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Fact #52359

When:

Short story:

The Beatles meet Elvis Presley at his house on Perugia Way, Bel Air, Hollywood, California, USA.

Full article:

John Lennon : We'd tried to meet Elvis during our first tour of the States in 1964, but couldn't make it because of his commitments and ours. But when we came in the summer of 1965 we found we'd be in Hollywood at the same time Elvis was filming there.

Alf Bicknell (Beatles chauffeur) : The meeting with Elvis was on and off, on and off. Then, two days before it actually happened, Colonel Parker came to where we were staying in Benedict Canyon. I remember his long white coat with all these motifs on it and a big stetson hat. He stood at the end of the room talking to Brian (Epstein), discussing things.

Then suddenly well late into the evening, two days later, it was on. The limos arrived and we all piled in, off to a house in Bel Air, the lads, Brian, Chris Hutchins of NME, Tony Barrow, Neil Aspinall, Mal Evans and me.

Tony Barrow (Beatles PR man) : When we arrived, Elvis was waiting on The Doorstep to greet his guests.

John Lennon : He looked great in black slacks, a red shirt and close fitting black jerkin.
He said hello in his quietly spoken way and led us into this huge circular room.

Tony Barrow : He could not have been more generous with his display of hospitality that night but, for much of the time, the party simply failed to swing. .. there were uncomfortable undertones of embarassment and an all-pervading nervousness which everyone's superficial cheerfulness could not dispel.

Alf Bicknell : I went in last, like mother hen, as ever. Elvis was standing on the left of the door there. He's got these dark keks on, and the red shirt, and immaculate, just like I always imagined him to be. "Good evening, sir," he said to me, taking my hand. A firm handshake he had, "Welcome to my home." He put his arm round my shoulder and took me in.

I went in proud as punch, because, although I worked for The Beatles, I felt equally proud to meet him, he was the first, he was the main man. So anyway we go in to this hallway which was as big as anybody's normal room, with a big central fire, big chimney stack right up through the centre, and card tables and dice tables, then we walked through into another room.

John Lennon : I know Paul, George, and Ringo were feeling as nervous as I was. This was the guy we had all idolized for years--from way back when were just starting out in Liverpool. He was a legend in his own lifetime, and it's never easy meeting a legend in his own lifetime.

However, Elvis tried to make us feel at home. He sat - Paul and me on one side of him and Ringo on the other. George sat cross-legged on the floor. A huge color television was on in the middle of the room with the sound off, while a record player was playing the latest tunes. We could have just walked in on an average Elvis-at-home evening. Elvis obviously liked to treat everybody he met the same, whoever they were. He finally broke the silence that had fallen over the room.

``Look, guys," he said, ``if you're just going to sit there and stare at me, I'm going to bed." He smiled, and we all laughed. ``Let's talk a bit, huh?" he went on. ``And then maybe play and sing a bit?"

Alf Bicknell : The boys sat on the settees all around, big television on, sound down, and a big bar there, off to the right hand corner. A lot of Elvis's people around. Way over to the left I recall the Colonel and Brian standing there surveying it all.

Ringo Starr : That was a very big thing. It was Elvis. But he was a very charming man. And he had the first tv remote control we'd ever seen: he was just sitting there changing tv channels, and we were like, 'Oh! Wow!"

Alf Bicknell : Everybody was in awe of Elvis up to that point, and now here was this new phenomenon, but I didn't see any sign of rivalry. I don't think Elvis was over-awed. If anything, The Beatles were.

Paul McCartney : Elvis wasn't a disappointment, because when we met him it was a great period, we didn't meet him in the later period when he'd lost it a bit. He met us at the door. The thing that always sticks out in my mind is that he had the first remote switcher for a telly I'd ever seen. And he was switching channels! We were, like, How are you doing that?

