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{{Short description|American singer and actor (1935–1977)}}
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{{Featured article}}
{{Infobox musical artist
{{pp|small=yes}}
|Name = Elvis Presley
{{pp-move|small-yes}}
|Img = Elvis Presley 1970.jpg
{{Use American English|date=October 2024}}
|Img_capt = Elvis in 1970
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2024}}
|Img_size = <!-- Only for images narrower than 220 pixels -->
{{Infobox person
|Landscape =
| image = Elvis Presley promoting Jailhouse Rock.jpg
|Background = solo_singer
|Birth_name = Elvis Aaron Presley<ref name="Aaron"/> | alt = Elvis Presley in Jailhouse Rock (1957)
| caption = A publicity photograph for the 1957 film '']''
|Alias = Elvis, The King, The King of Rock 'n' Roll, Elvis the Pelvis, The Atomic Powered Singer ,The Hillbilly Cat
| birth_name = Elvis Aaron Presley{{efn|name=name}}
|Born = {{birth date|1935|1|8|mf=y}}<br><small>], ], ]<small>
|Height = {{Height|feet=6}} | birth_date = {{Birth date|mf=yes|1935|1|8}}
|Origin = ], ], ] | birth_place = ], Mississippi, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|mf=yes|1977|8|16|1935|1|8}}
|Spouse = ] (1967-1973)
|Died = {{Death date and age|1977|08|16|1935|01|08}}<br><small>], ], ]</small> | death_place = ], Tennessee, U.S.
|Genre = ]<br />]<br />]<br />]<br />] | relatives = ] (granddaughter)<br />] (second cousin)<br />] (first cousin once removed)
|Occupation = ], ] | resting_place = ], Memphis
| resting_place_coordinates = {{coord|35|2|46|N|90|1|23|W}}
|Instrument = ], ], ]
|Years_active = 1954-1977 | works = {{flatlist|
* ]
|Label = ], ]
* ]
|URL =
* ]
* ]
}}
| awards = ]
| alias = King of Rock and Roll
| occupation = {{flatlist|
* Singer
* actor
}}
| spouse = {{marriage|]|1967|1973|reason=divorced}}
| children = ]
| module = {{Infobox musical artist|embed=yes
| instruments = {{flatlist|
* Vocals
* guitar
* piano
}}<!--- If you think an instrument should be listed, a discussion to reach consensus is needed first per: https://en.wikipedia.org/Template:Infobox_musical_artist#instruments--->
| genre = {{flatlist|
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
}}
| label = {{flatlist|
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
}}
| years_active = 1953–1977
}}
| module2 = {{Infobox military person
| embed = yes
| embed_title = Military service{{sfn|US Department of Defense|1960|}}
| allegiance = United States
| branch = ]
| branch_label = ]
| serviceyears = 1958–1960
| rank = ]
| unit = Headquarters Company, 1st Medium Tank Battalion, ], ]
| awards = ]
|module = {{Infobox person|child=yes
| signature = Elvispresley-logo.svg}}
}}
}} }}


'''Elvis Aaron Presley'''{{efn|name=name|Although some pronounce his surname {{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|r|ɛ|z|l|i}} {{respell|PREZ|lee}}, Presley himself pronounced it {{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|r|ɛ|s|l|i}} {{respell|PRESS|lee}}, as did his family and those who worked with him.{{sfn|Elster|2006|p=391}}<p>The correct spelling of his middle name has long been a matter of debate. The physician who delivered him wrote "Elvis Aaron Presley" in his ledger.{{sfn|Nash|2005|p=11}} The state-issued birth certificate reads "Elvis Aron Presley". The name was chosen after the Presleys' friend and fellow congregation member Aaron Kennedy, though a single-A spelling was probably intended by Presley's parents to parallel the middle name of Presley's stillborn brother, Jesse Garon.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|p=13}} It reads Aron on most official documents produced during his lifetime, including his high school diploma, RCA Victor record contract, and marriage license, and this was generally taken to be the proper spelling.{{sfn|Adelman|2002|pp=13–15}} In 1966, Presley expressed the desire to his father that the more traditional biblical rendering, Aaron, be used henceforth, "especially on legal documents".{{sfn|Nash|2005|p=11}} Five years later, the Jaycees citation honoring him as one of the country's Outstanding Young Men used Aaron. Late in his life, he sought to officially change the spelling to Aaron and discovered that state records already listed it that way. Knowing his wishes for his middle name, Aaron is the spelling his father chose for Presley's tombstone, and it is the spelling his estate has designated as official.{{sfn|Adelman|2002|pp=13–15}}}} (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), known ]ously as '''Elvis''', was an American singer and actor. Known as the "'''King of Rock and Roll'''", he is regarded as ]. Presley's energized performances and interpretations of songs, and ] performance style, combined with a singularly potent mix of influences across color lines during a ], brought both great success and ].
<!--Editors: Please DO NOT change the spelling of 'Aaron' to 'Aron'. 'Aaron' is the spelling Presley's estate has designated as the official spelling when the middle name is used today. If you dispute this, please first state your reasons on the talk page for discussion.-->
'''Elvis Aaron Presley'''<ref name="Aaron">(] ]). "". '']''. Retrieved ].</ref><ref>"" ''Elvis.com''. Retrieved ].</ref> (], ]&ndash;], ], middle name sometimes written '''Aron''',{{fn|a}}) was an ] ], ] and ]. He is considered a ], recognized simply by his first name. He is also referred to as the "]", or as "The King".


Presley was born in ], Mississippi; his family relocated to ], Tennessee, when he was 13. His music career began there in 1954, at ] with producer ], who wanted to bring the sound of ] to a wider audience. Presley, on guitar and accompanied by lead guitarist ] and bassist ], was a pioneer of ], an uptempo, ]-driven fusion of ] and ]. In 1955, drummer ] joined to complete the lineup of Presley's classic quartet and ] acquired his contract in a deal arranged by ], who managed him for the rest of his career. Presley's first RCA Victor single, "]", was released in January 1956 and became a number-one hit in the US. Within a year, RCA Victor would sell ten million Presley singles. With a series of successful television appearances and chart-topping records, Presley became the leading figure of the newly popular ]; though his performative style and promotion of the then-marginalized sound of African Americans<ref name=":00" /> led to him being widely considered a ] to the moral well-being of ] youth.{{sfn|Brown|Broeske|1997|p=55}}
Presley began his career as one of the first performers of ], an ] fusion of ] and ] with a strong ]. His novel versions of existing songs, mixing "]" and "]" sounds, made him popular&mdash;and controversial&mdash;as did his uninhibited stage and television performances. He recorded songs in the ] genre, with tracks like "]" and "]" later embodying the style. Presley had a versatile voice and had unusually wide success encompassing other genres, including ], ], ] and ]. To date, he has been inducted into four music ].


In November 1956, Presley made his film debut in '']''. Drafted into ], he relaunched his recording career two years later with some of his most commercially successful work. Presley held few concerts, however, and guided by Parker, proceeded to devote much of the 1960s to making Hollywood films and soundtrack albums, most of them critically derided. Some of Presley's most famous films included '']'' (1957), '']'' (1961), and '']'' (1964). In 1968, he returned to the stage in the acclaimed NBC television comeback special '']'', which led to an extended ] concert residency and a string of highly profitable tours. In 1973, Presley gave the first concert by a solo artist to be broadcast around the world, '']''. However, years of prescription drug abuse and unhealthy eating severely compromised his health, and Presley died unexpectedly in August 1977 at his ] estate at the age of 42.
In the 1960s, Presley made the majority of his thirty-one movies&mdash;mainly poorly reviewed, but financially successful, musicals. In 1968, he returned with acclaim to live music in a ], and thereafter performed across the U.S., notably in ]. Throughout his career, he set records for concert attendance, television ratings and recordings sales. He is one of the best-selling and most influential artists in the history of popular music. Health problems, drug dependency and other factors led to his premature death at age 42.


Presley is one of the ] of all time, with sale estimates ranging from 500 million records to over a billion worldwide.{{refn|group=lower-alpha|name=sales}} He was commercially successful in many genres, including ], country, rock and roll, rockabilly, rhythm and blues, ], and ]. He won three ], received the ] at age 36, and has been inducted into ]. He holds several records, including the most ]-certified ] and platinum albums, the most albums charted on the ], the most number-one albums by a solo artist on the ], and the most number-one singles by any act on the ]. In 2018, Presley was posthumously awarded the ].
==Biography==
===Early life===
Elvis Presley was of mixed ancestry.<ref>http://www.germanheritage.com/biographies/mtoz/presley.html</ref><ref> ""; a 23 March 2004 BBC story that cites Allan Morrison, the author of the then-unpublished book ''The Presley Prophecy''</ref><ref></ref><ref>"".</ref><ref>""</ref> Presley's father, Vernon (], ]&ndash;], ]), had several low-paying jobs, including ] and truck driver. His mother, Gladys Love Smith (], ]&ndash;], ]) worked as a ] operator. They met in ], and eloped to ] where they married on ], ].<ref>. ''ElvisPresleyNews.com''. Retrieved ] ].</ref><ref>Presley's ancestry is discussed at the following sites:
* Rossacher, Hannes (] ]). Austrian and French TV documentary: "". ''ARTE''. Retrieved on ].
* (] ]). "Die wahre Wiege des Rock ’n’ Roll." ]: ''Die Rheinpfalz''.
* "". ''German Heritage.com''. Retrieved ] ].
* (] ]). "". '']''. Retrieved on ].
* "". ''ElvisPresleyNews.com''. Retrieved on ].
* "". ''fife.50megs.com''. Retrieved ] ].
* "". ''ElvisPresleyNews.com''. Retrieved ] ].
* "". ''WolfLodge.org''. Retrieved ] ].</ref>


== Life and career ==
Presley was born in a two-room house, built by his father, in East Tupelo. He was an ]&mdash;his brother was ] and given the name Jesse Garon. Growing up as an ] he "was, everyone agreed, unusually close to his mother."<ref name="Guralnick-13">Guralnick 1994, p.13</ref> The family lived just above the poverty line and attended an ] church.<ref name=Guralnick-1994-29>Guralnick 1994, p.29</ref> Vernon has been described as "a ], always averse to work and responsibility."<ref>Goldman, p.16</ref> His wife was "voluble, lively, full of spunk" and had a fondness for drink.<ref name = "Guralnick-12"/> In 1938, Vernon was jailed for an eight dollar check forgery. During his absence, his boss, Mr. Bass, called in a note Vernon had signed for the money he borrowed to build their house.<ref name=Stanley-18>Stanley and Coffey, p.18</ref> Because Gladys couldn't make the payment, she and her son lost the family home and had to move in with relatives.<ref name="Guralnick-12">Guralnick 1994, p.12</ref><ref name="autogenerated4">Stanley and Coffey, p.19</ref><ref name=BirthPlace>. ''Elvis-Presley-Biography.com''. Retrieved ] ].</ref>
=== 1935–1953: early years ===
{{Main|Early life of Elvis Presley}}
] in ], Mississippi|alt=Present-day photograph of a whitewashed house, about 15&nbsp;feet wide. Four banistered steps in the foreground lead up to a roofed porch that holds a swing wide enough for two. The front of the house has a door and a single-paned window. The visible side of the house, about 30&nbsp;feet long, has double-paned windows.]]


Elvis Aaron Presley was born on January 8, 1935, in ], Mississippi, to Gladys Love ({{née|Smith}}) and Vernon Presley.{{sfn|Eames|2022a}}{{sfn|Eames|2022b}} Elvis' twin Jesse Garon was delivered 35 minutes before, ].{{sfn|Earl|2017}} Presley became close to both parents, especially his mother. The family attended an ] church, where he found his initial musical inspiration.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=12–14}} Vernon moved from one ] to the next,{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=11–12, 23–24}}{{sfn|Victor|2008|p=419}} and the family often relied on neighbors and government food assistance. In 1938, they lost their home after Vernon was found guilty of ] and was jailed for eight months.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=12–14}}
In ], ], Presley entered first grade at Lawhorn School in Tupelo.<ref name="autogenerated4" /> Presley was sometimes bullied; classmates threw "things at him&mdash;rotten fruit and stuff&mdash;because he was different... he stuttered and he was a mama's boy."<ref>Guralnick 1994, p.36<br>Referring to an account by singer ] in Humphries, Patrick (], ]). "" Andrews McMeel Publishing, p.117. ].</ref> Despite this, he was considered a "well-mannered and quiet child".<ref name="autogenerated4" />


In September 1941, Presley entered first grade at East Tupelo Consolidated, where his teachers regarded him as "average".{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=15–16}} His first public performance was a singing contest at the Mississippi–Alabama Fair and Dairy Show on October 3, 1945, when he was 10; he sang "Old Shep" and recalled placing fifth.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=17–18}} A few months later, Presley received his first guitar for his birthday;{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|p=19}}{{sfn|Dundy|2004|p=101}} he received guitar lessons from two uncles and a pastor at the family's church. Presley recalled, "I took the guitar, and I watched people, and I learned to play a little bit. But I would never sing in public. I was very ] about it."{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|p=23}}
On ], ], at age ten, he made his first public performance in a singing contest at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show at the suggestion of his teacher Mrs. J.C. Grimes.<ref name="autogenerated4" /> Dressed as a cowboy, the young Presley had to stand on a chair to reach the microphone and sang ]'s "Old Shep." He came in second place and won $5 and a free ticket to all the rides.<ref name="autogenerated4" /><ref>''Elvis Australia'' (], ]). "." ''elvis.com.au''. Retrieved ].</ref>


In September 1946, Presley entered a new school, Milam, for sixth grade. The following year, he began singing and playing his guitar at school. He was often teased as a "trashy" kid who played ].{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=23–26}} Presley was a devotee of ]'s radio show. He was described as "crazy about music" by Slim's younger brother, one of Presley's classmates. Slim showed Presley chord techniques.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=19–21}} When his ] was 12, Slim scheduled him for two on-air performances. Presley was overcome by stage fright the first time but performed the following week.{{sfn|Dundy|2004|pp=95–96}}
In ], for his eleventh birthday, Presley received his first guitar.<ref>(] ]). "". Tupelo Hardware. Retrieved ].</ref> He had wanted a bicycle or rifle for his birthday, but his parents could only afford a guitar.<ref name="autogenerated4" /><ref> Retrieved ]</ref> Over the following year, Vernon's brother, Vester, would give Elvis basic guitar lessons.<ref name="autogenerated4" /> In ] ] the family moved to ]<ref name="autogenerated4" />, allegedly because Vernon&mdash;in addition to needing work&mdash;had to escape the law for transporting bootleg liquor.<ref name="BirthPlace"/><ref>Escott, p.420</ref> In 1949, they lived at Lauderdale Courts, a public housing development in one of Memphis' poorer sections. Presley practised playing guitar in the laundry room and also played in a five-piece band with other tenants.<ref name=Guralnick-50/> Another resident, ], recalled, "Wherever Elvis went he'd have his guitar slung across his back... e'd go in to one of the cafes or bars... Then some folks would say: 'Let's hear you sing, boy.'"<ref name=Carr-10>Carr and Farren, p.10</ref> Presley attended L. C. ], but fellow students viewed the young singer's performing unfavorably: one recalled that he was "a sad, shy, not especially attractive boy" whose guitar playing was not likely to win any prizes. Some children made fun of him as a 'trashy' kind of boy playing 'trashy' hillbilly music."<ref>Guralnick, ''Last Train to Memphis'', chapter 1.</ref> Others, however, "would beg him" to sing, but Presley was apparently too shy to perform.<ref name=Hopkins-33>Hopkins 2007, p.33</ref>


In November 1948, the family moved to ], Tennessee.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=32–33}} Enrolled at ], Presley received a C in ] in eighth grade. When his music teacher said he had no aptitude for singing, he brought in his guitar and sang a recent hit, "Keep Them Cold Icy Fingers Off Me".{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|p=36}} He was usually too shy to perform openly and was occasionally ] by classmates for being a "]".{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=35–38}} In 1950, Presley began practicing guitar under the tutelage of ], a neighbor. They and three other boys, including two future ] pioneers, brothers ] and ]—formed a loose musical collective.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=40–41}}
In September, ], Presley occasionally worked evenings as an usher at Loew's State Theater&mdash;his first job&mdash;to boost the family income.<ref name="autogenerated5">Stanley and Coffey, p.20</ref><ref>Lichter, p.10</ref> However, Gladys eventually made him quit due to the late hours as she feared it was affecting his school work. He did eventually return to Loew's in June the following year, but was fired after a fistfight with another usher over a female employee.<ref name="autogenerated5" /> He began to grow his sideburns and dress in the wild, flashy clothes of Lansky Brothers on ], when he could afford to.<ref>Lichter, p.9</ref> He stood out, especially in the conservative ] of the 1950s, and was mocked and bullied for it.<ref name=Guralnick-50>Guralnick 1994, p.50</ref> Despite any unpopularity or shyness, he was a contestant in his school's 1952 "Annual Minstrel Show"<ref name=Guralnick-50 /> and won by receiving the most applause and thus an encore (he sang "Cold Cold Icy Fingers" and "Till I Waltz Again With You").<ref name=Carr-10 />


During his junior year, Presley began to stand out among his classmates, largely because of his appearance: he grew his ] and styled his hair. He would head down to ], the heart of Memphis' thriving ] scene, and admire the wild, flashy clothes at ]. By his senior year, he was wearing those clothes.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=44, 46, 51}} He competed in Humes' Annual "Minstrel" Show in 1953, singing and playing "]", a recent hit for ]. Presley recalled that the performance did much for his reputation: <blockquote>I wasn't popular in school&nbsp;... I failed music—only thing I ever failed. And then they entered me in this talent show&nbsp;... when I came onstage, I heard people kind of rumbling and whispering and so forth, 'cause nobody knew I even sang. It was amazing how popular I became in school after that.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=52–53}}</blockquote>
After graduation, Presley was still rather shy, a "kid who had spent scarcely a night away from home".<ref>Guralnick 1994, p.149</ref> His third job was driving a truck for the Crown Electric Company. He began wearing his hair longer with a "ducktail"&mdash;the style of truck drivers at that time.<ref>(1996). "". ''history-of-rock.com''. Retrieved ].</ref>


Presley, who could not ], played by ear and frequented record stores that provided ]es and listening booths. He knew all of ]'s songs,{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|p=171}} and he loved records by other country singers such as ], ], ], ], ], and ].{{sfn|Matthew-Walker|1979|p=3}} The ] singer ], one of his favorite performers, was a significant influence on his ]-singing style.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=46–48, 358}}{{sfn|Wadey|2004}} Presley was a regular audience member at the monthly All-Night Singings downtown, where many of the white gospel groups that performed reflected the influence of African American ].{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=47–48, 77–78}} Presley listened to regional radio stations, such as ], that played what were then called "race records": spirituals, blues, and the modern, ]-heavy ].{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=38–40}} Like some of his peers, he may have attended blues venues only on nights ].{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|p=51}} Many of his future recordings were inspired by local ]ians such as ] and ].{{sfn|Guralnick|2004}}{{sfn|Bertrand|2000|p=205}} ] recalled that he had known Presley before he was popular when they both used to frequent Beale Street.{{sfn|Szatmary|1996|p=35}} By the time he graduated high school in June 1953, Presley had singled out music as his future.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|p=54}}{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|p=8}}
===Early musical influences===
Initial influences came through his family's attendance at the ], a ] ] church.<ref name="Guralnick-13"/> '']'' wrote: "Gospel pervaded Elvis' character and was a defining and enduring influence all of his days."<ref name="RS">George-Warren, Holly; Patricia Romanowski, Jon Pareles (2001). ''The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock And Roll''. Fireside. ]. Excerpt in "". ''Rolling Stone''. Retrieved on ].</ref> During breaks at recording sessions or after concerts, Presley often joined in private with others for informal ] sessions.<ref>Guralnick 1994, p.461</ref>


=== 1953–1956: first recordings ===
The young Presley frequently listened to local radio; his first musical hero was family friend ], a ] singer with a radio show on Tupelo’s ]. Presley performed occasionally on Slim’s Saturday morning show, ''Singin’ and Pickin’ Hillbilly''. "He was crazy about music... That’s all he talked about," recalls his sixth grade friend, James Ausborn, Slim’s younger brother.<ref name="autogenerated7">Guralnick 1994, p.21</ref> Before he was a teenager, music was already Presley’s "consuming passion".<ref name=1994-21>Guralnick 1994, p.21</ref> J. R. Snow, son of 1940s country superstar ], recalls that even as a young man Presley knew all of Hank Snow’s songs, "even the most obscure".<ref>Guralnick 1994, p.171</ref>
==== Sam Phillips and Sun Records ====
{{See also|List of songs recorded by Elvis Presley on the Sun label}}
] promotional photograph, 1954|upright=1.0]]
In August 1953, Presley checked into ], the company run by ] before he started ]. He aimed to pay for studio time to record a two-sided ]: "]" and "]". He later claimed that he intended the record as a birthday gift for his mother, or that he was merely interested in what he "sounded like". Biographer ] argued that Presley chose Sun in the hope of being discovered.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=62–64}} In January 1954, Presley cut a second acetate at Sun—"I'll Never Stand in Your Way" and "It Wouldn't Be the Same Without You"—but again nothing came of it.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|p=65}} Not long after, he failed an ] for a local vocal quartet, the Songfellows,{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|p=77}} and another for the band of ].{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|p=83}}
{{Listen|type=speech|filename=That's All Right.ogg|title="That's All Right" |description=Presley transformed not only the sound but the emotion of the song, turning what had been written as a "lament for a lost love into a satisfied declaration of independence."{{sfn|Marcus|1982|p=174}}}}
Phillips, meanwhile, was always on the lookout for someone who could bring to a broader audience the sound of the black musicians on whom Sun focused.{{sfn|Miller|2000|p=72}} In June, he acquired a demo recording by ] of a ballad, "Without You", that he thought might suit Presley. The teenaged singer came by the studio but was unable to do it justice. Despite this, Phillips asked Presley to sing other numbers and was sufficiently affected by what he heard to invite two local musicians, guitarist ] and ] player ], to work with Presley for a recording session.{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|pp=10–11}} The session, held the evening of July 5, proved entirely unfruitful until late in the night. As they were about to abort and go home, Presley launched into a 1946 blues number, Arthur Crudup's "]". Moore recalled, "All of a sudden, Elvis just started singing this song, jumping around and acting the fool, and then Bill picked up his bass, and he started acting the fool, too, and I started playing with them." Phillips quickly began taping; this was the sound he had been looking for.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=94–97}} Three days later, popular Memphis disc jockey ] (no relation to Sam Phillips) played "That's All Right" on his ''Red, Hot, and Blue'' show.{{sfn|Ponce de Leon|2007|p=43}} Listener interest was such that Phillips played the record repeatedly during the remaining two hours of his show. Interviewing Presley on-air, Phillips asked him what high school he attended to clarify his color for the many callers who had assumed that he was black.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=100–101}} During the next few days, the trio recorded a ] song, ]'s "]", again in a distinctive style and employing a ] ] that Sam Phillips dubbed "slapback". A single was pressed with "That's All Right" on the A-side and "Blue Moon of Kentucky" on the reverse.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=102–104}}


==== Early live performances and RCA Victor contract ====
In Memphis, Presley went to record stores that had ]es and listening booths, playing old records and new releases for hours. He was an audience member at the all-night black and white "gospel sings" downtown.<ref name=GoodRockin-54>(], ]). "Good Rockin'". ''Newsweek'', pp.54-5</ref> Memphis ] Orchestra concerts at ] were another Presley favorite, along with the Metropolitan ]. His small record collection included ] and ]. Presley later said, "I just loved music. Music period."<ref name=1994-21 />
The trio played publicly for the first time at the Bon Air club on July 17, 1954.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=105, 139}} Later that month, they appeared at the ], with ] headlining. Here Elvis pioneered "]", his signature dance movement.{{sfn|Miller|2021}}{{sfn|Rodman|2013|p=151}} A combination of his strong response to rhythm and nervousness led Presley to shake his legs as he performed: His wide-cut pants emphasized his movements, causing young women in the audience to start screaming.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=106, 108–111}} Moore recalled, "During the instrumental parts, he would back off from the mic and be playing and shaking, and the crowd would just go wild."{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|p=110}}


Soon after, Moore and Black left their old band to play with Presley regularly, and disc jockey/promoter ] became the trio's manager. From August through October, they played frequently at the Eagle's Nest club, a dance venue in Memphis. When Presley played, teenagers rushed from the pool to fill the club, then left again as the house ] band resumed.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|p=139}} Presley quickly grew more confident on stage. According to Moore, "His movement was a natural thing, but he was also very conscious of what got a reaction. He'd do something one time and then he would expand on it real quick."{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|p=119}} Amid these live performances, Presley returned to Sun studio for more recording sessions.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=117–127, 131}} Presley made what would be his only appearance on ]'s '']'' on October 2; ''Opry'' manager Jim Denny told Phillips that his singer was "not bad" but did not suit the program.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=128–130}}{{sfn|Mason|2007|pp=37–38}}
Memphis had a strong tradition of blues music and Presley went to blues as well as hillbilly venues. Many of his future recordings were inspired by local ] composers and recording artists, including ], ] and ].<ref>Guralnick, Peter (], ]). "" '']''. Retrieved ] ].</ref> King says that he "knew Elvis before he was popular. He used to come around and be around us a lot ... on ]."<ref>Szatmary, p.35</ref>


==== ''Louisiana Hayride'', radio commercial, and first television performances ====
Presley "was an untrained musician who played entirely by ear. 'I don't read music,' he confessed, 'but I know what I like.' ... Because he was not a songwriter, Presley rarely material prepared for recording sessions..." When later, as a young singer, he "ventured into the recording studio he was heavily influenced by the songs he had heard on the jukebox and radio."<ref>Bertrand, p.205</ref>
In November 1954, Presley performed on '']''—the ''Opry''{{'}}s chief, and more adventurous, rival. The show was broadcast to 198 radio stations in 28 states. His nervous first set drew a muted reaction. A more composed and energetic second set inspired an enthusiastic response.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=127–128, 135–142}} Soon after the show, the ''Hayride'' engaged Presley for a year's worth of Saturday-night appearances. Trading in his old guitar for $8, he purchased a ] instrument for $175 ({{Inflation|US|175|1954|fmt=eq|r=-2}}) and his trio began playing in new locales, including ], Texas, and ], Arkansas.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=152, 156, 182}} Presley made his first television appearance on the ] broadcast of ''Louisiana Hayride''. Soon after, he failed an audition for '']'' on the ] television network. By early 1955, Presley's regular ''Hayride'' appearances, constant touring, and well-received record releases had made him a regional star.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=144, 159, 167–168}}{{sfn|Nash|2003|pp=6–12}}
] and ] in 1956]]
In January, Neal signed a formal management contract with Presley and brought him to the attention of ], whom he considered the best promoter in the music business. Having successfully managed the top country star ], Parker was working with the new number-one country singer, ]. Parker booked Presley on Snow's February tour.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=144, 159, 167–168}}{{sfn|Nash|2003|pp=6–12}}


