Presley, of course, didn\u2019t get the part famously played by Kris Kristofferson<\/a> \u2014 a casualty, depending on who you ask, of Streisand\u2019s insistence on top billing or of the unreasonable financial demands of Presley\u2019s manager, Colonel Tom Parker. (In her 2023 memoir, Streisand wonders whether the character of a self-destructive musician was in the end \u201ca little too close to his own life\u201d for Elvis\u2019 comfort.)<\/p>\n Whatever the case, Schilling believes that the disappointment over \u201cA Star Is Born\u201d set Presley on a path of poor decision-making that effectively tanked his career before his tragic death at age 42 on Aug. 16, 1977 \u2014 48 years ago this weekend.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was the last time I saw the twinkle in my friend\u2019s eye,\u201d Schilling, 83, says of the sit-down with Streisand.<\/p>\n An intriguing new box set commemorates the King\u2019s final burst of creativity. Released this month in five-CD and two-LP editions, \u201cSunset Boulevard\u201d collects the music Presley recorded in Los Angeles between 1972 and 1975, including the fruit of one session held just days before the meeting about \u201cA Star Is Born.\u201d These were the studio dates that yielded songs like \u201cSeparate Ways,\u201d which Elvis cut amid the crumbling of his marriage to Priscilla Presley, and \u201cBurning Love,\u201d his last Top 10 pop hit, as well as 1975\u2019s \u201cToday\u201d LP, an exemplary showcase of Presley\u2019s latter-day blend of rock, country and blue-eyed soul.<\/p>\n Is yet another repackaging of Presley\u2019s music really something to get excited about? The Elvis industry has never not been alive and well over the half-century since he died; in just the last few years, we\u2019ve seen Baz Luhrmann\u2019s splashy big-screen biopic, the latest book from the singer\u2019s biographer Peter Guralnick (this one about Parker<\/a>) and not one but two documentaries about the so-called \u201968 comeback special that heralded Presley\u2019s return to live performance after nearly a decade of film work.<\/p>\n More gloomily, \u201cSunset Boulevard\u201d arrives as Priscilla Presley \u2014 who got her own biopic from director Sofia Coppola in 2023 \u2014 is making headlines thanks to an ugly legal battle<\/a> with two former business partners she brought on to aid in managing the Presley brand. (The feud itself follows the sudden death two years ago of Priscilla and Elvis\u2019 only child, Lisa Marie Presley<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Yet the new box offers an opportunity to ponder the curious position Elvis found himself in once the glow of the comeback special had faded: a rock and roll pioneer now strangely removed from the culture he did as much as anyone to invent.<\/p>\n \u201cSunset Boulevard\u2019s\u201d title, which the set shares with Billy Wilder\u2019s iconic 1950 movie, can\u2019t help but evoke the spoiled grandeur of an aging showbiz legend. It also refers to the physical location of RCA Records\u2019 West Coast headquarters at 6363 Sunset Blvd., across the street from Hollywood\u2019s Cinerama Dome. Now the site of the L.A. Film School, the building is where the Rolling Stones recorded \u201c(I Can\u2019t Get No) Satisfaction\u201d and Jefferson Airplane made \u201cSurrealistic Pillow\u201d \u2014 and where Presley set up in the early \u201970s after cutting most of his \u201960s movie soundtracks at Radio Recorders near the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and La Brea Avenue.<\/p>\n Jerry Schilling at his home in West Hollywood. (JSquared Photography \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n By 1972, rock had long since evolved beyond the crucial influence Elvis exerted at the beginning of his career. Nor was the King particularly dialed into what was happening in music while he was busy in Hollywood.<\/p>\n \u201cWe weren\u2019t as exposed as much as I wish we would\u2019ve been to everything going on,\u201d Schilling says on a recent afternoon at his home high in the hills above Sunset Plaza. A core member of Elvis\u2019 fabled Memphis Mafia, Schilling has lived here since 1974, when Elvis bought the place from the TV producer Rick Husky and gifted it to Schilling for his years of loyal friend-ployment.