It happened nearly 58 years ago.
One of the most significant meetings between the greatest forces in pop music history – meeting for one historic night .
The date was August 27th, 1965, and the Beatles were on “fumes”. That is, they were dead tired, exhausted really. They had been touring almost non-stop, done hundreds of interviews, filmed two full length movies, and were asked to turn out three new albums a year.
It was pressure, expectation, and relentless fatigue.
The Beatles had ONE night off after performing at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, and sleep seemed like the best way to spend that night off. But Tony Brown, one of their press agents, asked them a question…
“Boys, what would you say if I told you that you could get to meet Elvis Presley?”
Elvis was renting a three-level mansion in the Hollywood Hills. The Beatles were staying at Burt Lancaster’s house for the night.
Elvis was their hero, their greatest influence, and the number one artist that spurred them into becoming a rock act. However, the idea was NOT met with universal affirmation.
“I’ll pass”, said George Harrison. “It will be used as a publicity stunt, the press will hound us, they’ll take cheesy pictures of us and Elvis, and there will be a crummy home recording of any music we might try and make in a jam”.
Brown countered: “No press. No pictures. No recordings of any kind. And absolutely NO publicity.”
Harrison finally agreed.
He was the only one who had resisted, and the Beatles had a rule. All votes on anything MUST be all FOUR votes.
The night came. There was a caravan of limousines led by the Elvis mafia, 5 cars in all, and only one car drove the Beatles. As those cars made their way up the winding Mulholland Drive in Bel Air, the Beatles all smoked pot from a giant joint and were laughing and getting sick from the trip, almost at the same time.
Finally, the cars arrived at Elvis’ rented home. 20 members of Elvis staff were there. The Beatles party numbered about 6 people in total, including the boys.
The door opens.
They see Elvis staring at a television set, with the sound off….strumming an electric bass guitar.
‘That’s EXACTLY what I do”, said John Lennon. “I watch the TV with the sound off and play my guitar.”
Elvis shook hands with all of them, but the Beatles were both stoned and shocked. They said nothing.
They couldn’t believe they were meeting their hero. There was silence in the room for about 2 minutes.
Finally, Elvis said, “Well if you guys ain’t gonna talk…I’m going to bed.”
Then Lennon chirped.
“I have a question, Elvis. Why all the corny romantic ballads in those movies you make? What happened to the rock and roll?”
Elvis laughed. It broke the ice.
Within a few minutes guitars and a piano were handed out and rolled in…and the Beatles and Elvis began to play music.
They knew every song Elvis recorded in the early years, and asked Elvis to sing them with them.
Elvis could barely remember the words. Then Paul started strumming a song that had just been released.
“I Feel Fine” was the song.
Elvis and the Beatles began singing it.
Magic.
It was like an old Elvis rocker from the past.
“Baby’s good to me, ya’ know…she’s happy as can be, you know…she said so…She’s in love with me and I feel fine”
Elvis sang with them like it was HIS song.
”I can’t remember all the things that they played, but I do remember one of the songs was “I Feel Fine,” said Brown. “And I remember Ringo, who, of course, didn’t have an instrument, tapping out the backbeat with his fingers on the nearest bits of wooden furniture.”
Everybody was singing.
Elvis strummed a few bass guitar chords for Paul and said: “See, I’m practicing.” And Paul came back with some quip about: “Don’t worry, between us, me and Brian Epstein will make a star of you soon.”
They all laughed.
The song was never recorded.
After about four hours of music, laughs, drinks, and stories, it was time to go. The Beatles piled back into the limo. It was one of the greatest moments in their still young lives.
As they drove back, Lennon said, “That was FANTASTIC, but you know something? Elvis was stoned!”
Ringo shot back. “Isn’t everybody?”
It was now 3am in the Beatles only night off in weeks. Their meeting and jamming with “The King” ended with nearly 4 hours of music, laughter, and stories.
The Beatles as a group never met or saw Elvis again.
No photos or music or recordings of that night have ever existed. Even a single recording of “I Feel Fine” with Elvis, might today be worth millions of dollars to a collector. It might have been a great moment from the greatest meeting in rock history.
But it never happened…and today, only the legend of that night remains.
No record. No pictures. No music. Nothing of that night but the memory.
Somehow that reality is poetic and mythic……and “I feel fine.”
By Roy Firestone
Multi-Emmy Award Winning Journalist.
###
