Famous in life, Elvis Presley has become even more famous in death as an icon of American music and TV-era celebrity. Presley hit the charts as a rock 'n roll rebel in the 1950s. His 9 September 1956 appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show (with Presley shown only from the waist up to hide his swivelling hips) turned him into one of the era's biggest stars.
His many hits included "Jailhouse Rock," "Hound Dog" and "Blue Suede Shoes." He also appeared in dozens of lighthearted movies designed to let him cavort and play the guitar onscreen, including King Creole (1958, with ) and Blue Hawaii (1961, with ). In the late 1960s, after a period of declining fame, he remade himself into "The King," a melodramatic icon known for his sequined karate-style jumpsuits and megaconcerts.
The loyalty of his fans is famous; though he died in 1977, sightings of a supposedly surviving Elvis became a kind of international running joke. Elvis's Memphis home, Graceland, has become a permanent shrine to the singer.
Col.
Tom Parker was Elvis's longtime manager and personal power broker...
Elvis's daughter Lisa Marie Presley was married to pop star from 1994-1996, and then briefly to in 2002...
Elvis was married one time, to the former Priscilla Beaulieu, from 1967-73; Priscilla Presley later appeared in the TV soap Dallas and the Naked Gun film series...
A remix of Elvis's 1968 recording "A Little Less Conversation" became a hit after being featured in Nike ads during the 2002 World Cup; the song went to #1 on the British music charts...
Elvis's twin brother, Jesse Garon, died at birth...
Elvis's middle name is spelled "Aaron" on his tombstone; according to his official site, the name was spelled Aron at birth but as an adult Elvis planned to change the spelling to Aaron, and the tombstone was designed to reflect that wish.
A German fan dishes up concert archives, reviews and jumpsuit photos
Full biography, discography, and related artists
Archive includes his full 1977 obituary, film reviews, links and other tidbits
But no one could argue with the fact that he was the musician most responsible for popularizing rock roll on an international level. Viewed in cold sales figures, his impact was phenomenal. Dozens upon dozens of international smashes from the mid-'50s to the mid-'70s, as well as the steady sales of his catalog and reissues since his death in 1977, may make him the single highest-selling performer in history.
More important from a music lover's perspective, however, are his remarkable artistic achievements. Presley was not the very first white man to sing rhythm blues; predated him in that regard, and there may have been others as well. Elvis was certainly the first, however, to assertively fuse country and blues music into the style known as rockabilly.
While rockabilly arrangements were the foundations of his first (and possibly best) recordings, Presley could not have become a mainstream superstar without a much more varied palette that also incorporated pop, gospel, and even some bits of bluegrass and operatic schmaltz here and there. His 1950s recordings established the basic language of rock roll; his explosive and sexual stage presence set standards for the music's visual image; his vocals were incredibly powerful and versatile.
Unfortunately, to much of the public, Elvis is more icon than artist.
Innumerable bad Hollywood movies, increasingly caricatured records and mannerisms, and a personal life that became steadily more sheltered from real-world concerns (and steadily more bizarre) gave his story a somewhat mythic status. By the time of his death, he'd become more a symbol of gross Americana than of cultural innovation. The continued speculation about his incredible career has sustained interest in his life, and supported a large tourist/entertainment industry, that may last indefinitely, even if the fascination is fueled more by his celebrity than his music.
Born to a poor Mississippi family in the heart of Depression, Elvis had moved to Memphis by his teens, where he absorbed the vibrant melting pot of Southern popular music in the form of blues, country, bluegrass, and gospel. After graduating from high school, he became a truck driver, rarely if ever singing in public. Some 1953 and 1954 demos, recorded at the emerging Sun label in Memphis primarily for Elvis' own pleasure, helped stir interest on the part of Sun owner .
In mid-1954, , looking for a white singer with a black feel, teamed Presley with guitarist and bassist . Almost by accident, apparently, the trio hit upon a version of an blues tune, "That's All Right Mama," that became Elvis' first single.
Elvis' five Sun singles pioneered the blend of R B and C W that would characterize rockabilly music.
