What Music Appears In Priscilla Before Elvis Soundtrack?

I’ll say this with a grin: the opening and early sections of 'Priscilla' feel scored by a really tasteful curator. The soundtrack prior to Elvis’s music leans on classic late-’50s/early-’60s pop — you know, the kind of songs that smell like lip gloss and high-school dances. Those are the tunes that set the scene: radio love songs, doo-wop-flavored harmonies, and the odd instrumental motif that underlines Priscilla’s solitude. The effect is deliberately small-scale, cinematic in a way that keeps the audience in Priscilla’s bubble rather than in Elvis’s spotlight.

Another layer I noticed is the original music that threads the film together. It’s modern enough that it doesn’t try to mimic period hits, but sympathetic enough that it slides under the vintage cuts and keeps the emotional tempo steady. When Elvis’s catalogue finally appears, it’s striking precisely because the soundtrack has been so carefully restrained beforehand. So, if you’re hunting for the “before Elvis” section, listen for the warm, retro pop and those low-key instrumental cues — they’re the colors Sofia Coppola uses to paint Priscilla’s early world, and I thought they were beautifully chosen.

When asking what music appears in 'Priscilla' before the Elvis material, I always come back to a simple description: it’s mostly period pop and a quiet, modern score. The film opens with small, intimate tracks — radio hits, girl-group melodies, and soft ballads — that create a teenage, small-town atmosphere. Those songs are deliberate: they emphasize Priscilla’s youth, her social circles, and the domestic rhythm of her life before Elvis becomes a defining presence.

Layered on top of those vintage cuts is a subtle original score that never overpowers the songs but gives emotional continuity. So the music you’ll hear first is atmospheric 1960s-style pop and thoughtful instrumental pieces, and the Elvis catalogue arrives later to change the film’s tone. Personally, I loved how restrained it all felt — it made the Elvis moments hit much harder when they came, which stuck with me long after the credits rolled.

I got totally absorbed in the soundtrack of 'Priscilla' — it’s one of those films where the music quietly does half the storytelling. Before any full-on Elvis moments arrive, the movie lives in a world of late-1950s and 1960s teenage pop textures: soft girl-group harmonies, AM radio jingles, and melancholy ballads that underline Priscilla’s innocence and the strangeness of the military base and California social scenes she’s dropped into. Interwoven with those needle-drop classics is an original, modern-leaning score that keeps the film intimate and slightly aloof; it doesn’t shout, it frames. I dug how the period tracks sit next to that subtle score — it’s like being inside a memory that’s both vivid and filtered.

If you pay attention to the early scenes you’ll hear lots of small cultural signals — jukebox hits, romantic ballads, and background radio tracks — that set up Priscilla’s pre-Elvis life. Those choices emphasize youth culture, church socials, and small-town girl-group romance vibes rather than Presley’s catalogue. The Elvis songs themselves are introduced more deliberately later, so what plays “before” them functions more as atmosphere: nostalgic, sometimes melancholy pop from the era, plus the film’s understated instrumental palette. For anyone who loves period placement, it’s the sort of soundtrack that rewards listening twice — once for the obvious hits and again for the quieter cues, which I still hum weeks later.