By August, Sun had released ten sides credited to "Elvis Presley, Scotty and Bill"; the latest recordings included a drummer. Some of the songs, like "That's All Right", were in what one Memphis journalist described as the "R&B idiom of negro field jazz"; others, like "Blue Moon of Kentucky", were "more in the country field", "but there was a curious blending of the two different musics in both".{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|p=163}} This blend of styles made it difficult for Presley's music to find radio airplay. According to Neal, many country-music disc jockeys would not play it because Presley sounded too much like a black artist and none of the R&B stations would touch him because "he sounded too much like a ]."{{sfn|Bertrand|2000|p=104}} The blend came to be known as "rockabilly". At the time, Presley was billed as "The King of Western Bop", "The Hillbilly Cat", and "The Memphis Flash".{{sfn|Hopkins|2007|p=53}}
===First recordings and performances===
{{main|Elvis Presley's Sun recordings}}
On ], ], Presley went to Sun Records' ] to record "My Happiness" with "That's When Your Heartaches Begin", supposedly a present for his mother.<ref>"". ''elvis.com''. Retrieved on ].</ref> During his initial introduction at Sun Records, assistant ] asked him who he sounded like. Presley replied: "I don't sound like nobody."<ref>"". ''elvispresleynews.com''. Retrieved on ].</ref> On ], ], he cut a second ]. Sun Records boss ] was on the lookout for someone who could deliver a blend of black blues and ] music; he thought it would be very popular among white people.<ref>Miller, p.71</ref> When Phillips acquired a demo recording of "Without Love (There Is Nothing)" and was unable to identify the vocalist, Keisker reminded him about the young truck driver. She called him on ], ]. Presley was not able to do justice to the song (though he would record it years later).<ref>Lichter, p.12</ref> Phillips would later recall that "Elvis was probably as nervous as anybody, black or white, that I had seen in front of a microphone."<ref name="Clutton">Everything Elvis, ISBN 0753509601</ref> Despite this, Phillips invited local musicians ] and ] to audition Presley. Though they were not overly impressed, a studio session was planned.<ref>"". ''history-of-rock.com''. Retrieved on ].</ref>


Presley renewed Neal's management contract in August 1955, simultaneously appointing Parker as his special adviser.{{sfn|Guralnick|Jorgensen|1999|p=45}} The group maintained an extensive touring schedule.{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|p=29}} Neal recalled, "It was almost frightening, the reaction that came to Elvis from the teenaged boys. So many of them, through some sort of jealousy, would practically hate him. There were occasions in some towns in Texas when we'd have to be sure to have a police guard because somebody'd always try to take a crack at him."{{sfn|Rogers|1982|p=41}} The trio became a quartet when ''Hayride'' drummer Fontana joined as a full member. In mid-October, they played a few shows in support of ], whose "]" track had been a number-one hit the previous year. Haley observed that Presley had a natural feel for rhythm, and advised him to sing fewer ballads.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=217–219}}
During a recording break, Presley began "acting the fool" first with Arthur Crudup's "]".<ref>Guralnick, Peter (1992). ''The Complete 50's Masters'' (CD booklet notes).</ref> Phillips got them all to restart and began taping. This was the sound he had been looking for.<ref>Jorgensen, p.13</ref> The group recorded other songs, including ]'s "]". "That's All Right" was aired on ], ], by ] ].<ref name=Carr-6>Carr and Farren, p.6</ref>{{fn|b}} Listeners to the show began jamming the phone lines, eager to find out who the singer was.<ref name="Clutton"/> Requests for the song were so high, that Phillips ended up playing it fourteen times during the one show.<ref name="Clutton"/> During an interview on the show, Phillips asked Presley what high school he went to (a polite way of letting the audience know what colour Presley was).<ref name="Clutton"/> After its release, both sides of "That's All Right"/"Blue Moon of Kentucky" began to chart across the South.<ref>EPE (], ]). "". ''elvis.co.au''. Retrieved on ] ].</ref>


At the Country Disc Jockey Convention in early November, Presley was voted the year's most promising male artist.{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|p=31}} After three major labels made offers of up to $25,000, Parker and Phillips struck a deal with ] on November 21 to acquire Presley's Sun contract for an unprecedented $40,000.{{sfn|Stanley|Coffey|1998|pp=28–29}}{{refn|Of the $40,000, $5,000 covered back royalties owed by Sun.{{sfn|Stanley|Coffey|1998|pp=28–29}}|name=royalties|group=lower-alpha}} Presley, aged 20, was legally still a minor, so his father signed the contract.{{sfn|Escott|1998|p=421}} Parker arranged with the owners of ] Publishing, ] and ], to create two entities, Elvis Presley Music and Gladys Music, to handle all the new material recorded by Presley. Songwriters were obliged to forgo one-third of their customary ] in exchange for having Presley perform their compositions.{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|pp=36, 54}}{{refn|In 1956–57, Presley was also credited as a co-writer on several songs where he had no hand in the writing process: "]"; "]"; all four songs from his first film, including the title track, "]"; "]"; and "]".{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|pp=35, 51, 57, 61, 75}} (Parker, however, failed to register Presley with such musical licensing firms as ] and its rival ], which eventually denied Presley annuity from songwriter's royalties.) Presley received credit on two other songs to which he did contribute: he provided the title for "]" (1961), written by his friend and former Humes schoolmate ]; they collaborated with another friend, guitarist Charlie Hodge, on "]" (1962).{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|pp=157–158, 166, 168}}|name=cowriter|group=lower-alpha}} By December, RCA had begun to heavily promote its new singer, and before month's end had reissued many of his Sun recordings.{{sfn|Stanley|Coffey|1998|p=29}}
Moore and Black began playing regularly with Presley. They gave a few performances in July ] to promote the Sun single at the Bon Air, a rowdy music club where the band was not well-received.<ref name=EarlyGigs>EPE. "". ''ElvisPresley.com.au''. Retrieved on ].</ref> On ] the trio, billed as The Blue Moon Boys, made their first paid appearance at the ], with ] headlining.<ref>Burnett, Brown (ed.) (] ]). "". ''Memphis Mojo Newspaper''. Reprinted in "The Buzzards". ''RedClock.com''. Retrieved on ].</ref> A nervous Presley's legs were said to have shaken uncontrollably during this show: his wide-legged pants emphasized his leg movements, apparently causing females in the audience to go "crazy".<ref>Naylor and Halliday, p.43</ref> Scotty Moore claims it was just the natural way he moved and had nothing to do with "nerves."<ref name=Clayton-61>Clayton and Heard, p.61</ref> Presley consciously incorporated similar movements into future shows.<ref>''Elvis Presley Classic Albums'' (DVD). Eagle Eye Media, EE19007 NTSC.</ref>


=== 1956–1958: commercial breakout and controversy ===
DJ and promoter Bob Neal became the trio's manager (replacing Scotty Moore). Moore and Black left their band, the Starlite Wranglers and, from August through October 1954, appeared with Presley at The Eagle's Nest.<ref name=EarlyGigs /> Presley debuted at the '']'' in ] on ]; Hank Snow introduced Presley on stage. He performed "Blue Moon of Kentucky" but received only a polite response. Afterwards, the singer was allegedly told by the Opry's Jim Denny: "Boy, you’d better keep driving that truck."<ref name=Naylor-43>Naylor and Halliday, pp.43-6</ref>, though others deny it was Denny.<ref name=Clayton-69>Clayton and Heard, p.69</ref>
==== First national TV appearances and debut album ====
Country music promoter and manager ] booked Presley for the '']'' on ]. Before Franks saw Presley, he referred to him as "that new black singer with the funny name".<ref>Naylor and Halliday, p.46</ref> During Presley's first set, the reaction was muted; for the second, Franks advised Presley to "Let it all go!" As house drummer ] (who had worked in strip clubs) complemented Presley's movements with accented beats and Bill Black engaged in his usual stage antics, the crowd was more responsive.<ref>Naylor and Halliday, p.52</ref><ref name=Clayton-73>Clayton and Heard, p.73</ref>
]'' magazine advertisement, March 10, 1956]]
On January 10, 1956, Presley made his first recordings for RCA Victor in Nashville.{{sfn|Stanley|Coffey|1998|p=30}} Extending his by-now customary backup of Moore, Black, Fontana, and ''Hayride'' pianist ]—who had been performing at live club dates with Presley—RCA Victor enlisted guitarist ] and three background singers, including Gordon Stoker of the popular ] quartet.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=235–136}} The session produced the moody "]", released as a single on January 27.{{sfn|Stanley|Coffey|1998|p=30}} Parker brought Presley to national television, booking him on CBS's '']'' for six appearances over two months. The program, produced in New York City, was hosted on alternate weeks by big band leaders and brothers ] and ]. After his first appearance on January 28, Presley stayed in town to record at RCA Victor's New York studio. The sessions yielded eight songs, including a ] of ]' rockabilly anthem "]". In February, Presley's "]", a Sun recording released the previous August, reached the top of the ].{{sfn|Slaughter|Nixon|2004|p=21}} Neal's contract was terminated and Parker became Presley's manager.{{sfn|Guralnick|Jorgensen|1999|pp=50, 54, 64}}


RCA Victor released Presley's ] on March 23. Joined by five previously unreleased Sun recordings, its seven recently recorded tracks included two country songs, a bouncy pop tune, and what would centrally define the evolving sound of ]: "Blue Suede Shoes"—"an improvement over Perkins' in almost every way", according to critic ]—and three R&B numbers that had been part of Presley's stage repertoire, covers of ], ], and ]. As described by Hilburn, these <blockquote>were the most revealing of all. Unlike many white artists&nbsp;... who watered down the gritty edges of the original R&B versions of songs in the '50s, Presley reshaped them. He not only injected the tunes with his own vocal character but also made guitar, not piano, the lead instrument in all three cases.{{sfn|Hilburn|2005}}</blockquote> It became the first rock and roll album to top the ''Billboard'' chart, a position it held for ten weeks.{{sfn|Stanley|Coffey|1998|p=30}} While Presley was not an innovative guitarist like Moore or contemporary African American rockers ] and ], cultural historian Gilbert B. Rodman argued that the album's cover image, "of Elvis having the time of his life on stage ''with a guitar in his hands'' played a crucial role in positioning the guitar&nbsp;... as the instrument that best captured the style and spirit of this new music."{{sfn|Rodman|1996|p=28}}
According to one source, "Audiences had never before heard music... seen anyone who performed like Presley either. The shy, polite, mumbling boy gained self-confidence with every appearance... People watching the show were astounded and shocked, both by the ferocity of his performance, and the crowd’s reaction to it... ] saw Presley for the first time in Odessa, Texas: 'His energy was incredible, his instinct was just amazing... I just didn’t know what to make of it. There was just no reference point in the culture to compare it.'"<ref>Cook, p.50</ref> Sam Phillips said Presley "put every ounce of emotion ... into every song, almost as if he was incapable of holding back."<ref>Guralnick 1994</ref>


==== ''Milton Berle Show'' and "Hound Dog" ====
By August 1955, Sun Studios had released ten sides credited to "Elvis Presley, Scotty and Bill", all typical of the developing Presley style. That style proved hard to categorize; he was billed or labeled in the media as "The King of Western Bop", "The ] Cat" and "The Memphis Flash". He was also dubbed "Elvis the Pelvis" which Presley disliked, calling it "one of the most childish expressions I ever heard."<ref name=Farren-89>Farren and Marchbank, p.89</ref>
] in 1956]]
On April 3, Presley made the first of two appearances on ]'s '']''. His performance, on the deck of the ] in ], California, prompted cheers and screams from an audience of sailors and their dates.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=262–263}} A few days later, Presley and his band were flying to ], Tennessee for a recording session when an engine died and the plane almost went down over ].{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|p=267}} Twelve weeks after its original release, "Heartbreak Hotel" became Presley's first number-one pop hit. In late April, Presley began a two-week ] at the ] on the ].{{sfn|Koch |Manning |Toplikar |2008}} The shows were poorly received by the conservative, middle-aged hotel guests, "like a jug of corn liquor at a champagne party", a '']'' critic wrote.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|p=274}} Amid his Vegas tenure, Presley, who had acting ambitions, signed a seven-year contract with ].{{sfn|Victor|2008|p=315}} He began a tour of the ] in mid-May, covering fifteen cities in as many days.{{sfn|Guralnick|Jorgensen|1999|pp=72–73}} He had attended several shows by ] in Vegas and was struck by their cover of "]", a hit in 1953 for blues singer ] by songwriters ]. It became his new closing number.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=273, 284}}


After a show in ], Wisconsin, an urgent message on the letterhead of the local Catholic diocese's newspaper was sent to ] director ]. It warned that <blockquote>Presley is a definite danger to the security of the United States.&nbsp;... actions and motions were such as to rouse the sexual passions of teenaged youth.&nbsp;... After the show, more than 1,000 teenagers tried to gang into Presley's room at the auditorium.&nbsp;... Indications of the harm Presley did just in La Crosse were the two high school girls&nbsp;... whose abdomen and thigh had Presley's autograph.{{sfn|Fensch|2001|pp=14–18}}</blockquote>
On ], ], ] became Presley's manager, signing him to a one year contract plus renewals.<ref name=Stanley-28>Stanley and Coffey, p.28</ref> Several major record labels had shown interest in signing Presley and, by the end of October 1955, three major labels had made offers up to $25,000.<ref name="autogenerated3">Stanley and Coffey, p.29</ref> On ], ], Parker and Phillips negotiated a deal with ] Records to acquire Presley's Sun contract for an unprecedented $40,000, $5,000 of which was a bonus for the singer for back royalties owed to him by Sun Records<ref name="autogenerated3" /><ref>Carr and Farren, p.21</ref> (Presley, at 21, was officially still a minor, so his father had to sign the contract).<ref>Escott, p.421</ref> By ] ], RCA had begun to heavily promote its newest star, and by the end of December they had re-released all of his Sun recordings.<ref name="autogenerated3" />


Presley's second ''Milton Berle Show'' appearance came on June 5 at ]'s Hollywood studio, amid another hectic tour. ] persuaded Presley to leave his guitar backstage.{{sfn|Burke|Griffin|2006|p=52}} During the performance, Presley abruptly halted an up-tempo rendition of "Hound Dog" and launched into a slow, grinding version accentuated with exaggerated body movements.{{sfn|Burke|Griffin|2006|p=52}} His gyrations created a storm of controversy.{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|p=49}} ] of '']'' wrote, <blockquote>Mr. Presley has no discernible singing ability.&nbsp;... His phrasing, if it can be called that, consists of the stereotyped variations that go with a beginner's aria in a bathtub.&nbsp;... His one specialty is an accented movement of the body&nbsp;... primarily identified with the repertoire of the blond bombshells of the burlesque runway.{{sfn|Gould|1956}}</blockquote> Ben Gross of the '']'' opined that popular music "has reached its lowest depths in the 'grunt and groin' antics of one Elvis Presley.&nbsp;... Elvis, who rotates his pelvis&nbsp;... gave an exhibition that was suggestive and vulgar, tinged with the kind of animalism that should be confined to dives and ]s".{{sfn|Guralnick|Jorgensen|1999|p=73}} ], whose ] was the nation's most popular, declared Presley "unfit for family viewing".{{sfn|Marcus|2006}} To Presley's displeasure, he soon found himself being referred to as "Elvis the Pelvis", which he called "childish".{{sfn|Marsh|1982|p=100}}
===Breakthrough, 1956===
], ]]]
To increase the singer's exposure, Parker finally brought Presley to television (In March 1955, Presley had failed an audition for '']''). He booked six ]' ''Stage Show'' appearances (CBS), beginning ], ], when Presley was introduced by ] DJ ]. Parker also obtained a lucrative two-show deal with ] (NBC).


==== ''Steve Allen Show'' and first Sullivan appearance ====
On ], Presley made his first recordings for RCA in ].<ref name="autogenerated2">Stanley and Coffey, p.30</ref> The session produced "]/I Was The One" which was released on ]. The public reaction to "Heartbreak Hotel" prompted RCA to release it as a single in its own right (]).<ref name="autogenerated2" /> By April it had hit number one in the U.S., selling in excess of one million copies. On ], RCA Victor released '']'', his first album. Like the Sun recordings, the majority of the tracks were country songs.<ref>Hilburn, Robert (]). "". ''elvis.com.au''. Retrieved on ].</ref>
] and Presley during rehearsals for his second appearance on '']'', October 26, 1956]]
The Berle shows drew such high ratings that Presley was booked for a July 1 appearance on NBC's '']'' in New York. ], no fan of rock and roll, introduced a "new Elvis" in a white bowtie and black tails. Presley sang "Hound Dog" for less than a minute to a ] wearing a top hat and bowtie. As described by television historian Jake Austen, "Allen thought Presley was talentless and absurd&nbsp;... set things up so that Presley would show his contrition".{{sfn|Austen|2005|p=13}} Allen later wrote that he found Presley's "strange, gangly, country-boy charisma, his hard-to-define cuteness, and his charming eccentricity intriguing" and worked him into the "comedy fabric" of his program.{{sfn|Allen|1992|p=270}} Just before the final rehearsal for the show, Presley told a reporter, "I don't want to do anything to make people dislike me. I think TV is important so I'm going to go along, but I won't be able to give the kind of show I do in a personal appearance."{{sfn|Rock 'N Roll Stars|1956|p=5}} Presley would refer back to the Allen show as the most ridiculous performance of his career.{{sfn|Keogh|2004|p=73}} Later that night, he appeared on '']'', a popular local television show. Pressed on whether he had learned anything from the criticism of him, Presley responded, "No, I haven't... I don't see how any type of music would have any bad influence on people when it's only music.&nbsp;... how would rock 'n' roll music make anyone rebel against their parents?"{{sfn|Guralnick|Jorgensen|1999|p=73}}


The next day, Presley recorded "Hound Dog", "]" and "]". The Jordanaires sang harmony, as they had on ''The Steve Allen Show''; they would work with Presley through the 1960s. A few days later, Presley made an outdoor concert appearance in Memphis, at which he announced, "You know, those people in New York are not gonna change me none. I'm gonna show you what the real Elvis is like tonight."{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|p=51}} In August, a judge in ], Florida, ordered Presley to tame his act. Throughout the following performance, he largely kept still, except for wiggling his little finger suggestively in mockery of the order.{{sfn|Guralnick|Jorgensen|1999|pp=80–81}} The single pairing "Don't Be Cruel" with "Hound Dog" ruled the top of the charts for eleven weeks—a mark that would not be surpassed for thirty-six years.{{sfn|Whitburn|1993|p=5}} Recording sessions for Presley's second album took place in Hollywood in early September. Leiber and Stoller, the writers of "Hound Dog", contributed "]".{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|pp=60–65}}
On ], Presley launched his acting career with a screen-test for ], singing ] for the camera, and then acting a scene from ].<ref name=Stanley-31>Stanley and Coffey, p.31</ref> This led to Presley signing a seven-year deal with Paramount on ]. His first motion picture, ], was released on ] (See ']').


Allen's show with Presley had, for the first time, beaten ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' in the ratings. Sullivan booked Presley for three appearances for an unprecedented $50,000.{{sfn|Austen|2005|p=16}} The first, on September 9, 1956, was seen by approximately 60 million viewers—a record 82.6 percent of the television audience.{{sfn|Edgerton|2007|p=187}} Actor ] hosted the show, filling in while Sullivan was recovering from a car accident.{{sfn|Marcus|2006}} According to legend, Presley was shot only from the waist up. Watching clips of the Allen and Berle shows, Sullivan had opined that Presley "got some kind of device hanging down below the crotch of his pants—so when he moves his legs back and forth you can see the outline of his cock.&nbsp;... I think it's a ] bottle.&nbsp;... We just can't have this on a Sunday night. This is a family show!"{{sfn|Brown|Broeske|1997|p=93}} Sullivan publicly told '']'', "As for his gyrations, the whole thing can be controlled with camera shots."{{sfn|Austen|2005|p=16}} In fact, Presley was shown head-to-toe. Though the camerawork was relatively discreet during his debut, with leg-concealing closeups when he danced, the studio audience reacted with screams.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|p=338}}{{sfn|Gibson|2005}} Presley's performance of his forthcoming single, the ballad "]", prompted a record-shattering million advance orders.{{sfn|Victor|2008|p=439}} More than any other single event, it was this first appearance on ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' that made Presley a national celebrity.{{sfn|Marcus|2006}}
Presley appeared on '']'' from the deck of the ] in ] on ]. His performance was cheered by a live audience of appreciative sailors and their dates.<ref name="autogenerated6">Jorgensen, p.45</ref> A few days after this appearance, a flight taking Presley's band to Nashville for a recording session left all three badly shaken (the plane lost an engine and almost went down over Texas).<ref name="autogenerated6" /> After more hectic touring, Presley returned to ''The Milton Berle Show'' on ] and performed "Hound Dog" (without his guitar). Singing it uptempo, he then began a slower version. His exaggerated, straight-legged shuffle around the microphone stand stirred the audience&mdash;as did his vigorous leg shaking and hip thrusts in time to the beat. Presley's "gyrations" created a storm of controversy&mdash;even eclipsing the '] threat' headlines prevalent at the time.<ref name="Jorgensen-49">Jorgensen, p.49</ref> The press described his performance as "vulgar" and "obscene".<ref name="Jorgensen-49"/><ref>An example of press criticism can be found at Gould, Jack (] ]). "" (PDF). '']''. Retrieved on ].</ref> Presley was obliged to explain himself on the local ] TV show ''] Calling'': "Rock and roll music, if you like it, and you feel it, you can't help but move to it. That's what happens to me. I have to move around. I can't stand still. I've tried it, and I can't do it."<ref name=Elvis56 />


Accompanying Presley's rise to fame, a cultural shift was taking place that he both helped inspire and came to symbolize. The historian Marty Jezer wrote that Presley began the "biggest pop craze" since ] and ] and brought rock and roll to mainstream culture: <blockquote>As Presley set the artistic pace, other artists followed.&nbsp;... Presley, more than anyone else, gave the young a belief in themselves as a distinct and somehow unified generation—the first in America ever to feel the power of an integrated youth culture.{{sfn|Jezer|1982|p=281}}</blockquote>
From ], Presley was scheduled to perform four weeks at the ] on the ]&mdash;billed this time as "the Atomic Powered Singer". His shows were so badly received by critics and the conservative guests, that Colonel Parker cut short the engagement from four weeks to two.<ref name=Stanley-32>Stanley and Coffey, p.32</ref> . While in Vegas, Presley saw ] live, and liked their version of ]'s "]". By ], he had added the song to his own act.<ref>Butler, Peter. "". ''RockabillyHall.com''. Retrieved on ].</ref>


==== Crazed crowds and film debut ====
The Berle shows drew such huge ratings that ] (]), not a fan of rock and roll, booked him for one appearance in ] on ]. Allen wanted "to do a show the whole family can watch" and introduced a "new Elvis" in white bow tie and black tails. Presley sang "Hound Dog" for less than a minute to a ] in a ]. According to one author, "Allen thought Presley was talentless and absurd... set things up so that Presley would show his contrition..."<ref>Austen, p.13</ref><ref name=Beebe>Beebe, Fulbrook and Saunders, p.97</ref> The day after (]), the single "Hound Dog" was recorded and Scotty Moore said they were "all angry about their treatment the previous night".<ref name=Beebe /> (Presley often referred to the Allen show as the most ridiculous performance of his career.<ref name=Elvis56>Raymond, Susan (Director) (1987, Re-released 2000). ''Elvis '56 - In the Beginning'' (DVD). Warner Vision.</ref>) A few days later, Presley made a "triumphant" outdoor appearance in Memphis at which he announced: "You know, those people in New York are not gonna change me none. I'm gonna show you what the real Elvis is like tonight."<ref>Jorgensen, p.51</ref>
]


The audience response at Presley's live shows became increasingly fevered. Moore recalled, "He'd start out, 'You ain't nothin' but a Hound Dog,' and they'd just go to pieces. They'd always react the same way. There'd be a riot every time."{{sfn|Moore|Dickerson|1997|p=175}} At the two concerts he performed in September at the Mississippi–Alabama Fair and Dairy Show, fifty ] were added to the police detail to prevent a ruckus.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|p=343}} '']'', Presley's second RCA Victor album, was released in October and quickly rose to number one. The album includes "Old Shep", which he sang at the talent show in 1945, and which now marked the first time he played piano on an RCA Victor session. According to Guralnick, "the halting chords and the somewhat stumbling rhythm" showed "the unmistakable emotion and the equally unmistakable valuing of emotion over technique."{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|p=335}} Assessing the musical and cultural impact of Presley's recordings from "That's All Right" through ''Elvis'', rock critic ] wrote that "these records, more than any others, contain the seeds of what rock & roll was, has been and most likely what it may foreseeably become."{{sfn|Marsh|1980|p=395}}
Country vocalists ] accompanied Presley on ''The Steve Allen Show'' and their first recording session together produced "]", "]" and "Hound Dog". The Jordanaires would work with the singer through the 1960s.