For quite a few scholars, they remain not only Elvis' best singles, but the best rock roll ever recorded. Claiming that Elvis made blues acceptable for the white market is not the whole picture; the singles usually teamed blues covers with country and pop ones, all made into rock roll (at this point a term that barely existed) with the pulsing beat, slap-back echo, and Elvis' soaring, frenetic vocals. "That's All Right Mama," "Blue Moon of Kentucky," "Good Rockin' Tonight," "Baby Let's Play House," and "Mystery Train" remain core early rock classics.
The singles sold well in the Memphis area immediately, and by 1955 were starting to sell well to country audiences throughout the South. Presley, , and hit the road with a stage show that grew ever wilder and more provocative, Elvis' swiveling hips causing enormous controversy. The move to all-out rock was hastened by the addition of drums.
The last Sun single, "I Forgot to Remember Forget"/"Mystery Train," hit number one on the national country charts in late 1955. Presley was obviously a performer with superstar potential, attracting the interest of bigger labels and Colonel Tom Parker, who became Elvis' manager. In need of capital to expand the Sun label, sold Presley's contract to RCA in late 1955 for 35,000 dollars; a bargain, when viewed in hindsight, but an astronomical sum at the time.
This is the point where musical historians start to diverge in opinion. For many, the whole of his subsequent work for RCA -- encompassing over 20 years -- was a steady letdown, never recapturing the pure, primal energy that was harnessed so effectively on the handful of Sun singles. Elvis, however, was not a purist.
What he wanted, more than anything, was to be successful. To do that, his material needed more of a pop feel; in any case, he'd never exactly been one to disparage the mainstream, naming as one of his chief heroes from the get-go. At RCA, his rockabilly was leavened with enough pop flavor to make all of the charts, not just the country ones.
At the beginning, at least, the results were hardly any tamer than the Sun sessions. "Heartbreak Hotel," his first single, rose to number one and, aided by some national television appearances, helped make Elvis an instant superstar. "I Want You, I Need You, I Love You" was a number one follow-up; the double-sided monster "Hound Dog"/"Don't Be Cruel" was one of the biggest-selling singles the industry had ever experienced up to that point.
Albums and EPs were also chart-toppers, not just in the U.S., but throughout the world.
The 1956 RCA recordings, while a bit more sophisticated in production and a bit less rootsy in orientation than his previous work, were still often magnificent, rating among the best and most influential recordings of early rock roll.
Elvis' (and Colonel Parker's) aspirations were too big to be limited to records and live appearances. By late 1956, his first Hollywood movie, Love Me Tender, had been released; other screen vehicles would follow in the next few years, Jailhouse Rock being the best.
The hits continued unabated, several of them ("Jailhouse Rock," "All Shook Up," "Too Much") excellent, and often benefiting from the efforts of top early rock songwriter , as well as the emerging team of - . added both pop and gospel elements with their smooth backup vocals.
Yet worrisome signs were creeping in.
The influence began rearing his head in smoky, sentimental ballads such as "Loving You"; the vocal swoops became more exaggerated and stereotypical, although the overall quality of his output remained high. And although and continued to back Elvis on his early RCA recordings, within a few years the musicians had gone their own ways.
Presley's recording and movie careers were interrupted by his induction into the Army in early 1958.
There was enough material in the can to flood the charts throughout his two-year absence (during which he largely served in Germany). When he re-entered civilian life in 1960, his popularity, remarkably, was at just as high a level as when he left.
One couldn't, unfortunately, say the same for the quality of his music, which was not just becoming more sedate, but was starting to either repeat itself, or opt for operatic ballads that didn't have a whole lot to do with rock.
Elvis' rebellious, wild image had been tamed to a large degree as well, as he and Parker began designing a career built around Hollywood films. Shortly after leaving the Army, in fact, Presley gave up live performing altogether for nearly a decade to concentrate on movie-making. The films, in turn, would serve as vehicles to both promote his records and to generate maximum revenue with minimal effort.
For the rest of the '60s, Presley ground out two or three movies a year that, while mostly profitable, had little going for them in the way of story, acting, or social value.
