The day that Priscilla Beaulieu (pronunciation: “bowl-yo”) met Elvis Presley, on Sunday, September 13, 1959, was truly an unforgettable night for both Elvis and Priscilla, as noted by the people who were also there at Presley’s house in Bad Nauheim, Germany that evening. Wearing a navy and white sailor dress with white socks and shoes, Priscilla had a strong resemblance to actress Debra Paget, who Elvis had famously been interested in when he was filming Love Me Tender with her in 1956.
Priscilla remembered Elvis wearing a red sweater and tan pants. When she walked into the living room, he immediately stood up to meet her. Instantly taken with her beauty, Elvis made small talk with Priscilla. He thought she looked mature enough to be a junior or senior in high school, but Priscilla was only in ninth grade. There was a 10-year age gap between Elvis, who was 24 years old at the time, and Priscilla.
Small and petite, with long brown hair, blue eyes, and an upturned nose, I was always stared at by the other students,” Priscilla Presley recalled in her 1985 memoir, Elvis and Me. “People always said I was the prettiest girl in school, but I never felt that way.” In fact, Priscilla was named “Best Looking Senior” in her 12th grade high school yearbook.
Talking to a girl from the States removed the language barrier Elvis had with many of the German girls he dated while he was serving his time in the army. Presley was curious to find out from Priscilla what music the kids her age were listening to back home.
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Priscilla laughed. “Are you kidding?” she said. “Everyone listens to you.”
Then, Elvis asked Priscilla what kind of music she liked to listen to. She told him: Mario Lanza, an American opera singer turned film star.
“You’re kidding. How do you know about Mario Lanza?” Elvis asked. Priscilla said she loved Lanza’s album, The Student Prince. Elvis was impressed and said that was his favorite.
For a girl her age, she held her own,” recalled Cliff Gleaves.
“Priscilla did have a way about her, when she was around Elvis, that made her seem far older than her 14 years,” recalled Charlie Hodge. “She had a kind of poise. An aloofness about her… Elvis told me, over and over, ‘Charlie, Priscilla is the most beautiful creature I ever saw’.”
How ironic, or coincidental, that the following year Elvis would record an operatic English version of the Italian standard “O Sole Mio” called “It’s Now or Never.” Could this song choice have been influenced at all by Priscilla?
Mario Lanza, who passed away in October 1959 at the young age of 38, had recorded his version of “O Sole Mio” in 1949. (The performance below is from Lanza’s last film, For the First Time, released in 1959)
Elvis loved “O Sole Mio” so much that he commissioned new lyrics to be written for him. The new song would be called “It’s Now or Never.
Elvis recorded “It’s Now or Never” after he got out of the army in April 1960. It would become his biggest-selling single ever with sales surpassing the 20-million mark.
Whether Priscilla influenced this song selection or not, she had proven to Elvis that she was quite mature for her age and had great taste in music. In fact, Priscilla admitted that Elvis used to send her various 45 rpm records in the mail to keep their relationship going once he left Germany. Having similar interests in music could only help intensify the connection that Elvis and Priscilla had.
However, it wasn’t all smooth sailing after Priscilla met Elvis. The truth was that Elvis was still seeing other girls when he first met Priscilla, and also Elvis had a girlfriend back home in Memphis who he would reunite with after he was released from the army.