{{Listen|filename=Hound Dog & intro (live-Ed Sullivan 2).ogg|title="We're gonna do a sad song&nbsp;..." |description=Presley's definition of rock and roll included a sense of humor—here, during his second Sullivan appearance, he introduces one of his signature numbers.}}
Though Presley had been unhappy, Allen's show had, for the first time, beaten '']'' in the ratings, causing a critical Sullivan (]) to book Presley for three appearances for an unprecedented $50,000.<ref>For more on the TV host rivalries of the period, see "". ''The Museum of Broadcast Communications''. Retrieved on ].</ref>
Presley returned to ''The Ed Sullivan Show'', hosted this time by its namesake, on October 28. After the performance, crowds in Nashville and ] burned him in ].{{sfn|Marcus|2006}} His first motion picture, '']'', was released on November 21. Though he was not top-billed, the film's original title—'']''—was changed to capitalize on his latest number-one record: "Love Me Tender" had hit the top of the charts earlier that month. To further take advantage of Presley's popularity, four musical numbers were added to what was originally a straight acting role. The film was panned by critics but did very well at the box office.{{sfn|Victor|2008|p=315}} Presley would receive top billing on every subsequent film he made.{{sfn|O'Malley|2016}}


On December 4, Presley dropped into Sun Records, where Carl Perkins and ] were recording, and had an impromptu ] along with ]. Though Phillips no longer had the right to release any Presley material, he made sure that the session was captured on tape. The results, none officially released for twenty-five years, became known as the "]" recordings.{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|p=71}} The year ended with a front-page story in '']'' reporting that Presley merchandise had brought in $22&nbsp;million on top of his record sales,{{sfn|Palladino|1996|p=131}} and ''Billboard''{{'}}s declaration that he had placed more songs in the top 100 than any other artist since records were first charted.{{sfn|Stanley|Coffey|1998|p=37}} In his first full year at RCA Victor, then the record industry's largest company, Presley had accounted for over fifty percent of the label's singles sales.{{sfn|Victor|2008|p=439}}
Presley's first ''Ed Sullivan'' appearance (], ]) was seen by some 55&ndash;60 million viewers. "Compared to moments on the Dorsey shows and on the Berle show, it was ice cream."<ref>], "Elvis Presley: The Ed Sullivan Shows." "". ''elvis.com.au''. Retrieved on ].</ref> On the third Sullivan show, Presley sang only slow paced ballads and a gospel song.<ref>{{cite video |people=Paul Mavis (Director) |title=Elvis Presley - Ed Sullivan Shows |medium=DVD |publisher=Image Entertainment |date=2006}}</ref> The fact that Presley was only shown from the waist up and "stepped out in the outlandish costume of a pasha, if not a harem girl" during this last broadcast has led to claims that Sullivan had "censored" or even "buried" the singer,<ref>Marcus, "Elvis Presley: The Ed Sullivan Shows."</ref> or that Colonel Parker had orchestrated the episode to generate publicity.<ref>Clayton and Heard, pp.117-8</ref><ref name=EdSullivan>Gibson, Christine (] ]). "". '']''. Retrieved on ].</ref> In spite of any misgivings about the controversial nature of his performing style, Sullivan declared at the end of the third appearance that Presley was "a real decent, fine boy" and that they had never had "a pleasanter experience" on the show.<ref name=EdSullivan />


==== Leiber and Stoller collaboration and draft notice ====
On ], Presley dropped into Sun Records where ] and ] were recording.<ref name="autogenerated1">Stanley and Coffey, p.37</ref> Sam Phillips made sure the session of the three performing was recorded; the results would later appear on a bootlegged recording titled ''The Million Dollar Quartet'' in 1977 (] is often thought to have performed with the trio, but he was only present briefly at Phillips' instigation for a photo opportunity).<ref>Jorgensen, p.71</ref> RCA would eventually iron out legal difficulties and release an authorized version a few years later.<ref name="autogenerated1" />
Presley made his third and final ''Ed Sullivan Show'' appearance on January 6, 1957—on this occasion indeed shot only down to the waist. Some commentators have claimed that Parker orchestrated an appearance of censorship to generate publicity.{{sfn|Gibson|2005}}{{sfn|Clayton|Heard|2003|pp=117–118}} In any event, as critic ] describes, Presley "did not tie himself down. Leaving behind the bland clothes he had worn on the first two shows, he stepped out in the outlandish costume of a ], if not a harem girl. From the make-up over his eyes, the hair falling in his face, the overwhelmingly sexual cast of his mouth, he was playing ] in '']'', with all stops out."{{sfn|Marcus|2006}} To close, displaying his range and defying Sullivan's wishes, Presley sang a gentle black spiritual, "]". At the end of the show, Sullivan declared Presley "a real decent, fine boy".{{sfn|Keogh|2004|p=90}} Two days later, the Memphis ] announced that Presley would be ] and would probably be drafted sometime that year.{{sfn|Guralnick|Jorgensen|1999|p=95}}


Each of the three Presley singles released in the first half of 1957 went to number one: "]", "]", and "]". Already an international star, he was attracting fans even where his music was not officially released: ''The New York Times'' reported that pressings of his music on ] were commanding high prices in ].{{sfn|Salisbury|1957|p=4}} Presley purchased his 18-room mansion, ], on March 19, 1957.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=395–397}} Before the purchase, Elvis recorded '']''—the soundtrack to ], which was released in July. It was his third straight number-one album. The title track was written by Leiber and Stoller, who were then retained to write four of the six songs recorded at the sessions for '']'', Presley's next film. The songwriting team effectively produced the ''Jailhouse'' sessions and developed a close working relationship with Presley, who came to regard them as his "good-luck charm".{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=406–408, 452}} "He was fast," said Leiber. "Any demo you gave him he knew by heart in ten minutes."{{sfn|Fox|1986|p=178}} The ] became another ], as was the ].{{sfn|Leigh|2017|p=187}}
On ], ] revealed that Presley had the most songs in the Top 100 since the chart began.<ref name="autogenerated1" />


] in the trailer for ''Jailhouse Rock'', released in October 1957]]
===Controversial King===
Presley undertook three brief tours during the year, continuing to generate a crazed audience response.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=399–402, 428–430, 437–440}} A Detroit newspaper suggested that "the trouble with going to see Elvis Presley is that you're liable to get killed".{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|p=400}} ] students pelted the singer with eggs in ],{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|p=400}} and in ] the crowd rioted after the show ended, destroying the stage.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|p=430}} Frank Sinatra, who had inspired the swooning and screaming of teenage girls in the 1940s, decried rock and roll as "brutal, ugly, degenerate, vicious.&nbsp;... It fosters almost totally negative and destructive reactions in young people. It smells phoney and false. It is sung, played and written, for the most part, by cretinous goons.&nbsp;... This rancid-smelling aphrodisiac I deplore."{{sfn|Turner|2004|p=104}} Asked for a response, Presley said: <blockquote>I admire the man. He has a right to say what he wants to say. He is a great success and a fine actor, but I think he shouldn't have said it.&nbsp;... This is a trend, just the same as he faced when he started years ago.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|p=437}}</blockquote>
]
]'' released by MGM on ], ]]]
{{main|Cultural impact of Elvis Presley}}
When "That's All Right" was played, many listeners were sure Presley must be black, and most white disc-jockeys wouldn't play his Sun singles. However, black disc-jockeys didn't want anything to do with a record made by a white man.<ref>Carr and Farren, pp.11, 16</ref> To some, Presley had undoubtedly "stolen" or at least "derived his style from the Negro rhythm-and-blues performers of the late 1940s", <ref>Bayles, p.22</ref>, though such criticism ignored Presley's use of "white" musical styles. Some black entertainers, notably ], argued: "A lot of people have accused Elvis of stealing the black man’s music, when in fact, almost every black solo entertainer copied his stage mannerisms from Elvis."<ref name=Blank>Blank, Christopher (] ]). "". ''elvis.com.au''. Retrieved on ].</ref>{{fn|e}}


Leiber and Stoller were again in the studio for the recording of '']''. Toward the end of the session, they wrote a song on the spot at Presley's request: "]", an ]-laden blues.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|p=431}} The holiday release stretched Presley's string of number-one albums to four and would become the ],{{sfn|Grein|2008}}{{sfn|Caulfield|2016}} with eventual sales of over 20 million worldwide.{{sfn|Baird|2017}} After the session, Moore and Black—drawing only modest weekly salaries, sharing in none of Presley's massive financial success—resigned, though they were brought back on a per diem basis a few weeks later.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=431–435}}
By the spring of 1956, Presley was becoming popular nationwide and teenagers flocked to his concerts. Scotty Moore recalled: "He’d start out, 'You ain’t nothin’ but a Hound Dog,' and they’d just go to pieces. They’d always react the same way. There’d be a riot every time."<ref>Moore and Dickerson, p.175</ref> Bob Neal wrote: "It was almost frightening, the reaction... from teenage boys. So many of them, through some sort of jealousy, would practically hate him." In ], a teenage gang fire-bombed Presley's car.<ref name = "lwlcmi">Carr and Farren, p.12</ref> Some performers became resentful (or resigned to the fact) that Presley's unmatched hustle onstage before them would "kill" their own act; he thus rose quickly to top billing.<ref name = "lwlcmi"/> At the two concerts he performed at the 1956 Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show, one hundred ] were on hand to prevent crowd trouble.<ref>"". ''showbuzz.CBSnews.com''. Retrieved ].</ref>


On December 20, Presley received his draft notice, though he was granted a deferment to finish the forthcoming film '']''. A couple of weeks into the new year, "]", another Leiber and Stoller tune, became Presley's tenth number-one seller. Recording sessions for the ] were held in Hollywood in mid-January 1958. Leiber and Stoller provided three songs, but it would be the last time Presley and the duo worked closely together.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=448–449}} As Stoller later recalled, Presley's manager and entourage sought to wall him off.{{sfn|Fox|1986|p=179}} A brief soundtrack session on February 11 marked the final occasion on which Black was to perform with Presley.{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|pp=99, 105}}
To many adults, the singer was "the first rock symbol of teenage rebellion. ... they did not like him, and condemned him as depraved. Anti-Negro prejudice doubtless figured in adult antagonism. Regardless of whether parents were aware of the Negro sexual origins of the phrase 'rock 'n' roll', Presley impressed them as the visual and aural embodiment of sex."<ref>Billboard writer Arnold Shaw, cited in Denisoff, p.22.</ref> In 1956, a critic for the '']'' wrote that popular music "has reached its lowest depths in the 'grunt and groin' antics of one Elvis Presley" and the ] denounced him in its weekly magazine, '']''.<ref> "". '']''. Retrieved on ].</ref> Even ] opined: "His kind of music is deplorable, a rancid smelling aphrodisiac. It fosters almost totally negative and destructive reactions in young people."<ref>Khurana, Simran. "". ''about.com''. Retrieved on ].</ref> Presley responded to this (and other derogatory comments Sinatra made) by saying: "I admire the man. He has a right to say what he wants to say. He is a great success and a fine actor, but I think he shouldn't have said it... This is a trend, just the same as he faced when he started years ago."<ref name=Hopkins126>Hopkins, p.126</ref>


=== 1958–1960: military service and mother's death ===
Presley was even seen as a "definite danger to the security of the United States." His actions and motions were called "a ] with clothes on" or "sexual self-gratification on stage." They were compared with "] or riding a microphone." Some saw the singer as a sexual ], and psychologists feared that teenaged girls and boys could easily be "aroused to sexual indulgence and perversion by certain types of motions and ]&mdash;the type that was exhibited at the Presley show."<ref>See Fensch, Thomas. ''The FBI Files on Elvis Presley'', pp.15-17.</ref> In August 1956, a ] judge called Presley a "savage" and threatened to arrest him if he shook his body while performing in ]. The judge declared that Presley's music was undermining the youth of America. Throughout the performance (which was filmed by police), he kept still as ordered, except for wiggling a finger in mockery at the ruling.<ref name=Marino>Marino, Rick. "". ''LadyLuckMusic.com''. Retrieved on ].</ref> (Presley recalls this incident during the ].)
{{Main|Military career of Elvis Presley}}
] on March 24, 1958, at ]]]
On March 24, 1958, Presley was drafted into the ] at ] in Arkansas. His arrival was a major media event. Hundreds of people descended on Presley as he stepped from the bus; photographers accompanied him into the installation.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=461–474}} Presley announced that he was looking forward to his military service, saying that he did not want to be treated any differently from anyone else.{{sfn|Victor|2008|p=27}}


Between March 28 and September 17, 1958, Presley completed ] and advanced training at ], Texas, where he was temporarily assigned to Company A, 2d<!-- EDITORS NOTE: Please do not change to "2nd" as it would be historically inaccurate. Thank you. --> Medium Tank Battalion, ]. During the two weeks' ] between his basic and advanced training in early June, he recorded five songs in Nashville.{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|pp=106–111}} In early August, Presley's mother was diagnosed with ], and her condition rapidly worsened. Presley was granted emergency leave to visit her and arrived in Memphis on August 12. Two days later, she died of heart failure at age 46. Presley was devastated and never the same;{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=474–480}}{{sfn|Neibaur|2014|p=}} their relationship had remained extremely close—even into his adulthood, they would use baby talk with each other and Presley would address her with pet names.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|p=13}}
In 1957, Presley even faced accusations of racism when he was alleged to have said: "The only thing ] people can do for me is to buy my records and shine my shoes." The singer always denied saying, or ever wanting to say, such a racist remark. '']'' magazine, run by and for African Americans, subsequently investigated the story and found no basis to the claim. However, the ''Jet'' journalist did find plenty of testimony that Presley judged people "regardless of race, color or creed".<ref>Davis, Natalie (] ]). "". ''GratefulDread.net''.Retrieved on ].</ref>


] ], poses atop a tank at ]]]
His parents moved home in Memphis, but the singer lived there briefly. With increased concerns over privacy and security, '']'' was bought in 1957, a mansion with several acres of land. This was Presley's primary residence until his death.
On October 1, 1958, Presley was assigned to the 1st Medium Tank Battalion, ], ], at ], West Germany, where he served as an armor intelligence specialist.{{sfn|US Department of Defense|1960}} On November 27, he was promoted to ] and on June 1, 1959, to ]. While on maneuvers, Presley was introduced to ] and became "practically evangelical about their benefits", not only for energy but for "strength" and weight loss.{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|p=21}} Karate became a lifelong interest: he studied with ],{{sfn|Tillery|2013|p=60}}{{sfn|Eiland|2018}} and later included it in his live performances.{{sfn|Corcoran|1998}}{{sfn|Tillery|2013|loc=Chapter 5: Patriot}}{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|pp=47, 49, 55, 60, 73}} Fellow soldiers have attested to Presley's wish to be seen as an able, ordinary soldier despite his fame, and to his generosity. He donated his Army pay to charity, purchased television sets for the base, and bought an extra set of fatigues for everyone in his outfit.{{sfn|Clayton|Heard|2003|p=160}} Presley was promoted to ] on February 11, 1960.{{sfn|US Department of Defense|1960}}


While in ], Presley, aged 24, met 14-year-old ].<!--She took the surname Presley after her marriage, thus, per https://en.wikipedia.org/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Biography#People_with_the_same_surname, is referred to by name as "Priscilla" to distinguish her from "Elvis".-->{{sfn|Jeffrey|Kaplan|2022}} They would marry after a seven-and-a-half-year courtship. In her autobiography, Priscilla said that Presley was concerned that his 24 months in the military would ruin his career. In ], he would have been able to perform and remain in touch with the public, but Parker had convinced him that to gain popular respect, he should serve as a regular soldier.{{sfn|Presley|1985|p=40}} Media reports echoed Presley's concerns about his career, but RCA Victor producer ] and ] of Hill and Range had carefully prepared: armed with a substantial amount of unreleased material, they kept up a regular stream of successful releases.{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|p=107}} Between his induction and discharge, Presley had ten top-40 hits, including "]", the bestselling "]", and "]" in 1958, and "]" and the number-one "]" in 1959.{{sfn|Whitburn|2010|p=520}} RCA Victor also generated four albums compiling previously issued material during this period, most successfully '']'' (1958), which hit number three on the LP chart.{{sfn|Marcus|1982|p=278}}
Presley's record sales grew quickly throughout the late 1950s, with hits like "]", "]" and "]".


===Military service and mother's death=== === 1960–1968: focus on films ===
{{See also|Elvis Presley on film and television}}
{| align="right" class="wikitable"
! Rank and Insignia
! Date of Rank
|-
| ] ''Private''
| Drafted<BR>1958-03-24
|-
| ] ''Private First-Class''
| 1958-11-27
|-
| ] ''Specialist 4''
| 1959-06-01
|-
| ] ''Sergeant''
| 1960-01-20
|-
| ] ''Staff Sergeant''
| Upon honorable discharge<BR>1960-03-05
|}
]]]
On ], ], Presley received his ]. ] and ] had already spent $350,000 on the film '']'', and did not want to suspend or cancel the project. The Memphis Draft Board granted Presley a deferment to finish it. On ], ], he was inducted as US Army private #53310761 and completed basic training at ], ] on September 17, 1958, before being posted to ], ] with the 3rd Armored Division, where his service took place from October 1, 1958 until March 2, 1960.<ref>Elder, Daniel K. "". ''ncohistory.com''. Retrieved on ].</ref>


==== ''Elvis Is Back'' ====
Presley had chosen not to join 'Special Services', which would have allowed him to avoid certain duties and maintain his public profile.<ref>Lichter, p.51</ref> He continued to receive massive media coverage, with much speculation echoing Presley's own concerns about his enforced absence damaging his career. However, early in 1958, RCA Victor producer Steve Sholes and Freddy Bienstock of Hill and Range (Presley's main music publishers) had both pushed for recording sessions and strong song material, the aim being to release regular hit recordings during Presley's two-year hiatus.<ref>Jorgensen, p.107</ref> Hit singles&mdash;and six albums&mdash;duly followed during that period.
{{Listen|type=music|filename=It's Now or Never.ogg|title="It's Now or Never" |description=Presley broke new stylistic ground and displayed his vocal range with this number-one hit. The quasi-operatic ballad ends with Presley "soaring up to an incredible top G&nbsp;sharp."{{sfn|Matthew-Walker|1979|p=49}}}}
Presley returned to the U.S. on March 2, 1960, and was ] three days later.{{sfn|Slaughter|Nixon|2004|p=54}} The train that carried him from ] to Tennessee was mobbed all the way, and Presley was called upon to appear at scheduled stops to please his fans.{{sfn|Matthew-Walker|1979|p=19}} On the night of March 20, he entered ] to cut tracks for a new album along with a single, "]", which was rushed into release and swiftly became a number-one hit.{{sfn|Slaughter|Nixon|2004|p=57}} Another Nashville session two weeks later yielded a pair of bestselling singles, the ballads "]" and "]", along with the rest of '']'' The album features several songs described by Greil Marcus as full of ] "menace, driven by Presley's own super-miked acoustic guitar, brilliant playing by Scotty Moore, and demonic sax work from ]. Elvis' singing wasn't sexy, it was pornographic."{{sfn|Marcus|1982|pp=279–280}} The record "conjured up the vision of a performer who could be all things", according to music historian John Robertson: "a flirtatious teenage idol with a heart of gold; a tempestuous, dangerous lover; a gutbucket blues singer; a sophisticated nightclub entertainer; raucous rocker".{{sfn|Robertson|2004|p=50}} Released only days after recording was complete, it reached number two on the album chart.{{sfn|"Red Carpet"|1960}}{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|pp=124–127, 414}}


] in '']'']]
As Presley's fame grew, his mother continued to drink excessively and began to gain weight. She had wanted her son to succeed, "but... hysteria of the crowd frightened her."<ref>Rodriguez, p.87</ref> In early August 1958, doctors had diagnosed ] and her condition worsened. Presley was granted emergency leave to visit her, arriving in Memphis on August 12. Two days later, Gladys Presley died of heart failure, aged forty-six. Presley was distraught, "grieving almost constantly" for days.<ref>Guralnick 1999, p.480</ref>
Presley returned to television on May 12 as a guest on '']''. Also known as ''Welcome Home Elvis'', the show had been taped in late March, the only time all year Presley performed in front of an audience. Parker secured an unheard-of $125,000 for eight minutes of singing. The broadcast drew an enormous viewership.{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|pp=44, 62–63}}


'']'', the soundtrack to Presley's first film since his return, was a number-one album in October. His first LP of sacred material, '']'', followed two months later; it reached number 13 on the U.S. pop chart and number 3 in the United Kingdom, remarkable figures for a gospel album. In February 1961, Presley performed two shows in Memphis, for a benefit for twenty-four local charities. During a luncheon preceding the event, RCA Victor presented him with a plaque certifying worldwide sales of over 75 million records.{{sfn|Gordon|2005|pp=110, 114}} A twelve-hour Nashville session in mid-March yielded nearly all of Presley's next studio album, '']''.{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|p=148}} According to John Robertson, it exemplifies the ], the restrained, cosmopolitan style that would define country music in the 1960s. Presaging much of what was to come from Presley over the next half-decade, the album is largely "a pleasant, unthreatening pastiche of the music that had once been Elvis' birthright".{{sfn|Robertson|2004|p=52}} It would be his sixth number-one LP. Another benefit concert, for a ] memorial, was staged on March 25 in Hawaii. It was to be Presley's last public performance for seven years.{{sfn|Gordon|2005|pp=110, 119}}
Some months later, in Germany, " sergeant had introduced to ] when they were on maneuvers at ]... it seemed like half the guys in the company were taking them." Friends around Presley, like ], also began taking them, "if only to keep up with Elvis, who was practically evangelical about their benefits."<ref name="autogenerated7" /> The army also introduced Presley to ]&mdash;something which he studied seriously, even including it in his later live performances.<ref>Guralnick 1994, p.71</ref>{{fn|f}}


==== Lost in Hollywood ====
In 2008, it was claimed that Presley had flown to ] (1958) for a one-day trip: his only visit to the UK was thought to have been a stop-over at ], ] in 1960. ], (Presley's alleged chaperone) said that he'd sworn not to divulge details of the visit.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7361159.stm | title=Elvis's secret UK visit revealed | publisher=] | date=] | accessdate=2008-05-01 }}</ref> Friends of Presley, including Army buddy Lamar Fike, insist that the trip never took place.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7376248.stm | title= Elvis friends dispute London trip | author=Ian Youngs | publisher=] | date=] | accessdate=2008-05-01 }}</ref>
Parker had by now pushed Presley into a heavy filmmaking schedule, focused on formulaic, modestly budgeted ]. Presley initially insisted on pursuing higher roles, but when two films in a more dramatic vein—'']'' (1960) and '']'' (1961)—were less commercially successful, he reverted to the formula. Among the twenty-seven films he made during the 1960s, there were a few further exceptions.{{sfn|Ponce de Leon|2007|p=133}} His films were almost universally panned; critic Andrew Caine dismissed them as a "pantheon of bad taste".{{sfn|Caine|2005|p=21}} Nonetheless, they were virtually all profitable. ], who produced nine, declared, "A Presley picture is the only sure thing in Hollywood."{{sfn|Fields|2007}}


Of Presley's films in the 1960s, fifteen were accompanied by soundtrack albums and another five by soundtrack EPs. The films' rapid production and release schedules—Presley frequently starred in three a year—affected his music. According to Jerry Leiber, the soundtrack formula was already evident before Presley left for the Army: "three ballads, one medium-tempo , one up-tempo, and one break blues boogie".{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|p=449}} As the decade wore on, the quality of the soundtrack songs grew "progressively worse".{{sfn|Kirchberg|Hendrickx|1999|p=67}} ], who appeared in '']'' (1966), says that Presley disliked many of the songs.{{sfn|Lisanti|2000|pp=19, 136}} The Jordanaires' Gordon Stoker describes how he would retreat from the studio microphone: "The material was so bad that he felt like he couldn't sing it."{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|p=201}} Most of the film albums featured a song or two from respected writers such as the team of ] and ]. But by and large, according to biographer ], the numbers seemed to be "written on order by men who never really understood Elvis or rock and roll".{{sfn|Hopkins|2002|p=32}}
Presley returned to the U.S. on ], ], and was honorably discharged with the rank of sergeant on ].<ref>"". ''Army.mil''. Retrieved on ].</ref> Recording sessions in March and April yielded some of his best-selling songs&mdash;including "]". Although some tracks were uptempo, none could be described as "rock and roll". Most found their way on to an album&mdash;'']''&mdash;described by one critic as "a triumph on every level... It was as if Elvis had... broken down the barriers of genre and prejudice to express everything he heard in all the kinds of music he loved".<ref>Jorgensen, p.128</ref> The album was also notable because of Homer ]'s acclaimed saxophone solo during the blues standard "]".
], holding their newborn daughter, ], in 1968]]
In the first half of the decade, three of Presley's soundtrack albums were ranked number one on the pop charts, and a few of his most popular songs came from his films, such as "]" (1961) and "]" (1962). However, the commercial returns steadily diminished. From 1964 through 1968, Presley had only one top-ten hit: "]" (1965), a gospel number recorded in 1960. As for non-film albums, between the June 1962 release of '']'' and the November 1968 release of the soundtrack to the television special that signaled his comeback, only one LP of new material by Presley was issued: the gospel album '']'' (1967). It won him his first ], for Best Sacred Performance. As Marsh described, Presley was "arguably the greatest white gospel singer of his time really the last rock & roll artist to make gospel as vital a component of his musical personality as his secular songs".{{sfn|Marsh|2004|p=650}}


Shortly before Christmas 1966, more than seven years since they first met, Presley proposed to Priscilla Beaulieu. They were married on May 1, 1967, in a brief ceremony in their suite at the ] in Las Vegas.{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|pp=261–263}} The flow of formulaic films and assembly-line soundtracks continued. It was not until October 1967, when the ] registered record low sales for a new Presley album, that RCA Victor executives recognized a problem. "By then, of course, the damage had been done", as historians Connie Kirchberg and Marc Hendrickx put it. "Elvis was viewed as a joke by serious music lovers and a has-been to all but his most loyal fans."{{sfn|Kirchberg|Hendrickx|1999|p=73}}
===Acting career===
{{see also|Elvis Presley filmography}}
In 1956, Presley launched his career as a film actor, beginning with the musical western, '']''. It was panned by the critics but did well at the box office.<ref>Harbinson, p.62</ref>
The original title&mdash;''The ]''&mdash;was changed because of the advanced sales of the song "Love Me Tender". The majority of Presley's films were musical comedies made to "sell records and produce high revenues."<ref>Falk and Falk, p.52</ref> He also appeared in more dramatic films, like '']'' and '']''. The erotic, if not homoerotic<ref>See Brett Farmer, ''Spectacular Passions: Cinema, Fantasy, Gay Male Spectatorships'' (Duke University Press, 2000), p.86.</ref>, dance sequence on the song "Jailhouse Rock", which Presley choreographed himself, "is considered by many as his greatest performance ever captured on film."<ref>Billy Poore, ''Rockabilly: A Forty-Year Journey'' (1998), p. 20.</ref> To maintain box office success, he even "shifted into ] formula comedy mode for a few years."<ref>"". '']''. Retrieved on ].</ref> He also made one non-musical western, '']''.