While there were some quality efforts on Presley's early-'60s albums, his discography was soon dominated by forgettable soundtracks, mostly featuring material that was dispensable or downright ridiculous. In time he became largely disinterested in devoting much time to his craft in the studio.
The soundtrack LPs themselves were sometimes filled out with outtakes that had been in the can for years (and these, sadly, were often the highlights of the albums). There were some good singles in the early '60s, like "Return to Sender"; once in a while there was even a flash of superb, tough rock, like "Little Sister" or "(Marie's the Name) His Latest Flame." But by 1963 or so there was little to get excited about, although he continued to sell in large quantities.
The era spanning, roughly, 1962-1967 has generated a school of Elvis apologists, eager to wrestle any kernel of quality that emerged from his recordings during this period. They also point out that Presley was assigned poor material, and assert that Colonel Parker was largely responsible for Presley's emasculation. True to a point, but on the other hand it could be claimed, with some validity, that Presley himself was doing little to rouse himself from his artistic stupor, letting Parker destroy his artistic credibility without much apparent protest, and holing up in his large mansion with a retinue of yes-men that protected their benefactor from much day-to-day contact with a fast-changing world.
, all big Elvis fans, displaced Presley as the biggest rock act in the world in 1964. What's more, they did so by writing their own material and playing their own instruments; something Elvis had never been capable of, or particularly aspired to. They, and the British and American groups the Beatles influenced, were not shy about expressing their opinions, experimenting musically, and taking the reins of their artistic direction into their own hands.
The net effect was to make Elvis Presley, still churning out movies in Hollywood as psychedelia and soul music became the rage, seem irrelevant, even as he managed to squeeze out an obscure cover ("Tomorrow Is a Long Time") on a 1966 soundtrack album.
By 1967 and 1968, there were slight stirrings of an artistic reawakening by Elvis. Singles like "Guitar Man," "Big Boss Man," and "U.
S. Male," though hardly classics, were at least genuine rock roll that sounded better than much of what he'd been turning out for years. A 1968 television special gave Presley the opportunity he needed to reinvent himself as an all-out leather-coated rocker, still capable of magnetizing an audience, and eager to revisit his blues and country roots.
The 1968 album was the first LP in nearly a decade in which Presley seemed cognizant of current trends, as he updated his sounds with contemporary compositions and touches of soul to create some reasonably gutsy late-'60s pop/rock. This material, and 1969 hits like "Suspicious Minds" and "In the Ghetto," returned him to the top of the charts. Arguably, it's been overrated by critics, who were so glad to have him singing rock again that they weren't about to carp about the slickness of some of the production, or the mediocrity of some of the songwriting.
But Elvis' voice did sound good, and he returned to live performing in 1969, breaking in with weeks of shows in Las Vegas. This was followed by national tours that proved him to still be an excellent live entertainer, even if the exercises often reeked of show-biz extravaganza. (Elvis never did play outside of North America and Hawaii, possibly because Colonel Parker, it was later revealed, was an illegal alien who could have faced serious problems if he traveled abroad.
) Hollywood was history, but studio and live albums were generated at a rapid pace, usually selling reasonably well, although Presley never had a Top Ten hit after 1972's "Burning Love."
Presley's 1970s recordings, like most of his '60s work, are the focus of divergent critical opinion. Some declare them to be, when Elvis was on, the equal of anything he did, especially in terms of artistic diversity.
It's true that the material was pretty eclectic, running from country to blues to all-out rock to gospel (Presley periodically recorded gospel-only releases, going all the way back to 1957). At the same time, his vocal mannerisms were often stilted, and the material -- though not nearly as awful as that '60s soundtrack filler -- sometimes substandard. Those who are not serious Elvis fans will usually find this late-period material to hold only a fraction of the interest of his '50s classics.
Elvis' final years have been the subject of a cottage industry of celebrity bios, tell-alls, and gossip screeds from those who knew him well, or (more likely) purported to know him well. Those activities are really beyond the scope of a mini-bio such as this, but it's enough to note that his behavior was becoming increasingly instable. His weight fluctuated wildly; his marriage broke up; he became dependent upon a variety of prescription drugs.
