Elvis really had a great ear for appreciating other great singers, even if they seemed far removed from his earlier singing style. I was already aware of his love for Roy Hamilton, Clyde McPhatter and Roy Orbison's amazing vocal talents, but I found this quote from that article in Record Collector Magazine pretty revealing: Drac, who worked as a salesman at Pop, recalls: “He’d call on the phone and tell me certain records he wanted for his jukebox. He liked Dean Martin, John Gary and Charlie Rich. I knew the people he liked, so I would tell him when they had a new single out. And he’d say, ‘I’ll take it.’ Then he had some albums that he had wanted to get to play on his record-player.” John Gary might have had the most beautiful voice in the world that I have ever heard besides Elvis's. He also had a vocal range of about 3 1/2 octaves. Gary would also use his experience as a skin diver to enhance his amazing breath control. Dean's voice was like velvet, and I think Elvis learned how to use the tender part of his voice by listening to his records. Rich captured the diversity and soulfulness that Elvis was drawn to since the very beginning of his career.
I just received word from the Shop Elvis people that shipping on some of the pre-orders of His Hand In Mine has been delayed for a couple of weeks. They say not to worry. Notice will be sent out and it'll be on the way soon.
From personal experience, “not to worry” from Shop Elvis translates to “expect to receive His Hand in Mine in early September.”
From my general past experience, Shop Elvis is okay as far as buying and getting older catalogue titles in a reasonable amount of time, but they seem to always run behind ShopGraceland when it comes to brand new FTD releases. Your own milage my vary to some degree, Lol.
I’m waiting on it, too. Fool me once, and I’ll buy even more Elvis product from you. It’s not as if I’m lacking in Elvis music to tide me over until His Hand in Mine arrives. If it gets hear by Thanksgiving, I’m OK with that.
Parker and Elvis had a management contract, thus Elvis had financial obligations to Tom to the extent of their contract.
While I don't have a copy of their contract, most management contracts are from the perspective of the artist hiring the manager, which lays out exactly what the manager will do, and how/how much the manager will receive for completing those tasks and other various terms (including length of time).
A ''good'' manager is the representative, advisor for the artist (or band). Its their task to build up the artist career, negotiate in the best interest of the artist, be it tours, movie contracts, record labels, etc.. Also important, how much percentage does a manager get? Normally 15-20%. Sorry Elvis, you're f*cked. Real hard. All these skills mentioned above, Parker didn't have any of this. Its sad to say, but Elvis was working of course for his entourage(!), himself (life-style) and for this selfish con man, Parker, addicted to gambling. Things like communication, marketing, etc.. How about mental issues? Empathy, caring, enthusiasm, trust? A plan for the long term, artistic insight? Most important, how to handle financial issues. One big ZERO for Parker. Failed on all fields.
There’s more to it than that. Elvis loved the easy life - he did not like confrontation. He had various opportunities during his career not to renew his contract with Parker, but he didn’t. Even when he apparently fired Parker, within a day or so,, everything was back to the usual relationships. And once he was into the 70s touring rut which was basically ally the equivalent of the Hollywood rut, Elvis could see the benefit of touring and to meet his three albums per year contract, he could throw in a few recorded shows without the need to make proper studio recordings. Elvis was surrounded by too many "yes’ men and and too many "yes" fans.
Parker made a bill, that Elvis owed Parker (according to Parker), if he went through with the dismissal. Vernon made it clear to Elvis how he's gonna pay Parker the money, he didn't have. Consciously or unknowingly, Elvis was stuck with this con man. Only option, continued touring, which was a guarantee of income. The death warrant had been signed. As it turned out.
In fairness to Parker, he did manage to negotiate record, TV, and movie contracts that took his client from regional indie artist to the world’s biggest star. While I don’t know the percentages Parker got at each stage of Elvis’s career, his percentage was obviously less in the beginning. As noted above, he had enough skills to get Elvis off of Sun and on to RCA for an unprecedented sum, to get Elvis on national television, and get Elvis a series of incredibly lucrative movie deals. Parker was addicted to gambling; Elvis was addicted to prescription pills. Pretty much everyone is addicted to something. There were no angels in this story. Implying that Parker had no marketing skills is delusional. Parker failed to have a plan for the long term? Given that Elvis’s career survived the initial fad for 50s rock and its subsequent implosion, and that he enjoyed not one, not two, but three comebacks/reinventions - upon his return from the army, the ’68 Comeback, and the Vegas/touring reinvention of the 70s, I’d say Elvis enjoyed a longer term career than most. In the mid-70s, would Elvis have traded places with Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Little Richard, etc.? On the issue of money, Elvis made millions and millions of dollars. In 1960, he bought a custom Cadillac for $65,000 (roughly $580,000 in today’s money, adjusted for inflation). Despite all of Parker’s “failings,” Elvis made a fortune. As the example of the Cadillac shows, he also spent a fortune. While Parker was certainly not innocent or pure, you can’t excoriate him for his “gambling addiction” while ignoring Elvis’s own shopping/spending addiction, and blame every financial problem in Elvis’s life on Parker. Elvis Presley’s 1960 Gold Cadillac
