Elvis Presley Grew ‘Increasingly Fearful’ of Frank Sinatra and Felt He Was ‘Playing With Fire’ in Relationship With His Daughter

Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra had a complicated relationship. While things were initially hostile between the two singers, they warmed up to each other as years passed. Elvis had a very friendly relationship with Nancy Sinatra, though. He reportedly began to worry that this would land him in trouble with the other singer.

Elvis Presley reportedly worried about Frank Sinatra

Elvis and Nancy Sinatra reportedly became romantically involved on the set of their film Speedway. Priscilla Presley had major concerns about Elvis’ relationship with Nancy, but he had greater worries about how Sinatra might react.

“Elvis was increasingly fearful of the heavy-handed tactics of Frank Sinatra and his mob connections,” Gary Lindberg wrote in the book Letters From Elvis (via Express). “In a letter, he told [spiritual advisor Carmen Montez] that he didn’t want any dalliance with Nancy because toying with Frank’s daughter seemed like playing with fire.”

Elvis told Montez that he believed Nancy was “particularly dangerous” because of her father. Sinatra’s alleged mob ties were an open secret.

“[Elvis was] afraid of making enemies,” Montez said. “Especially ones in the Mafia.”

Frank Sinatra initially despised Elvis Presley

Elvis had a reason to worry about Sinatra. Early in Elvis’ career, Sinatra lambasted the type of music he was making.

“It fosters almost totally negative and destructive reactions in young people,” he wrote in 1957, per the book Sinatra: The Chairman by James Kaplan, adding, “It smells phony and false. It is sung, played, and written for the most part by cretinous goons and by means of its almost imbecilic reiterations of sly, lewd — in plain fact dirty — lyrics … manages to be the martial music of every sideburned delinquent on the face of the earth. This rancid smelling aphrodisiac I deplore.”

Elvis responded diplomatically.

“I admire that man, he has a right to say what he wants to say,” he said. “He is a great success and a fine actor, but I don’t think he should have said it. He is mistaken about this. This is a trend, just the same as he faced when he started years ago.”

Nancy Sinatra spoke about the singer

While Nancy grew up around celebrities, she admitted she felt starstruck when she met Elvis. He didn’t act like a big star, though.

“Elvis was lovely. What a great guy,” she told The Guardian in 2021. “What a sweet, polite, wonderful man.”

She said he had a magnetic quality that was difficult to resist. She fell for him on the set of Speedway.

“Elvis Presley was everything you could imagine that he was — just the warmth of the man was enough to melt your heart,” she told Hot Press. “He’s one of only three people I’ve ever met who have this physical aura around them.”