Elvis spent the final four hours of his life completely alone. He was due to fly back out on tour on the day that he died, and as preparations were made for the journey, what happened was that the king of rock and roll spent time in isolation before eventually passing away.
The news of Elvis’ death would shock the world. He was one of the major foundations on which rock ‘n’ roll would eventually be built. Granted, while he may not have written any of his own songs, how he sang, acted on stage and brought so many different upbeat tracks into the mainstream paved the way for many artists to do the same thing. His death is still mourned to this day.
Many people simply weren’t ready to accept the news of Elvis’ passing. A lot of conspiracy theories had light shed on them; one that mainly gained traction was talk of Orion, a vocal doppelganger who many thought was Elvis singing under a persona, faking his death to move away from the spotlight. The reason his death was difficult for some to come to terms with was firstly because of how loved he was as a musician and secondly because of how sudden it was.
As mentioned above, Elvis was due to go on tour the day that he died. It’s not as if no further plans were made for the future due to the fact he was ill. Additionally, it hadn’t been long since he was last in the studio recording new music. His last song, which was released only one month before his passing, was ‘He’ll Have to Go’.
‘He’ll Have to Go’ was initially released by Jim Reeves in 1959. The track’s original version was a hit in the early 1960s, as it talks about a man talking on the telephone to the woman he loves when he realises that she is with another man. Though a country song at heart, the way that the piece was arranged meant it also leant into the realm of country pop and, as such, was something that the King was keen to take on himself when preparing his ’77 album Moody Blue.
It is said that Elvis recorded his cover of ‘He’ll Have to Go’ on October 31st, 1976. The unique low-humming essence of his voice shines through on every syllable, despite the fact his health will have been severely deteriorating at the time of recording.
As someone who ushered in a completely new strand of music and performance, people simply weren’t ready to say goodbye to Elvis when he passed away. The news came as a shock, given he was still releasing music and set to go on tour. As people gathered around the radio and heard the untimely news that Elvis had left the building, they no doubt went over to their record player to listen again to some of the final songs he recorded, ‘He’ll Have To Go’ being one of them.