In "It Happened at the World's Fair," the movie ends with Elvis Presley walking down the street hand in hand with co-star Joan O'Brien behind a full marching band, crooning "Happy ending, happy ending, give me a story with a happy ending."  That was Elvis in 1963.  That movie did include "One Broken Heart for Sale" but most of the songs from Elvis's movie soundtracks were less than memorable. By 1963 Elvis was a full-fledged movie star, a money tree that Hollywood was harvesting for as much as they could get.  But Elvis's music career suffered.

Half of Elvis Presley's number one songs had come during 1956 and 1957.  In 1962 there was only one #1 ("Good Luck Charm").  For a time, an Elvis Presley release was a near guarantee of a top ten record and always a shot at number one.  In 1963 only three singles were released by RCA.  Two were from movie soundtracks:   "One Broken Heart for Sale" (#11) and its flip side "They Remind Me Too Much of You" (#53) were from "It Happened at the World's Fair;" "Bossa Nova Baby" (#8) was from "Fun in Acapulco." "Follow That Dream," (#15) from the movie of the same name might have done better, but was only available as an EP issue with three other songs from the movie."  (You're The) Devil in Disguise" (#3) was released only as a single and was his best effort of the year – it was the first time since his initial RCA single release in 1956 that he went a whole year without a number one record.  The drought would last another five years.

Why was Elvis unable to maintain the success he demonstrated his first year out of the army (1960)?  The biggest reason was the bar was set very high.  In the twelve months following his release, Elvis Presley put four songs on the top of the Billboard chart.  No other artist at any time during the Elvis Era could boast such an achievement.  It was only natural, especially in the highly competitive and often fickle world of popular music, that there would be some decline.

But there might not have been as much decline if it hadn't been for the decision to focus more on Elvis's movie career.  Elvis wanted to be a movie star and Colonel Parker wanted to make him a movie star.  Elvis had always wanted to be in the movies and his pre-army appearance in "King Creole" had produced some positive reviews indicating that Elvis could be as successful on the big screen as he was on the Billboard charts.  His first movie, "G.I. Blues" and its accompanying soundtrack was well received.  While "G.I. Blues" had been a traditional musical comedy, both "Flaming Star" and "Wild in the Country" were dramas with minimal singing by Elvis – neither had a soundtrack album.  All three movies made money.  But, especially with the associated soundtrack, the musical made a lot more money.  Elvis's next movie, "Blue Hawaii," was his most popular and established the formula for success that Elvis Presley pictures would follow for the rest of the decade:  exotic location, beautiful girls, a quest or search by Elvis's character (always connected to winning the heart of his co-star), enough songs to produce a soundtrack album.  Colonel Parker and Paramount Pictures would try to make the most out of that winning formula, with a goal of producing three Elvis movies a year.  "Follow That Dream," "Kid Galahad," and "Girls! Girls! Girls!" were released in 1962.  1963 fell a little short of the goal with only two movies:  "It Happened at the World's Fair" and "Fun in Acapulco."  But for the rest of the decade, there would be three Elvis Presley movies every year.  And while the success of those movies and soundtracks would diminish, they would still all make money.

Why did these movies do so well and yet not produce continued music success?   The answer is  in the quality of the music on those soundtracks; and to some degree the musical production.  One doesn't have to look too far for a contrast in the quality of the soundtrack albums.  The "Elvis Is Back" album, the first post-army issued, has twelve tracks, a wide range of genres, and not a clunker in the midst.  Contrast that with "Frankfurt Special" from the "G.I. Blues" soundtrack.  And the "G.I. Blues" soundtrack was one of the better ones.  Later examples of soundtrack garbage are "Cotton Candy Land" from "It Happened at the World's Fair" and "(There's) No Room to Rhumba in a Sports Car" from "Fun in Acapulco."  With the focus on making the most money possible from movies and producing music that fit the scripts of those movies (the scripts themselves continued to decline in quality as well), the quality of the limited single releases declined.

Another effect of movie stardom was the limited number of public performances.  Elvis's appearance on the Frank Sinatra television special was his only television exposure (he wouldn't be seen on television again until 1968).  He performed a couple of benefit shows in Memphis on February 25th, 1961, and performed a benefit concert at Pearl Harbor on March 25, 1961. Outside of those public shows, if people wanted to see Elvis they had to go to the movie theater.  And what they saw at the movies wasn't nearly as powerful as Elvis in person.  The planned choreography of the movie set rarely represented the spontaneous energy of a live Elvis performance.

As far as the movies themselves, the quality might have peaked in 1963 – it was mostly down hill from there.  The formula worked and the movies continued to make money, but less so as the years went by. In 1967, "Clambake" cost 1.4 million dollars to produce and made only 1.6 million.  By 1968, even Colonel Parker could see that the formula was no longer working.  In desperation, "Charro," was produced and released by National General Pictures.  It was a quasi spaghetti western, an attempt at straight drama with no singing by Elvis.  It did better than "Clambake" at the box office, but was still not a resounding success.

The bottom line was that by the end of 1963, Elvis Presley's career had settled into the doldrums that would extend until 1968.  As the "Elvis Era" ended, the career of its namesake, although not over, surely no longer seemed to merit recognition as the standard bearer of a musical genre. Unfortunately, Elvis Presley would fare no better than his contemporaries in standing up to the coming "British Invasion."  There would eventually be a music revival and Elvis would become a record setting headliner in Las Vegas.  But he never did reach his potential as a "serious" actor.  It was probably inevitable that a star of Elvis's magnitude would be drawn to Hollywood, but the world of rock and roll missed out on a lot while Elvis was in the movies.

In December, 1963 you could turn on your radio and hum along to Sister Sourire's "Dominique," or go to the movies and thrill to Elvis Presley's performance of "(There's) No Room to Rhumba in a Sports Car."  If you were a rock and roll fan, you probably felt cheated either way.  The Elvis Era (1956-1963) was Elvis's "golden age" – he would not be the one to save rock and roll from its miasma of the early 1960's.  While The Beatles were creating "Sergeant Pepper" and The Beach Boys were producing "Pet Sounds," Elvis would be recording "Petunia, The Gardener's Daughter" for the "Frankie and Johnny" soundtrack.  Elvis himself said, " I sure lost my musical direction in Hollywood.  My songs were the same conveyer belt mass production, just like most of my movies were."  Amen.