Some of the biggest “what if” stories in Elvis’s life aren’t about his music at all. They’re about the movies he almost made. And this one came straight to his dressing room door.
After Elvis finished a midnight show on March 28, 1975, Barbra Streisand and her boyfriend Jon Peters came backstage to see him. They had an offer. Streisand wanted Elvis to star opposite her in a new film called “A Star Is Born.”
It was the kind of part that could have changed everything. A serious, dramatic lead in a major Hollywood picture, with one of the most respected singers of the age right beside him.
So why didn’t it happen?
According to Priscilla, the person who steered Elvis away from it was his longtime manager, Colonel Tom Parker. She told People magazine that “Barbra had offered him the part” and that the “Colonel talked him out of that.” And she said Elvis came to regret it, because “he felt he could have played that part.”
Priscilla even remembers the gist of what the Colonel told him. As she tells it, the warning was blunt: “Oh, it’s not going to be good. She’s going to be in charge, not you. Her movie, not yours.”
There was money in the way too. Elvis’s manager was famous for asking for eye-popping sums, and the demands he put on the table helped sink the deal. The role went instead to Kris Kristofferson, who won a Golden Globe for it.
Hear the duet they finally made, years later
The story doesn’t end on a sad note. Long after the movie slipped away, Streisand found another way to share a song with Elvis.
In 2014, with the full approval of the Presley estate, Streisand released a “Love Me Tender” duet with Elvis on her album “Partners.” Their voices were woven together so it sounds like they’re singing to each other across the years.
A look back at Elvis’s rise and fall
This trailer gives you a feel for the man behind these stories and the ups and downs that shaped his career.
It’s easy to wonder how different things might have been if Elvis had said yes in that dressing room. But the regret, as Priscilla tells it, stayed with him. The good news is that the duet gives fans a small taste of what a real pairing might have sounded like.
Watch the first clip to hear Elvis and Streisand finally share a song.