=== 1968–1973: Comeback ===
Presley stopped live performing after his Army service with the exception, ironically (given Sinatra's previously scathing criticism), of a guest appearance on '']'' (1960) (He also performed three charity concerts&mdash;two in Memphis and one in Pearl Harbor (1961).<ref>Guralnick 1999, pp.89-91</ref>)
==== ''Elvis'': the '68 Comeback Special ====
{{Main|Singer Presents...Elvis}}
] produced "one of the most famous images" of Presley;{{sfn|Keogh|2004|p=263}} taken on June 29, 1968, it was adapted for the cover of '']'' in July 1969{{sfn|Keogh|2004|p=263}}{{sfn|Rolling Stone|2009}}]]
Presley's only child, ], was born on February 1, 1968, during a period when he had grown deeply unhappy with his career.{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|p=171}} Of the eight Presley singles released between January 1967 and May 1968, only two charted in the top 40, none higher than number 28.{{sfn|Whitburn|2010|p=521}} His forthcoming soundtrack album, '']'', would rank at number 82. Parker had already shifted his plans to television: he maneuvered a deal with NBC that committed the network to finance a theatrical feature and broadcast a Christmas special.{{sfn|Kubernick|2008|p=4}}


Recorded in late June in ], California, the special, simply called ''Elvis'', aired on December 3, 1968. Later known as the '']'', the show featured lavishly staged studio productions as well as songs performed with a band in front of a small audience—Presley's first live performances since 1961. The live segments saw Presley dressed in tight black leather, singing and playing guitar in an uninhibited style reminiscent of his early rock and roll days. Director and co-producer ] worked hard to produce a show that was far from the hour of Christmas songs Parker had originally planned.{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|pp=293, 296}} The show, NBC's highest-rated that season, captured forty-two percent of the total viewing audience.{{sfn|Kubernick|2008|p=26}} ] of ''Eye'' magazine remarked: <blockquote>There is something magical about watching a man who has lost himself find his way back home. He sang with the kind of power people no longer expect of rock 'n' roll singers. He moved his body with a lack of pretension and effort that must have made ] green with envy.{{sfn|Hopkins|2007|p=215}}</blockquote> Marsh calls the performance one of "emotional grandeur and historical resonance".{{sfn|Marsh|2004|p=649}}
In the Army, Presley had said on many occasions that "more than anything, he wanted to be taken seriously as a dramatic actor."<ref>Guralnick 1999, p.50</ref> His manager, with an eye on long-term earnings, negotiated a multi-picture seven-year contract with ].<ref>Guralnick 1999, p.27</ref> Although Presley was praised by directors, like ], as polite and hardworking (and as having an exceptional memory), "he was definitely not the most talented actor around."<ref>Verswijver, p.129</ref>


By January 1969, the single "]", written for the special, reached number 12. The ] rose into the top ten. According to friend ], the special reminded Presley of what "he had not been able to do for years, being able to choose the people; being able to choose what songs and not being told what had to be on the soundtrack.&nbsp;... He was out of prison, man."{{sfn|Kubernick|2008|p=26}} Binder said of Presley's reaction, "I played Elvis the 60-minute show, and he told me in the screening room, 'Steve, it's the greatest thing I've ever done in my life. I give you my word I will never sing a song I don't believe in.{{'"}}{{sfn|Kubernick|2008|p=26}}
The Presley vehicles, and the ] beach movies (which were mainly made for an early sixties teenage audience) were generally criticized as a "pantheon of bad taste."<ref>Caine, p.21</ref> The scripts of his movies "were all the same, the songs progressively worse."<ref>Kirchberg and Hendricks, p.67</ref> '']'' wrote that in his movies "Elvis Presley, aggressively ] in appeal, knowingly ], acting like a ] ] and singing with a kind of machine-made ]."<ref>''Sight and Sound'', The British Film Institute, British Institute of Adult Education (1992), p.30.</ref> Others noted that the songs seemed to be "written on order by men who never really understood Elvis or rock and roll."<ref>Hopkins, p.32</ref> For '']'', "fourteen songs were cut in just three days."<ref>Hopkins, p.31</ref> Julie Parrish, who appeared in '']'', says that Presley hated such songs and that he "couldn't stop laughing while he was recording" one of them.<ref>Lisanti 2000, pp.19, 136</ref> Critics would later claim that "No major star suffered through more bad movies than Elvis Presley."<ref>Lyon, p.511</ref>


==== ''From Elvis in Memphis'' and the International ====
]'' (1964)]]
{{Listen|type=music|filename=Power of My Love.ogg|title="Power of My Love" |description=Beginning with his American Sound recordings, ] became a central element in Presley's fusion of styles. Here, he revels in lyrics full of sexual innuendos.{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|p=277}}}}
Presley movies were nevertheless very popular, and he "became a film genre of his own."<ref>Lisanti 2000, p.18</ref> Elvis on celluloid was the only chance to see him in the absence of live appearances, especially outside of the U.S. (the only time he toured outside of the U.S. was in Canada in 1957). His ''Blue Hawaii'' even "boosted the new state's tourism. Some of his most enduring and popular songs came from those movies," like "]," "]" and "]."<ref>Hopkins, vii</ref> His 1960s films and soundtracks grossed some $280 million.<ref>Alagna, ''Elvis Presley''</ref> On December 1st, 1968, the ''New York Times'' wrote: "Three times a year Elvis Presley has gone to the sound stages of Hollywood to make multimillion-dollar feature-length films, with holiday titles like “Blue Hawaii,” “Fun in Acapulco.” “Viva Las Vegas.” “Tickle Me’ “Easy Come, Easy Go,” “Live a Little, Love a Little,” and the latest in the series, “Chataqua” . For each film Elvis receives a million dollar in wages and 50 per cent of the profits. The money doesn’t stop there, however, every film yields an LP sound-track record which may sell as many as two-million copies."
Buoyed by the experience of the ''Comeback Special'', Presley engaged in a prolific series of recording sessions at ], which led to the acclaimed '']''. Released in June 1969, it was his first secular, non-soundtrack album from a dedicated period in the studio in eight years. As described by Marsh, it is "a masterpiece in which Presley immediately catches up with pop music trends that had seemed to pass him by during the movie years. He sings country songs, soul songs and rockers with real conviction, a stunning achievement."{{sfn|Marsh|1980|p=396}} The album featured the hit single "]", issued in April, which reached number three on the pop chart—Presley's first non-gospel top ten hit since "Bossa Nova Baby" in 1963. Further hit singles were culled from the American Sound sessions: "]", "]", and "]".{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|p=419}}


Presley was keen to resume regular live performing. Following the success of the ''Comeback Special'', offers came in from around the world. The ] offered Parker {{US$|28,000|link=yes}} ({{Inflation|US|28000|1969|fmt=eq|r=-3}}) for a one-week engagement. He responded, "That's fine for me, now how much can you get for Elvis?"{{sfn|Gordon|2005|p=146}} In May, the brand-new ] in Las Vegas, boasting the largest showroom in the city, booked Presley for fifty-seven shows over four weeks, beginning July 31. Moore, Fontana, and the Jordanaires declined to participate, afraid of losing the lucrative session work they had in Nashville. Presley assembled new, top-notch accompaniment, led by guitarist ] and including two gospel groups, ] and ].{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|p=283}} Costume designer ], responsible for the intense leather styling of the ''Comeback Special'', created a new stage look for Presley, inspired by his passion for karate.{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|p=343}} Nonetheless, Presley was nervous: his only previous Las Vegas engagement, in 1956, had been dismal. Parker oversaw a major promotional push, and International Hotel owner ] arranged to send his own plane to New York to fly in rock journalists for the debut performance.{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|pp=346–347}}
In 1964, ] and ] had starred in Hal Wallis' '']''. Wallis admitted to the press that the financing of such quality productions was only possible by making a series of profitable B-movies starring Presley. He branded Wallis "a double-dealing sonofabitch" (and he thought little better of Tom Parker), realizing there had never been any intention to let him develop into a serious actor.<ref name = "pefciv">Guralnick 1999, p.171</ref>


Presley took to the stage without introduction. The audience of 2,200, including many celebrities, gave him a standing ovation before he sang a note and another after his performance. A third followed his encore, "Can't Help Falling in Love" (which would be his closing number for much of his remaining life).{{sfn|Gordon|2005|pp=149–150}} At a press conference after the show, when a journalist referred to him as "The King", Presley gestured toward ], who was taking in the scene. "No," Presley said, "that's the real king of rock and roll."{{sfn|Cook|2004|p=39}} The next day, Parker's negotiations with the hotel resulted in a five-year contract for Presley to play each February and August, at an annual salary of $1&nbsp;million.{{sfn|Guralnick|Jorgensen|1999|pp=259, 262}} '']'' commented, "There are several unbelievable things about Elvis, but the most incredible is his staying power in a world where meteoric careers fade like shooting stars."{{sfn|Moyer|2002|p=73}} '']'' called Presley "supernatural, his own resurrection."{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|p=287}} In November, Presley's final non-concert film, '']'', opened. The double album '']'' came out the same month; the first LP consisted of live performances from the International, the second of more cuts from the American Sound sessions. "Suspicious Minds" reached the top of the charts—Presley's first ] in over seven years, and his last.{{sfn|Whitburn|2010|pp=521–522}}
Presley was one of the highest paid actors during the 1960s, but times were changing. " Elvis Presley film was becoming passé. Young people were tuning in, dropping out and doing acid. Musical acts like ], ], ], ] and many others were dominating the airwaves. Elvis Presley was not considered cool as he once was."<ref>Lisanti 2000, p.9</ref> Priscilla Presley recalls: "He blamed his fading popularity on his humdrum movies" and "... loathed their stock plots and short shooting schedules." She also notes: "He could have demanded better, more substantial scripts, but he didn't."<ref>Presley, p.188</ref>


], later television's Elvira, met Presley during this period in Las Vegas. She recalled of their encounter, "He was so anti-drug when I met him. I mentioned to him that I smoked ], and he was just appalled."{{sfn|Stein|1997}} Presley also rarely drank—several of his family members had been alcoholics, a fate he intended to avoid.{{sfn|Mason|2007|p=81}}
Presley's final movie role was in '']'' (1969). His last two films were concert documentaries in the early 1970s, though Presley was keen to consider dramatic movie roles.<ref name=George-Warren>George-Warren, Romanowski and Pareles, ''The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock And Roll''. Excerpt in "". ''Rolling Stone''. Retrieved on ].</ref>{{fn|g}}


==== Back on tour and meeting Nixon ====
As well as the formulaic movie songs of the 1960s, Presley did make noteworthy studio recordings, including "]," "]" and "]." In 1966 he recorded a cover of ]'s "]" (which RCA Victor relegated to a bonus track on the soundtrack album for '']''). He also produced two gospel albums: '']'' (1960) and '']'' (1966). In 1967, he recorded some well-received singles in collaboration with songwriter/guitar player ], including Reed's "]." However, "during the Beatles era (1963-70), only six Elvis singles reached number ten or better. 'Suspicious Minds' was the lone number one."<ref>Kirchberg, Connie and Marc Hendricks 1999, p.66.</ref>
Presley returned to the International early in 1970 for the first of the year's two-month-long engagements, performing two shows a night. Recordings from these shows were issued on the album '']''.{{sfn|Stanley|Coffey|1998|p=94}} In late February, Presley performed six attendance-record–breaking shows at the ].{{sfn|Stanley|Coffey|1998|p=95}} In April, the single "]" was issued—a number one hit in the UK, it topped the U.S. ] chart as well. ] (MGM) filmed rehearsal and concert footage at the International during August for the documentary '']''. Presley was performing in a jumpsuit, which would become a trademark of his live act. During this engagement, he was threatened with murder unless {{US$|50,000|link=yes}} ({{Inflation|US|50000|1970|fmt=eq|r=-3}}) was paid. Presley had been the target of many threats since the 1950s, often without his knowledge.{{sfn|Hopkins|2007|p=253}} The FBI took the threat seriously and security was increased for the next two shows. Presley went onstage with a ] in his right boot and a ] ] in his waistband, but the concerts succeeded without any incidents.{{sfn|Hopkins|2007|p=254}}{{sfn|Stanley|Coffey|1998|p=96}}


'']'', produced to accompany the documentary and featuring both studio and live recordings, marked a stylistic shift. As music historian John Robertson noted, <blockquote>The authority of Presley's singing helped disguise the fact that the album stepped decisively away from the American-roots inspiration of the Memphis sessions towards a more middle-of-the-road sound. With country put on the back burner, and soul and R&B left in Memphis, what was left was very classy, very clean white pop—perfect for the Las Vegas crowd, but a definite retrograde step for Elvis.{{sfn|Robertson|2004|p=70}}</blockquote> After the end of his International engagement on September 7, Presley embarked on a week-long concert tour, largely of the ], his first since 1958. Another week-long tour, of the ], followed in November.{{sfn|Stanley|Coffey|1998|p=99}}
===Sex symbol===
{{main|Relationships of Elvis Presley}}
Presley's sexual attraction and photogenic looks have been acknowledged. Director ], not a fan of Presley's music at the time, recalled from the ]: "I'm straight as an arrow and I got to tell you, you stop, whether you're male or female, to look at him. He was that good looking. And if you never knew he was a superstar, it wouldn't make any difference; if he'd walked in the room, you'd know somebody special was in your presence."<ref name="Binder"/> According to ], a "male rock critic writing in 1970 praised Elvis as 'The master of the sexual simile, treating his guitar as both phallus and girl.' ... rumor had it that into his skin-tight jeans was sewn a lead bar to suggest a weapon of heroic proportions. But a boyhood friend of Elvis's tells it somewhat differently, describing a stage ploy from the singer's early career, around 1955: 'He would take the cardboard cylinder out of a roll of toilet paper and put a string in one end of it. Then, he'd tie that string around his waist. The other end, with the cardboard roller, would hang down outside his drawers, so as when he got onstage and reared back with that guitar in his hand, it would look to the girls up front like he had one helluva thing there inside his pants.' "<ref>Garber, Marjorie, ''Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing & Cultural Anxiety'', p.382.</ref>


] in the ] ], December 21, 1970]]
Accounts of Presley's numerous sexual conquests may be exaggerated<ref>Kirchberg and Hendricks, p.62</ref><ref>Curtin, Curtin and Ginter, p.119</ref> ] reveals that Presley kissed her all over her naked body - but refused to have oral sex with her.<ref>See . ''WENN'', April 25, 2000.</ref>. Girlfriends ] and ] had no sexual relationships with Presley. Byron Raphael and ] have stated that the star "would never put himself inside one of these girls..."<ref name=Raphael>Raphael, Byron; ] (November 2005). "In Bed with Elvis". ''Playboy'', '''52''' (11): pp.64-8, 76, 140.</ref> ] ("Elvira") says she knew Presley for only one night, but all they did was talk.<ref>Stein, Ruthe ], ]. '']''.</ref> ] claims that he was "virtually impotent" with her, but she attributed this to his boyishness and drug misuse.<ref name=Lipton>Lipton, Dalton and Dalton, p.172</ref> Guralnick concurs with others, "he wasn't really interested", preferring to lie in bed, watch television and talk.<ref>Guralnick 1994, p.415</ref>
On December 21, 1970, Presley engineered a meeting with U.S. President ] at the ], where he explained how he believed he could reach out to the ]s to help combat the ] he and the president abhorred. He asked Nixon for a ] badge, to signify official sanction of his efforts. Nixon, who apparently found the encounter awkward, expressed a belief that Presley could send a positive message to young people and that it was, therefore, important that he "retain his credibility".{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|pp=419–422}} Presley told Nixon that ], whose songs he regularly performed in concert during the era,{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|pp=284, 286, 307–308, 313, 326, 338, 357–358}} exemplified what he saw as a trend of ].{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|p=420}} Presley and his friends previously had a four-hour get-together with the Beatles at his home in ], California, in August 1965. ] later said that he "felt a bit betrayed.&nbsp;... The great joke was that we were taking drugs, and look what happened to him", a reference to Presley's early death linked to ].{{sfn|The Beatles|2000|p=192}}


The ] named Presley one of its annual ] on January 16, 1971.{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|p=321}} Not long after, the City of Memphis named the stretch of ] on which Graceland is located "Elvis Presley Boulevard". The same year, Presley became the first rock and roll singer to be awarded the ] (then known as the Bing Crosby Award).{{sfn|McPhate|2017}}{{sfn|Guralnick|Jorgensen|1999|pp=299–300}} Three new, non-film Presley studio albums were released in 1971. Best received by critics was '']'', a ] that focused on genre standards.{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|p=319}} The biggest seller was '']''. According to Greil Marcus, <blockquote>In the midst of ten painfully genteel Christmas songs, every one sung with appalling sincerity and humility, one could find Elvis tom-catting his way through six blazing minutes of "]", a raunchy old ] blues.{{nbsp}} If sin was his lifelessness, it was his sinfulness that brought him to life.{{sfn|Marcus|1982|pp=284–185}}</blockquote>
] (Presley's co-star in '']'') refers to Presley as her "soulmate" but has revealed little else.<ref>Margret, ''Ann-Margret: My Story''</ref> A publicity campaign about Presley and Margret's romance was launched during the filming of ''Viva Las Vegas'',<ref>Presley, p.175</ref> which helped to increase Margret's popularity.<ref name=Gamson-46>Gamson, p.46</ref><ref>Harrington and Bielby, p.273</ref> Presley apparently dated many female co-stars for publicity purposes.<ref>Stein, Ruthe (], ]). "Girls! Girls! Girls! From small-town women to movie stars". ''San Francisco Chronicle''.</ref> ] dated him for a while in 1964. She says their "courtship was not some bizarre story. It was very sweet and Elvis was the perfect gentleman."<ref>Lisanti 2003, p.207</ref>


==== Marriage breakdown and ''Aloha from Hawaii'' ====
===Family===
{{See also|Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite}}
:''Main articles:'' ] and ]
] (left) and ] (right) backstage at the ] on August 5, 1972]]
MGM filmed Presley in April 1972 for '']'', which went on to win the ] for ]. His gospel album '']'', released that month, would earn him his second ]. A fourteen-date tour commenced with an unprecedented four consecutive sold-out shows at New York's ].{{sfn|Guralnick|Jorgensen|1999|p=308}} The evening concert on July 10 was issued in LP form a week later. '']'' became one of Presley's biggest-selling albums. After the tour, the single "]" was released—Presley's last top ten hit on the U.S. pop chart. "The most exciting single Elvis has made since 'All Shook Up{{'"}}, wrote rock critic ].{{sfn|Marcus|1982|p=283}}
] after their divorce was finalized in 1973]]
Presley and his wife had become increasingly distant, barely cohabiting. In 1971, an affair he had with Joyce Bova resulted—unbeknownst to him—in her pregnancy and an abortion.{{sfn|Williamson|2015|pp=253–254}} He often raised the possibility of Joyce moving into Graceland.{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|pp=451, 446, 453}} The Presleys ] on February 23, 1972, after Priscilla disclosed her relationship with ], a karate instructor Presley had recommended to her. Priscilla related that when she told him, Presley forcefully made love to her, declaring, "This is how a real man makes love to his woman".{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|p=456}} She later stated in an interview that she regretted her choice of words in describing the incident, and said it had been an overstatement.{{sfn|Marsh|2015}} Five months later, Presley's new girlfriend, ], a songwriter and one-time Memphis beauty queen, moved in with him.{{sfn|Hopkins|2007|p=291}} Presley and his wife filed for divorce on August 18.{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|p=474}} According to Joe Moscheo of the Imperials, the failure of Presley's marriage "was a blow from which he never recovered".{{sfn|Moscheo|2007|p=132}} At a rare press conference that June, a reporter had asked Presley whether he was satisfied with his image. Presley replied, "Well, the image is one thing and the human being another&nbsp;... it's very hard to live up to an image."{{sfn|Keogh|2004|pp=234–235}}


]
Elvis and Priscilla met in the summer of 1959 at a party in ] during his stay in the army. She was 14 at the time they met, while he was 24. They quickly began a serious relationship and frequently visited each other until he left Germany in 1960. In her autobiography, '']'', Priscilla says that Elvis refused to have sex with her until they were married. However, biographer ] writes that Priscilla and Elvis slept together on their second date.<ref>Finstad, Suzanne, ''Child Bride: The Untold Story of Priscilla Beaulieu Presley'' (1997).</ref> Priscilla moved to ] in 1962 where she lived in a ] with Elvis' father and step-mother, only officially moving in with him after she graduated high school. They married on ], ]. According to Finstad, this marriage was part of a mastermind for fame hatched by Priscilla and her mother. Their only child, ], was born on ], ]. <ref>Presley, ''Elvis and Me''.</ref>
In January 1973, Presley performed two benefit concerts for the ] Cancer Fund in connection with a groundbreaking television special, '']'', which would be the first concert by a solo artist to be aired globally. The first show served as a practice run and backup should technical problems affect the live broadcast two days later. On January 14, ''Aloha from Hawaii'' aired live via satellite to prime-time audiences in Japan, South Korea, Thailand, the Philippines, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as to U.S. servicemen based across Southeast Asia. In Japan, where it capped a nationwide Elvis Presley Week, it smashed viewing records. The next night, it was simulcast to twenty-eight European countries, and in April an extended version aired in the U.S., receiving a fifty-seven percent share of the TV audience.{{sfn|Hopkins|2002|pp=61, 67, 73}} Over time, Parker's claim that it was seen by one billion or more people{{sfn|Hopkins|2002|p=73}} would be broadly accepted,{{sfn|Victor|2008|p=10}}{{sfn|Brown|Broeske|1997|p=364}}{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|p=475}} but that figure appeared to have been sheer invention.{{sfn|Fessier|2013}}<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sun |first=Bruce Fessier |title=Director remembers landmark Elvis Presley performance |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2013/05/10/elvis-presley-aloha-from-hawaii/2151617/ |access-date=August 12, 2024 |website=USA TODAY |language=en-US |quote=Those figures now seem dubious. Aloha was transmitted to 38 nations, the combined populations of those countries was 1.3 billion. The Guinness Book of World Records says the largest TV audience for a performance was the 1993 Super Bowl halftime show by Michael Jackson, which drew 133.4 million viewers.}}</ref> Presley's stage costume became the most recognized example of the elaborate concert garb with which his latter-day persona became closely associated. As described by ], "At the end of the show, when he spreads out his American Eagle cape, with the full stretched wings of the eagle studded on the back, he becomes a god figure."{{sfn|Mason|2007|p=141}} The ], released in February, went to number one and eventually sold over 5 million copies in the U.S.{{sfn|RIAA|2010}} It was Presley's last ] during his lifetime.{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|pp=422–425}}


At a midnight show that same month, four men rushed onto the stage in an apparent attack. Security personnel came to Presley's defense, and he ejected one invader from the stage himself. Following the show, Presley became obsessed with the idea that the men had been sent by Mike Stone to kill him. Though they were shown to have been only overexuberant fans, Presley raged, "There's too much pain in me&nbsp;... Stone die." His outbursts continued with such intensity that a physician was unable to calm him, despite administering large doses of medication. After another two full days of raging, ], his friend and bodyguard, felt compelled to get a price for a ] and was relieved when Presley decided, "Aw hell, let's just leave it for now. Maybe it's a bit heavy."{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|pp=488–490}}
===Influence of Colonel Parker and others===
:''Main articles:'' ], ]


=== 1973–1977: health deterioration and death ===
By 1967, Colonel Tom Parker had negotiated a contract that gave him 50% of Presley's earnings. Much has been written about the suspect nature of Parker's business practices. His dubious origins and gambling addictions in particular&mdash;and his subsequent need to have Presley signed up to commercially lucrative contracts&mdash;may well have adversely affected the course of Presley's career. As well as signing Presley to RCA Victor, Parker also cut a deal with Hill and Range Publishing Company to set up a separate entity called "Elvis Presley Music Incorporated" to handle all of Presley's songs and accrued royalties. Parker would later use this set-up to make songwriters relinquish some of their royalties; this ultimately resulted in the better writers refusing to provide songs for Presley, causing a marked decline in the quality of his output over the years.<ref name="autogenerated3" />It has also been claimed that Presley's original band was fired because Parker wanted to isolate the singer from anyone who might offer him a better management deal.<ref>Dickerson, ''Colonel Tom Parker: The Curious Life of Elvis Presley's Eccentric Manager''</ref>
==== Medical crises and last studio sessions ====
Presley's divorce was finalized on October 9, 1973.{{sfn|Guralnick|Jorgensen|1999|p=329}} By then, his health was in serious decline. Twice during the year he overdosed on ]s, spending three days in a coma in his hotel suite after the first incident. In late 1973, he was hospitalized from the effects of a ] addiction. According to his primary care physician, ], Presley "felt that by getting drugs from a doctor, he wasn't the common everyday junkie getting something off the street".{{sfn|Higginbotham|2002}} Since his comeback, he had staged more live shows with each passing year, and 1973 saw 168 concerts, his busiest schedule ever.{{sfn|Keogh|2004|p=238}} Despite his failing health, he undertook another intensive touring schedule in 1974.{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|pp=481, 487, 499, 504, 519–520}}


Presley's condition declined precipitously that September. Keyboardist ] remembered his arrival at a ] concert: "He fell out of the limousine, to his knees. People jumped to help, and he pushed them away like, 'Don't help me.' He walked on stage and held onto the mic for the first thirty minutes like it was a post. Everybody's looking at each other like, 'Is the tour gonna happen'?"{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|p=547}} Guitarist John Wilkinson recalled: <blockquote>He was all gut. He was slurring. He was so fucked up.&nbsp;... It was obvious he was drugged. It was obvious there was something terribly wrong with his body. It was so bad the words to the songs were barely intelligible.&nbsp;... I remember crying. He could barely get through the introductions.{{sfn|Hopkins|1986|p=136}}</blockquote>
Marty Lacker, one of a coterie of Presley's trusted friends known as the "]", regarded Parker as a "hustler and scam artist" who abused Presley's trust, but Lacker acknowledged that Parker was a master promoter.<ref>Nash, Lacker, Fike and Smith, ''Elvis Aron Presley: Revelations from the Memphis Mafia''</ref> Priscilla Presley noted that "Elvis detested the business side of his career. He would sign a contract without even reading it."<ref>Presley, ''Elvis and Me''</ref>


On July 13, 1976, Vernon Presley—who had become deeply involved in his son's financial affairs—had fired "]" bodyguards ] (Presley's friend since the 1950s), ], and David Hebler, citing the need to "cut back on expenses".{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=50, 148}}{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|pp=601–4}}{{sfn|Stanley|Coffey|1998|p=139}} Presley was in ] at the time, and some suggest the singer was too cowardly to face the three himself. Another associate of Presley's, John O'Grady, argued that the bodyguards were dropped because their rough treatment of fans had prompted too many lawsuits.{{sfn|Hopkins|2007|p=354}} However, Presley's stepbrother David Stanley has claimed that the bodyguards were fired because they were becoming more outspoken about Presley's drug dependency.{{sfn|Stanley|Coffey|1998|p=140}}
Presley's father distrusted the members of the "Memphis Mafia"; he thought they collectively exercised an unhealthy influence over his son.<ref>Humphries, p.79</ref> "t was no wonder" that as the singer "slid into addiction and torpor, no one raised the alarm: to them, Elvis was the bank, and it had to remain open."<ref>Harris, John (], ]). "Talking about Graceland". '']''.</ref> Musician Tony Brown noted the urgent need to reverse Presley's declining health as the singer toured in the mid-1970s. "But we all knew it was hopeless because Elvis was surrounded by that little circle of people... all those so-called friends and... bodyguards."<ref>Clayton and Heard, p.339</ref>
Larry Geller became Presley's hairdresser in 1964. Unlike those in the "Memphis Mafia", Geller was interested in 'spiritual studies'.<ref name=Guralnick-1999-173>Guralnick 1999, p.173</ref> From their first conversation, Geller recalls how Presley revealed his secret thoughts and anxieties, how "there's got to be a reason... why I was chosen to be Elvis Presley.'"<ref name=Guralnick-1999-173/> He then poured out his heart in "an almost painful rush of words and emotions," telling Geller about his mother and the hollowness of his Hollywood life, things he could not share with anyone around him. Thereafter, Presley voraciously read books Geller supplied, on religion and mysticism. Perhaps most tellingly, he revealed to Geller: "I swear to God, no one knows how lonely I get and how empty I really feel."<ref>Guralnick 1999, p.174 and in passim</ref> Presley would be preoccupied by such matters for much of his life, taking trunkloads of books with him on tour.<ref name=DrFeelgood/>


RCA began to grow anxious as his interest in the recording studio waned. After a session in December 1973 that produced eighteen songs, enough for almost two albums, Presley made no official studio recordings in 1974.{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|p=560}} Parker delivered RCA another concert record, '']''.{{sfn|Guralnick|Jorgensen|1999|p=336}} Recorded on March 20, it included a version of "]" that won Presley his third and final ].{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|p=381}}{{sfn|Grammy|2014}} All three of his competitive Grammy wins{{snd}}out of fourteen total nominations{{snd}}were for gospel recordings.{{sfn|Grammy|2014}} Presley returned to the recording studio in March 1975, but Parker's attempts to arrange another session toward the end of the year were unsuccessful.{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|pp=584–585}} In 1976, RCA sent a mobile recording unit to Graceland that made possible two full-scale recording sessions.{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|pp=593–595}} However, the recording process had become a struggle for him.{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|p=595}}
Presley showed interest in ]. A ] owned by Presley (containing notes allegedly written by the singer) was given to ] after his death. It is now in the church's archives in ] (A second copy may have been given to Presley by Mormon Ed Parker, a karate instructor).<ref></ref><ref></ref> However, ], Presley's girlfriend after his separation, notes: "e really followed the ] and he also was on a spiritual quest to find out how other people of other faiths lived their lives... he used to wear an Egyptian ], a ] and a ] around his neck. And when people would say are you confused, he would say, no, not at all. I just don't want to miss heaven on a technicality."<ref>http://www.elvis.com.au/presley/interview_lindathompson.shtml. Retrieved on].</ref>