I really liked him. He didn't talk much. And he looked great, he was a really cool, casual guy. And he was also playing bass, so that was great for me. I couldn't give him any hints, but I could at least talk knowledgeably about it. I felt a bond with him, like, 'Hey, I play bass too.'

Larry Geller (personal hairdresser to Elvis Presley] : Ringo went off to play pool, George was outside smoking pot, and it was just me, Paul, John and Elvis sitting there.

Tony Barrow : The musical action began with someone fooling around on the piano, prompting Presley to push the off-button on the tv and take over the keyboard. He picked out the bare bones of a Lennon-McCartney tune and all his heavies cheered. Then some guitars were produced from behind one of the settees. The volume of the jukebox was turned up, and Elvis and The Beatles started to play along with his records.

Alf Bicknell : I remember John leaned over the back of the setee and picked up a guitar, then Paul and Elvis too and they jammed for a while.

Larry Geller : One by one all three of them picked a guitar and started jamming on Johnny B. Goode and all the 50s rock'n'roll songs.

Alf Bicknell : Ringo sat on the end drumming on the leather arms with his hands and this went on for a while…

John Lennon : After a while, Paul put down his guitar and went over to the large white grand piano that stood in a corner by the bar. He began to pick out some notes and we got into one of The Shadows tunes.

Larry Geller : It must have lasted 20 minutes. And no-one sang.

Alf Bicknell : …and then everybody just seemed to move and we were wandering around this palatial house.

Ringo Starr : What was incredible was, it was this big meeting of Elvis, who was The King, and these British boys who were now the tops – but there were no photos, and no-one was filming it.

Alf Bicknell : I've read a lot of reports said there was tapes made and photographs taken, so on, but there was nothing. And I also read that John wasn't impressed by Elvis, but that's not the way it seemed to me. It was just something that happened and I enjoyed it.

I don't honestly know what was said between them. That wasn't why I was there. I was working. I was invisible. Nobody would have objected if I'd gone down and sat among them, but that wasn't what I was there for.

Paul McCartney : I remember Priscilla coming in, being ushered in, and we were getting to meet her but, because we were scallywags, we got to meet her for five minutes and then she left! It was like, 'We're not trusting this lot with her! The bird!'

Alf Bicknell : I remember throwing dice later, standing next to Elvis and thinking "You ain't so big, are you?' "We were there for about five or six hours.

Next thing I'm sitting on this wall round the fireplace, with this flame at the back of us, with the drink in my hand, and Ringo came and sat with me. I said to him, "There's one of him and about twelve guys running around after him, but there's four of you and just three of us. How come?"

So Ringo looks at me and says, "What do you want? A raise?" I guess Elvis had acquired hangers-on as opposed to employees. He'd been around so long. When we were touring, everybody had their own space, our own rooms and so on, but it felt to me as if Elvis continually had all these people around him.

Paul McCartney : I remember clearly at about 10.00-10.30 it was time to be getting home, because it wasn't an all-nighter, it was just a come-for-the-evening-to-see-Elvis. We'd expressed a desire to meet him so many times in the press that they couldn't avoid it.

John Lennon : It was Elvis's sense of humour that stuck in my mind. He liked to laugh and make others laugh, too. Which was why I put on a Peter Sellers voice again as we walked out of the door and said, "Tanks for ze music, Elvis - and long live ze King!"

Ringo Starr : We came away just thinking, 'Wow – we've met Elvis now. What's next?'

Larry Geller : 'They're good guys,' he said. 'I like them. But what's with their teeth? They got money, why don't they get them fixed?'

Alf Bicknell : The very next day, Elvis sent three of his main people to show us around Los Angeles, California, USA. Sonny West, Marty somebody, and another one. I understood then what they meant by the Memphis Mafia because we went to one club and, it was about to close, but we were shown straight to a table in front of the stage. And we caught the last minute and a half of the singer's act, but they sent a man round the back, and that singer came out and did his whole show again for us. This was four in the morning. That was the power of their influence. I dare say they'd pay for it.