How Elvis Was Coaxed into Recording a Christmas Album—As Told by a Man Who Was There

On this episode of Our American Stories, Greg McDonald got his start in show business as a teenager after meeting Elvis Presley and his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, shortly after Parker began managing Elvis in the ‘50s. Here’s Greg with a Colonel and Elvis Christmas story.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
Greg McDonald got his start in show business as a
teenager after meeting Elvis Presley and his manager, Colonel Tom Parker,
while changing their air conditioning filters in Parker's Palm Springs,

(00:30):
California home. Greg went on to manage Ricky Nelson for
seventeen years and worked under Colonel Parker and Elvis shortly
after Parker began managing Elvis in the nineteen fifties. Here's
Greg with the Colonel and Elvis Christmas story.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Colonel Parker loved Christmas. He had always had a Santa
suit and he loved entertaining kids and families. Even at
the Las Vegas Hilton. He would sit out there in
the Santa suit and entertain all of the Hilton employees' children,
several thousand of them. And the bad news was he

(01:11):
passed that Satas suit down to me and he had
me do the Santa Claus routine every year, which is
very and if you've ever played Santa Claus, you know
it's very hard. It's not easy. It's a tough day.
But he did that He always had a little present
for the kids. You know, we'd give him an Elvis
teddy bear, all kinds of different trinkets that the Colonel.

(01:33):
Colonel loved to make up, little merchandising gadgets. In nineteen
seventy one, RCIA had set up and the Colonel had
set up a session in Nashville at RCA Studio B,
and they wanted a Christmas album. Well, Elvis wanted to record,

(01:58):
but he wanted to do other songs. He wanted to
go in to do some Bob Dylan covers and some
Peter Paul and Mary stuff, which was hotter at that time.
And Elvis, of course, his Christmas album in nineteen fifty
eight was the biggest Christmas album ever. And a lot
of people don't realize that. Elvis recorded his version of

(02:21):
White Christmas and they sent the dub up to New
York and they played that dub for Irving Berlin, who
wrote that song White Christmas in it. At that time,
it was the biggest Christmas song ever and been sung
by Bing Crosby, and it was huge. I dream, oh a,

(02:44):
what Christmas. G Irving Berlin hates it. He tells them,
don't put it out, it's my song. You can't put

(03:04):
it out. Well, of course they could, and they did so.
Irving Berlin hires a room full of people to call
radio stations and tell them not to play the record.
It's sacrilegious. So well, obviously the album comes out. You know,
Blue Christmas is on it, White Christmas is on it.

(03:27):
Huge record. At the end of Irving Berlin's career, disc
jockey asking mister Berlin, what was the biggest royalty check
and on what song was it? During your life? What
was your most profitable hit, and he said Elvis Presley's
version of White Christmas, So you know it was that

(03:49):
particular album is the biggest selling Christmas album, including Mariah
Carey and all of those, it's the biggest selling. Still
you can't get an elevator Christmas. Not here Blue Christmas.
The Colonel it was his idea one. Elvis didn't want
to do it. He was doing blowing in the wind.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
The answer is eploy and the wind. How many times
must have bet before he came.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
He did some great songs, but they weren't what was
planned for the session. And the Colonel was almost never
went to recording sessions, so we were in Nashville and
that Chad Atkins office actually at RCA, and we could
hear what Elvis. There was a speaker in the conference room,
we could hear what they were recording in the studio. Well,

(04:53):
chet Atkins was calling New York and giving us up
and he'd say, you know, Elvis is they're singing, but
he ain't doing Christmas and could they call the Colonel
and go you got to have him record. We got
it scheduled for a release at Christmas. Colonel would send
his right hand man, Tom Diskin into the studio to
get Elvis, because Colonel would never walk in that was

(05:17):
there separate turfs. So he bring Elvis out into the
parking lot where I was recently, and you could see
them friendly talking, the Colonel saying you got to sing
Christmas Elvis, and Elvis sing, Yeah, but I wanted he
wanted to do gospel songs. So this was going on
for a week. They called it the Marathon, and he

(05:41):
cut some of the greatest songs Elvis ever cut. So
he'd sing three Christmas songs and then he went back
in the studio because he knew we were listening, and
he recorded a song called he Touched Me, which was
one of his biggest records and became one of his
gospel album that he got the only Grammy for And
how great thou art. Anyway, during those Nashville sessions, Elvis

(06:07):
was having so much fun. He and Red West had
a karate demonstration and they ended up breaking a classic guitar.
And Red had put a Christmas tree in the studio.
This is summertime and he put a Christmas tree just
to get him into the Christmas move, to get him
to record. Anyway, the Colonel didn't mind the gospel stuff,

(06:30):
but he wasn't ready for the Bob Dylan songs. He
wanted the Christmas songs. So the battle between the two
super egos was going on, and that was a real
it was friendly. That was in the real friendly days,
those two. But they were nose to nose over what
he was going to record, and they ended up recording
thirty forty songs and I think they all became chart records.

Speaker 1 (06:54):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Henglo, And a special thing to
Greg McDonald. He's the author of Elvis and the Colonel
and Insider's Look at the most legendary partnership in show business.
And he's co author on that book was Marshall Terrell.
And what a story he told. Elvis didn't want to
do this Christmas record in nineteen seventy one, and yet

(07:18):
here was Colonel Parker's instincts keeping Elvis relevant with this
hugely popular record. The story of how it got made
Here on Our American Stories. This is Lee Habib, host
of our American Stories. Every day we set out to
tell the stories of Americans past and present, from small
towns to big cities, and from all walks of life

(07:40):
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