==== Final months and death ====
Presley apparently disliked several songs he had to sing (which suggests commercial influences were sometimes greater than his own desires). ], another Memphis Mafia member, relates that one way to annoy the singer was to play one of his own recordings at his parties. "Get that crap off," was his reaction when someone once played "All Shook Up" on a jukebox. "There was no doubt he was really angry." Schilling thinks that Presley "lived with his music outside of the house&mdash;he didn't need to hear it while he was trying to relax in his own basement."<ref name=Schilling>Schilling, Jerry (]). "". ''elvis.com.au''. Retrieved on ].</ref>
{{See also|Elvis sightings}}
{{Listen|type=music|filename=Hurt (Presley).ogg|title="Hurt" |description=An R&B hit for ] in 1955 and a pop hit for ] singer ] in 1961, Presley's ] version was picked up by country radio in 1976.{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|p=397}}}}
After Presley's relationship with Linda Thompson ended,{{sfn|Gostin|2023}} he began dating Ginger Alden in November 1976; he proposed marriage to Alden two months later.{{sfn|Speakman|2023}}


Journalist Tony Scherman wrote that, by early 1977, "Presley had become a grotesque caricature of his sleek, energetic former self. Grossly overweight, his mind dulled by the pharmacopia he daily ingested, he was barely able to pull himself through his abbreviated concerts."{{sfn|Scherman|2006}} According to Andy Greene of ''Rolling Stone'', Presley's final performances were mostly "sad, sloppy affairs where a bloated, drugged Presley struggled to remember his lyrics and get through the night without collapsing ... Most everything from the final three years of his life is sad and hard to watch."{{sfn|Greene|2018}} In ], Louisiana, he was on stage for less than an hour and "was impossible to understand".{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|p=628}} On March 31, he canceled a performance in ], unable to get out of his hotel bed; four shows had to be canceled and rescheduled.{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|pp=628–630}}
In 1969, record producer ] of ], Memphis, was particularly critical of the song choices and staff of Presley's music publisher, Hill and Range. Moman could only get the best out of Presley when he got the "aggravating" publishing personnel out of the studio.<ref>Clayton and Heard, p.265</ref> RCA Victor executive Joan Deary was later full of praise for the superior results of Moman's work but despite this, no producer was to override Hill and Range's control again.<ref>Clayton and Heard, p.267</ref>


Despite the accelerating deterioration of his health, Presley fulfilled most of his touring commitments. According to Guralnick, fans "were becoming increasingly voluble about their disappointment, but it all seemed to go right past Presley, whose world was now confined almost entirely to his room and his ] books".{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|p=634}} Presley's cousin, Billy Smith, recalled how he would sit in his room and chat for hours, sometimes recounting favorite ] sketches and his past escapades, but more often gripped by paranoid obsessions.{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|pp=212, 642}}
===1968 comeback===
{{main|Elvis Presley's '68 Comeback Special}}
], airing on ], ], ]]]
By mid-1968, Presley's recording career was floundering; he had become deeply unhappy with his career.<ref name = "pefciv"/> In June, he made a Christmas telecast on ] simply called ''Elvis''. Later dubbed the '''68 Comeback Special'' by fans and critics, the show aired on ], ], and featured some lavishly staged studio productions. Other songs however, were performed live with a band in front of small audience&mdash;Presley's first live appearance as a performer since 1961. The live segments saw Presley clad in black leather, singing and playing guitar in an uninhibited style&mdash;reminiscent of his rock and roll days. '']'' called it "a performance of emotional grandeur and historical resonance."<ref name="RS"/> Its success was helped by director and co-producer, Steve Binder, who worked hard to reassure the nervous singer<ref name="Binder">Binder, Steve (]). "". ''elvis.com.au''. Retrieved on ].</ref>{{fn|n}} and to produce a show that was not just an hour of Christmas songs, as Colonel Parker had originally planned.<ref>Guralnick 1999, p.293</ref><ref name=Binder2>Binder, Steve (Aired: ], ]). "Comeback Special". ''] Radio Two''.</ref>


"]", Presley's last single issued during his lifetime, was released on June 6, 1977. That month, CBS taped two concerts for a television special, '']'', to be broadcast in October. In the first, shot in ] on June 19, Presley's voice, Guralnick writes, "is almost unrecognizable, a small, childlike instrument in which he talks more than sings most of the songs, casts about uncertainly for the melody in others, and is virtually unable to articulate or project".{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|p=638}} Two days later, in ], South Dakota, "he looked healthier, seemed to have lost a little weight, and sounded better, too", though, by the conclusion of the performance, his face was "framed in a helmet of blue-black hair from which sweat sheets down over pale, swollen cheeks".{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|p=638}} Presley's final concert was held in ] at ], on June 26, 1977.{{sfn|Harrison|2016|p=23}}
Buoyed by the experience, Presley engaged in the prolific series of recording sessions at American Studios, which lead to the acclaimed '']'' (Chips Moman was its uncredited producer).<ref>Jorgensen, p.281</ref> It was followed by '']'', a double-album.


The book '']'', co-written by the three bodyguards fired a year prior, was published on August 1.{{sfn|Stanley|Coffey|1998|p=148}} It was the first exposé to detail Presley's years of drug misuse. He was devastated by the book and tried unsuccessfully to halt its release by offering money to the publishers.{{sfn|Humphries|2003|p=79}} By this point, he suffered from multiple ailments: ], ], ], and an ], each magnified—and possibly caused—by drug abuse.{{sfn|Higginbotham|2002}}
The same sessions lead to the hit singles "]", "]", "]" and "]".


]|upright=0.8]]
In 1969, Presley was keen to resume regular live performing and made record-breaking appearances at the International Hotel in ].<ref name=Cook-39>Cook, p.39</ref>{{fn|h}} Although he had new hit singles in many countries, some critics deplored his song choices and accused him of being distant from trends within contemporary music.<ref>(Aired: ], ]). "How Big Was The King? Elvis Presley's Legacy, 25 Years After His Death." ''CBS News''.</ref>
On August 16, 1977, Presley was scheduled on an evening flight out of Memphis to ], Maine, to begin another tour. That afternoon, however, his fiancée Ginger Alden discovered him unresponsive on the bathroom floor of his Graceland mansion.{{sfn|Alden|2014}} Attempts to revive him failed, and he was pronounced dead at ] at 3:30&nbsp;p.m.;{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|pp=645–648}} he was 42.{{sfn|Harrison|2016|p=242}}


President ] issued a statement that credited Presley with having "permanently changed the face of American popular culture".{{sfn|Woolley|Peters|1977}} Thousands of people gathered outside Graceland to view the open casket. One of Presley's cousins, Billy Mann, accepted {{US$|18000|link=yes}} ({{Inflation|US|18000|1977|fmt=eq|r=-3}}) to secretly photograph the body; the picture appeared on the cover of the '']''{{'}}s biggest-selling issue ever.{{sfn|Hopkins|2007|p=386}} Alden struck a $105,000 ({{Inflation|US|105000|1977|fmt=eq|r=-3}}) deal with the ''Enquirer'' for her story, but settled for less when she broke her exclusivity agreement.{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|p=660}} Presley left her nothing in his ].{{sfn|Victor|2008|pp=581–582}}
===1970-1972===
] ] in the ] ], ] ]]]


Presley's funeral was held at Graceland on August 18. Outside the gates, a car ploughed into a group of fans, killing two young women and critically injuring a third.{{sfn|Matthew-Walker|1979|p=26}} About 80,000 people lined the processional route to ], where Presley was buried next to his mother.{{sfn|Pendergast|Pendergast|2000|p=108}} Within a few weeks, "Way Down" topped the country and UK singles chart.{{sfn|Whitburn|2006|p=273}}{{sfn|Warwick|Kutner|Brown|2004|pp=860–866}} Following an attempt to steal Presley's body in late August, the remains of both Presley and his mother were exhumed and reburied in Graceland's Meditation Garden on October 2.{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|p=660}}
In ] ], Presley returned to the International Hotel for a month-long engagement, performing two shows a night. RCA recorded some shows and the best material appeared on the album ].<ref name=Stanley-94>Stanley and Coffey, p.94</ref> In late ], Presley performed six shows at the ] in ]. The shows broke attendance records, seen by almost 210,000 fans.<ref name=Stanley-95>Stanley and Coffey, p.95</ref>
During the ] engagement at the International Hotel, MGM filmed rehearsal and concert footage for a documentary: ]. He wore a jumpsuit&mdash;a garment that would become a trademark of Presley's live performances in the 70's.


===== Cause of death =====
Around this time Presley was threatened with kidnapping at the International Hotel (he had had many threats of varying degrees since the fifties, many of them made without the singer's knowledge).<ref name=Hopkins-253>Hopkins 2007, p.253</ref> Phone calls were received, one demanding $50,000; if unpaid, Presley would be killed by a "crazy man". The ] took the threat seriously and security was stepped up for the next two shows, but nothing untoward transpired.<ref name=Stanley-96>Stanley and Coffey, p.96</ref>
While an ] undertaken the same day Presley died was still in progress, Memphis ] Jerry Francisco announced that the immediate cause of death was cardiac arrest and declared that "drugs played no role in Presley's death".{{sfn|Ramsland|2010}} In fact, "drug use was heavily implicated" in Presley's death, writes Guralnick. The pathologists conducting the autopsy thought it possible, for instance, that he had suffered "] brought on by the codeine pills he had gotten from his dentist, to which he was known to have had a mild allergy". Lab reports filed two months later strongly suggested that ] was the primary cause of death; one reported "fourteen drugs in Elvis' system, ten in significant quantity".{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|pp=651–653}} In 1979, forensic pathologist ] reviewed the reports and concluded that a combination of ]s had resulted in Presley's accidental death.{{sfn|Ramsland|2010}} Forensic historian and pathologist ] viewed the situation as complicated: "Elvis had an ] for a long time. That, together with his drug habit, caused his death. But he was difficult to diagnose; it was a judgment call."{{sfn|Baden|Hennessee|1990|p=35}}


The competence and ethics of two of the centrally involved medical professionals were seriously questioned. Francisco had offered a cause of death before the autopsy was complete; claimed the underlying ailment was ], a condition that can be determined only in a living person; and denied drugs played any part in Presley's death before the toxicology results were known.{{sfn|Ramsland|2010}} Allegations of a cover-up were widespread.{{sfn|Baden|Hennessee|1990|p=35}} While a 1981 trial of Presley's main physician, George C. Nichopoulos, exonerated him of criminal liability, the facts were startling: "In the first eight months of 1977 alone, he had more than 10,000 doses of ]s, ]s, and narcotics: all in Elvis' name." Nichopoulos' license was suspended for three months. It was permanently revoked in the 1990s after the Tennessee Medical Board brought new charges of over-prescription.{{sfn|Higginbotham|2002}}
After closing his Las Vegas engagement on ], Presley embarked on his first concert tour since 1958. Feeling exhausted, Presley spent a month relaxing and recording before touring again in October and November.<ref name=Stanley-99>Stanley and Coffey, p.99</ref> He would tour extensively in the U.S. up to his death; many of the 1,145 concerts setting attendance records.


In 1994, the Presley autopsy report was reopened. Joseph Davis, who had conducted thousands of autopsies as ] coroner,{{sfn|Tennant|2013|p=2}} declared at its completion, "There is nothing in any of the data that supports a death from drugs. In fact, everything points to a sudden, violent heart attack."{{sfn|Higginbotham|2002}} More recent research has revealed that Francisco did not speak for the entire pathology team. Other staff "could say nothing with confidence until they got the results back from the laboratories, if then."{{sfn|Williamson|2015|pp=11–14}} One of the examiners, E. Eric Muirhead, <blockquote>could not believe his ears. Francisco had not only presumed to speak for the hospital's team of pathologists, he had announced a conclusion that they had not reached.&nbsp;... Early on, a meticulous dissection of the body&nbsp;... confirmed Elvis was chronically ill with ], glaucoma, and constipation. As they proceeded, the doctors saw evidence that his body had been wracked over a span of years by a large and constant stream of drugs. They had also studied his hospital records, which included two admissions for drug detoxification and ] treatments.{{sfn|Williamson|2015|pp=11–14}}</blockquote>
On ], ], Presley met with President ] at the ] (Presley arrived with a gift&mdash;a handgun. It was accepted but not presented for security reasons). Presley had engineered the encounter to express his patriotism, his contempt for the ] ] and his wish to be appointed a "Federal Agent at Large". He also wished to obtain a ] badge to add to similar items he had begun collecting. He offered to "infiltrate hippie groups" and claimed that ] had "made their money, then gone back to England where they fomented anti-American feeling."<ref name="Guralnick-420">Guralnick 1999, p.420</ref> Nixon was uncertain and bemused by their encounter, and twice expressed concern that Presley needed to "retain his credibility".<ref name="Guralnick-420"/><ref name="Guralnick-passim">Guralnick 1999, in passim</ref>


=== 1977–present: posthumous developments ===
] ] saw Presley return to Las Vegas. On ] Presley was named 'One of the Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Nation' by the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce (The Jaycees). That summer, the City of Memphis named part of Highway 51 South "Elvis Presley Boulevard", and he won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the ] (the organization that presents Grammy awards).
Between 1977 and 1981, six of Presley's posthumously released singles were top-ten country hits.{{sfn|Whitburn|2006|p=273}} Graceland was opened to the public in 1982. Attracting over half a million visitors annually, it became the second-most-visited home in the United States, after the White House.{{sfn|Brown|Broeske|1997|p=433}} The residence was declared a ] in 2006.{{sfn|National Park Service|2010}}


Presley has been inducted into five music ]: the ] (1986), the ] (1998), the ] (2001), the ] (2007), and the ] (2012). In 1984, he received the ] from the ] and the ]'s first Golden Hat Award. In 1987, he received the ]s' Award of Merit.{{sfn|Cook|2004|p=33}}
In ] MGM once again filmed Presley, this time for '']'', which won a Golden Globe for Best Documentary that same year. A fourteen-date tour started with an unprecedented four consecutive sold-out shows at ], New York. RCA taped the shows for a live album. In July, plans were made for another TV special, to be broadcast from Hawaii.<ref>See ""</ref> After the tour, Presley released the 1972 single "]"&mdash;his last top ten hit in the U.S. charts.


A ] remix of Presley's "]" (credited as "Elvis Vs JXL") was used in a ] advertising campaign during the ]. It topped the charts in over twenty countries and was included in a compilation of Presley's number-one hits, '']'', which was also an international success. The album returned Presley to the top of the ''Billboard'' chart for the first time in almost three decades.{{sfn|Garrity|2002}}
===Divorce from Priscilla===
Off stage, Presley had continuing problems. His lifelong friend, ], said Elvis "could never be true to any one woman." It was widely known that Presley had several affairs during his 13-year union with Priscilla, notably with Anita Wood and ]. In spite of his own infidelity, Presley was furious that Priscilla was having an affair with a mutual acquaintance&mdash;Mike Stone, a karate instructor. He raged obsessively: "There's too much pain in me... Stone die."<ref>Guralnick 1999, p.489</ref> A bodyguard, ], felt compelled to get a price for a contract killing and was relieved when Presley decided: "Aw hell... Maybe it's a bit heavy..."<ref>Guralnick 1999, p.490</ref> The Presleys separated on ], ] and divorced on ], ], agreeing to share custody of their daughter.


In 2003, a remix of "]", a 1969 recording, topped the U.S. sales chart, as did a 50th-anniversary re-release of "That's All Right" the following year.{{sfn|Bronson|2004|p=1}} The latter was an outright hit in Britain, debuting at number three on the pop chart; it also made the top ten in Canada.{{sfn|"Hits of the World"|2004}} In 2005, another three reissued singles, "Jailhouse Rock", "One Night"/"I Got Stung", and "It's Now or Never", went to number one in the UK. They were part of a campaign that saw the re-release of all eighteen of Presley's previous chart-topping UK singles. The first, "All Shook Up", came with a collectors' box that made it ineligible to chart again; each of the other seventeen reissues hit the British top five.{{sfn|Sexton|2007}}
After his separation from Priscilla, he lived with ], a songwriter and one-time Memphis ], from July 1972 until just a few months before his death.<ref name=Hopkins-291>Hopkins 2007, p.291</ref>


In 2005, ] named Presley the ] for the fifth straight year, with a gross income of $45&nbsp;million.{{sfn|Goldman|Ewalt|2007}} He was placed second in 2006,{{sfn|Rose|2006}} returned to the top spot the next two years,{{sfn|Goldman|Paine|2007}}{{sfn|Hoy|2008}} and ranked fourth in 2009.{{sfn|Pomerantz et al.|2009}} The following year, he was ranked second, with his highest annual income ever—$60&nbsp;million—spurred by the celebration of his 75th birthday and the launch of ]'s '']'' show in Las Vegas.{{sfn|Rose et al.|2010}} In November 2010, '']'' was released, setting his voice to newly recorded instrumental tracks.{{sfn|Baillie|2010}}{{sfn|Bouchard|2010}} As of mid-2011, there were an estimated 15,000 licensed Presley products,{{sfn|Lynch|2011}} and he was again the second-highest-earning deceased celebrity.{{sfn|Pomerantz|2011}} Six years later, he ranked fourth with earnings of $35&nbsp;million, up $8&nbsp;million from 2016 due in part to the opening of a new entertainment complex, Elvis Presley's Memphis, and hotel, The Guest House at Graceland.{{sfn|Greenburg|2017}}
===Aloha From Hawaii===
]'' television broadcast via satellite on ], ]]]


In 2018, RCA/] released '']'', a new album focused on Presley's love of gospel music. Produced by Joel Weinshanker, Lisa Marie Presley and ], the album introduced newly recorded instrumentation along with vocals from singers who had performed in the past with Elvis. It included a reimagined duet with Lisa Marie, on the album's title track.{{sfn|Legacy|2018}}
In January 1973, Presley performed two charity concerts in Hawaii for the ] cancer foundation. The first (January 12) was primarily a practice run for the main show which was broadcast live on January 14 (The first show also served as a backup if technical problems affected the live broadcast). The "]" concert was the world's first live concert satellite broadcast, reaching at least a billion viewers live and a further 500 million on delay. The show's album went to number one and spent a year in the charts. The album also proved to be Presley's last U.S. Number One album during his lifetime.


In 2022, ]'s film '']'', a biographical film about Presley's life, was released. Presley is portrayed by ] and Parker by ]. As of August 2022, the film had grossed $261.8 million worldwide on a $85 million budget, becoming the second-highest-grossing music biopic of all-time behind '']'' (2018), and the ] film. For his portrayal of Presley, Butler won the ] and was nominated for the ].{{sfn|Box Office Mojo}} In January 2023, his ] sold at an auction for $260,000.{{sfn|Walker|2023}}<!--{{sfn|Davoren|2023}}-->
===1973-1976===
After his divorce in 1973, Presley became increasingly isolated and overweight, with prescription drugs affecting his health, mood and his stage act. He overdosed twice on ]s, spending three days in a coma in his hotel suite after the first.<ref name=DrFeelgood>(] ]). "". '']''. Reprinted in '']''. Retrieved on ].</ref> In his book, ''Elvis: The Final Years'', Jerry Hopkins writes: "Elvis' health plummeted as his weight ballooned." At a University of ] concert on September 27th (1974), "some of the boys in the band had trouble recognizing him. ... 'He walked on stage and held onto the mike for the first thirty minutes like it was a post. Everybody was scared.' Guitarist John Wilkinson ... recalled, ... 'He was all gut. He was slurring. ... It was obvious he was drugged, that there was something terribly wrong with his body. It was so bad, the words to the songs were barely intelligible. He could barely get through the introductions. We were in a state of shock.' "


== Artistry ==
Despite this, his "thundering" live version of "]" won him a Grammy award in 1974<ref>Jorgensen, p.381.</ref> Presley won three competitive "Grammies" for his ] recordings: "How Great Thou Art"&mdash;the album, as well as the single&mdash;and for the album '']'' (1972) (He had fourteen nominations during his career, though it has been claimed that "Elvis has never been adequately appreciated by those who give the Grammies."<ref>Roy 1985, p.131.</ref>)
=== Influences ===
Presley's earliest musical influence came from ]. His mother recalled that from the age of two, at the Assembly of God church in Tupelo attended by the family, "he would slide down off my lap, run into the aisle and scramble up to the platform. There he would stand looking at the choir and trying to sing with them."{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|p=14}} In Memphis, Presley frequently attended all-night gospel singings at the ], where groups such as the ] led the music in a style that, Guralnick suggests, sowed the seeds of Presley's future stage act:


{{blockquote|The Statesmen were an electric combination&nbsp;... featuring some of the most thrillingly emotive singing and daringly unconventional showmanship in the entertainment world&nbsp;... dressed in suits that might have come out of the window of Lansky's.&nbsp;... Bass singer Jim Wetherington, known universally as the Big Chief, maintained a steady bottom, ceaselessly jiggling first his left leg, then his right, with the material of the pants leg ballooning out and shimmering. "He went about as far as you could go in gospel music," said ]. "The women would jump up, just like they do for the pop shows." Preachers frequently objected to the lewd movements&nbsp;... but audiences reacted with screams and swoons.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=47–48}}}}
In April 1974, rumours began that he would be playing overseas.<ref name=Stanley-123>Stanley and Coffey, p.123</ref> An offer of a $1,000,000 was received from a source in Australia for him to tour there, but Colonel Parker was not keen to accept it. Those closest to Presley speculated about the reasons for Parker's general unwillingness to travel; he dissuaded Presley by citing poor security abroad, and the lack of suitable venues for a star of his status. Presley apparently accepted such excuses, at least initially.<ref name=Stanley-123>Stanley and Coffey, p.123</ref>


], Presley's musical interests were wide-ranging, and he was deeply informed about both white and African-American musical idioms. Though he never had any formal training, he had a remarkable memory, and his musical knowledge was already considerable by the time he made his first professional recordings aged 19 in 1954. When Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller met him two years later, they were astonished at his encyclopedic understanding of the blues,{{sfn|Bertrand|2000|p=211}} and, as Stoller put it, "He certainly knew a lot more than we did about country music and gospel music."{{sfn|Fox|1986|p=179}} At a press conference the following year, he proudly declared, "I know practically every religious song that's ever been written."{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|p=430}}
Presley continued to play to sell-out crowds in the U.S.; a 1975 tour ended with a concert in ], attended by over 62,000 fans. However the singer now had "no motivation to lose his extra poundage... he became self-conscious... his self-confidence before the audience declined... Headlines such as 'Elvis Battles Middle Age' and 'Time Makes Listless Machine of Elvis' were not uncommon."<ref>Roy, p.70</ref> According to Marjorie Garber, when Presley made his later appearances in Las Vegas, he appeared "heavier, in pancake make-up... with an elaborate jewelled belt and cape, crooning pop songs to a microphone ... had become ]. Even his fans were now middle-aged matrons and blue-haired grandmothers, who praised him as a good son who loved his mother; ] became a special holiday for Elvis' fans."<ref>Garber, ''Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing & Cultural Anxiety'' (1992), p.380</ref>


=== Musicianship ===
On ], 1976, Presley's father fired "Memphis Mafia" bodyguards Red West, Sonny West and David Hebler. All three were taken by surprise, especially the Wests, who had been with Presley since the beginning of his career.<ref name=Stanley-139>Stanley and Coffey, p.139</ref> Presley was away in ] when it happened, and some suggest the singer was too cowardly to face them himself.<ref name=Hopkins-354>Hopkins 2007, p.354</ref> Vernon Presley cited the need to "cut back on expenses" when dismissing the three, but David Stanley has claimed that the bodyguards were becoming more outspoken in their confrontations with Presley over his drug dependency.<ref name=Stanley-140>Stanley and Coffey, p.140</ref> A "trusted associate" of Presley, John O'Grady, has stated that the bodyguards "were too rough with the fans... resulting in a lot of unnecessary lawsuits" and lawyers' fees, and that Colonel Parker and Vernon Presley agreed with O'Grady.<ref name=Hopkins-354>Hopkins 2007, p.354</ref> The Wests and Hebler would later write a devastating indictment of Presley in the book: ''Elvis: What Happened?'', published ], 1977.<ref name=Stanley-148>Stanley and Coffey, p.148</ref> (See: ']').
Presley played guitar, bass, and piano; he received his first guitar when he was 11 years old. He could not read or write music and had no formal lessons, and played everything by ear.{{sfn|Graceland Blog|2015}} Presley often played an instrument on his recordings and produced his own music. Presley played rhythm acoustic guitar on most of his Sun recordings and his 1950s RCA Victor albums. Presley played piano on songs such as "]" and "First in Line" from his 1956 album '']''.{{sfn|Osborne|2017|p=}} He is credited with playing piano on later albums such as '']'' and "]", and on "]", which was one of the last songs that he recorded.{{sfn|Duffett|2018|p=}} Presley played lead guitar on one of his successful singles called "]".{{sfn|Murray|1961|p=65}} At one point during the ], Elvis took over on lead electric guitar, the first time he had ever been seen with the instrument in public, playing it on songs such as "]" and "]".{{sfn|Marcus|2015|p=}} The album '']'' features Presley playing a lot of acoustic guitar on songs such as "]" and "]".{{sfn|Eder|2013|p=}}


=== Musical styles and genres ===
Almost throughout the 1970s, RCA Victor had been increasingly concerned about making money from Presley material: they often had to rely on live recordings because of problems getting him to attend studio sessions. RCA Victor's mobile studio was occasionally sent to ''Graceland'' in the hope of capturing an inspired vocal performance. Once in a studio, he could lack interest or be easily distracted; often this was linked to his health and drug problems.<ref name="Guralnick-passim"/>
], March 1957]]
Presley was a central figure in the development of ], according to music historians. "Rockabilly crystallized into a recognizable style in 1954 with Elvis Presley's first release, on the Sun label," writes Craig Morrison.{{sfn|Morrison|1996|p=x}} Paul Friedlander described rockabilly as "essentially&nbsp;... an Elvis Presley construction", with the defining elements as "the raw, emotive, and slurred vocal style and emphasis on rhythmic feeling the blues with the string band and strummed rhythm guitar country".{{sfn|Friedlander|1996|p=45}} In "That's All Right", the Presley trio's first record, Scotty Moore's guitar solo, "a combination of ]–style country finger-picking, double-stop slides from acoustic boogie, and blues-based bent-note, single-string work, is a microcosm of this fusion".{{sfn|Friedlander|1996|p=45}} While Katherine Charlton calls Presley "rockabilly's originator",{{sfn|Charlton|2006|p=103}} ], another pioneer of rock'n'roll, said that " Phillips, Elvis, and I didn't create rockabilly".{{sfn|Jancik|1998|p=16}} According to ], the first major rockabilly song was recorded by ].{{sfn|Campbell|2009|p=161}} In Moore's view, "It had been there for quite a while, really. Carl Perkins was doing basically the same sort of thing up around ], and I know for a fact Jerry Lee Lewis had been playing that kind of music ever since he was ten years old."{{sfn|Guralnick|1989|p=104}}


