{"id":93396,"date":"2025-08-25T00:00:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T00:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/93396\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T00:00:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T00:00:07","slug":"did-elvis-jam-with-the-beatles-in-1965-the-answer-is-complicated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/93396\/","title":{"rendered":"Did Elvis jam with The Beatles in 1965? The answer is complicated"},"content":{"rendered":"

The night Elvis Presley<\/a> played with The Beatles<\/a> is fondly remembered as the most epic jam in the history of rock \u2018n\u2019 roll. That is, if it actually happened.<\/p>\n

What is certain is that Elvis politely hosted the Fab Four at his Bel Air home on Aug. 27, 1965, when John Lennon<\/a>, Paul McCartney<\/a>, George Harrison<\/a> and Ringo Starr<\/a> were in Los Angeles to perform two shows at the Hollywood Bowl. Elvis, looking every inch a rock god, greeted the quartet with his future wife Priscilla Beaulieu<\/a> and his \u201cMemphis Mafia\u201d inner circle at his side.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Beatles were in awe, and I can say that because they told me that the next day,\u201d Jerry Schilling<\/a>, Elvis\u2019 longtime friend, tells USA TODAY, while discussing the new Elvis collection \u201cSunset Boulevard,\u201d<\/a> which spans Presley\u2019s LA studio sessions from 1970 to 1975. \u201cBut it got kind of quiet\u201d after they were ushered into the den.<\/p>\n

Elvis sat on the couch, holding his Fender bass guitar, as the four shaggy-haired Beatles stood and sat uneasily. Then Elvis announced, \u201cIf you guys are going to look at me all night, I\u2019m going to bed,\u201d Schilling, 83, recalls. \u201cEveryone burst out laughing and that broke the ice. Not that there was any cold ice at all. I don\u2019t care what anyone says, I was there, it was a great night.\u201d<\/p>\n

By all accounts, Charlie Rich\u2019s \u201cMohair Sam,\u201d<\/a> one of Elvis\u2019 favorite songs of the moment, was playing on repeat. George went off with Larry Geller, Elvis\u2019 hairstylist, and \u201cthere was probably some grass going on,\u201d Schilling says, pausing for a beat. \u201cLet me be honest, there was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starr and Schilling took on Beatles roadie Mal Evans and Elvis\u2019 cousin Billy Smith in a game of pool. But what happened next is hotly debated. Did The Beatles jam with Elvis?<\/p>\n

Lennon later claimed<\/a> they did, as did Priscilla<\/a> and Beatles press officer Tony Barrow<\/a>, who recalls everyone playing The Beatles’ “I Feel Fine,”<\/a> among other songs. Music journalist Chris Hutchins, who witnessed the meeting<\/a>, wrote that McCartney gave Elvis tips on bass as Presley played along with Cilla Black\u2019s \u201cYou\u2019re My World.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

The day after the encounter, Harrison told radio reporter Larry Kane, \u201cWe were playing electric guitars<\/a> and playing records and watching TV,\u201d while McCartney described a pleasant evening spent \u201crock \u2018n\u2019 rolling, playing the instruments, a bit of billiards, a bit of roulette.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bafflingly, 30 years later, in \u201cThe Beatles Anthology\u201d documentary, Harrison, McCartney and Starr couldn\u2019t recall playing with Presley<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Joe Esposito, Elvis\u2019 road manager, who also believed the jam session took place, acknowledged in an interview with \u201cElvis Australia\u201d that recollections of the night vary. \u201cWe\u2019ve all gotten older. All our memories are different.<\/a> And maybe when you read things or believe certain things you read, which you know are not true, eventually they become real.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for Schilling, \u201cI feel pretty strongly about what happened and what didn\u2019t happen,\u201d he tells USA TODAY.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there was a jam session, I would have been the first one to look at it,\u201d he says, but acknowledges it may have taken place. \u201cMaybe there was something I didn\u2019t see. I would say it would be the worst mistake I ever made if I said it didn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The evening ended with Lennon extending an invitation to Presley and his entourage to visit The Beatles at the house where they were staying. Schilling dropped by, where Lennon introduced him to Joan Baez<\/a> and famously asked Schilling to tell Elvis that he would have been nothing without him, because Lennon \u201cdidn\u2019t have the nerve\u201d to share the sentiment with Elvis the night before.<\/p>\n

Schilling recalls Presley receiving the heartfelt message with \u201cthat same little boy smile\u201d of pride he had after recording \u201cHow Great Thou Art.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the end, Schilling spent two more days with The Beatles and rode with them to the Hollywood Bowl when \u201cI realized, uh-oh, I\u2019m really not doing my job with Elvis. So I get a car and go back home. I\u2019m probably the only guy in history who goes as a guest of The Beatles and didn\u2019t see the show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Was Elvis upset that his friend disappeared to hang out with The Beatles?<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had to know,\u201d Schilling figures. \u201cI don\u2019t care how nice or how great artists are, they all have a certain survival ego that\u2019s probably understandable. He never questioned me on it, never brought it up, never was angry about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cQuite contrary to everybody, Elvis did like The Beatles and recorded (a number) of their songs,\u201d he says, including \u201cYesterday,\u201d \u201cHey Jude\u201d and \u201cSomething.\u201d<\/p>\n

And perhaps more tellingly, the King of Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll also covered \u201cNever Been to Spain,\u201d<\/a> which includes the lyric, \u201cI kinda like The Beatles,\u201d Schilling points out. \u201cHe went on tape with that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The night Elvis Presley played with The Beatles is fondly remembered as the most epic jam in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[448,449,64,63,6983,447,455,52312,17614,134,3201,34935,17418,5585,14061,45956,322,456,69201,136,324,44,323,335,1911,13683,69199,43928,37881,1771,10160,69200,320,36484,39,441],"class_list":["post-93396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-affiliate","tag-arts","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-beatles","tag-celebrities","tag-celebrities-u0026-entertainment-news","tag-elvis","tag-elvis-presley","tag-entertainment","tag-george","tag-george-harrison","tag-harrison","tag-john","tag-john-lennon","tag-lennon","tag-local","tag-local-affiliate-arts-u0026-entertainment","tag-mccartney","tag-music","tag-neutral","tag-news","tag-overall","tag-overall-neutral","tag-paul","tag-paul-mccartney","tag-presley","tag-ringo","tag-ringo-starr","tag-rock","tag-rock-music","tag-starr","tag-the","tag-the-beatles","tag-top-stories","tag-u0026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}