14.LATTER-DAY ELVIS: Elvis performs in 1973 wearing what would become one of his trademark looks, the white sequined jumpsuit.
In the early 1970s, Elvis continued to perform live and draw large audiences, though his performances began to lack consistency. He began putting on weight, and even split his seams before tens of thousands of fans at a show in Michigan, LIFE noted in 1995.
Though his health began to decline, Elvis toured regularly, and his Aloha from Hawaii concert album reached No. 1 on Billboard's pop chart in May 1973 -- his first No. 1 album in seven years, and ultimately his last. He was also hospitalized that year for pneumonia, an enlarged colon and hepatitis, among other ailments.
Neither his schedule nor his health troubles kept Elvis away from women, however. He had affairs before and after he and Priscilla split; his partners included singer Kathy Westmoreland, who called him "a long-lost soul I had missed and found," and congressional aide Joyce Bova, who said he was "almost shy. He was like a little boy," PEOPLE noted in August 1997. He began dating Linda Thompson in 1972, but the pair split in 1976.
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