Worst of all, he became isolated from the outside world except for professional purposes (he continued to tour until the end), rarely venturing outside of his Graceland mansion in Memphis. Colonel Parker's financial decisions on behalf of his client have also come in for much criticism.
On August 16, 1977, Presley was found dead in Graceland.
The cause of death remains a subject of widespread speculation, although it seems likely that drugs played a part. An immediate cult (if cult is the way to describe millions of people) sprang up around his legacy, kept alive by the hundreds of thousands of visitors who make the pilgrimage to Graceland annually. Elvis memorabilia, much of it kitsch, is another industry in his own right.
Dozens if not hundreds make a comfortable living by impersonating the King in live performance. And then there are all those Elvis sightings, reported in tabloids on a seemingly weekly basis.
Although Presley had recorded a mammoth quantity of both released and unreleased material for RCA, the label didn't show much interest in repackaging it with the respect due such a pioneer.
Haphazard collections of outtakes and live performances were far rarer than budget reissues and countless repackagings of the big hits. In the CD age, RCA finally began to treat the catalog with some of the reverence it deserved, at long last assembling a box set containing nearly all of the 1950s recordings. Similar, although less exciting, box sets were documenting the 1960s, the 1970s, and his soundtrack recordings.
And exploitative reissues of Elvis material continue to appear constantly, often baited with one or two rare outtakes or alternates to entice the completists (of which there are many). In death, as in life, Presley continues to be one of RCA's most consistent earners. Fortunately, with a little discretion, a good Elvis library can be built with little duplication, sticking largely to the most highly recommended selections.
~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide The only rock star ever to enjoy prolonged success on the silver screen, Elvis Presley was a phenomenon the likes of whom will never be seen again. His impact remains incalculable, and it could easily be argued that no figure of the postwar era exerted a greater or more far-reaching influence on popular culture. It is fashionable to bash his 31 feature films, and indeed they pale in comparison to 's features with , to name just one example.
However, the continuing importance of rock roll in film -- not only as a subject matter but also as an essential component of soundtracks and scores -- seems inconceivable had Presley not first made the music both commercially viable and culturally palatable. His movies were made and marketed solely for his fans, and they responded in droves. By extension, he created a youth market which, despite myriad generational changes, remains essentially the same decades later, and all other pop musicians turned movie stars, from to to , have followed in his footsteps.
The details of Presley's early years have passed into mythology: Born January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, MS, he grew up in abject poverty, later working as a truck driver for the Memphis-based Crown Electric company. As a gift for his mother, he recorded an acetate demo which brought him to the attention of Sun Records owner , who soon brought him back to the studio to record with area musicians Scotty Moore and Bill Black. From the release of his first single, "That's All Right, Mama," Presley was a juggernaut; he later moved to the RCA label and there became a national phenomenon, widely credited with popularizing the burgeoning rock roll movement.
Hollywood was immediately interested, and his manager, the notorious Colonel Tom Parker, signed contracts with the likes of 20th Century Fox, Paramount, and MGM without Presley even appearing before the camera. His pictures were tailored exclusively to his needs, with bare-bones plots, exotic locales, beautiful co-stars, and numerous musical numbers. The first, 1956's , was a Civil War-era Western that became one of the year's biggest hits and launched a Number One single with its title track.
Presley's next film, 1957's , was one of his best, thanks to its imaginative production numbers. It was followed by and then 1958's , a rare attempt at a more substantial offering -- in this case, an adaptation of the novel A Stone for Danny Fisher. When it was announced that Presley had been inducted into the Army, many predicted career disaster, but he resurfaced in 1960 bigger than ever with .
By now, he had stopped performing live to concentrate almost solely on films; even the majority of his albums were soundtrack recordings. Throughout the decade, Presley made two or three films annually, all essentially variations on the same formula; in no less than three different films -- 1964's , 1966's , and 1968's -- he even played a race car driver. In 1969, he attempted to change his image by playing a dramatic role in , but in the wake of the Summer of Love his popularity as both a singer and an actor were on the wane.
