Seventeen years later, when told of Presley's death, John Lennon – who had once proclaimed, "Before Elvis there was nothing" – spoke for the purists when he said: "Elvis died the day he went into the army." And even Presley seemed to agree that his early rock'n'roll incarnation had been consigned to the past when, ...
During the latter years of Elvis' life, John Lennon heaped praise on the singer, expressing his deep sadness at his death. According to John, Elvis actually died the day before he enlisted in the army. They killed him that day, and his body was left there for the rest of his life.
'John Lennon said, 'I didn't have the nerve to tell Elvis last night, but when I was in high school I wanted to do everything I could to look like him. I almost got kicked out of school for it. Tell Elvis, without him, we'd be nothing'.
Lennon, according to Harris, was disappointed when he met Lennon despite his admiration for Elvis' music. It is true that he despised the King of Rock and Roll because he perceived him to be a right-wing bigot from the South. When he was a teenager, John Lennon was a huge fan of Elvis Presley.
“Heartbreak Hotel” seemed to change everything, not just for John Lennon, but also for rock and roll history.
As teenagers, The Beatles, especially John Lennon, were strongly influenced by Elvis Presley. They started wearing their hair slicked back like Elvis. They admired his rebelliousness and his appeal to women, not to mention his musical talent. “Nothing affected me until I heard Elvis,” John Lennon said.
John Lennon said there wouldn't have been The Beatles without Elvis. Paul McCartney praised John as the Elvis of The Beatles. Likewise, John praised Elvis for inspiring The Beatles' music, but he had a strange way of showing his admiration. John and Paul became prolific songwriters as their careers progressed.
The meeting was famously awkward at first, but Elvis broke the ice by saying to the Beatles, "If you're just going to sit around and stare at me, I'm going to bed", and led the group into an impromptu jam session.
Growing up in 1950s Liverpool, John Lennon – who would have been 82 this month – and Paul McCartney fell in love with rising star Elvis Presley's rock and roll music.
• Nothing personal in Elvis' dislike of The Beatles
He actually liked some of their songs, including Yesterday and Hey Jude. Billy Smith contends that Elvis felt a musical connection with The Beatles. He explained as follows: “He thought the early Beatles were really similar to his early music.
"He loved close harmony," says former Memphis Mafia member Red West, who lived at Graceland. He says Elvis's favorite groups were the Harmonizing Four and Golden Gate Quartet and his favorite gospel singers included Jimmy Jones, Jake Hess (who sang with the Statesmen and later formed the Imperials) and Mahalia Jackson.
It's understandable why the Beatles felt betrayed when they first met Elvis, as he betrayed them years after they met. John Lennon claimed that the only person the United States had ever desired to meet was him. We idolized him so much that we idolized him so much as a result of him.
A secretive meeting between the Fab Four and the King. On August 27, 1965, a turning point in pop culture occurred at 525 Perugia Way in Bel Air, California, one that few knew about while it was taking place: the meeting between the four Beatles and Elvis Presley, in Elvis's home.
"The cause of death has been ascribed to hypertensive heart disease, with coronary artery heart disease as a contributing factor," read the report. Dr. George Nichopoulos, Elvis' friend and physician, said that he didn't think the singer had a drug problem, despite having "abused drugs accidentally."
"When John died, it was so difficult," McCartney told host Tom Frangione. "It was difficult for everyone in the world because he was such a loved character and such a crazy guy. He was so special." McCartney, 80, continued, that the death of his Beatles bandmate hit him so hard "that I couldn't really talk about it."
Mick Jagger
"It was Elvis that got me interested in music. I've been an Elvis fan since I was a kid. Ask anyone. If it hadn't been for Elvis, I don't know where popular music would be.
Paul McCartney recalls meeting Elvis Presley in the summer of 1965 in a new interview with Wired Magazine. In the video, McCartney talks about what it was like to meet Elvis and how the king's television technology wowed the Fab Four. McCartney also discusses Beatles history, being knighted and more in the video.
He then added: “I have met Elvis Presley, who was darn cool. This was pre-Las Vegas and the rhinestone suits. This was when he was in Beverly Hills, so he was really cool!” McCartney said if he “had to choose” a number one coolest person he met, he'd “have to go with my wife Nancy,” with Elvis coming in a close second.
Led Zeppelin and the King shared the same promoter, Jerry Weintraub, who set up a meeting after the show between the two parties. Plant later wrote about his impressions of Presley: “I sized him up. He wasn't quite as tall as me. But he had a singer's build.
Probably the most prominent Beatles' song covered by Elvis is “Something” due to the fact that Presley sang it live during his “Aloha from Hawaii” concert special in 1973. This concert was broadcast all over the world via satellite and has been captured for posterity on the concert DVD and album.
Combining all three attributes of reputation, fame and achievement, the Who's Bigger? list for Rock Hall inductees ranks Elvis Presley slightly above The Beatles, with John Lennon and Paul McCartney holding their own just a few slots below their own group.
Documentary has Joe Esposito, Elvis' best friend apparently, telling various stories from their first meeting while they were in the Army up until the day The King died.
But Starr admitted the experience has been tainted, as he claimed Presley tried to ban them from entering the USA in the years following their initial meeting.