Elvis Presley died in 1977, after which his estate was to pass to his daughter, Lisa Marie, on her 25th birthday. Before then, it was managed by executors of the will, including his father, grandmother and ex-wife Priscilla. On Vernon and Minnie Mae’s death, their amounts of the will went to Lisa Marie, who owned the trust – but did she own the music?
Sadly for Lisa Marie, her inheritance never included the royalties to the many songs of Elvis Presley’s which were recorded.
This was due to a poor deal negotiated by Elvis’ manager, Colonel Tom Parker, which meant all future royalties were signed away.
When Elvis started his career in 1954, he recorded at Sun Records in Memphis.
He signed a contract which meant Sam Phillips, the own and producer at Sun Records, owned all of his recordings made there.
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However, Sam sold this contract and the catalogue of songs made at Sun Records to RCA, a record company, in late 1955, after which Elvis remained under contract to RCA.
He received an artist’s royalties on record sales, which were part of the contract he had negotiated.
However, in March 1973, Colonel Tom and Elvis went to RCA, suggesting Elvis be given a lump sum in lieu of all future artist’s royalties for anything recorded up to that time.
Of course, by 1973, Elvis had quite the back catalogue to work with, meaning this would have earned RCA a huge amount of money.
The deal was done, and RCA paid Elvis and Colonel Tom $5.4million (£4.2m) for the artist royalties, which was then split equally between the two men.
$5.4m would be approximately $31.5m (£24.2m) in today’s money.
As a result, Lisa Marie does not own the artist’s royalties on sales of recordings made before March 1973, however the Elvis Presley Enterprises (EPE) does own his artist’s royalties on sales of recordings made after that date, which still earns them a hefty sum.
EPE also still holds the publishing rights to all of the songs recorded by Elvis, which equals around 700, as they were part owned by Elvis through his various publishing companies.
The publisher’s royalties to his songs, therefore, are still earned by the EPE, as these were not sold to RCA.
Of course, his publishing contracts are liable to expire, after which those songs can no longer earn publishing royalties by the EPE, but can earn artist’s royalties for RCA.
In 1981, EPE was advised to sue Colonel Tom Parker for his dealings with Elvis with regards the March 1973 deal, and two years later it was settled out of court for what has been reported as $2million (£1.5m).
But what does Lisa Marie Presley get of this money?
Of course, of the artist’s royalties sold by Colonel Tom to RCA, Lisa Marie gets nothing.
However, through The Elvis Presley Trust, Lisa Marie wholly owned EPE, which managed her father’s estate.
In 2005, Lisa Marie sold 85 per cent of her share of EPE to entertainment company CKX.
This included its physical and intellectual properties, however Lisa Marie retained sole ownership of Graceland and her father’s personal items, many of which remain in the house.
Lisa Marie still has a 15 per cent share in the company of EPE, despite, in 2013 the 85 per cent share being sold to the Authentic Brands Group.
Graceland has now been opened as a tourist attraction, and is the most visited private residence in the USA.
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