At RCA Victor, Presley's rock and roll sound grew distinct from rockabilly with group chorus vocals, more heavily amplified electric guitars,{{sfn|Gillett|2000|p=113}} and a tougher, more intense manner.{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|p=39}} While he was known for taking songs from various sources and giving them a rockabilly/rock and roll treatment, he also recorded songs in other genres from early in his career, from the pop standard "]" at Sun Records to the country ballad "How's the World Treating You?" on his second RCA Victor LP to the blues of "Santa Claus Is Back in Town". In 1957, his first gospel record was released, the four-song EP '']''. Certified as a million-seller, it became the top-selling gospel EP in recording history.{{sfn|Wolfe|1994|p=14}} Presley would record gospel periodically for the rest of his life.{{cn|date=November 2024}}
===Final year and death===
In 2006, a journalist recalled: "Elvis Presley had become a grotesque caricature of his sleek, energetic former self... he was barely able to pull himself through his abbreviated concerts."<ref>Scherman, T. (] ]). "Elvis Dies". ''American Heritage''.</ref> In ], the singer was on stage for less than an hour and "was impossible to understand."<ref name=Guralnick-628>Guralnick 1999, p.628</ref> In ], Presley failed to appear: he was unable to get out of his hotel bed, and the rest of the tour was cancelled.<ref name=Guralnick-628/>
In ] on ], "there was no longer any pretense of keeping up appearances. The idea was simply to get Elvis out on stage and keep him upright..."<ref name = "tefeqq"/> Despite his obvious problems, shows in ] and ] were recorded for an album and a CBS-TV special: '']''.<ref>Guralnick 1999, pp.637-8</ref>


{{Listen|type=music|filename=Run On.ogg|title="Run On" |description=From '']'' (1967), a traditional song popular in the black gospel tradition. The arrangement evokes "the percussive style of the 1930s ]."{{sfn|Wolfe|1994|p=22}}{{sfn|Keogh|2004|p=184}}}}
In Rapid City, "he was so nervous on stage that he could hardly talk... He was undoubtedly painfully aware of how he looked, and he knew that in his condition, he could not perform any significant movement."<ref>Roy, ''Elvis: Prophet of Power'', p.71.</ref> His performance in Omaha "exceeded everyone's worst fears... the impression of a man crying out for help..."<ref>Guralnick 1999, pp.637-8</ref> According to Guralnick, fans "were becoming increasingly voluble about their disappointment, but it all seemed to go right past Elvis, whose world was now confined almost entirely to his room and his books."<ref name = "tefeqq">Guralnick 1999, p.634</ref> A cousin, Billy Smith, recalled how Presley would sit in his room and chat, recounting things like his favourite ] sketches and past japes, but "mostly there was a grim obsessiveness... a paranoia about people, germs... future events", that reminded Smith of ].<ref>Guralnick 1999, p.642</ref>
After his return from military service in 1960, Presley continued to perform rock and roll, but the characteristic style was substantially toned down. His first post-Army single, the number-one hit "Stuck on You", is typical of this shift. RCA Victor publicity referred to its "mild rock beat"; discographer Ernst Jorgensen calls it "upbeat pop".{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|p=123}} The number five "]" (1962) "integrates the Jordanaires so completely, it's practically doo-wop".{{sfn|Marsh|1982|p=145}} The modern blues/R&B sound captured with success on ''Elvis Is Back!'' was essentially abandoned for six years until such 1966–67 recordings as "]" and "]".{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|pp=213, 237}} Presley's output during most of the 1960s emphasized pop music, often in the form of ballads such as "Are You Lonesome Tonight?", a number-one in 1960. "It's Now or Never", which also topped the chart that year, was a classically influenced variation of pop based on the Neapolitan song "{{lang|nap|]|italic=no}}" and concluding with a "full-voiced operatic cadence".{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|p=65}} These were both dramatic numbers, but most of what Presley recorded for his many film soundtracks was in a much lighter vein.{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|pp=142–143}}


While Presley performed several of his classic ballads for the '']'', the sound of the show was dominated by aggressive rock and roll. He recorded few new straight rock and roll songs thereafter; as he explained, they had become "hard to find".{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|p=343}} A significant exception was "Burning Love", his last major hit on the pop charts. Like his work of the 1950s, Presley's subsequent recordings reworked pop and country songs, but in markedly different permutations. His stylistic range now began to embrace a more contemporary rock sound as well as soul and ]. Much of ''Elvis in Memphis'', as well as "Suspicious Minds", cut at the same sessions, reflected this new rock and soul fusion. In the mid-1970s, many of his singles found a home on country radio, the field where he first became a star.{{sfn|Ponce de Leon|2007|p=199}}
]'']]


=== Vocal style and range ===
The book ''Elvis: What Happened?'' was published just fifteen days before Presley's death. It was the first exposé to detail Presley's years of drug misuse, and was apparently the authors' revenge for them being sacked and also a plea to get Presley to recognize the extent of his drug problems.<ref>. ''ElvisPresleyNews.com''. Retrieved ].</ref>The singer "was devastated by the book. Here were his close friends who had written serious stuff that would affect his life. He felt betrayed."<ref>Patterson, Nigel (]). . ''Elvis Information Network (EIN)''. Retrieved on ].</ref>
] program '']'', January 16, 1956]]


The developmental arc of Presley's singing voice, as described by critic Dave Marsh, goes from "high and thrilled in the early days, lower and perplexed in the final months."{{sfn|Marsh|1982|p=234}} Marsh credits Presley with the introduction of the "vocal stutter" on 1955's "]".{{sfn|Marsh|1989|p=317}} When on "Don't Be Cruel", Presley "slides into a 'mmmmm' that marks the transition between the first two verses," he shows "how masterful his relaxed style really is."{{sfn|Marsh|1989|p=91}} Marsh describes the vocal performance on "Can't Help Falling in Love" as one of "gentle insistence and delicacy of phrasing", with the line {{"'}}Shall I stay' pronounced as if the words are fragile as crystal".{{sfn|Marsh|1989|p=490}}
Presley's final performance was in ] at the ], on ], ].


Jorgensen calls the 1966 recording of "How Great Thou Art" "an extraordinary fulfillment of his vocal ambitions", as Presley "crafted for himself an ad-hoc arrangement in which he took every part of the four-part vocal, from bass intro to the soaring heights of the song's operatic climax", becoming "a kind of one-man quartet".{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|p=212}} Guralnick finds "]" from the same gospel sessions "a beautifully articulated, almost nakedly yearning performance", but, by contrast, feels that Presley reaches beyond his powers on "Where No One Stands Alone", resorting "to a kind of inelegant bellowing to push out a sound" that Jake Hess of the Statesmen Quartet had in his command. Hess himself thought that while others might have voices the equal of Presley's, "he had that certain something that everyone searches for all during their lifetime."{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|p=232}} Guralnick attempts to pinpoint that something: "The warmth of his voice, his controlled use of both vibrato technique and natural falsetto range, the subtlety and deeply felt conviction of his singing were all qualities recognizably belonging to his talent but just as recognizably not to be achieved without sustained dedication and effort."{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|p=231}}
Another tour was scheduled to begin ], ], but at ''Graceland'' the day before, Presley was found on the floor by fiancée, ]. According to the medical investigator, Presley had "stumbled or crawled several feet before he died"; he had apparently been using the toilet at the time.<ref name=Guralnick-1999-651>Guralnick 1999, p.651</ref> Death was officially pronounced at 3:30 pm at the Baptist Memorial Hospital.


Marsh praises his 1968 reading of "]", "bearing down on the hard guy lyrics, not sending them up or overplaying them but tossing them around with that astonishingly tough yet gentle assurance that he brought to his Sun records."{{sfn|Marsh|1989|p=424}} The performance on "In the Ghetto" is, according to Jorgensen, "devoid of any of his characteristic vocal tricks or mannerisms", instead relying on the exceptional "clarity and sensitivity of his voice".{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|p=271}} Guralnick describes the song's delivery as of "almost translucent eloquence&nbsp;... so quietly confident in its simplicity".{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|p=332}} On "Suspicious Minds", Guralnick hears essentially the same "remarkable mixture of tenderness and poise", but supplemented with "an expressive quality somewhere between stoicism (at suspected infidelity) and anguish (over impending loss)".{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|p=335}}
At his funeral, hundreds of thousands of fans, the press and celebrities lined the streets and many hoped to see the open casket in ''Graceland''. One of Presley's cousins accepted $18,000 to secretly photograph the corpse; the picture duly appeared on the cover of the ], making it the largest and fastest selling issue of all time.<ref name=Hopkins-386>Hopkins 2007, p.386</ref> Among the mourners were Ann-Margret (who had remained close to Presley) and his ex-wife.<ref name=Clayton-394>Clayton and Heard, p.394.</ref>{{fn|z}} ] ] issued a statement (See ']').<ref>Woolley, John T.; Gerhard Peters. "". ''The American Presidency Project''. Santa Barbara, CA:University of California (Hosted). Retrieved on ].</ref>


Music critic ] observes that "Presley has been described variously as a ] and a ]. An extraordinary compass&nbsp;... and a very wide range of vocal color have something to do with this divergence of opinion."{{sfn|Pleasants|2004|p=260}} He identifies Presley as a high baritone, calculating his range as two ]s and a third, "from the baritone low ] to the tenor high ], with an upward extension in ] to at least a D-flat. Presley's best octave is in the middle, D-flat to D-flat, granting an extra full step up or down."{{sfn|Pleasants|2004|p=260}} In Pleasants' view, his voice was "variable and unpredictable" at the bottom, "often brilliant" at the top, with the capacity for "full-voiced high Gs and ] that an opera baritone might envy".{{sfn|Pleasants|2004|p=260}} Scholar Lindsay Waters, who figures Presley's range as two-and-a-quarter octaves, emphasizes that "his voice had an emotional range from tender whispers to sighs down to shouts, grunts, grumbles, and sheer gruffness that could move the listener from calmness and surrender, to fear. His voice can not be measured in octaves, but in decibels; even that misses the problem of how to measure delicate whispers that are hardly audible at all."{{sfn|Waters|2003|p=205}} Presley was always "able to duplicate the open, hoarse, ecstatic, screaming, shouting, wailing, reckless sound of the black rhythm-and-blues and gospel singers", writes Pleasants, and also demonstrated a remarkable ability to assimilate many other vocal styles.{{sfn|Pleasants|2004|p=260}}
Presley was buried at Forest Hill Cemetery, Memphis, next to his mother. After an attempt to steal the body, his&mdash;and his mother's&mdash;remains were reburied at ''Graceland'' in the Meditation Gardens.


== Public image ==
Presley had developed many health problems, some of them chronic. <ref>Baden and Hennessee, p.35 "Elvis had an enlarged heart for a long time. That, together with his drug habit, caused his death. But he was difficult to diagnose; it was a judgment call."</ref> He started taking drugs (]) regularly in the army, though it has also been claimed that pills of some form were first given to him by Memphis DJ ].<ref>Goldman, Albert, ''Elvis: The Last 24 Hours,'' p. 9</ref>. Priscilla Presley writes that by 1962, he was taking ]s to combat severe ] in ever-increasing doses and later took ] to counter the sleeping pills' after-effects. She later saw "problems in Elvis' life, all magnified by taking prescribed drugs." Presley's physician, Dr. ], has said: " felt that by getting from a doctor, he wasn't the common everyday junkie getting something off the street. He... thought that as far as medications and drugs went, there was something for everything."<ref name=DrFeelgood/>
=== Relationship with the African-American community ===
], circa 1955]]
When Dewey Phillips first aired "That's All Right" on Memphis' ], many listeners who contacted the station to ask for it again assumed that its singer was black.{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|pp=100–101}} From the beginning of his national fame, Presley expressed respect for African-American performers and their music, and disregard for the segregation and racial prejudice then prevalent in the South. Interviewed in 1956, he recalled how in his childhood he would listen to blues musician ]—the originator of "That's All Right"—"bang his box the way I do now, and I said if I ever got to the place where I could feel all old Arthur felt, I'd be a music man like nobody ever saw."{{sfn|Guralnick|2004}} ''The Memphis World'', an African-American newspaper, reported that Presley "cracked Memphis' segregation laws" by attending the local amusement park on what was designated as its "colored night".{{sfn|Guralnick|2004}} Such statements and actions led Presley to be generally hailed in the black community during his early stardom.{{sfn|Guralnick|2004}} In contrast, many white adults "did not like him, and condemned him as depraved. Anti-negro prejudice doubtless figured in adult antagonism. Regardless of whether parents were aware of the Negro sexual origins of the phrase 'rock 'n' roll', Presley impressed them as the visual and aural embodiment of sex."<ref name=":00" />


Despite the largely positive view of Presley held by African Americans, a rumor spread in mid-1957 that he had announced, "The only thing Negroes can do for me is buy my records and shine my shoes." A journalist with the national African American weekly '']'', Louie Robinson, pursued the story. On the set of ''Jailhouse Rock'', Presley granted Robinson an interview, though he was no longer dealing with the mainstream press. He denied making such a statement: <blockquote>I never said anything like that, and people who know me know that I wouldn't have said it.&nbsp;... A lot of people seem to think I started this business. But rock 'n' roll was here a long time before I came along. Nobody can sing that kind of music like colored people. Let's face it: I can't sing like Fats Domino can. I know that.{{sfn|Williams|2012}}</blockquote> Robinson found no evidence that the remark had ever been made, and elicited testimony from many individuals indicating that Presley was anything but racist.{{sfn|Guralnick|2004}}{{sfn|Pilgrim|2006}} Blues singer ], who had heard the rumor before he visited Graceland, reported of Presley, "He showed me every courtesy, and I think he's one of the greatest."{{sfn|Guralnick|1994|p=426}} Though the rumored remark was discredited, it was still being used against Presley decades later.{{sfn|Kolawole|2002}}
According to Guralnick: "rug use was heavily implicated... no one ruled out the possibility of ] brought on by the ] pills...to which he was known to have had a mild allergy." In two lab reports filed two months later, each indicated "a strong belief that the primary cause of death was ]," with one report "indicating the detection of fourteen drugs in Elvis' system, ten in significant quantity."<ref>Guralnick, p.652</ref> It appears he died of ].


The persistence of such attitudes was fueled by resentment over the fact that Presley, whose musical and visual performance idiom owed much to African-American sources, achieved the cultural acknowledgement and commercial success largely denied his black peers.{{sfn|Pilgrim|2006}} Into the twenty-first century, the notion that Presley had "stolen" black music still found adherents.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Ushe |first1=Naledi |title=Appropriation or appreciation? How 'Elvis' highlights his complicated history with Black music |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2022/06/30/elvis-presley-complicated-relationship-black-music/7746069001/ |access-date=April 8, 2024 |work=USA Today |date=June 30, 2022}}</ref>{{sfn|Kolawole|2002}}{{sfn|Myrie|2009|pp=123–124}} Notable among African-American entertainers expressly rejecting this view was ], who argued, "A lot of people have accused Elvis of stealing the black man's music, when in fact, almost every black solo entertainer copied his stage mannerisms from Elvis."{{sfn|Masley|2002}} Moreover, Presley acknowledged his debt to African-American musicians throughout his career. Addressing his '68 Comeback Special audience, he said, "Rock 'n' roll music is basically gospel or rhythm and blues, or it sprang from that. People have been adding to it, adding instruments to it, experimenting with it, but it all boils down to ."{{sfn|Osborne|2000|p=207}} Nine years earlier, he had said, "Rock 'n' roll has been around for many years. It used to be called rhythm and blues."{{sfn|Bertrand|2000|p=198}}
The medical profession has been seriously questioned. Medical Examiner Dr. Jerry Francisco had publicly offered a cause of death while the autopsy was still being performed and before toxicology results were known. Dr. Francisco dubiously stated that ] was the cause of death, a condition that can only be determined in a living person&mdash;not post mortem.<ref name=CourtTV>"". ''] Crime Library''. Retrieved ].</ref> Many doctors had been flattered to be associated with Presley (or had been bribed with gifts) and supplied him with pills which simply fed his addictions.<ref>Clayton and Heard, p.336</ref> The singer allegedly spent at least $1 million annually during his latter years on drugs and doctors' fees or inducements.<ref>Goldman, Albert, ''Elvis: The Last 24 Hours,'' p. 56</ref> Although Dr. Nichopoulos was exonerated with regard to Presley's death, "In the first eight months of 1977 alone, he had more than 10,000 doses of sedatives, amphetamines, and narcotics: all in Elvis' name. On ] ], the board found him... but decided that he was not unethical ." His license was suspended. In July 1995, it was permanently revoked after it was found he had improperly dispensed drugs to several patients.<ref name=DrFeelgood/>


=== Sex symbol ===
In 1994, the autopsy into Presley's death was re-opened. Coroner Dr. Joseph Davis declared: "There is nothing in any of the data that supports a death from drugs ]]. In fact, everything points to a sudden, violent ]."<ref name=DrFeelgood/> However, there is little doubt that long-term drug abuse caused his premature death.<ref name=CourtTV/>
]'' (1962), visualizing Presley's sex symbol image]]
Presley's physical attractiveness and sexual appeal were widely acknowledged. "He was once beautiful, astonishingly beautiful", according to critic ].{{sfn|Feeney|2010}} Television director Steve Binder reported, "I'm straight as an arrow and I got to tell you, you stop, whether you're male or female, to look at him. He was that good looking. And if you never knew he was a superstar, it wouldn't make any difference; if he'd walked in the room, you'd know somebody special was in your presence."{{sfn|Ashley|2009|p=76}} His performance style was equally responsible for Presley's eroticized image. Critic ] described him as "the master of the sexual simile, treating his guitar as both phallus and girl".{{sfn|Rodman|1996|p=58}} In his Presley obituary, ] credited him with bringing "overt blatant vulgar sexual frenzy to the popular arts in America".{{sfn|Rodman|1996|pp=58–59}} Ed Sullivan's declaration that he perceived a soda bottle in Presley's trousers was echoed by rumors involving a similarly positioned toilet roll tube or lead bar.{{sfn|Garber|1997|p=366}}


While Presley was marketed as an icon of heterosexuality, some critics have argued that his image was ambiguous. In 1959, '']''{{'}}s Peter John Dyer described his onscreen persona as "aggressively bisexual in appeal".{{Sfn|Dyer|1959–1960|p=30}} Brett Farmer places the "orgasmic gyrations" of the title dance sequence in ''Jailhouse Rock'' within a lineage of cinematic musical numbers that offer a "spectacular eroticization, if not homoeroticization, of the male image".{{sfn|Farmer|2000|p=86}} In the analysis of ], "Elvis was an ambivalent figure who articulated a peculiar feminised, objectifying version of white working-class masculinity as aggressive sexual display."{{sfn|Tasker|2007|p=208}}
==Legacy==
{{Further|]; ]; ]}}


Reinforcing Presley's image as a sex symbol were the reports of his dalliances with Hollywood stars and starlets, from ] in the 1950s to ] and ] in the 1960s to ] and ] in the 1970s. June Juanico of Memphis, one of Presley's early girlfriends, later blamed Parker for encouraging him to choose his dating partners with publicity in mind.{{sfn|Stein|1997}} Presley never grew comfortable with the Hollywood scene, and most of these relationships were insubstantial.{{sfn|Kirchberg|Hendrickx|1999|p=109}}
{{quotation|Elvis Presley's death deprives our country of a part of itself. He was unique and irreplaceable. More than 20 years ago, he burst upon the scene with an impact that was unprecedented and will probably never be equaled. His music and his personality, fusing the styles of white country and black rhythm and blues, permanently changed the face of American popular culture. His following was immense, and he was a symbol to people the world over of the vitality, rebelliousness, and good humor of his country.|President ], ]|<ref>"". ''The American Presidency Project''. Retrieved on ].</ref>}}
Author Samuel Roy has argued: "Elvis' death did occur at a time when it could only help his reputation. Just before his death, Elvis had been forgotten by society."<ref>Roy, p.173</ref>


== Legacy ==
Biographer Ernst Jorgensen has observed that when Presley died, it was as if all perspective on his musical career had been lost.<ref name = "hlogiw">Jorgensen, p.4</ref> His latter-day song choices had been seen as poor; many who disliked Presley had long been dismissive because he did not write his own songs. Others complained&mdash;incorrectly&mdash;that he could not play musical instruments. Such criticism of Presley continues.<ref>Sinclair, Tom (] ]). "". '']''. Retrieved ].</ref><ref name=Cook-20>Cook, p.20</ref>{{fn|i}} The tabloids had ridiculed his obesity and his kitschy, jump-suited performances. Comedian ] made the teasing remark, "America got what it deserved in Elvis Presley: a big fat, drug-addicted squealer."<ref>Carlin, George, ''Napalm and Silly Putty'' (2001), p.248.</ref> ] said about Presley: "when I see him in his fifties movies, ''Jailhouse Rock'' and ''King Creole'', that's an image I desire to look like. But when he's in his jumpsuit I just think of him as a drag queen."<ref>Cited in Nina Rapi and Maya Chowdhry, ''Acts of Passion'' (1998), p.231.</ref> His sixties' film career was mocked. (In 1980, John Lennon said: " died when he went into the army. That's when they killed him, that's when they castrated him."<ref name="Aaron"/>) Acknowledgment of his vocal style had been reduced to mocking the hiccuping, ] tricks that he had used on some early recordings&mdash;and to the way he said "Thankyouverymuch" after songs during live shows.<ref name="AP">Associated Press (]). '']''. Retrieved ].</ref> This was only countered by the uncritical adulation of die-hard fans, who had even denied that he looked "fat" before he died.<ref name=Wall>Wall, David S. (2003). "" (PDF). ''Entertainment Law'', '''2''' (3): pp.35-69. {{doi|10.1080/1473098042000275774}}. Retrieved on ].</ref>{{fn|j}} Any wish to understand Elvis Presley&mdash;his genuine abilities and his real influence&mdash;"seemed almost totally obscured."<ref name = "hlogiw"/>
{{further|Cultural impact of Elvis Presley|Cultural depictions of Elvis Presley|Elvis has left the building|List of songs about or referencing Elvis Presley}}


{{quote box
Presley has featured prominently in a variety of polls and surveys designed to measure popularity and influence.{{fn|k}} However, sociologist Philip Ennis writes: "Perhaps it is an error of enthusiasm to freight Elvis Presley with too heavy a historical load" because, according to a opinion poll of high school students in 1957, ] was nearly the "two-to-one favorite over Elvis Presley among boys and preferred almost three-to-one by girls..."<ref>See Ennis, Philip H., ''The Seventh Stream: The Emergence of Rocknroll in American Popular Music'' (Wesleyan University Press, 1992), pp.251-252.</ref> However, Presley's early music and live performances are credited with helping to lay a commercial foundation which allowed established ] acts of the 1950s to receive due recognition. Performers like ], ] and ], came to national prominence after Presley's mix of musical styles was accepted among ] teenagers.<ref name=HowBig>Associated Press (]). '']''. Retrieved ].</ref>{{fn|ac}} Rather than Presley being seen as a white man who 'stole black music', Little Richard argued: "He was an integrator, Elvis was a blessing. They wouldn't let black music through. He opened the door for black music."<ref name="Khurana"/> It has also been claimed that Presley's sound and persona helped to relax the rigid color line and thereby fed the fires of the ].<ref>Bertrand, ''Race, Rock, and Elvis''</ref>
|quote=I know he invented rock and roll, in a manner of speaking, but&nbsp;... that's not why he's worshiped as a god today. He's worshiped as a god today because in addition to inventing rock and roll he was the greatest ballad singer this side of ]—because the spiritual translucence and reined-in gut sexuality of his slow weeper and torchy pop blues still activate the hormones and slavish devotion of millions of female human beings worldwide.
|source= —] <br /> December 24, 1985{{sfn|Christgau|1985}}
|salign=right
|width=320px
}}
Presley's rise to national attention in 1956 transformed the field of popular music and had a huge effect on the broader scope of popular culture.{{sfn|Collins|2002}} As the catalyst for the cultural revolution that was rock and roll, he was central not only to defining it as a musical genre but in making it a touchstone of youth culture and rebellious attitude.{{sfn|Sadie|1994|p=638}} With its racially mixed origins—repeatedly affirmed by Presley—rock and roll's occupation of a central position in mainstream American culture facilitated a new acceptance and appreciation of black culture.{{sfn|Bertrand|2000|p=94}}


In this regard, ] said of Presley, "He was an integrator. Elvis was a blessing. They wouldn't let black music through. He opened the door for black music."{{sfn|Rodman|1996|p=193}} ] agreed: "He broke the ice for all of us."{{sfn|Victor|2008|p=356}}
In the late 1960s, composer and conductor ] remarked: "Elvis is the greatest cultural force in the twentieth century. He introduced the beat to everything, music, language, clothes, it's a whole new social revolution... the 60's comes from it."<ref name="Khurana">Khurana, Simran. "". '']''. Retrieved on ].</ref>


President ] remarked on Presley's legacy in 1977: "His music and his personality, fusing the styles of white country and black rhythm and blues, permanently changed the face of American popular culture."{{sfn|Woolley|Peters|1977}} Presley also heralded the vastly expanded reach of celebrity in the era of mass communication: within a year of his first appearance on American network television, he was regarded as one of the most famous people in the world.{{sfn|Arnett|2006|p=400}}
Other celebrated pop and rock musicians have acknowledged that the young Presley inspired them. ] were all big Presley fans.<ref>"". ''Music-Atlas''. Retrieved on ].</ref> ] said: "Nothing really affected me until I heard Elvis. If there hadn't been an Elvis, there wouldn't have been a Beatles."<ref>Cook, p.35</ref> ]'s ] said: "For a young singer he was an absolute inspiration. I soaked up what he did like blotting paper... you learn by copying the maestro."<ref>Ian Gillan (]). "". '']''. Retrieved on ]. </ref> ] declared: "Elvis was the King. No doubt about it. People like myself, ] and all the others only followed in his footsteps." ] recalls from seeing Presley live in 1956 that he made her "realize the tremendous effect a performer could have on an audience."<ref name="Khurana"/>


]s in 2005]]
By 1958, singers obviously adopting Presley's style, like ] and ] (the so-called "British Elvis"), were rising to prominence in the UK. Elsewhere, France's ] and the Italians ] and Bobby Solo were also heavily influenced by Presley.<ref>"". ''RFI Musique''. Retrieved on ].</ref><ref>Gundle, Stephen (September 2006). "". ''Journal of Modern Italian Studies'', ''11'' (3): pp.367-86. Royal Holloway, University of London: Routledge. {{doi|10.1080/13545710600806870}}.</ref>
Presley's name, image, and voice are recognized around the world.{{sfn|Doss|1999|p=2}} He has inspired ].{{sfn|Lott|Uebel|1997|p=192}} In polls and surveys, he is recognized as one of the most important popular music artists and influential Americans.{{refn|] ranked Presley No.&nbsp;8 among the "100 Greatest Artists of Rock & Roll" in 1998.{{sfn|VH1|1998}} The ] ranked him as the No.&nbsp;2 "Voice of the Century" in 2001.{{sfn|BBC News|2001}} '']'' placed him No.&nbsp;3 in its list of "The Immortals: The Fifty Greatest Artists of All Time" in 2004.{{sfn|Rolling Stone|2004}} ] ranked him No.&nbsp;15 among the "40 Greatest Men in Country Music" in 2005.{{sfn|CMT|2005}} The ] placed him No.&nbsp;8 on its "Greatest American" list in 2005.{{sfn|Discovery Channel|2005}} '']'' put him in the top ten of its "100 Icons of the Century" in 2005.{{sfn|Variety|2005}} '']'' ranked him No.&nbsp;66 among the "100 Most Influential Figures in American History" in 2006.{{sfn|Atlantic|2006}} '']'' ranked him No.&nbsp;17 on its 2023 list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.{{sfn|Rolling Stone|2023}}|name=ranking|group=lower-alpha}} American composer and conductor ] said, "Elvis Presley is the greatest cultural force in the twentieth century. He introduced the beat to everything and he changed everything—music, language, clothes."{{sfn|Keogh|2004|p=2}} ] said that "Nothing really affected me until Elvis."{{sfn|Davies|1996|p=19}} ] described the sensation of first hearing Presley as "like busting out of jail".{{sfn|Victor|2008|p=356}}


