There was still six months to go before the world would get to experience the work Elvis and Steve Binder put into the comeback special. In the meantime, Elvis had two of his final three movie commitments to meet. First up was Charro!, a western with no on-screen singing performances (the only Elvis picture of its kind). Only two songs were recorded for the movie, but just one—the title-song—was heard by movie audiences (it played over the opening credits). The other, a throwaway ballad, “Let’s Forget About the Stars” was thrown away to a budget album.
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The film has its fans, and is often regarded as one of Elvis’ best “serious” acting performances. It made a modest profit too, much to the delight of its production company, National General Pictures (a small studio that only operated for twenty years from the early ’50s to early ’70s), but it failed to move the needle any more than any of his other recent films had done.
A week after recording for Charro!, Elvis was laying down half a dozen tracks for his final MGM/UA picture, The Trouble with Girls.
The film was originally intended to be an MGM production, Elvis-staring film a decade prior, but getting drafted put the kibosh on that. MGM revisited the project in 1965 with Dick Van Dyke intended to be the lead, but it fell apart and the rights were sold to Columbia…who sold them back to MGM after they couldn’t do anything with it either. After that, MGM decided to knock it off the books with Elvis, as they’d originally intended. A lot had changed between 1958 and 1968 however. A decade ago Elvis was on top of the world; now he was just starting to crawl back to respectability. A decade ago Elvis starring in the film would have commanded people’s attention; now the film was the second movie in a “double feature” at the drive-in, with The Green Slime (a B-movie horror flick) getting top billing.
Still, there’s a harmless charm to the movie and a sense of fun being had by the lead star that hadn’t been present in a great many years. Elvis was always a consummate professional but you could just tell when he wasn’t feeling a movie and when he was. There’s a twinkle in his eyes here that had been absent for the better part of half a decade. Maybe it’s because he gets to play an actual adult and not a man-child like in so many films. Maybe it’s just because he knows he’s almost done and he’ll soon never have to make another film again. Whatever it is, it’s nice to see that twinkle again.
Six soundtrack songs were enough for half an album, and there was plenty of studio material lying around to complete an LP, but once again no formal soundtrack album was released, mostly because only two of the six songs had any life in them, both of them quasi-Gospel songs befitting the Chautauqua theme of the movie. “Clean Up Your Own Backyard” is good enough in lyric, arrangement and delivery to pass as a late-sixties studio release, and “Swing Down Sweet Chariot” (a remake of the song featured in the 1960 Gospel album His Hand in Mine), illustrated how Elvis had evolved as a singer over the course of the decade, and how he could still cut loose when motivated.
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Other than that and maybe the too-short piano ballad “Almost” there’s nothing worth putting on an LP.
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“Clean Up Your Own Backyard” was released as a single and reached a respectable number-thirty-five, “Almost” landed on a budget album, “Swing Down Sweet Chariot” was released on a greatest hits album, Elvis: A Legendary Performer Volume 4 in 1983, and the rest never saw the light of day until 1993. It’s for the best, however: He was about to unleash a new look and a new face to the world and he didn’t need the albatross of his soundtrack material dragging him down.
The “Christmas” special, simply entitled “ELVIS” aired on Tuesday, December 3rd at 9:00pm EST. By the time the clocks struck 10, the world was stunned. Elvis had not looked this vibrant and enthused since the Louisiana Hay Ride. It was the first time he’d been seen on television since the 1960 special, but on that occasion, Elvis was decked out in a ratpack tuxedo acting suave and dapper. Here, clad in black leather, he swayed, smirked and strutted through every segment looking like the biggest star in the world. For that one hour, he was the biggest star in the world.
It would take a few weeks before record sales started to reflect the impact of the show, but once they did, it was noticeable. Elvis needed this comeback more than ever before. In 1960 he just needed a “return.” He needed to remind people that he was still around and not much had changed while he was in the Army. By 1968 he had slipped into obscurity. Now he needed to insist to people that he was back; he needed to force them to pay attention to him again.
And he did.
The success of the show led to an offer from Kirk Kerkorian of the International Hotel and Casino (later “The Hilton”), to have Elvis perform as a special attraction, live on stage, as a regular presence at the Hotel. It was a unique offer, unlike anything that had been tried with a musician of his great celebrity. With Hollywood nearly done with Elvis (and he nearly done with them), it was just the door of opportunity he’d been looking for to begin the next phase of his career.
But if he was going to do it, he’d need new music to accompany him.