He then played a doctor in , but it was his last film role. In the 1970s, Presley returned to live performance, and his popularity surged; however, years of drug abuse took their toll, and he died August 16, 1977. He remains more popular today than ever before.
~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide (1935-1977), rock singer. The most revolutionary figure in the history of pop music, the "king of rock 'n' roll" was born in , Mississippi, the only child of poor sharecroppers; the family moved to Memphis in 1948. After graduating from high school, Presley worked as a truck driver.
In 1954 Sam Phillips, president of Sun Records in Memphis, recognized his talent as "a white man who had the Negro sound and the Negro feel." Phillips released Presley's "That's All Right, Mama," an up-tempo blues song sung with an exuberant sense of freedom; it was followed by four other singles. Many critics regard these early records, recorded in 1953-1955, as his best.
His country songs, like "Tryin' to Get to You," expressed affection and respect for the traditions of poor white southerners; his blues, like "Good Rockin' Tonight," conveyed rebellion against and defiance of those traditions. This pattern of respect and rebellion gave Presley's early music its remarkable emotional complexity and power.
The years 1956-1959 marked Presley's triumph: "Heartbreak Hotel" (1956) held the number 1 spot on the charts for eight weeks, followed by "Don't Be Cruel," backed by "Hound Dog," number 1 for eleven weeks--a record for the rock era.
With these songs initiated a cultural rebellion of young people against an adult world they saw as conservative and trivial. In his 1956 television appearances Elvis, shaking his hips and swiveling his knees, shattered the world of bland family entertainment with his raw, unruly power. Adults were outraged over the "vulgarity" of "Elvis the Pelvis," and most programs showed him only from the waist up when he was performing.
Elvis now exemplified the rock 'n' roll rebel with his potent fusion of white teenage exuberance and the pulsating beat and frank sexuality of black rhythm and blues.
Presley was drafted into the army in 1958. After his release in 1960 he entered a period of steady decline.
Although he was more popular than ever, his music lost its rebellious energy; under his domineering manager, Colonel Tom Parker, he adapted to pop formulas. He retreated from rock 'n' roll to make movies--thirty in all. They made a great deal of money, but the stories, the acting, and the sound tracks got steadily worse, trivializing everything he had come to represent.
In 1968, however, he made a stunning comeback in a Christmas television special in which he performed live with a small combo, singing with immense passion and intensity, equaling if not surpassing the best of his early work. After that Presley returned to live performances, but his singing again became careless and shallow.
His final years brought revelations of a miserable personal life consumed by drugs.
He died of an accidental overdose. With his death came an immense outpouring of grief: , his Memphis home, became one of the most popular national shrines in the country, attracting far more visitors annually than Mount Vernon. The man who embodied the classic American success story--poor country boy makes good--and fulfilled the American fantasy of freedom had found it hollow.
Peter Guralnik, "Elvis Presley," in Jim Miller, ed., Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock Roll (1980); Greil Marcus, Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock 'n' Roll Music (1990); This Is Elvis, produced by David Wolper, written and directed by Malcolm Leo and Andrew Solt (available on video).
Elvis Aron Presley (1935-1977), the "King of Rock 'n' Roll, " was the leading American singer for two decades and the most popular singer of the entire rock 'n' roll era.
Elvis Aron Presley was born in , Mississippi, on January 8, 1935, to Gladys and Vernon Presley. His twin brother, Jesse Garon Presley, died shortly after birth. 's singing ability was discovered when he was an elementary school student in Tupelo, and he participated in numerous talent contests there and in Memphis, Tennessee, where the family moved when Elvis was 13.
It was in 1953, after he graduated from L. C. Humes High School in Memphis, that Elvis, working as a truckdriver, began paying his own way into the Memphis Recording Services studio to cut his own records.
Less than a year later he recorded "That's All Right Mama" for Sun Records. It became his first commercial release, selling 20, 000 copies.
Elvis reached the top of the country charts with "Mystery Train" in 1955.