] at 6777 Hollywood Blvd]]
Presley's recorded voice is seen by many as his enduring legacy. Music critic ] writes: "Elvis Presley has been described variously as a baritone and a tenor. An extraordinary compass... and a very wide range of vocal color have something to do with this divergence of opinion. The voice covers two octaves and a third{{fn|ad}}... Moreover, he has not been confined to one type of vocal production. In ballads and country songs he belts out full-voiced high G's and A's that an opera baritone might envy. He is a naturally assimilative stylist with a multiplicity of voices&mdash;in fact, Elvis' is an extraordinary voice, or many voices."<ref name=Wikiquote>]</ref> It has also been noted that "Presley’s comprehensive musical knowledge and talent also surprised and impressed ] ] and ]... considered Presley to be an ']' because he knew so many songs. His knowledge of the blues especially impressed them. Leiber remembers that Presley "could imitate anything he heard. He had a perfect ear,"... Presley could sing and/or play a song on the piano after hearing it only once or twice. His natural ear for music, ability to play by ear, and to improvise were well known to his friends and musical associates."<ref name=Cook-20 />


For much of his adult life, Presley, with his rise from poverty to riches and fame, had seemed to epitomize the ].{{sfn|Nash|2005|p=xv}}{{sfn|Harrison|2016|p=149}} In his final years, and following the revelations about his circumstances after his death, he became a symbol of excess and gluttony.{{sfn|Cosby|2016|p=144}}{{sfn|Doll|2016|p=186}} Increasing attention was paid to his appetite for the rich, heavy ] of his upbringing, foods such as ] and ].{{sfn|Martin|2000}}{{sfn|Smith|2002}} In particular, his love of fried ],{{sfn|Dundy|2004|pp=227, 256}}{{sfn|Martin|2000}} now known as "Elvis sandwiches",{{sfn|Wilson|2010|p=121}} came to symbolize this characteristic.{{sfn|Slater|2002}}
Gospel tenor Shawn Nielsen, who sang backing vocals for Presley on tour, said: "He could sing anything. I've never seen such versatility... He had such great soul. He had the ability to make everyone in the audience think that he was singing directly to them. He just had a way with communication that was totally unique."<ref name=Wikiquote />{{fn|ae}}<ref name="Khurana"/>


Since 1977, there have been numerous ]. A long-standing conspiracy theory among some fans is that he faked his death.{{sfn|Harrison|1992|pp=42, 157–160, 169}}{{sfn|Clarke|2006|pp=77, 80}} Adherents cite alleged discrepancies in the death certificate, reports of a wax dummy in his original coffin, and accounts of Presley planning a diversion so he could retire in peace.{{sfn|Harrison|1992|pp=159–160}} An unusually large number of fans have domestic shrines devoted to Presley and journey to sites with which he is connected, however faintly.{{sfn|Harrison|2016|p=10}} On the anniversary of his death, thousands of people gather outside Graceland for a candlelight ritual.{{sfn|Segré|2002}} "With Elvis, it is not just his music that has survived death", writes Ted Harrison. "He himself has been raised, like a medieval saint, to a figure of cultic status. It is as if he has been canonized by acclamation."{{sfn|Harrison|2016|p=10}}
Presley's informal jamming in front of a small audience in the ] is regarded as a forerunner of the so-called 'Unplugged' concept, later popularized by ].<ref>Johnson, Brett (]). "". ''elvis.com.au''. Retrieved ].</ref>


On the 25th anniversary of Presley's death, ''The New York Times'' asserted: <blockquote>All the talentless impersonators and appalling ] on display can make him seem little more than a perverse and distant memory. But before Elvis was camp, he was its opposite: a genuine cultural force.&nbsp;... Elvis' breakthroughs are underappreciated because in this rock-and-roll age, his hard-rocking music and sultry style have triumphed so completely.{{sfn|New York Times|2002}}</blockquote>
The singer has been inducted into four music 'Halls of Fame': the ] (1986), the ] (1997), the ] (1998), and the ] (2001). In 1984, he received the ] Award from the ] and the ]’s first Golden Hat Award. In 1987, he received the ]’ first posthumous presentation of the Award of Merit.<ref>Cook, p.33</ref>


He was ranked third on '']'''s list of greatest artists. ] wrote in appreciation: <blockquote>In Elvis, you have the blueprint for rock & roll. The highness — the gospel highs. The mud — the Delta mud, the blues. Sexual liberation. Controversy. Changing the way people feel about the world. It's all there with Elvis.{{sfn|Bono|2010|loc="Elvis"}}</blockquote>
Presley has a star on the ] at 7080 ]. He was also honored by the Mississippi Blues Commission with a ] historic marker placed in ], his birth place, in recognition of his contribution to the development of the blues in Mississippi.<ref>
{{cite web
|url=http://www.msbluestrail.org/blues_trail/
|title=Mississippi Blues Commission - Blues Trail
|publisher=www.msbluestrail.org
|accessdate=2008-05-28
}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite web
|url=http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2008-01-07-elvis-blues-trail_N.htm
|title=Elvis gets marker on Mississippi Blues Trail - USATODAY.com
|publisher=usatoday.com
|accessdate=2008-05-28
}}
</ref>


Not only Presley's achievements but his failings as well, are seen by some cultural observers as adding to the power of his legacy, as in this description by Greil Marcus:<blockquote>Elvis Presley is a supreme figure in American life, one whose presence, no matter how banal or predictable, brooks no real comparisons.&nbsp;... The cultural range of his music has expanded to the point where it includes not only the hits of the day, but also patriotic recitals, pure country gospel, and really dirty blues.&nbsp;... Elvis has emerged as a great ''artist'', a great ''rocker'', a great ''purveyor of schlock'', a great ''heart throb'', a great ''bore'', a great ''symbol of potency'', a great ''ham'', a great ''nice person'', and, yes, a great American.{{sfn|Marcus|1982|pp=141–142}}</blockquote>
In 1994, the 40th anniversary of Presley's "That's All Right" was recognized with its re-release, which made the charts worldwide, making top three in the UK.


== Achievements ==
During the ] a ] remix of his "]" (credited as "Elvis Vs JXL") topped the charts in over twenty countries and was included in a compilation of Presley's U.S. and UK number one hits, ].
{{See also|List of accolades received by Elvis Presley}}
With a billion estimated record sales, ] ranks Presley as the best-selling solo artist of all time.{{refn|group=lower-alpha|name=sales|The estimates of Elvis Presley's record sales vary from 500 million – 1 billion records worldwide.{{sfn|Reuters|2022}}<ref>{{cite book|title= Brandstorm: Surviving and Thriving in the New Consumer-Led Marketplace|publisher= ]|page=77|author=Liz Nickles, Savita Iyer}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/14/us/elvis-presley-1968-comeback-guitar-auction/index.html|title= An iconic guitar from Elvis Presley's Comeback Special is up for auction|date=March 14, 2021|publisher=]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/best-selling-solo-artist#:~:text=Elvis%20Presley%20(USA)%20is%20the,129.5%20million%20in%20the%20USA). |title=Best-selling solo artist |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=Nov 26, 2024 |website=www.guinnessworldrecords.com |publisher=] |access-date=Nov 26, 2024 |quote=Elvis Presley (USA) is the best-selling solo artist, with 1 billion sales worldwide (129.5 million in the USA).}}</ref>}} Presley's rankings for top ten and number-one hits vary depending on how the double-sided "Hound Dog/Don't Be Cruel" and "Don't/I Beg of You" singles, which precede the inception of ''Billboard''{{'}}s unified ] chart, are analyzed.{{refn|Whitburn follows actual ''Billboard'' history in considering the four songs on the "Don't Be Cruel/Hound Dog" and "Don't/I Beg of You" singles as distinct. He tallies each side of the former single as a number-one (''Billboard''{{'}}s sales chart had "Don't Be Cruel" at number one for five weeks, then "Hound Dog" for six) and reckons "I Beg of You" as a top ten, as it reached number eight on the old Top 100 chart. ''Billboard'' now considers both singles as unified items, ignoring the historical sales split of the former and its old Top 100 chart entirely. Whitburn thus analyzes the four songs as yielding three number ones and a total of four top tens. ''Billboard'' now states that they yielded just two number ones and a total of two top tens, voiding the separate chart appearances of "Hound Dog" and "I Beg of You".|name=billboard|group=lower-alpha}} According to Whitburn's analysis, Presley holds the record with 38, tying with ];{{sfn|Whitburn|2010|p=875}} per ''Billboard''{{'}}s current assessment, he ranks second with 36.{{sfn|Hasty|2008}} Whitburn and ''Billboard'' concur that the Beatles hold the record for most number-one hits with 20, and that ] is second with 19.{{sfn|Trust|2022}} Whitburn has Presley with 18:{{sfn|Whitburn|2010|p=875}} ''Billboard'' has him third with 17.{{sfn|Moody|2008}} According to&nbsp;''Billboard'',&nbsp; Presley has 79 cumulative weeks at number one: alone at 80, according to Whitburn and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,{{sfn|Whitburn|2010|p=876}}{{sfn|RRHF|2010}} with only Mariah Carey having more with 91 weeks.{{sfn|Trust|2023}} He holds the records for most number-one singles on the UK chart with 21 and singles reaching the top ten with 76.{{sfn|Myers|2022}}{{sfn|Myers|2021}}


As an album artist, Presley is credited by ''Billboard'' with the record for the most albums charting in the ]: 129, far ahead of second-place Frank Sinatra's 82. He also holds the record for most cumulative weeks at number one on the Billboard 200 for a male solo artists: 67 weeks{{sfn|Trust|2015}} In 2015 and 2016, two albums setting Presley's vocals against music by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, '']'' and '']'', both reached number one in the UK. This gave him a new record for number-one UK albums by a solo artist with 13, and extended his record for longest span between number-one albums by anybody—Presley had first topped the British chart in 1956 with his self-titled debut.{{sfn|Sexton|2016}}
In the UK charts (January 2005), three re-issued singles again went to number one ("]", "]"/"]" and "]"). Throughout the year, twenty singles were re-issued&mdash;all making top five.


{{as of|2023}}, the ] (RIAA) credits Presley with 146.5&nbsp;million certified album sales in the US, third all time behind the Beatles and ].{{sfn|RIAA|2020a}} He holds the records for most ] (101, nearly double second-place ]'s 51),{{sfn|RIAA|2020b}} and most platinum albums (57).{{sfn|RIAA|2020c}} His 25 multi-platinum albums is second behind the Beatles' 26.{{sfn|RIAA|2020d}} His total of 197 album certification awards (including one diamond award), far outpaces the Beatles' second-best 122.{{sfn|Lewis|2017}} He has the 9th-most gold singles (54, tied with ]),{{sfn|RIAA|2020e}} and the 16th-most platinum singles (27).{{sfn|RIAA|2020f}}
In the same year, ''Forbes'' magazine named Presley, for the fifth straight year, the top-earning deceased celebrity, grossing US$45 million for the Presley estate during the preceding year. In mid-2006, top place was taken by Nirvana's ] after the sale of his song catalogue, but Presley reclaimed the top spot in 2007.<ref>Goldman, Lea; David M. Ewalt, eds. (]). "". '']''. Retrieved on ].</ref>
Paul F. Campos has written: "The Elvis cult touches on so many crucial nerves of American popular culture: the ascent of a workingclass boy from the most obscure backwater to international fame and fortune; the white man with the soul of black music in his voice; the performer whose music tied together the main strands of American folk music – country, rhythm and blues, and gospel; and, perhaps most compellingly for a weight-obsessed nation, the sexiest man in America's gradual transformation into a fat, sweating parody of his former self, straining the bounds of a jewel-encrusted bodysuit on a Las Vegas stage. The images of fat Elvis and thin Elvis live together in the popular imagination."<ref>Campos, Paul F., ''The Obesity Myth: Why America's Obsession with Weight is Hazardous to Your Health'' (2004), p.81.</ref> The singer continues to be imitated&mdash;and parodied&mdash;outside the main music industry and Presley songs remain very popular on the ] circuit. People from a diversity of cultures and backgrounds work as ]s ("the raw 1950s Elvis and the kitschy 1970s Elvis are the favorites."<ref>Stecopoulos, p.198</ref>)


In 2012, the spider '']'' was named in his honor.{{sfn|Miller |Griswold |Scharff |Rezac |2012}} In 2018, President ] awarded Presley the ] posthumously.{{sfn|BBC News|2018}}
In 2002, it was observed: {{quotation|For those too young to have experienced Elvis Presley in his prime, today’s celebration of the 25th anniversary of his death must seem peculiar. All the talentless impersonators and appalling black velvet paintings on display can make him seem little more than a perverse and distant memory. But before Elvis was camp, he was its opposite: a genuine cultural force... Elvis’s breakthroughs are underappreciated because in this rock-and-roll age, his hard-rocking music and sultry style have triumphed so completely.|'']''<ref>(], ]). "". '']''. Retrieved on ].</ref>}}


There is a street named after Presley in ], Texas.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Merrisa |date=September 30, 2014 |title=San Antonio street names and groupings |url=https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/slideshow/San-Antonio-street-names-and-groupings-94695.php |website=mysanantonio.com}}</ref>
==Discography==
{{For|a detailed discography|Elvis Presley discography}}
{{For|a list of all of his songs|List of Elvis Presley songs}}
{{For|a list of Presley's singles|Elvis Presley hit singles}}


==See also== == Discography ==
{{Main|Elvis Presley albums discography|Elvis Presley singles discography|List of songs recorded by Elvis Presley}}
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]


A vast number of recordings have been issued under Presley's name. The number of his original master recordings has been variously calculated as 665{{sfn|Victor|2008|p=438}} and 711.{{sfn|Feeney|2010}} His career began and he was most successful during an era when singles were the primary commercial medium for pop music. For his albums, the distinction between "official" studio records and other forms is often blurred.{{Citation needed|date=August 2024}}
==Notes==
{{col-begin}}
<!-- This article uses fn and fnb templates. Information on these can be found at ]. -->
{{col-2}}
'''Studio albums'''
* '']'' (1956)
* '']'' (1956)
* '']'' (1957)
* '']'' (1960)
* '']'' (1960)
* '']'' (1961)
* '']'' (1962)
* '']'' (1965)
* '']'' (1967)
* '']'' (1969)
* '']'' (1969)
* '']'' (1970)
* '']'' (1971)
* '']'' (1971)
* '']'' (1971)
* '']'' (1972)
* '']'' (1972)
* '']'' (1973) <small>(The "Fool" Album)</small>
* '']'' (1973)
* '']'' (1974)
* '']'' (1975)
* '']'' (1975)
* ''], Tennessee'' (1976)
* '']'' (1977)
{{col-2}}
'''Soundtrack albums (original material)'''
* '']'' (1957)
* '']'' (1958)
* '']'' (1960)
* '']'' (1961)
* '']'' (1962)
* '']'' (1963)
* '']'' (1963)
* '']'' (1964)
* '']'' (1964)
* '']'' (1965)
* '']'' (1965)
* '']'' (1966)
* '']'' (1966)
* '']'' (1966)
* '']'' (1967)
* '']'' (1967)
* '']'' (1968)
{{col-end}}


== Filmography ==
<div class="references-small">
{{Main|Elvis Presley on film and television}}
* {{fnb|a}} Presley's genuine birth certificate reads "Elvis ''Aaron'' Presley" (as written by a doctor). There is also a souvenir birth certificate that reads "Elvis ''Aron'' Presley." When Presley did sign his middle name, he used Aron. It reads 'Aron' on his marriage certificate and on his army duffel bag. Aron was apparently the spelling the Presleys used to make it similar to the middle name of Elvis' stillborn twin, Jesse ''Garon''. Elvis later sought to change the name's spelling to the traditional and biblical Aaron. In the process he learned that "official state records had always listed it as Aaron. Therefore, he always was, officially, Elvis Aaron Presley." Knowing Presley's plans for his middle name, Aaron is the spelling his father chose for Elvis' tombstone, and it is the spelling his estate has designated as the official spelling whenever the middle name is used today. His death certificate says "Elvis Aron Presley." This quirk has helped inflame the "]" conspiracy theories.<ref name=Aaron />
; Films starred
* {{fnb|b}} Presley's version dropped the word "Mama" from the title.<ref name=Carr-6 />
{{div col|colwidth=18em}}
* {{fnb|e}} The issue of whether Presley "stole" music of black origin continued decades later.<ref name=Blank /> See: Kolawole, Helen (] ]). "". '']''. Retrieved on ]; North, Gary (2000). ". ''LewRockwell.com''. Retrieved on ].
* '']'' (1956)
* {{fnb|f}} In 1973, Presley was keen to produce a karate movie/documentary, enlisting the help of several top instructors and film-makers. Instructor Rick Husky says: "...Basically never went anywhere... Elvis got up and did some demonstrations with Ed , you know stumbled around a little bit, and it was very sad." Husky was aware that Presley was "stoned." "Colonel" Parker thought the project was folly&mdash;and a drain on their resources&mdash;from the start. (Guralnick 1994, p.531 and in passim). The film footage was finally edited, restored and released as ''The New Gladiators'' in 2002. ''] Movies''. Retrieved on ]; Susan, King (] ]). "" '']''. Reprinted in ''IssacFlorentine.com''. Retrieved on ].
* '']'' (1957)
* {{fnb|g}} In 1974, ] offered Presley the male lead role in the remake of ]. His manager turned down the offer, saying no one should have equal billing with Presley.<ref name=George-Warren />
* '']'' (1957)
* {{fnb|h}} At a press conference after his first opening in Vegas, when a reporter referred to him as "The King", Presley pointed to ], standing at the back of the room. "No," he said, "that’s the real king of rock and roll."<ref name=Cook-39 />
* '']'' (1958)
* {{fnb|j}} See also: Cook, ''Graceland National Historic Landmark Nomination Form''. Other analyses of Presley's voice credit him with a three octave range.<ref name=Wikiquote />
* '']'' (1960)
* {{fnb|k}}] ranked Presley #8 on its ''100 Greatest Artists in Rock and Roll'' in 1998 while ] ranked him #15 on ''CMT's 40 Greatest Men in Country Music''. Presley is one of only three artists to make both VH1's and CMT's lists, the others being Johnny Cash and ].<ref>(1998). "". '']''. Retrieved on ].</ref><ref>(2005). "". '']''. Retrieved on ].</ref> Elvis also ranked second for ]'s "Voice of the Century", eighth on ] "Greatest American" list, in the top ten of '']'' "100 Icons of the century", sixty-sixth in '']'' "100 most influential figures in American history", and third in '']'' "The Immortals: The Fifty Greatest Artists of All Time" for which he was chosen by ].<ref>(], ]). "" ''BBC NEWS'', Retrieved on ].</ref><ref>"". '']''. Retrieved on ].</ref><ref>"". '']''. Retrieved on ].</ref><ref>(December 2006). "". '']''. Retrieved on ].</ref><ref>(]). "". '']'' (946). Retrieved on ].</ref>
* '']'' (1960)
</div>
* '']'' (1961)
* '']'' (1961)
* '']'' (1962)
* '']'' (1962)
* '']'' (1962)
* '']'' (1963)
* '']'' (1963)
* '']'' (1964)
* '']'' (1964)
* '']'' (1964)
* '']'' (1965)
* '']'' (1965)
* '']'' (1965)
* '']'' (1966)
* '']'' (1966)
* '']'' (1966)
* '']'' (1967)
* '']'' (1967)
* '']'' (1967)
* '']'' (1968)
* '']'' (1968)
* '']'' (1968)
* '']'' (1969)
* '']'' (1969)
* '']'' (1969)
* '']'' (1970)
* '']'' (1972)
{{div col end}}


; TV concert specials
==Footnotes==
* '']'' (1968)
<!-- ----------------------------------------------------------
* '']'' (1973)
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* '']'' (1977)
discussion of different citation methods and how to generate
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{{Reflist|3}}


==References== == See also ==
* ]
<!-- Author last name, first name (Year of publication). ''Title''. Publisher. ]. -->
* ]
* Alagna, Magdalena (2002). ''Elvis Presley''. Rosen Publishing Group. ].
* ]
* Austen, Jake (2005). ''TV-A-Go-Go: Rock on TV from American Bandstand to American Idol''. ]. ].
* ]
* Baden, Michael M.; Judith Adler Hennessee (1992). ''Unnatural Death: Confessions of a Medical Examiner''. New York: Random House. ].
* ]
* Bayles, Martha (1996). ''Hole in Our Soul: The Loss of Beauty and Meaning in American Popular Music''. ]. ].
* Bertrand, Michael T. (2000). ''Race, Rock, and Elvis''. ]. ].
* Beebe, R.; D. Fulbrook, B. Saunders (eds.) (2002). ''Rock over the Edge''. ]. ].
* Brown, Peter Harry; Pat H. Broeske (1998). ''Down at the End of Lonely Street: The Life and Death of Elvis Presley''. Signet. ].
* Caine, A. (2005). ''Interpreting Rock Movies: The Pop Film and Its Critics in Britain''. Palgrave Macmillan. ].
* Carr, Roy; Mick Farren (1982). ''Elvis: The complete illustrated record''. ]. ].
* Clayton, Rose; Dick Heard (2003). ''Elvis: By Those Who Knew Him Best''. Virgin Publishing Limited. ].
* Cook, J., Henry, P. (ed.) (2004). '''' (PDF). United States Department of the Interior.
* Curtin, Jim; James Curtin, Renata Ginter (1998). ''Elvis: Unknown Stories behind the Legend''. Celebrity Books. ].
* Dickerson, James L. (2001). ''Colonel Tom Parker: The Curious Life of Elvis Presley's Eccentric Manager''. Cooper Square Press. ].
* Denisoff, R. Serge (1975). ''Solid Gold: The Popular Record Industry''. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Books. ].
*] (1986). ''Elvis and Gladys: The Genesis of the King'', London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ].
* Escott, Colin. (1998). "Elvis Presley". In ''The Encyclopedia of Country Music''. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. ].
* Falk, Ursula A.; Gerhard Falk (2005). ''Youth Culture and the Generation Gap''. Algora Publishing. ].
* Farren, Mick; Pearce Marchbank (1977). ''Elvis In His Own Words''. New York: Omnibus Press. ].
* Finstad, Suzanne (1997). ''Child Bride: The Untold Story of Priscilla Beaulieu Presley''. New York: Harmony Books. ].
* Gamson, Joshua (1994). ''Claims to Fame: Celebrity in Contemporary America''. University of California Press. ].
* George-Warren, Holly; Patricia Romanowski, Jon Pareles (2001). ''The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock And Roll''. Fireside. ].
*] (1990). ''Elvis: The Last 24 Hours''. St Martins. ].
*] (1994). ''Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley''. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. ].
* Guralnick, Peter (1999). ''Careless Love. The Unmaking of Elvis Presley''. Back Bay Books. ].
* Harbinson, W. A., (1977). ''The life and death of Elvis Presley''. London: Michael Joseph. ].
* Harrington C. Lee; Denise D. Bielby (2000). ''Popular Culture: Production and Consumption''. Blackwell. ].
* Hopkins, Jerry (2002). ''Elvis in Hawaii''. Bess Press. ].
* Hopkins, Jerry (2007). ''Elvis. The Biography''. Plexus. ].
* Humphries, Patrick (2003). ''Elvis The #1 Hits: The Secret History of the Classics''. Andrews McMeel. ].
* Jorgensen, Ernst (1998). ''Elvis Presley: A life in music. The complete recording sessions''. St. Martin's Press. ].
* Kirchberg, Connie; Marc Hendricks (1999). ''Elvis Presley, Richard Nixon, and the American Dream'', Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company. ].
* Lichter, Paul (1980). ''Elvis - The Boy Who Dared To Rock''. Sphere Books. ].
* Lipton, Peggy; Coco Dalton, David Dalton (2005). ''Breathing Out''. St. Martin's Press. ].
* Lisanti, Tom (2000). ''Fantasy Femmes of 60's Cinema: Interviews with 20 Actresses from Biker, Beach, and Elvis Movies''. McFarland and Company. ].
* Lisanti, Tom (2003). ''Drive-In Dream Girls: A Galaxy of B-Movie Starlets of the Sixties''. McFarland. ].
* Margret, Ann; Todd Gold (1994). ''Ann-Margret: My Story''. G.P. Putnam's Sons. ].
* Miller, James, (1999). ''Flowers in the Dustbin: The Rise of Rock and Roll, 1947-1977''. Fireside. ].
* Moore, Scotty; James Dickerson (1997). ''That’s Alright, Elvis''. Schirmer Books. ].
* Nash, A.; M. Lacker, L. Fike, B. Smith (1995). ''Elvis Aron Presley: Revelations from the Memphis Mafia''. Harper Collins. ].
* Naylor, Jerry and Steve Halliday (2007). ''The Rockabilly Legends; They Called It Rockabilly Long Before they Called It Rock and Roll'' (Book and DVD). Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation. ].
* Pratt, Linda R. (1979). "Elvis, or the Ironies of a Southern Identity". ''Elvis: Images and Fancies''. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
* Presley, Priscilla, (1985). ''Elvis and Me''. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. ].
* Rodman, G., (1996). ''Elvis After Elvis, The Posthumous Career of a Living Legend''. London: Routledge. ].
* Rodriguez, R., (2006). ''The 1950s' Most Wanted: The Top 10 Book of Rock & Roll Rebels, Cold War Crises, and All-American Oddities''. Potomac Books. ].
* Roy, Samuel (1985). ''Elvis: Prophet of Power''. Branden Publishing Co. Inc. ].
* Shepherd, Cybill; Aimee Lee Ball (2000}. ''Cybill Disobedience''. Thorndike Press. ].
*Stanley, David E.; Frank Coffey (1998). ''The Elvis Encyclopedia''. London: Virgin Books. ].
* Stecopoulos, H.; M. Uebel (1997). ''Race and the Subject of Masculinities''. Duke University Press. ].
* Szatmary, David P. (1996). ''A Time to Rock: A Social History of Rock 'n' Roll''. New York: Schirmer Books. ].
* Verswijver, L., (2002). ''Movies Were Always Magical: Interviews with 19 Actors, Directors, and Producers from the Hollywood of the 1930s through the 1950s''. McFarland & Company. ].
* Walser, Robert; David Nicholls (ed.) (1999). ''The Cambridge History of American Music''. Cambridge University Press. ].
* West, Red; Sonny West, Dave Hebler (As Told To Steve Dunleavy) (1977). ''Elvis: What Happened''. ]. ].


