Aloha from Hawaii 1973

MGM again filmed Presley in April 1972, this time for Elvis on Tour, which went on to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Documentary Film that year.    His gospel album He Touched Me, released that month, would earn him his second Grammy Award, for Best Inspirational Performance.    A 14-date tour started with an unprecedented four consecutive sold-out shows at New York's Madison Square Garden.    The evening concert on July 10 was recorded and issued in LP form a week later.    Elvis: As Recorded at Madison Square Garden would became one of Presley's biggest-selling albums, reaching triple-platinum status.    After the tour, the single "Burning Love" was released—Presley's last top ten hit on the U.S. pop chart.    "The most exciting single Elvis has made since 'All Shook Up'", wrote rock critic Robert Christgau.    "Who else could make 'It's coming closer, the flames are now licking my body' sound like an assignation with James Brown's backup band?"

Presley in Aloha From Hawaii, broadcast live via satellite on January 14, 1973.    The singer himself came up with his famous outfit's eagle motif, as "something that would say 'America' to the world."    Presley and his wife, meanwhile, had become increasingly distant, barely cohabiting, and he was anyway frequently absent on tour.    In 1971, an affair he had with Joyce Bova resulted—unbeknownst to him—in her pregnancy and an abortion.    He often raised the possibility of her moving in to Graceland, saying that he was likely to leave Priscilla.    The Presleys separated on February 23, 1972, after Priscilla disclosed her relationship with Mike Stone, whom Presley had recommended as a karate instructor.    Priscilla reported that Presley "grabbed ... and forcefully made love to" her, declaring, "This is how a real man makes love to his woman." Presley lived with Linda Thompson, a songwriter and one-time Memphis beauty queen, from July 1972 until their breakup in late 1976.    Presley and his wife filed for divorce on August 18, 1972.

In January 1973, Presley performed two charity concerts in Hawaii for the Kui Lee cancer foundation in connection with a groundbreaking TV special, Aloha from Hawaii.    The first, staged on January 12, was primarily a practice run, serving too as a backup should technical problems affect the live broadcast two days later. Aired as scheduled on January 14, Aloha from Hawaii was the first global live concert satellite broadcast, reaching approximately 1.5 billion viewers.    Budgeted at a record $2.5 million, the show raised $85,000—more than three times what had been anticipated. Presley's outfit became the most recognized example of the elaborate concert costumes with which his latter-day persona became closely associated.    As described by Bobbie Ann Mason, "At the end of the show, when he spreads out his American Eagle cape, with the full stretched wings of the eagle studded on the back, he becomes a god figure."    The accompanying album, released in February, went to number one, spending a year on the charts.    It proved to be Presley's last U.S. number one pop album during his lifetime.

The same month, a disturbance during a midnight show left Presley in a state of shock.    When four men rushed onto the stage in what appeared to be an attack, security men leapt to Presley's defense, and the singer's karate instinct took over as he ejected one invader from the stage himself.    Following the show, he became obsessed with the idea that the men had been sent by Stone to kill him. Though they were shown to have been only overexuberant fans, he raged, "There's too much pain in me ... Stone [must] die."    His outbursts continued with such intensity that a physician was unable to calm him, despite administering large doses of medication.    After another two full days of raging, Red West, his friend and bodyguard, felt compelled to get a price for a contract killing and was relieved when Presley decided, "Aw hell, let's just leave it for now.    Maybe it's a bit heavy."