His first number one song on the so-called "Hot 100" was "Heartbreak Hotel" (1956), which held its position for seven of the 27 weeks it was on the chart. This song also reached the top of the country charts, and it became emblematic of his ability to combine country singing with rhythm and blues, as well as with the new rage that had grown out of rhythm and blues: rock 'n' roll. The rest of the 1950s brought Elvis "living legend" status with records that included "Hound Dog" (1956), "Don't Be Cruel" (1956), "Blue Suede Shoes" (1956), "Love Me Tender" (1956), "All Shook Up" (1957), and "Jailhouse Rock" (1957).
He started the 1960s in similar fashion with "It's Now or Never" (1960) and "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" (1960).
He was universally proclaimed the "King of Rock 'n' Roll" and led the new music from its beginnings in the 1950s to its heyday in the 1960s and on to its permanence in the music of the 1970s and the 1980s.
His impact on American popular culture was second to none, as he seemed to affect manner of dress, hairstyles, and even behavior. would later cite him as one of the most important influences on the Beatles. Even his gyrating hips became legendary as he continued his rock 'n' roll conquest to the extent of 136 gold records and ten platinum records.
Ultimately he had the most records to make the rating charts and was the top recording artist for two straight decades, the 1950s and the 1960s.
Elvis was an instant success in television and movies as well. Millions watched his television appearances on The Steve Allen Show, The Milton Berle Show, The Toast of the Town, and a controversial appearance on the The Ed Sullivan Show, in which cameras were instructed to stay above the hips of "Elvis the Pelvis.
" He was an even bigger box office smash, beginning with Love Me Tender in 1956. Thirty-two movies later, Elvis had become the top box office draw for two decades, grossing over $150 million. Although few of his motion pictures received critical acclaim, they showcased his music and extended his image and fame.
His movies included Jailhouse Rock (1957), King Creole (1958), G. I. Blues (1960), Blue Hawaii (1961), Girls!
Girls! Girls! (1962), Viva Las Vegas (1964), and Spinout (1966).
Wild in the Country (1961), based on the J. R. Salamanca novel The Lost Country, marked his debut in a straight dramatic role.
Elvis began a well-publicized stint in the army in 1958. That year, while he was stationed in , Texas, his mother, to whom he was closely attached, died. The remainder of his military service was spent stationed in Germany, until his discharge in 1960.
It was in Germany that he met Priscilla Beaulieu, his future wife.
Elvis's success in the entertainment industry was accompanied by numerous failures in his personal life. He arranged to have , still a teenager, live at his new Memphis home, Graceland Mansion, while she finished high school there.
He married her in 1967, and she bore him his only child, Lisa Marie Presley, in 1968. In 1973 he and Priscilla were divorced. During this time, and for his entire career, his personal manager, Col.
Tom Parker, controlled his finances. As Elvis's millions grew, so too did the fiscal mismanagement of Parker, a known gambler. Parker was later prosecuted for his financial dealings, but he was acquitted.
Elvis made an estimated $4.3 billion in earnings during his lifetime, but he never acquired a concept of financial responsibility. This caused frequent litigation during and after his lifetime among his management people and several record companies.
Elvis had similar luck with his friendships, and frequently surrounded himself with an entourage of thugs to shield him from an adoring public.
A weight problem became evident in the late 1960s, and in private Elvis became increasingly dependent on drugs, particularly amphetamines and sedatives. His personal doctor, George Nichopoulos, would later be prosecuted, but acquitted, for prescribing and dispensing thousands of pills and narcotics to him.
Though his weight and his drug dependency were increasing, Elvis continued a steady flow of concert performances in sold-out arenas well into the 1970s. On August 16, 1977, the day before another concert tour was about to begin, Elvis was found dead in Graceland Mansion by his fiance, Ginger Alden. The official cause of death was heart disease, although the post-mortem revelations of his drug dependency created a media event.
His death caused unparalleled scenes of mourning.
Elvis continued to be celebrated as superstar and legend as much in death as he was in life. Graceland Mansion, which he had purchased in 1957 for $102, 500, is the top tourist attraction in Memphis and has attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors from both America and around the world.
