It’s no secret that John Lennon was a huge fan of Elvis Presley when he was a teenager. Lennon formed his first band, The Quarrymen, which would later become The Beatles, as a result of his love for Elvis Presley and rockand roll. (Source: Daytripping.com)
It all started in April 1956 when Lennon heard Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel” for the first time, shortly after its release in the U.K. in March. “Heartbreak Hotel” seemed to change everything, not just for John Lennon, but also for rock and roll history.
Both Paul McCartney and George Harrison have stated how “Heartbreak Hotel” was a big influence on them.
But it was John Lennon who was so greatly impacted by the song and its singer, Elvis Presley, that he decided to start his very own band.
“When I first heard ‘Heartbreak Hotel’… me whole life changed from then on, I was just completely shaken by it,” John Lennon said.
After the release of “Heartbreak Hotel”, “We all automatically wanted to dress like Elvis, look like Elvis, swagger, strut and sneer like Elvis,” described Lennon’s best friend, Pete Shotton, “and every snide remark from Aunt Mimi, our teachers or the newspapers only served to reinforce our new idol’s grip on John’s and my young psyches.”
“It was Elvis who really got me hooked for beat music,” said John Lennon in 1963. “When I heard ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ I thought, ‘this is it,’ and I started trying to grow sideboards and all that gear.”
While touring the U.S., The Beatles had the opportunity to meet many celebrities – but there was only one that they really wanted to meet.
The only person we wanted to meet in the USA was Elvis Presley.With the help of their managers, Colonel Parker and Brian Epstein, The Beatles finally got to meet The King of Rock and Roll in Los Angeles in August 1965. The meeting at Presley’s home was a success (even including an impromptu “jam” session) and led to future communications between the two music legends.
The Beatles adored Elvis Presley — and I finally trooped along with them when they met the King in the summer of 1965. However, Elvis was jealous of The Beatles. They had knocked him off his top music perch, but worse, he hated grinding out three cookie-cutter movies a year: The
Beatles’ first film “A Hard Day’s Night” was considered an instant smash.
When we trooped along to Elvis’ Beverly Hills house, it took 30 minutes for them to warm up to each other. Finally, Elvis jumped up: “I’m going to bed … I thought you guys came to jam.” That broke the ice, and Elvis and The Beatles began an impromptu jam session in the living room.
In October 1971, John Lennon put together his own “Elvis” jukebox. As he was being interviewed by a reporter at a hotel in New York City, he was sorting through a bunch of Presley’s records: “I’m gonna have a jukebox with just Elvis records on it. Isn’t it great?” Lennon told the reporter. “I asked someone to get all his old singles for me.”
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