Elvis Presley didn’t write many songs, but he provided the Memphis flair and powerful vocals that made his music soar. One song written for him touched on a deeply personal moment in his life when he got divorced from Priscilla Presley. It was also an emotional track for his daughter, Lisa Marie. 

‘Separate Ways’ was written about Elvis Presley’s divorce to Priscilla

“Separate Ways” was released as a single in 1972. The song was co-written by Richard Mainegra and a member of the Memphis Mafia, Elvis’s bodyguard Red West. In an interview shared via Express, Mainegra said he and Red wanted to write a song about Elvis’ split from Priscilla and how it affected their daughter. They didn’t think it would get approved as the singer wouldn’t want to record something so intimate and revealing. 

“We started leaning the storyline toward Elvis’ break-up with Priscilla and how it affected their daughter,” Mainegra explained. “He told me when it was finished, Elvis was going to cut the song. I let that go in one ear and out the other. I thought, ‘No way!’ First of all, why would Elvis want to sing about his personal life that was already being dragged through the media every day? And, secondly, there was no way little ole ‘small town, green me’ was going to get a song cut by the one artist every songwriter in the world wanted to sing their song!”

Lisa Marie Presley called the Elvis song ‘treacherously painful’

Elvis Presley must have liked the song. Otherwise, he would have turned it down. However, the track struck a chord with his daughter, who found “Separate Ways” “painful.” The late musician once said her favorite material by her father was from the 1970s, as that was the era she was around for. She tends to like the sadder songs, even the ones that hit a personal note. 

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“I like the Seventies material because I was around for those recordings. There was some great stuff that never made it to the radio: a song called ‘Mary in the Morning’, which I loved… ‘In the Ghetto’.” Lisa Marie stated. “I like the darker songs, the sad ones. There’s a song called ‘Separate Ways’ that was treacherously painful.”

While Lisa Marie liked the song, she hated the people behind it. Red West wrote a tell-all book with the other members of the Memphis Mafia that caused Elvis distress shortly before his death. 

“These idiots were so disgusting… they helped him go down and were actually worse than he was,” she recalled in 2003. “It infuriated me. They were trying to take away his dignity, the one thing that was most important to him.”

How did ‘Separate Ways’ perform on the charts?

Many of Elvis Presley’s songs were devoted to Priscilla and performed well on the charts. While this track had a more somber tone, it still was a minor hit, reaching No. 20 on the U.S. Billboard 200. It did slightly better on the Hot Country Singles Chart, peaking at No. 16. The B-side, “Always on My Mind,” actually performed better internationally, becoming a top 10 hit in countries such as the U.K., Ireland, Belgium, and Canada.