Dick Clark ensured that Elvis Presley’s popularity didn’t slip

Despite its best efforts to keep Pvt. Elvis Presley under wraps during his tour of duty during 1958-60, the U.S. Army had its hands full. The famous rock’n’roll singer was an international celebrity.

After completing basic training at Fort Hood near Killeen, Texas, Presley was deployed to Europe, stationed in Friedberg, Germany. He was classified as an armor intelligence specialist with a tank battalion in Company D, but mostly, he drove a Jeep for Reconnaissance Platoon Sgt. Ira Jones of Company C.

 

Presley’s presence created plenty of headaches for the Army, said Todd DePastino of the Veterans Breakfast Club, based in Pittsburgh, Pa. “Every move Pvt. Presley made had to be coordinated at the highest levels, so the Army could enforce crowd control over swarming fans, reporters and photographers. Elvis was bigger than any of his commanders or general staff officers assigned to handle him.”

“Guards kept watch 24/7 for girls trying to scale the fence and catch a glimpse of the famous singer. At the Army post office, clerks battled a 15-fold increase in letters to the battalion from fans around the world,” DePastino wrote.

“The king of rock’n’roll settled into a routine like that of other soldiers. He reported to duty at 7 a.m. He took classes in map and compass reading. He washed his jeep and did calisthenics. He planted munitions and scouted for enemy mines. And he spent his Friday nights scrubbing latrines to be ready for Saturday inspections.”

Even while Elvis Presley was tucked away in Germany, his legendary manager Colonel Tom Parker “kept the home fires burning,” noted Elvis Presley historian Alan Hanson.

Parker approached Dick Clark, host of the popular “American Bandstand” television show, about broadcasting exclusive, live telephone interviews with Presley. “Parker recognized Dick Clark’s influence with teens; Clark had the ability to understand and communicate with young people,” Hanson said.

 

Three interviews were arranged while Presley was in Germany that allowed Presley to speak directly to Clark’s massive audience of record-buying teenagers. Presley told his fans that although the Army prevented him from performing songs, he was still working on his music, playing the guitar in his room. He said he was itching to return to “the entertainment world.”

Clark reassured Presley that the “kids still loved him and his music and always would.”

 

Presley left Germany on March 2, 1960, and was released from active duty shortly thereafter. He had attained the rank of sergeant.

 

Hanson said Presley did, indeed, work on his music in Germany “singing to himself to keep his voice in shape and expand his range, especially to reach and hold notes at the top of the register. He kept up with trends in popular music beyond rockabilly, country and gospel. He even made home recordings that covered a wider range of music than he had ever performed in public.”

 

To his repertoire, Hanson explained, “he added strong pop ballads, such as ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight?’ and ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love.’ Combine all that with the pop arias ‘It’s Now or Never’ and ‘Surrender,’ and it’s clear that Elvis returned to the music business in 1960 as a much more diverse vocalist than he had been before entering the Army in 1958.”

“Elvis’s first movie after getting out the Army was ‘G.I Blues,’ which received mixed reviews from critics,” Hanson said.

 

Here’s what The New York Times writer had to say about it: “Gone is that rock’n’roll wriggle, that ludicrously lecherous leer, that precocious country bumpkin image, that unruly mop of oily hair….Elvis is now a fellow you can almost stand.”