder of his life.
May 1: Elvis holds a small party at the new house to celebrate his and Priscilla's first anniversary. Meanwhile, during negotiations over the upcoming TV special, the Colonel agrees to NBC producer Bob Finkel's assertion that Elvis should instead perform many of his hit songs, and not just Christmas ones, during the broadcast.
May 14: At a private meeting with Finkel, Elvis declares that he'd like to use the upcoming special to prove himself once again to his audience.
May 17: Steve Binder is hired as director for the TV special. His credits include the legendary 1964 all-star rock broadcast The T.A.M.I. Show, the weekly rock revue Hullabaloo, and the infamous 1968 Petula Clark TV special Petula, which featured the white Clark touching the arm of the black Harry Belafonte, to the outrage of Chrysler, the show's sponsor.
May 25: Priscilla and Elvis attend a karate tournament in Hawaii, where they meet Mike Stone, a former champion. Priscilla will begin an affair with Stone in 1972 that will lead to her divorce.
June 6: Sen. Robert Kennedy, brother of JFK, is assassinated in Memphis. Elvis' sadness over this death and that of Martin Luther King affect Steve Binder to the effect that he begins thinking about composing a "socially conscious" song for the King to sing on his special.
June 11: NBC costume designer Bill Belew suggests the white "preacher" suit and skin-tight black leather suit Elvis will wear in the special. He also suggests Elvis wear the famous gold lame suit designed by Nudie Cohen and seen on the cover of the album 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong, but Presley, conscious of shedding his Hollywood image, agrees only to the jacket.
June 17: Elvis begins dance, vocal, and dialogue rehearsals for the TV special.
June 19: Having watched Elvis and his longtime band rehearse in their dressing rooms all week, Steve Binder decides to insert a similarly informal jam into the TV show. At first he decides to film the dressing room rehearsals themselves, then thinks better of it and decides to hold them in front of an audience, on the same stage Presley will be using for his more traditional "stand-up show."
June 21: Binder asks musical director Bones Howe to write that "socially conscious" song for Elvis' big closing number, which had been slated as the standard "I'll Be Home For Christmas." Howe writes the replacement song, "If I Can Dream," that afternoon; after hearing it a half-dozen times, Elvis agrees to end with it.
Next... Elvis 1968 timeline (continued)
