This is What Happened the Day Elvis Presley Met The Beatles, As Told by an Eyewitness to History

Explains Ivor, “John’s idol was Elvis. I mean, John grew up with ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ and ‘Heartbreak Hotel,’ and they were very keen to meet Elvis. And it took about a year before a guy called Colonel Parker, who, as you probably know, was Elvis’ manager, and Brian Epstein, The Beatles’ manager, got together. In August, 1965, I got a call from Mal Evans, who was one of the road managers, and he said, ‘Come over to the house.’ They were renting the house of actress Zsa Zsa Gabor in Beverly Hills. ‘Come over to the house right away, we’re going to see Elvis.’ And so I raced over there and then we jumped into the limos and we went to Elvis’ house. The only thing that bothered me was the fact that I learned later on that the secrecy came about because Brian Epstein said, ‘We don’t want any press. We don’t want any photographs. We do not want any tape recorders.’ That was like the kiss of death, but fortunately I fit so well in with them, that I was able to be with them as they walked into the house and see what went on. I was able to be the fly on the wall for that rather remarkable meeting.”

Commented John Lennon, “There was only one person in the United States that we really wanted to meet — I’m not sure that he wanted to meet us — and that was Elvis. It was difficult to describe how we felt about him. We just idolized the guy so much. We tried to meet him during our first tour of the States in 1964, but couldn’t make it because of his commitments and ours. But when we came back in the summer of 1965, we found we’d be in Hollywood at the same time that Elvis was filming there. It still took three days of planning to set up the get-together in Elvis’ house, which we hoped would be kept secret. But the fans and the press got wind of it and were there in the hundreds when our limo drew up outside the gates on Perugia Way at about 10 p.m. It was a frantic business trying to get in, and although we were used to crowds, the thought of Elvis and The Beatles being together at one time just blew the minds of some of the people.”

Ivor remembers that the seeds for this event were planted in 1964 when Colonel Parker appeared at the house The Beatles were staying in. “He brought them cowboy gear from a place called Nuddies on Hollywood Boulevard,” notes Ivor. “So it was a mutual thing. Nuddies was a store that had a famous store in Hollywood back in the sixties that had cowboy gear and all sorts of wonderful stuff. Then the two managers wanted it to happen, The Beatles wanted it to happen. I’m not sure that Elvis wanted it to happen, but they’d been working on it for a year.”

Elvis’ mind was decidedly not blown. Writes Priscilla, “When John, Paul [McCartney], Ringo [Starr] and George [Harrison] walked in, Elvis was relaxing on the couch, looking at TV without the sound. He barely bothered to get up. Naturally he was curious about The Beatles. He respected them. Mostly he respected the way they had achieved their artistic freedom. He saw how they did whatever they liked to do. He appreciated their songs and especially their film A Hard Day’s Night, where their creativity and sense of fun came through so powerfully. Help! was out or just about to be released.”

The Dallas and The Naked Gun star adds, “Elvis, like all iconic entertainers, was conscious of competitors. He understood that generational idols come and go, and that, for this new generation, The Beatles were the new idols. He viewed this whole world of music coming from England — The Beatles, the Stones and the Dave Clark Five — with tremendous interest and, I suppose, some trepidation. He acknowledged their talent and energy — he told me on many occasions — but he worried about losing popularity. And in 1965, no one was more popular than The Beatles … The fact that Elvis greeted them with studied casualness didn’t mean he didn’t care. He did. he was simply affirming his role as Original King.”

In detailing what happened next, Ivor says, “We showed up at the house and walked in and there sitting on the couch was a guy in a very tight-fitting outfit and with the sideburns that looked like shag carpeting. He had a remote control, which he was flicking on to the giant 16-inch television. I mean, 16-inches in those days was giant, believe me. And there was no sound, there was a jukebox in the corner and the guy with the shaggy sideburns was Elvis. It was about 10:00 at night. The drapes were drawn, of course. For about 10 minutes, nothing happened. It was very awkward and the reason nothing happened was that nobody had the good sense to say, ‘Elvis, here is John, Paul, George and Ringo.’ So they sat around like uncomfortable guests.”

