The song’s opening line tells the story of Las Vegas – then and today.
“Bright light city, gonna set my soul, gonna set my soul on fire.”
The film was boosted by its bouncy soundtrack and Technicolor, which showed off the stars’ red and yellow outfits and the city’s flashing neon.
Viva Las Vegas’ storyline: racing car driver Lucky Jackson (Presley) hits Vegas to compete in the Las Vegas Grand Prix (the forerunner of today’s F1 race, without the widespread repaving).
Lucky’s engine coughs out, and he loses his money when shoved into the Flamingo hotel-casino pool by lifeguard – and part-time singer/dancer – Rusty Martin (Ann-Margret).
The early king and queen of Las Vegas would hit it off royally. They sing. They dance. They flirt. They end up getting married at the famous Little Church of the West.
The pairing of Presley and Ann-Margret was paramount to the film’s appeal. Both would go on to perform as headliners in Las Vegas.
Their chemistry was evident as Elvis, wearing a sharp grey suit, trails Ann-Margret (in a canary-yellow swimsuit) around the pool deck. Self-confident in his portrayal as Lucky, Elvis strums an acoustic and croons, “The Lady Loves Me”, which starts as a solo and grows into a teasing duet.
Presley and Ann-Margret also tore it up in the explosive “C’mon Everybody”.
In 2021 Ann-Margret talked of her time with Presley during the filming.
“He was a great man. This is going to sound weird, but I’d never seen him perform before I did the movie,” she said. “I know, it’s hard to believe. And we just found out that we were very much alike.
“Growing up and being very shy, and then you become this other person when you are performing. I loved my parents so much, and he loved his mother so much.”
Ann-Margret had become a sensation a year earlier in the film adaptation of Bye Bye Birdie, also directed by Sidney. She was the only entertainer to ever share top billing with Elvis.
As they rehearsed, Ann-Margret recalled, “We looked at each other and said, ‘We’re moving the same!’ The music brought that out in us. We just chuckled at that.”
She also claimed she had seen Viva Las Vegas once, end-to-end, just after the final cut.
“I see my movies only one time, and it’s usually in a screening room,” Ann-Margret said “The knuckles are white. It’s just very uncomfortable, I don’t know who that person is. I still don’t. I just did the best that I could.”
Jerry Schilling, whose friendship with Elvis dated to the mid-1950s in Memphis, Tennessee, said Elvis and Ann-Margret were close long after Viva Las Vegas wrapped.
“They kept in contact. They were dating for, I guess, about a year after the filming,” said Schilling, who lived with the King at his estate in Bel Air, California, at that time. “I mean, they were as close as you could get, when you’re living undercover (laughs).”
Ann-Margret is famous for her love of motorcycles. She stood on a bike alongside Elvis during Viva Las Vegas’ filming. She later rumbled to the stage on a Triumph during her days as a Strip headliner. So Elvis parked a bike for his co-star and companion in his garage, with “AMO” painted on the fuel tank. That stood for the initials in her birth name, Ann Margret Olsson.
In 2002, the city of Las Vegas reportedly asked Elvis Presley Enterprises for permission to use Viva Las Vegas as the city’s official song. Those talks stalled over a disagreement over the fee. But the song was played unofficially during Oscar Goodman’s three terms as mayor as his “walk-in” music for all public events.
One who was not known to perform the song live was the King himself. It was not on his set list at the International or Las Vegas Hilton, or any of his road dates.
Schilling cannot recall Elvis ever performing the song for an audience.
“That is a great question, but I never heard him sing Viva Las Vegas in Las Vegas,” Schilling says. “I was there for all the shows, so … It would seem like a no-brainer, but maybe he thought it would be too typical. He probably wanted to leave it to others to keep it alive.”
