1957 brought more movies, more singles, more LPs and more fame. In January he made the aforementioned third appearance on the Ed Sullivan show, singing among other things, a spiritual number, “Peace in the Valley,” that he had just recorded and which would release around Easter of that year.
Two days after the show broke ratings records, the Presleys received word that Elvis had been classified as “1-A” and would probably be drafted within the next year. Parker and Elvis’s parents started discussing ways to keep Elvis out of serving but Elvis insisted that if he was drafted he would not dodge. He would not receive a draft notice until December, meaning a cloud hanged over all of 1957, a year which brought Elvis greater heights than any musician before him.
Some of his biggest hits and most famous movie roles were brought to life in this year, starting with “All Shook Up.” The Otis Blackwell pop number raced to #1 on both the Hot 100 and the R&B charts, and even though there wasn’t an ounce of country in it, Nashville loved the performer so much they helped propel his song to #3 on the Country charts. Songs for his next motion picture, Loving You, were also recorded in January, including the song that would transcend the film to become a signature tune, “Teddy Bear.” It too went to #1, as did the song “Too Much,” giving Elvis three chart-toppers within the first few months of the year.
Most interestingly, was a song made famous by blues singer Smiley Lewis in 1956, called “One Night of Sin.” The lyrics were explicit for the mid-’50s but no one noticed because the “black/blues” scene was not mainstream enough for it to matter. Elvis however, studied the black/blues scene like preachers study the Bible. He recorded a (slightly) more up-tempo version and intended it to be his next single.
The studio executives almost had a stroke when they heard it:
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The song was shelved and would go unreleased until 1983. Persistent, Elvis tweaked the lyrics to make them slightly more palatable for mainstream listeners and eventually saw the altered version released as a B-side in 1959. In concerts, however, Elvis would almost always sing the original version to sometimes-bewildered audience members.
Elvis spent the rest of January recording tracks for the “Loving You” soundtrack (which went unreleased until July, to tie-in with the film’s release). In the mid-’50s, LPs were not as common as they would be by the start of the next decade, and most rock and roll artists favored 45s because they were cheaper (a plus for the usually cash-strapped teenagers looking to buy them). Elvis was the first rock and roll superstar to embrace the long-play format. Tom Parker saw the potential in turning Elvis’s rabid fanbase into loyal LP buyers, despite the price hike compared to the 45s. For the first decade of Elvis’s career the gamble paid off and it made RCA a lot of money (which in turn made Elvis a lot of money when the time came to renegotiate his contract).
Though “Loving You” only featured a half-dozen songs, the rest of the album was filled out with studio cuts. As with Love Me Tender, the movie propelled the album to even greater success than his previous studio-only LP, “Elvis,” had achieved. It featured a heavy influence by the songwriting duo Leiber and Stoller, who would be retained to write the songs for Elvis’s next picture, “Jailhouse Rock.”
That movie featured Elvis playing a hotheaded kid convicted of accidental manslaughter. It wasn’t the serious dramatic roles the singer always coveted but it was better than anything he’d read thus far. He sunk his teeth into the role, memorizing not only his lines but the lines of everyone else in the movie. His drive spilled over into the music, giving the film perhaps the strongest soundtrack in Elvis’s library. The choreography and charisma on display in the climactic dance number ranks as one of rock and roll’s most perfectly realized moments. Years later the movie, which was originally hated by critics, was selected for preservation by the Library of Congress’ National Films Registry, on the grounds that it was “highly culturally significant.”
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As the whirlwind of 1957 drew to a close, Elvis did one more thing that had never been done before. He released the first rock and roll-themed Christmas album. Technically the LP only contained eight holiday songs (which were simultaneously released as two, four-track extended-play 45s); the album was rounded out with the inclusion of four Gospel songs that Elvis released that Spring. As with everything else Elvis did in 1957, the Christmas record (simply titled “Elvis’s Christmas Album”) faced controversy. Bing Crosby went on a crusade against Elvis’s rendition of “White Christmas,” demanding that DJs not give the song any airtime. He hated the pop-spin that Presley put to the 1942 song that he and Irving Berlin had turned into the best-selling single of all time (to this day).
Bing showed his ignorance here, as he was apparently unaware that the black group, The Drifters, had already released a pop version of the song two years previously. They even took the song to #2 on the R&B charts, two years in a row. Elvis’s version is clearly based on it, and not on Bing’s version.
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Crosby was successful at keeping Elvis’s White Christmas off the radio in 1957, but Presley had the last laugh. While Bing’s “White Christmas” single is still #1 with over 100 million copies sold, Elvis’s Christmas LP is the best selling holiday album of all time and today its tracks, particularly “Blue Christmas” and “White Christmas,” regularly receive air time every holiday season.
The album went gold (selling a million copies) almost immediately. It sold several million copies, both in its original form, and then in a reworked budget release later in the ’70s. The success of the 1957 version meant Elvis’s first four LPs (two in each of his first two years with RCA) all went to #1 (a record at the time). The studio which had gambled that the “fad” of rock and roll would produce big for them, at least in the short term, paid off handsomely.
Elvis had little time to celebrate his achievements, however, as he closed out the year preparing to shoot his next movie, King Creole. That’s when the cloud that had been lingering over his head all year long finally started to rain.
On December 20th Elvis received his notice that he was being drafted into the U.S. Army.
The life of fun and fame that he experienced in his first two years as a nationally-renowned superstar was about to change dramatically for the final two years of the decade.