“Nobody was the go-between,” he continues. “I stood there watching this amazing scene of two of the greatest acts in rock and roll history not communicating. Elvis, and I’ll give it to him, he had a great sense of humor. He actually stood up and said to The Beatles, ‘I’m going to bed. I thought you guys came to jam.’ Well, that kind of broke the ice. The Beatles smiled and said, ‘Yeah.’ And so they brought in guitars and Elvis and the Beatles played for about 10 or 15 minutes. Elvis led them, Elvis played his music and Chuck Berry music — he didn’t play any Beatles music, but that broke the ice.”

From there things seemed to be going okay … for a few minutes. “They got into a a fairly animated conversation,” Ivor says. “I remember they talked about how they hated flying, because I think not long earlier, Buddy Holly had died in a plane crash, so they both were a bit scared of flying. Then Paul said something to Elvis like, ‘Elvis, we love your music. We wish you would make more songs like you did in the old days.’ Well, I want to tell you that Elvis did not like that, because he actually thought, ‘Why are these guys telling me that my old stuff is better and, presumably, my new stuff isn’t very good?’ Well, it was true, because Elvis was not making any new music. All he was doing was releasing albums from his movies — movies he was not very happy making.”

But as he realized a little later, the real reason for Elvis being annoyed at The Beatles is that he was number one until they arrived on the scene. “Elvis was king of the hit parade,” points out Ivor. “The Beatles — these interlopers from Liverpool — show up and these young men become number one on the Hit Rate. Second, Elvis has made three cookie-cutter movies a year for, like seven years, which he’s not very happy with. Elvis said quite honestly about those films, ‘They’re the same movie. I get a different leading lady, I fight the bad guy, I win the girl and sing 10 lousy songs.’”

Ivor elaborates, “Elvis made about 30 movies and then along come these Beatles; they make one movie called A Hard Day’s Night and it is a sensational movie. So the undercurrent of resentment was from Elvis and The Beatles didn’t realize what was going on in Elvis’ mind. I must tell you, it was not a smash hit meeting. It was uncomfortable. Elvis always felt fairly alone. ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight?’— that’s his song, isn’t it? He had the Memphis Mafia as his family, which was okay, but they were a bunch of friendly sycophants who did everything Elvis told them to do. Whereas The Beatles had each other, like a family. So the dynamic there was Elvis feeling lonely, because he had just himself and Colonel Parker and The Beatles, again, had each other, which was the bottom line.”

He says, “Let me just give you the punchline, because as we left, they said, ‘Well, we’ll get together, we’re not far down the road.’ They never got together, of course. They never got together after that meeting.”

Which may have been a little surprising to The Beatles at the time, as Paul McCartney commented, “I really liked him. He didn’t talk much, but he looked great. He was a really cool, casual guy. He was also playing bass, so that was great for me. ‘You’re trying to learn bass, son? Hey, I play bass, too. Sit down, let me show you a few things.’ I couldn’t give him any hints, but I could, at least, talk knowledgeably about it. I felt a bond with him.”

Enthused George, “He was exactly as I thought he would be. Very friendly, very hospitable, easy, relaxed and very interested in our music and us. A real star in every sense of the word.”

The feeling wouldn’t last. Says Ivor, “Year later, I know from Ringo that The Beatles were very upset at Elvis, because he went to see President Richard Nixon at the White House. He took Richard Nixon a gift of a gun, gave it to him at the White House, and he wanted a federal agent badge from Richard Nixon. Richard Nixon gave him the badge. But, and I have seen the tape recordings of this, in the meeting with Nixon, Elvis, for whatever stupid reason, said, ‘Those Beatles from England, they come to America, they earn millions of dollars, they go back to England and they badmouth America.’”

“That was a lie,” he emphasizes, “because The Beatles never badmouthed America. They loved America and so Ringo, I know for sure, was so upset. You know, ‘Why would Elvis say that? Tell a pack of lies to Richard Nixon?’ But he did tell him that. So the bottom line is that it was a fascinating meeting, but they did not end up the best of friends. The thing is, The Beatles were very easy to talk to. Elvis was not. Elvis, when he met the media, was very uncomfortable.”

Closes Ivor, “As I say, they never met again. John kept in touch with some of the Memphis Mafia and had them over for drinks to the house after they met Elvis. I think Joe Esposito was the name of the guy. When he went over to see John, he knew that Elvis was jealous and he never told Elvis that he snuck away from the house. That gives you some idea of the strange relationship between Elvis and The Beatles.”

Reporting by Lexi Ciccone