After all, this summer the King will be a hotter commodity than ever. As the country approaches the 25th anniversary of Presley’s death on Aug. 16, Elvis will be inescapable. His infectious music and pouty mug will fill every corner of the culture. Record companies will offer up rare recordings on CD and publishers will put out many celebrative books, hoping not only to lure in nostalgic baby boomers but also to turn on their MTV-raised kids. And over the next six months, you’ll also hear Presley’s songs used to sell just about everything–even products completely unrelated to the singer.
His longtime label, RCA Records, and its parent company, Bertelsmann Media Group, have been aggressively banging out licensing agreements with various partners. “The idea is to contemporize Elvis Presley,” says Joe DiMuro, a strategic-marketing executive at BMG. “We know we’re going to get the Elvis aficionado who is in his mid-40s. But how do we make Elvis relevant to those 34 and under?” BMG has been working with companies that target all sorts of different demographics. “On the corporate side, we’ve been talking to multinationals: beverage, automotive, financial, institutional,” says DiMuro, “telecom, consumer electronics, fashion apparel …” In short, get ready for an Elvis onslaught.
Actually, it’s already begun. Last week, a $80 million Nike ad campaign pegged to the World Cup debuted featuring a remix of Presley’s “A Little Less Conversation.” Gruner & Jahr, BMG’s magazine division, will produce a 200-page Elvis magazine featuring rare photos that will be packaged with a CD featuring “Heartbreak Hotel” and a previously unreleased version of “In the Ghetto.” There’s even Elvis furniture on the horizon, with Vaughn-Bassett debuting two King-inspired bedroom suites this month called the Elvis Presley Collection. In mid-June, Disney’s “Lilo & Stitch” will hit movie screens featuring a little girl who dresses her puppy up in Elvis costumes. The film will contain six of Presley’s No. 1 hits.
Come July, you’ll really feel the Presley push. BMG will release a four-CD anthology called “Elvis: Today, Tomorrow & Forever” consisting of 100 unreleased tunes. The tracks will feature rare moments from his studio recording sessions and several live broadcasts. “Everyone knows Elvis,” says Aram Sinnreich, a music industry analyst for Jupiter Media Metrix, who thinks the CD will likely sell well with very little marketing. “There’s a lot of untapped revenue potential in catalog music, and you don’t have to spend a lot of money getting him on ‘Total Request Live’.”
Though don’t be surprised if videos featuring the King somehow turn up on MTV this summer. The Carson Daly crowd is key. Of the three Random House (a BMG subsidiary) books coming out about the King, only one is intended for older Elvis fans. The hard-core aficionados will appreciate “The Elvis Treasures,” a pop-up coffee table book that contains replicas of memorabilia from the Graceland archives including a library card bearing Elvis’s adolescent signature and a love letter to a girlfriend. But the second book is for kids (it’s a tie-in to the “Lilo & Stitch” movie) and the other, “A Girl’s Guide to Elvis,” explores Presley’s sex appeal and is intended for women in the 24-and-under demographic.
Whatever your age, you won’t be able to escape the mania in Memphis this August. Fifty thousand people are expected to gather near Graceland during “Elvis Week.” The stretch will begin Aug. 10 with a parade in downtown Memphis. Later that week, rock experts will discuss the pop icon at a University of Memphis seminar, with tickets selling at $100 a pop. A candlelight vigil will be held Aug. 15, during which a large line will walk by Elvis’s grave.
Finally on Aug. 16–the anniversary of his death–“Elvis: The 25th Anniversary Concert” will be held at the Pyramid arena. Old bandmates scheduled to perform include James Burton (his guitarist) and Glenn D. Hardin (his pianist). Priscilla Presley and Lisa Marie Presley will be there. Most chillingly, so will the King–via interactive-video. Historic footage of Elvis will be broadcast onstage, including moments where Presley will actually say things like, “James, play ‘Blue Suede Shoes’.” Says a Graceland spokesperson, “You will kind of forget a few minutes into the show that Elvis is not really there.”
In case you still haven’t had enough of Presley by then, in the early fall BMG will release the zealously titled “ELV1S 30 #1 Hits,” a compilation album of his top tracks that’s not unlike the Beatles “1” album, which sold 8 million units after its release in 2000. BMG is shaping the CD as a stocking stuffer. By the end of the 2002 Presley offensive, the King may even have a newfound respect with naysayers. People will see “there was more to Elvis as a cultural force than there was the first go-round,” predicts Timothy White, editor in chief of Billboard. Maybe with all the attention, Elvis will finally reemerge. Then we’ll really see a party.
