The song Clint Eastwood wrote with Elvis Presley’s ex about her love for ‘The King’
When he’s not been too busy living it up as one of the most iconic actors in cinema history or one of the modern era’s most consistent and prolific directors, Clint Eastwood has always fancied himself as something of a musician.
It’s a love affair that’s been ongoing for decades, with Eastwood’s first major taste of the music industry coming when he released an album of country and western songs tied to his long-running role on the TV series Rawhide. Even when he upgraded to features, his musicality was always lurking in the shadows.
The four-time Academy Award-winning legend has also performed in movies like Paint Your Wagon, Bronco Billy, and Any Which Way You Can, in addition to composing the score for seven of his own features. There are many musical bones in his body, and he gave one of them a workout when he partnered up with Elvis Presley’s former flame to compose a tune for one of his most forgettable features.
One of the biggest busts of his career, 1999’s True Crime – which Eastwood produced, directed, and starred in – failed to even recoup a third of its production budget at the box office and was quickly lost in the shuffle amidst a filmography overflowing with classics.
However, it did present him with a tangential connection to ‘The King’ after the Hollywood heavyweight collaborated with Linda Thompson and Carole Bayer Sager to craft ‘Why Should I Care’ for Diana Krall, which was used in both True Crime and the latter’s album When I Look In Your Eyes, which was released in the same year.
Thompson famously moved into Graceland with Elvis in the early 1970s following his divorce from Priscilla Presley, and they remained together for four years, splitting just a few months before his death in August 1977. A beauty queen, actor, songwriter, and author at various points, many of her musical endeavours featured pointed lyrics that were clearly drawn from her relationship with ‘The King’, who she always viewed as the love of her life.
‘Why Should I Care’ features lines such as, “Was I not meant to be the one? Where’s the life I thought we would share?” and “Will someone else get more of you? Will she go to sleep more sure of you?” It doesn’t exactly require a massive leap in logic to figure out where Thompson was drawing her inspiration, despite having such a stoic and grizzled figure as Eastwood as part of the process.
Eastwood and Elvis knew each other and were on friendly terms, even if they never got to work together directly. It might not have been a straightforward collaboration, but their paths did end up crossing once again in a roundabout way more than two decades after Presley’s death. In a resoundingly mediocre film, no less.
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