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re doing movies, you\u2019re up at 7 in the morning and you\u2019re in makeup by 8,\u201d Schilling continues. \u201cYou work all day and you come home \u2014 you\u2019re not necessarily putting on the latest records.\u201d<\/p>\n More than the growling rock lothario of Presley\u2019s early days \u2014 to say nothing of the shaggy psychedelic searchers who emerged in his wake \u2014 what the RCA material emphasizes is how expressive a ballad singer Elvis had become in middle age. Schilling says the singer\u2019s romantic troubles drew him to slower, moodier songs like \u201cSeparate Ways,\u201d \u201cAlways on My Mind\u201d and Kristofferson\u2019s \u201cFor the Good Times,\u201d the last of which he delivers in a voice that seems to tremble with regret. (Presley had to be cajoled into singing the uptempo \u201cBurning Love,\u201d according to Schilling, who notes with a laugh that \u201cwhen it became a hit, he loved it.\u201d)<\/p>\n Read more:<\/b> John Fogerty on the stories behind 5 of his turning-est, burning-est hits<\/a><\/p>\n But in the deep soulfulness of this music you\u2019re also hearing the rapport between Presley and the members of his live band, with whom he recorded at RCA instead of using the session players who\u2019d backed him in the \u201960s. Led by guitarist James Burton, the TCB Band \u2014 that\u2019s Taking Care of Business \u2014 was assembled ahead of Elvis\u2019 first engagement at Las Vegas\u2019 International Hotel, which later became the Las Vegas Hilton; indeed, one of \u201cSunset Boulevard\u2019s\u201d more fascinating features is the hours of rehearsal tape documenting Presley\u2019s preparation in L.A. for the Vegas shows that began in 1969.<\/p>\n The sound quality is murky and the performances fairly wobbly, as in a take on \u201cYou\u2019ve Lost That Loving Feeling\u201d where Elvis can\u2019t quite seem to decide on a key. Yet it\u2019s a thrill to listen in as the musicians find their groove \u2014 a kind of earthy, slow-rolling country-gospel R&B \u2014 in an array of far-flung tunes including \u201cYou Don\u2019t Have to Say You Love Me,\u201d \u201cGood Time Charlie\u2019s Got the Blues,\u201d even the Pointer Sisters\u2019 \u201cFairytale.\u201d<\/p>\n In one rehearsal recorded Aug. 16, 1974, Elvis cues his band to play the Ewan MacColl ballad made famous by Roberta Flack<\/a>: \u201c\u2018The First Time Ever I Saw Your Friggin\u2019 Face,\u2019\u201d he calls out as we hear the players warming up. Then they all lock in for a closely harmonized rendition of the song so pretty there\u2019s something almost spooky about it.<\/p>\n Sitting next to the balcony he was standing on when he got the phone call alerting him to the news of Presley\u2019s death, Schilling takes clear pleasure in spinning well-practiced yarns about his years with Elvis: the time John Lennon told him to tell Presley that he grew out his sideburns in an attempt to look like the King, for instance, or the audition where Elvis took a flier on a relatively unknown drummer named Ronnie Tutt who ended up powering the TCB Band.<\/p>\n He\u2019s more halting when he talks about the end of his friend\u2019s life and about what he sees as the lack of a serious artistic challenge that might have sharpened Elvis\u2019 focus. Staying on in Vegas a bit too long, making so-so records in a home studio set up at Graceland \u2014 these weren\u2019t enough to buoy the man he calls a genius. Does Schilling know if Presley saw \u201cA Star Is Born\u201d when it came out at the end of 1976?<\/p>\n He considers the question for a good 10 seconds. \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d he finally says. He started tour managing the Beach Boys that year and was spending less time with Presley. \u201cHe never mentioned it to me. I wish I knew. There\u2019s probably nobody alive now who could say.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Jerry](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/01e860864581cbd57d72948c22bd21ad.jpeg\"\/)
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