More than 200 books and countless periodical articles are available on Elvis Presley, exemplifying the intensity of his fandom. Many of the accounts are biased to an "Elvis could do no wrong" extreme. Other books merely capitalized on the sensationalism that surrounded his death.
Paul Lichter's The Boy Who Dared To Rock: The Definitive Elvis (1978) is an excellent, though somewhat reverent, biography. The Elvis Presley Scrapbook (1977) by James Robert Parish is interesting. The best starting points for Presley facts are the references, particularly Wendy Sauers' Elvis Presley: A Complete Reference (1984) and Elvis Presley: Reference Guide and Discography (1981) by John A.
Whisler. A personal account is Elvis and Me (1985) by his wife Priscilla Beaulieu Presley.
For more famous quotes by Elvis Presley, visit and .
He is regarded by some to be the most important, musician of the 20th Century. (Presley's birth certificate uses the spelling Aron, but his estate has designated Aaron as the official spelling of his middle name.)
successful singer of rock and roll, but he also had success with , country, gospel, blues, pop, folk and even semi-operatic and jazz standards.
His voice, which developed into many voices as his career progressed, had always a unique tonality and an extraordinary unusual center of gravity, leading to his ability to tackle a range of songs and melodies which would be nearly impossible for most other popular singers to achieve. In a musical career of over two decades, Presley set many records, such as concert attendance, television ratings, and records sales, and became one of the best-selling artists in music history.
late 1960s, Presley re-emerged as a live performer of old and new hit songs, both on tour and in , where he was known for his on-stage highly energetic performances both vocally and physically, his sartorial jump-suits and capes adding to the drama.
He attracted massive attendance figures. His concert performances were staggering in quantity, considering they numbered over 1,100 in 8 years. He continued to perform before "reference"> His death was premature at 42, despite alarming concerns about his health.
When However, it soon became clear that a combination of over-work, obesity, depression, bad diet and severe abuse of prescription drugs, accelerated his premature departure. However, much confusion, conflict, contradictions and general . Regardless, his popularity as a singer has survived his death.
Presley was born on at around 4:35 a.m. in a two-room in , to Vernon Presley, a truck driver, and , a sewing machine operator.
Vernon Presley is described as "taciturn to the point of sullenness", whereas his mother, Gladys, was "voluble, lively, full of spunk." describes her as "a surreptitious drinker and alcoholic." When she was angry, "she The surname Presley was Anglicized from the German name "Pressler" during the .
His ancestor Johann Valentin Pressler emigrated to in 1710. Presley was mostly of , , , , and roots.
Presley's parents were very protective of their only surviving child.
The little boy "grew up a loved and precious child. He His mother Gladys "worshipped him," said a neighbor, "from the day he was born." Elvis himself said, "My mama never let me out of her sight.
I couldn't go down to the creek with the other kids." In his teens he was still a very shy person, a "kid who had spent scarcely a night away from home in He was teased by his fellow classmates who threw "things at him - rotten fruit and stuff - because he was different, because he was quiet and he stuttered and he was a mama's boy." Gladys was so proud of her son, that, years later, she "would get up early in the morning to run off the fans so Elvis could knew her boy, and she knew he could take care of himself, but what if some crazy man came after him with a gun?
she said...
tears In 1938, when Presley was three years old, his father was convicted of . Vernon, Gladys's brother Travis Smith, and Luther Gable went to prison for altering a check from Orville Bean, Vernon's boss, from $3 to $8 and then cashing it at a local bank. Vernon was sentenced to three years at .
Though Vernon was released after serving eight months, this event deeply influenced the life of the young family. During her husband's absence, Gladys lost the house and was forced to move in briefly with her in-laws next door. The Presley family lived just above the poverty line during their years in East Tupelo.
In 1941 Presley started school at the East Tupelo Consolidated. There he seems to have been an outsider. His few friends relate that he was separate from any crowd and did not belong to any "gang", but, according to his teachers, he was a sweet and average student, and he loved .
In 1943 Vernon moved to Memphis, where he found work and stayed throughout the war, coming home only on weekends.