World's biggest star? Correct. And maybe the only one who never toured outside the USA. We all know why. Movies: why a much-demanding package for ''A Star Is Born'', which could have led to more serious roles? In the beginning, 25%. Later, 50%. You think this is reasonable? Lucrative, yes. Artistically..........enough said. Who wasn't addicted to pills, drugs, cocaine you name it, in those days? But a manager addicted while everybody knew it? The management of Las Vegas laughed themselves to death. Parker considered himself quite a good negotiator. NOT! Inventing and executing that promote sales where you arrive at artistic insight. Sorry Parker, you did not have these qualities. The 68 Comeback? Elvis' and Binder's idea. If it was for Parker, Elvis would sing some Christmas songs in front of a Christmas tree. Boredom was already there starting in 1971, performing in Las Vegas. Elvis needed challenges. With Parker, a lost cause. I didn't deny Elvis' life-style. Spending too much on un-important things. But yet another task for a good manager to take control about finance. But hey what can you expect from a man who himself is addicted to gambling? Chuck Berry: 90 years of age Carl Perkins: 65 years of age Little Richard: 87 years of age Jerry Lee Lewis: still alive (85) Elvis Presley: 42
Anyone who has read my previous posts regarding Tom Parker know I have some serious issues with the man, both as a entertainment manager and as a human being, and apparently so did the legendary Eddy Arnold. Nevertheless, the need to completely rewrite history regarding the entire tenure of Tom Parker and Elvis is problematic for me. It avoids placing blame on other players in the mix, including Elvis himself, while it also reduces Parker to some sort of caricature out of a B or C grade Elvis movie. It also is highly revisionist and ignores some of Tom Parker's skills as both a negotiator and trend-setter in the entertainment managerial business. Parker was pivotal in securing the huge deal with RCA Victor, funded partially by the manager himself, IIRC, which led directly to amazing marketing and professional recording contacts for the rest of Elvis's career. Parker also was one of the very first managers to pursue "a less is more" component to television appearance by his star, setting up huge events to maximize publicity and record sales (Ed Sullivan, Welcome Back, Elvis, etc. He also helped to launch a very lucrative (at the time) casino engagement and concert circuit touring schedule that pretty much set the standard for a lot of future artists. Did some of these decisions became problematic over time? Of course the answer to that question is affirmative, but at the time, Elvis and Parker were considered trailblazers in the business. Even the often criticized decision (deservedly so in my opinion) to remain with the movie contracts for so long, lead to a financial windfall and Elvis becoming a household name in more than one phase of the entertainment business. Oh yeah, I have a whole bunch of beefs with Tom Parker (Too many ****ty movies, too many Las Vegas shows, too many repetitive concerts, and very little long ranging thinking after 1969, but let me tell you this fact; People within the actual entertainment industry at the time, including members of my own family, thought Parker was some sort of managerial genius. Now in retrospect, I know that most of those same people would probably judge Parker quite differently, given revelations that have emerged since Elvis's death. Indeed, hindsight really is 20/20, Lol.
I'm sure he did present Elvis with a fee if Elvis was in breach of a contract, but I believe Elvis renewed two or three contracts with Parker during his career. Buy hey ho, it is what it is
Both statements are true. Technically Elvis had an obligation to pay Parker a commission if Parker secured work for Elvis, but it isn't as if Elvis was required to work so that he would have to pay Parker fees. Clearly Tom Parker was "hired" to work on behalf of Elvis, although that is arguably not how the relationship worked, and over time, it became more of a partnership. That said, Elvis was still never obligated to pay Tom Parker unless a commission was generated from work booked by Parker.
As I’ve said before, thank God Elvis didn’t star in the steaming turd that was A Star Is Born. It doesn’t really matter what I think is reasonable. Apparently his client thought it was reasonable. Brian Epstein was addicted to both gambling and pills, and died earlier in life than Elvis. He gave away millions of dollars in U.S. merchandising licenses for pennies on the dollar. He didn’t stop his clients from wasting money or doing drugs. I guess we could spend the rest of the week second-guessing these people who had to deal with unprecedented situations and crazy, impulsive, drug-addicted clients who won life’s lottery in their early 20s and didn’t know how to handle it, but, all things considered, Parker did better for his client than Epstein did for his, and did better than most. Sorry Parker never helped Elvis achieve the artistic triumph of stealing the parodic burnt out rock star second banana role in A Star Is Born.
Nicely stated. One thing I would add, however, is that by the 1970's, many people in the industry questioned Parker's savviness and decision-making as the decade progressed because he underbid some of Elvis' services, turned-down lucrative offers, prohibited Elvis from performing in international markets, and sold-off Elvis' future record royalty income. You and I have discussed this in the past, but the Las Vegas contract post-1969 became problematic, which placed significant demands on Elvis while at the same time underpaying him (I have also argued the original $500,000 deal was undervalued, but Parker was perhaps out of his element at that point having not negotiated personal appearances on behalf of Elvis since the 1950's). The International's Alex Shoofey is on record as having said he was stunned at how Parker essentially took a mid-level value deal with little negotiation and with no sliding scale or increase. With respect to the Las Vegas contracts during the 1970's, the question remains, was Parker simply losing his touch, or was he off-the-record giving The International/Hilton a favorable deal so that they wouldn't call his markers? Because clearly he knew that other artists were being paid more than Elvis.
Yes, thankfully Elvis wasn't in an Oscar and Grammy winning film project that grossed $80 million in 1976. He really dodged a bullet. Instead it was a good thing he was playing some secondary market auditorium in the midwest blitzed out of his mind on pills. Elvis didn't think a 50% commission was reasonable, that isn't why he continued to work with Tom Parker.