She bought him his first guitar, in lieu of a bike and rifle, for $12.75.
In 1946 Presley started at a new school, Milam, which went from grades 5 through 9, but in 1948 the family left Tupelo, moving 110 miles northwest to . Here, too, the thirteen-year-old lived in the city's poorer section of town and attended a church. At this time, he was very much influenced by the music and the sung at his church.
His only reason for waking up in the morning was to give those he deemed "squares" a "haircut on the neckline."
Presley entered Humes High School in Memphis and worked at the school library and after school at Loew's State Theatre. In qualify for the high school football team, (the coach supposedly cut him from the team for not trimming his and .
) He spent his spare time around the African-American section of Memphis, especially on . In 1953 he graduated from Humes, majoring in History, English, and Shop.
After graduation Presley worked at the Parker Machinists Shop, and, after working at the Precision Tool Company with his father, worked for the Crown Electric Company driving a truck.
Here he began wearing his hair in his signature pompadour vocal color. It covered two octaves and a third, from the baritone low-G to the tenor high B, with an upward extension in falsetto to at least a D flat. Presley's best octave was in the middle, D-flat to D-flat.
"He has always been able to duplicate the open, hoarse, ecstatic, screaming, shouting, wailing, reckless sound of the black rhythm-and-blues and gospel singers. But he has not been confined to that one type of vocal production." In ballads and country songs he was able to belt out "full-voiced high Gs and As that an opera baritone might envy," showing a remarkable ability to naturally assimilate styles.
His "voice has always been weak at the bottom, variable and unpredictable. At the top it is often brilliant. His upward passage would seem to lie in the area of E flat, E and F.
" 25 to record a second demo, "I'll Never Stand in Your Way" and "It Wouldn't Be the Same , , and , was looking for "a white man with a Negro sound and the Negro feel," with whom he "could make a billion dollars," because he thought black blues and boogie-woogie music might become tremendously popular among white people if presented in the right way. The Sun , , to fill in for a missing ballad singer. Although that session was not productive, Phillips put Presley together with local musicians and to see what might develop. During a rehearsal break on However, Sam Phillips had difficulty persuading Southern white disc jockeys to play Presley's first recordings. The only place that played his records at first were in the sections of and and in . However, his music and style began to draw larger and larger audiences as he toured the South in 1955. Soon, demands by white teenagers that their local radio stations play his music overcame much of that resistance and as magazine wrote years later in Presley's biography: "Overnight, it seemed, 'race music', as the music industry had labeled the work of black artists, became a thing of the past, as did the pejorative 'hillbilly' music." Still, throughout 1955 and even well into 1956 when he had become a national phenomenon, Presley had to deal with Allegations of racism were made against Presley, possibly by those segregationist elements who hated what he was doing. examined the issue and in its August 1, 1957 edition, the African American magazine concluded that: "To Elvis, people are people regardless of race, color or creed. " and his performance was well received. Nonetheless, one of the show's executives was not impressed and hinted that Presley should give up his music. His releases began to reach the top of the country charts. Following this, Presley was signed to a one-year contract for a weekly performance, during which time he was introduced to . Fontana made their first National Television appearance on the Dorsey brothers' Stage Show. It was the first of six appearances on the show and the first of eight performances recorded and broadcast from CBS TV Studio 50 at 1697 Broadway, New York. After the success of their first appearance, they were signed to five more in early 1956 (February 4, 11, 18 and March 17 Attractions", a management company jointly owned by singer and . Shortly thereafter, "Colonel" Parker took full control and, recognizing the limitations of Sun Studios, negotiated a deal with Records to acquire Presley's Sun contract for $35,000 on , . Presley's first singles.
According to the official Presley website, Presley gave it to his mother as a much-belated birthday present. Presley returned to Sun Studios (706 Union Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee) on , . He again paid $8.
Presley's second single, "Good Rockin' Tonight", with "I Don't Care if the Sun Don't Shine" on the B-side, was released on large audience.
National exposure began on January 28, 1956, when Presley, Moore, Black, and drummer
Elvis Presley at the Mississippi-Alabama State Fair, 1956
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