== Explanatory notes ==
==Further reading==
{{Reflist|group=lower-alpha}}
* ] (1981). ''Elvis''. McGraw-Hill. ].
* Allen, Lew (2007). ''Elvis & the birth of rock''. ]. ].
* Cantor, Louis (2005). ''Dewey and Elvis - The Life and Times of a Rock 'n' Roll Deejay''. ]. ].
* Chadwick, Vernon (ed.) (1997). ''In Search of Elvis: Music, Race, Art, Religion''. Proceedings of the first annual International Conference on Elvis Presley, Westview. ].
* Doss, Erika Lee (1999). ''Elvis Culture: Fans, Faith, and Image''. University of Kansas Press. ].
* Hopkins, Jerry (2007). ''Elvis. The Biography''. Plexus. ].
* Marcus, Greil (1991). ''Dead Elvis: A Chronicle of a Cultural Obsession''.
* Marcus, Greil (2000). ''Double Trouble: Bill Clinton and Elvis Presley in a Land of No Alternative''. ].
* ] (1995). ''Elvis Aaron Presley: Revelations from the Memphis Mafia''. Harper Collins. ].
* Nash, Alanna (2003). ''The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley''. Simon and Schuster. ].


==External links== == References ==
=== Citations ===
{{commons}}
{{reflist|20em|refs=
{{wikiquote}}
<ref name=":00">''Billboard'' writer Arnold Shaw, cited in {{harvnb|Denisoff|1975|p=22}}.</ref>
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* {{cite book |last=Adelman |first=Kim |year=2002 |title=The Girls' Guide to Elvis: The Clothes, the Hair, the Women, and More! |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-0-7679-1188-7 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/girlsguidetoelvi0000adel}}
| See ] & ] for details. |
* {{cite book |last=Alden |first=Ginger |title=Elvis & Ginger: Elvis Presley's Fiancée and Last Love Finally Tells her Story |publisher=Berkeley Publishing |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-101-61613-0}}
| |
* {{cite book |last=Allen |first=Steve |year=1992 |title=Hi-Ho, Steverino!: My Adventures in the Wonderful Wacky World of TV |publisher=Thorndike Press |isbn=978-1-56054-521-7}}
| If there are already plentiful links, please propose additions or |
* {{cite book |last=Arnett |first=Jeffrey Jensen |year=2006 |title=Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach |publisher=Pearson Prentice Hall |edition=3rd |isbn=978-0-13-195071-9}}
| replacements on this article's discussion page. Or submit your link |
* {{cite book |last=Ashley |first=Martin |year=2009 |title=How High Should Boys Sing? |publisher=Ashgate |isbn=978-0-7546-6475-8}}
| to the relevant category at the Open Directory Project (dmoz.org) |
* {{cite magazine |magazine=] |title=The Top 100 |date=December 2006 |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2006/12/the-top-100-influential-figures-in-american-history/305384/ |access-date=January 19, 2018 |ref={{sfnRef|Atlantic|2006}} |archive-date=September 16, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140916161415/http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2006/12/the-top-100-influential-figures-in-american-history/305384/ |url-status=live }}
| and link back to that category using the {{dmoz}} template. |
* {{cite book |last=Austen |first=Jake |year=2005 |title=TV-A-Go-Go: Rock on TV from American Bandstand to American Idol |publisher=Chicago Review Press |isbn=978-1-55652-572-8}}
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* {{cite book |last1=Baden |first1=Michael M. |last2=Hennessee |first2=Judith Adler |year=1990 |title=Unnatural Death: Confessions of a Medical Examiner |publisher=Ballantine |isbn=978-0-8041-0599-6}}
*{{imdb name|id=0000062|name=Elvis Presley}}
* {{cite news |last=Baillie |first=Russell |newspaper=] |title=Album Review: ''Elvis Presley Viva Elvis The Album'' |date=November 6, 2010 |url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment-reviews/news/article.cfm?c_id=1502967&objectid=10685618 |access-date=November 9, 2010 |archive-date=August 6, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806004002/https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment-reviews/news/article.cfm?c_id=1502967&objectid=10685618 |url-status=live}}
*{{amg name|2:107032}}
* {{cite magazine |last=Baird |first=Robert |title=Elvis and the Royal Philharmonic |date=December 23, 2017 |magazine=Stereophile |url=https://www.stereophile.com/content/elvis-and-royal-philharmonic |access-date=January 17, 2018 |archive-date=January 18, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180118181243/https://www.stereophile.com/content/elvis-and-royal-philharmonic |url-status=live}}
*{{findagrave|837}}
* {{cite news |agency=BBC News |title=Sinatra Is Voice of the Century |date=April 18, 2001 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1281522.stm |access-date=December 29, 2009 |ref={{sfnRef|BBC News|2001}} |archive-date=January 6, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090106183538/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1281522.stm |url-status=live }}
* - Official site of the Elvis Presley brand.
* {{cite news |title=Elvis Presley gets US Presidential Medal of Freedom |date=November 16, 2018 |agency=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-46233352 |access-date=November 17, 2018 |ref={{sfnRef|BBC News|2018}} |archive-date=November 16, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181116211209/https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-46233352 |url-status=live }}
* By Elvis Australia
* {{cite book |author=The Beatles |year=2000 |title=The Beatles Anthology |publisher=Chronicle Books |isbn=978-0-8118-2684-6 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/beatlesanthology0000unse}}
* - A detailed history of Elvis' Graceland, with photos.
* {{cite book |last=Bertrand |first=Michael T. |year=2000 |title=Race, Rock, and Elvis |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=978-0-252-02586-0}}
*
* {{cite magazine |author=Bono |date=December 3, 2010 |title=100 Greatest Artists |magazine=] |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/100-greatest-artists-147446/elvis-presley-2-30887/ |access-date=January 31, 2024 |archive-date=January 31, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240131222535/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/100-greatest-artists-147446/elvis-presley-2-30887/ |url-status=live}}
*{{dmoz|Arts/Music/Bands_and_Artists/P/Presley,_Elvis|{{pagename}}}}
* {{cite news |last=Bouchard |first=Dany |newspaper=Toronto Sun |title=Priscilla Presley Keeps King Alive |date=November 5, 2010 |url=http://www.torontosun.com/entertainment/music/2010/11/05/15987851.html |access-date=November 9, 2010 |archive-date=March 14, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170314065939/http://www.torontosun.com/entertainment/music/2010/11/05/15987851.html |url-status=live}}
{{Elvis Presley}}
* {{cite web |url=https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt3704428/?ref_=bo_se_r_1 |title=Elvis (2022) |publisher=] |access-date=August 15, 2022 |ref={{sfnRef|Box Office Mojo}} |archive-date=July 13, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220713184133/https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt3704428/?ref_=bo_se_r_1 |url-status=live }}
* {{cite magazine |last=Bronson |first=Fred |title=Chart Beat |date=July 3, 2004 |magazine=Billboard |page=57 |url={{GBurl |id=OhAEAAAAMBAJ}} }}
* {{cite book |last1=Brown |first1=Peter Harry |last2=Broeske |first2=Pat H. |year=1997 |title=Down at the End of Lonely Street: The Life and Death of Elvis Presley |publisher=Signet |isbn=978-0-451-19094-9}}
* {{cite book |last=Duffett |first=Mark |title=Counting Down Elvis: His 100 Finest Songs |year=2018 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |isbn=978-1-4422-4805-2 |url={{GBurl |id=a7hJDwAAQBAJ}} }}
* {{cite book |last1=Burke |first1=Ken |last2=Griffin |first2=Dan |year=2006 |title=The Blue Moon Boys: The Story of Elvis Presley's Band |publisher=Chicago Review Press |isbn=978-1-55652-614-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/bluemoonboys00burk}}
* {{cite book |last=Caine |first=Andrew |year=2005 |title=Interpreting Rock Movies: The Pop Film and Its Critics in Britain |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-0-7190-6538-5}}
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* {{cite book |last=Charlton |first=Katherine |year=2006 |title=Rock Music Styles: A History |publisher=McGraw-Hill |edition=5th |isbn=978-0-07-312162-8}}
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* {{cite book |last=Coffey |first=Frank |title=The Complete Idiot's Guide to Elvis |publisher=Alpha Books |year=1997}}
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* {{cite book |last=Fensch |first=Thomas |year=2001 |title=The FBI Files on Elvis Presley |publisher=New Century Books |isbn=978-0-930751-03-6}}
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* {{cite news |last=Fields |first=Curt |title=A Whole Lotta Elvis Is Goin' to the Small Screen |date=August 3, 2007 |newspaper=] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/02/AR2007080200660.html |access-date=December 27, 2009 |archive-date=November 2, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121102204500/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/02/AR2007080200660.html |url-status=live}}
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* {{cite news |last=Gould |first=Jack |title=TV: New Phenomenon – Elvis Presley Rises to Fame as Vocalist Who Is Virtuoso of Hootchy-Kootchy |date=June 6, 1956 |newspaper=The New York Times |url=http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/archives/elvis-presley-on-milton-berle-show-06-06-1956.pdf |access-date=December 31, 2009 |archive-date=May 29, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230529032209/http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/archives/elvis-presley-on-milton-berle-show-06-06-1956.pdf |url-status=live}}
* {{cite web |title=Elvis Presley, the Musician |publisher=Graceland Blog |date=December 3, 2015 |url=https://www.graceland.com/blog/posts/elvis-presley-the-musician |access-date=July 1, 2019 |ref={{sfnref|Graceland Blog|2015}} |archive-date=November 1, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191101115434/https://www.graceland.com/blog/posts/elvis-presley-the-musician |url-status=live }}
* {{cite web |title=Elvis Presley |date=March 17, 2014 |publisher=Grammy Awards |url=https://www.grammy.com/grammys/artists/elvis-presley |access-date=January 9, 2019 |ref={{sfnref|Grammy|2014}} |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190406230258/https://www.grammy.com/grammys/artists/elvis-presley |archive-date=April 6, 2019 }}
* {{cite magazine |last=Greenburg |first=Zack O'Malley |title=The Top-Earning Dead Celebrities of 2017 |date=October 30, 2017 |magazine=Forbes |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2017/10/30/the-top-earning-dead-celebrities-of-2017/#75dd8def41f5 |access-date=January 8, 2018 |archive-date=February 5, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190205143455/https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2017/10/30/the-top-earning-dead-celebrities-of-2017/#75dd8def41f5 |url-status=live}}
* {{cite magazine |last=Greene |first=Andy |date=July 31, 2018 |title=Flashback: Elvis Presley's 'Aloha From Hawaii' Marks His Final Truly Great Moment |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/flashback-elvis-presleys-aloha-from-hawaii-marks-his-final-truly-great-moment-705310/ |access-date=January 17, 2023 |magazine=] |archive-date=January 17, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230117121303/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/flashback-elvis-presleys-aloha-from-hawaii-marks-his-final-truly-great-moment-705310/ |url-status=live}}
* {{cite web |last=Grein |first=Paul |title=Chart Watch Extra: The Top 40 Christmas Albums |date=December 5, 2008 |publisher=Yahoo! Music |url=http://music.yahoo.com/blogs/chart-watch/chart-watch-extra-the-top-40-christmas-albums.html |access-date=February 1, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111224030746/http://music.yahoo.com/blogs/chart-watch/chart-watch-extra-the-top-40-christmas-albums.html |archive-date=December 24, 2011}}
* {{cite book |last=Guralnick |first=Peter |year=1989 |title=Lost Highway: Journeys & Arrivals of American Musicians |publisher=Vintage |isbn=978-0-394-75215-0}}
* {{cite book |last=Guralnick |first=Peter |year=1994 |title=Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley |publisher=Little, Brown |isbn=978-0-316-33225-5}}
* {{cite book |last=Guralnick |first=Peter |year=1999 |title=Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley |publisher=Back Bay Books |isbn=978-0-316-33297-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780316332972}}
* {{cite news |last=Guralnick |first=Peter |title=How Did Elvis Get Turned into a Racist? |date=January 8, 2004 |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/11/opinion/11guralnick.html |access-date=August 11, 2007 |archive-date=May 12, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210512180531/https://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/11/opinion/11guralnick.html |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last1=Guralnick |first1=Peter |last2=Jorgensen |first2=Ernst |year=1999 |title=Elvis Day by Day: The Definitive Record of His Life and Music |publisher=Ballantine |isbn=978-0-345-42089-3}}
* {{cite book |last=Harrison |first=Ted |year=1992 |title=Elvis People: The Cult of the King |publisher=Fount |isbn=978-0-00-627620-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/elvispeopleculto00harr}}
* {{cite book |last=Harrison |first=Ted |year=2016 |title=The Death and Resurrection of Elvis Presley |publisher=Reaktion |isbn=978-1-78023-637-7}}
* {{cite magazine |last=Hasty |first=Katie |magazine=Billboard |title=Madonna Leads Busy Billboard 200 with 7th No. 1 |date=May 7, 2008 |url=https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/1045488/madonna-leads-busy-billboard-200-with-7th-no-1 |access-date=January 20, 2018 |archive-date=May 23, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130523062750/http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/1045488/madonna-leads-busy-billboard-200-with-7th-no-1 |url-status=live}}
* {{cite news |last=Higginbotham |first=Alan |title=Doctor Feelgood |date=August 11, 2002 |newspaper=The Observer |url=https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2002/aug/11/features.magazine27 |access-date=December 29, 2009 |archive-date=September 22, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170922062642/https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2002/aug/11/features.magazine27 |url-status=live}}
* {{cite news |last=Hilburn |first=Robert |title=From the Man Who Would Be King |date=February 6, 2005 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-feb-06-ca-presley6-story.html |access-date=January 4, 2010 |archive-date=July 11, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100711033522/http://articles.latimes.com/2005/feb/06/entertainment/ca-presley6 |url-status=live}}
* {{cite news |last=Hilburn |first=Robert |title=This Fan of Charts Is No. 1, with a Bullet |date=October 30, 2007 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-backtracking30oct30,0,1043136.story |access-date=January 17, 2010 |archive-date=May 23, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100523225302/http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-backtracking30oct30,0,1043136.story |url-status=live}}
* {{cite magazine |title=Hits of the World |date=July 24, 2004 |magazine=Billboard |volume=116 |number=30 |page=62 |url={{GBurl |id=aRAEAAAAMBAJ}} |ref={{sfnRef|"Hits of the World"|2004}} }}
* {{cite book |last=Hopkins |first=Jerry |year=1986 |title=Elvis: The Final Years |publisher=Berkley |isbn=978-0-425-08999-6}}
* {{cite book |last=Hopkins |first=Jerry |year=2002 |title=Elvis in Hawaii |publisher=Bess Press |isbn=978-1-57306-142-1}}
* {{cite book |last=Hopkins |first=Jerry |year=2007 |title=Elvis{{snd}}The Biography|publisher=Plexus|isbn=978-0-85965-391-6}}
* {{cite magazine |last=Hoy |first=Peter |title=Top-Earning Dead Celebrities |date=October 27, 2008 |magazine=Forbes |url=https://www.forbes.com/2008/10/27/top-dead-celebrity-biz-media-deadcelebs08-cz_ph_1027celeb.html |access-date=June 5, 2011 |archive-date=July 10, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110710001716/http://www.forbes.com/2008/10/27/top-dead-celebrity-biz-media-deadcelebs08-cz_ph_1027celeb.html |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last=Jancik |first=Wayne |title=The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders |year=1998}}
* {{Cite web |last1=Jeffrey |first1=Joyann |last2=Kaplan |first2=Anna |date=June 27, 2022 |orig-date=Updated November 6, 2023 |title=Priscilla Presley and Elvis Presley's relationship story, in their own words |url=https://www.today.com/popculture/music/elvis-priscilla-presley-relationship-true-story-rcna35050 |access-date=February 26, 2023 |work=]}}
* {{cite book |last=Jezer |first=Marty |year=1982 |title=The Dark Ages: Life in the United States 1945–1960 |publisher=South End Press |isbn=978-0-89608-127-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/darkageslifeinth00jeze}}
* {{cite book |last=Jorgensen |first=Ernst |year=1998 |title=Elvis Presley{{snd}}A Life in Music: The Complete Recording Sessions|publisher=St Martin's Press|isbn=978-0-312-18572-5}}
* {{cite book |last=Keogh |first=Pamela Clarke |year=2004 |title=Elvis Presley: The Man, The Life, The Legend |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=978-0-7434-5603-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/elvispresleymanl00keog_0}}
* {{cite book |last1=Kirchberg |first1=Connie |last2=Hendrickx |first2=Marc |year=1999 |title=Elvis Presley, Richard Nixon, and the American Dream |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-0716-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/elvispresleyrich00kirc}}
* {{Cite news |last1=Koch |first1=Ed |last2=Manning |first2=Mary |last3=Toplikar |first3=Dave |date=May 15, 2008 |newspaper=] |title=Showtime: How Sin City evolved into 'The Entertainment Capital of the World' |url=https://m.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/may/15/evolution-worlds-entertainment-capital/ |access-date=March 3, 2019 |archive-date=March 6, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190306043145/https://m.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/may/15/evolution-worlds-entertainment-capital/ |url-status=live}}
* {{cite news |last=Kolawole |first=Helen |title=He Wasn't My King |date=August 15, 2002 |newspaper=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2002/aug/15/elvis25yearson.elvispresley |access-date=December 27, 2009 |archive-date=May 14, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230514190740/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2002/aug/15/elvis25yearson.elvispresley |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last=Kubernick |first=Harvey |year=2008 |title=The Complete '68 Comeback Special |publisher=CD Booklet RCA/BMG. UPC 88697306262}}
* {{cite web |title=Groundbreaking New Elvis Presley Album, 'Where No One Stands Alone', To Be Released August 10 |date=June 21, 2018 |website=Legacy |publisher=Sony Music Entertainment |url=https://www.legacyrecordings.com/2018/06/21/groundbreaking-new-elvis-presley-album-where-no-one-stands-alone-to-be-released-august-10/ |access-date=January 30, 2022 |ref={{sfnref|Legacy|2018}} |archive-date=January 30, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220130141032/https://www.legacyrecordings.com/2018/06/21/groundbreaking-new-elvis-presley-album-where-no-one-stands-alone-to-be-released-august-10/ |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |last=Leigh |first=Spencer |author-link=Spencer Leigh (radio presenter) |year=2017 |title=Elvis Presley: Caught in a Trap |publisher=McNidder and Grace |isbn=978-0-85716-166-6}}
* {{cite news |last=Lewis |first=Randy |title=40 Years After His Death, Elvis Presley Is Still the King in the YouTube Age |date=August 16, 2017 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-entertainment-news-updates-august-elvis-presley-in-the-youtube-age-still-1502897506-htmlstory.html |access-date=January 19, 2018 |archive-date=January 20, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180120124652/http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-entertainment-news-updates-august-elvis-presley-in-the-youtube-age-still-1502897506-htmlstory.html |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last1=Lisanti |first1=Tom |year=2000 |title=Fantasy Femmes of 60s Cinema: Interviews with 20 Actresses from Biker, Beach, and Elvis Movies |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-0868-9}}
* {{cite book |last1=Lott |first1=Eric |last2=Uebel |first2=Michael |year=1997 |title=Race and the Subject of Masculinities |publisher=Duke University Press |chapter=All the King's Men: Elvis Impersonators and White Working-Class Masculinity |editor=Stecopoulos, Harry |isbn=978-0-8223-1966-5 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/racesubjectofmas0000unse}}
* {{cite news |last=Lynch |first=Rene |title=Elvis Presley, Who Died 34 Years Ago Today, Spurs Fresh Tears |date=August 16, 2011 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/08/elvis-presley.html |access-date=August 17, 2011 |archive-date=May 27, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220527070238/https://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/08/elvis-presley.html |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last=Marcus |first=Greil |year=1982 |title=Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock 'n' Roll Music |edition=Revised |publisher=E.P. Dutton |isbn=978-0-525-47708-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/mysterytrainimag00marcus}}
* {{cite book |last=Marcus |first=Greil |year=2006 |title=Elvis Presley: The Ed Sullivan Shows |publisher=DVD Booklet Image Entertainment. UPC 01438137302 |url=http://www.msopr.com/n/past-campaigns/elvis-presley-the-ed-sullivan-shows/ |access-date=February 1, 2010 |archive-date=December 19, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111219163909/http://www.msopr.com/n/past-campaigns/elvis-presley-the-ed-sullivan-shows/}}
* {{cite book |last=Marcus |first=Greil |title=Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock 'n' Roll Music |year=2015 |publisher=Plume |isbn=978-0-14-218158-4 |url={{GBurl |id=trEBDAAAQBAJ}} }}
* {{cite book |last=Marsh |first=Dave |year=1980 |title=The Rolling Stone Record Guide |publisher=Virgin |chapter=Elvis Presley |edition=2nd |editor=Marsh, Dave |editor2=Swenson, John |isbn=978-0-907080-00-8}}
* {{cite book |last=Marsh |first=Dave |year=1982 |title=Elvis |publisher=Times Books |isbn=978-0-8129-0947-0}}
* {{cite book |last=Marsh |first=Dave |year=1989 |title=The Heart of Rock & Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-14-012108-7}}
* {{cite book |last=Marsh |first=Dave |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=2004 |chapter=Elvis Presley |title=The New Rolling Stone Album Guide |editor-last1=Brackett |editor-first1=Nathan |editor-last2=Hoard |editor-first2=Christian |edition=4th |isbn=978-0-7432-0169-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/newrollingstonea00brac}}
* {{cite news |last=Marsh |first=Stefanie |title=Did Elvis indoctrinate me? Probably&nbsp;– but I don't see it as a bad thing |date=December 21, 2015 |newspaper=The Times |url=https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/did-elvis-indoctrinate-me-probably-but-i-dont-see-it-as-a-bad-thing-73rpgqlc3r3 |url-access=subscription |access-date=April 5, 2018 |archive-date=June 19, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220619014522/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/did-elvis-indoctrinate-me-probably-but-i-dont-see-it-as-a-bad-thing-73rpgqlc3r3 |url-status=live}}
* {{cite news |last=Martin |first=Douglas |title=Mary Jenkins Langston, 78, Cook for Presley |date=June 5, 2000 |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/05/us/mary-jenkins-langston-78-cook-for-presley.html |access-date=January 20, 2018 |archive-date=January 21, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180121125808/http://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/05/us/mary-jenkins-langston-78-cook-for-presley.html |url-status=live}}
* {{cite news |last=Masley |first=Ed |title=It's Good To Be King |date=August 15, 2002 |newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=20020815&id=15INAAAAIBAJ&sjid=YnADAAAAIBAJ&pg=3942,3866464 |access-date=January 31, 2010 |archive-date=August 19, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230819011116/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=20020815&id=15INAAAAIBAJ&sjid=YnADAAAAIBAJ&pg=3942,3866464 |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last=Mason |first=Bobbie Ann |year=2007 |title=Elvis Presley |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0-14-303889-4 |url={{GBurl |id=NqCQo9nqVHYC |p=37}} }}
* {{cite book |last=Matthew-Walker |first=Robert |year=1979 |title=Elvis Presley. A Study in Music |publisher=Midas Books |isbn=978-0-85936-162-0}}
* {{cite web |last=McPhate |first=Tim |date=August 15, 2017 |title=Elvis: Do You Know These 5 Facts? |publisher=Grammy Awards |url=https://www.grammy.com/grammys/news/remembering-elvis-presley-5-grammy-facts |access-date=January 9, 2019 |archive-date=December 27, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191227044323/https://www.grammy.com/grammys/news/remembering-elvis-presley-5-grammy-facts |url-status=live}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Miller |first1=Jeremy A. |last2=Griswold |first2=Charles E. |last3=Scharff |first3=Nikolaj |last4=Rezac |first4=Milan |last5=Szuts |first5=Tamas |last6=Marhabaie |first6=Mohammad |title=The velvet spiders: an atlas of the Eresidae (Arachnida, Araneae) |journal=ZooKeys |date=May 18, 2012 |issue=195 |pages=1–144 |doi=10.3897/zookeys.195.2342 |pmid=22679386 |issn=1313-2970 |pmc=3361087 |bibcode=2012ZooK..195....1M |doi-access=free}}
* {{cite book |last=Miller |first=James |year=2000 |title=Flowers in the Dustbin: The Rise of Rock and Roll, 1947–1977 |publisher=Fireside |isbn=978-0-684-86560-7}}
* {{Cite web |last=Miller |first=Madison |date=March 23, 2021 |title=Elvis Presley: How the King of Rock 'n' Rolling Developed His Signature Dance Moves |website=Outsider |url=https://outsider.com/news/entertainment/elvis-presley-how-king-rock-roll-developed-his-signature-dance-moves/ |access-date=February 14, 2022 |archive-date=February 14, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220214105458/https://outsider.com/news/entertainment/elvis-presley-how-king-rock-roll-developed-his-signature-dance-moves/ |url-status=live}}
* {{cite news |last=Moody |first=Nekesa Mumbi |title=Mariah Carey Surpasses Elvis in No. 1s |date=April 2, 2008 |newspaper=USA Today |url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2008-04-02-carey_N.htm |access-date=April 14, 2010 |agency=Associated Press |archive-date=May 12, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230512161449/http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2008-04-02-carey_N.htm |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last1=Moore |first1=Scotty |last2=Dickerson |first2=James |year=1997 |title=That's Alright, Elvis |publisher=Schirmer Books |isbn=978-0-02-864599-5}}
* {{cite book |last=Morrison |first=Craig |year=1996 |title=Go Cat Go!: Rockabilly Music and Its Makers |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=978-0-252-02207-4}}
* {{cite book |last=Moscheo |first=Joe |year=2007 |title=The Gospel Side of Elvis |publisher=Center Street |isbn=978-1-59995-729-6}}
* {{cite book |last=Moyer |first=Susan M. |year=2002 |title=Elvis: The King Remembered |publisher=Sports Publishing LLC |isbn=978-1-58261-558-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/elviskingremembe0000moye |url-access=registration}}
* {{cite magazine |last=Murray |first=Don |date=October 1961 |title=One Million Times 98¢ |magazine=HiFi/Stereo Review |volume=7 |number=4 |pages=63–66 |publisher=Ziff-Davis Publishing Company |url={{GBurl |id=R31UAAAAMAAJ |pg=RA6-PA63}} }}
* {{cite web |last=Myers |first=Justin |date=September 30, 2022 |title=Artists with the most Number 1 singles on the UK chart |url=https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/artists-with-the-most-number-1-singles-on-the-uk-chart__23765/ |url-status=live |publisher=] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220226150127/https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/artists-with-the-most-number-1-singles-on-the-uk-chart__23765/ |archive-date=February 26, 2022 |access-date=October 15, 2022}}
* {{cite news |last=Myers |first=Justin |date=September 17, 2021 |title=Artists with the most Top 10 singles in the UK |url=https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/artists-with-the-most-top-10-singles-in-the-uk__25400/ |access-date=October 15, 2022 |url-status=live |publisher=Official Charts Company |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220617194018/https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/artists-with-the-most-top-10-singles-in-the-uk__25400/ |archive-date=June 17, 2022}}
* {{cite book |last=Myrie |first=Russell |year=2009 |title=Don't Rhyme for the Sake of Riddlin': The Authorized Story of Public Enemy |publisher=Canongate |isbn=978-1-84767-182-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/dontrhymeforsake00myri}}
* {{cite book |last=Nash |first=Alanna |year=2003 |title=The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley |author-link=Alanna Nash |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=978-0-7432-1301-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/colonelextraordi00nash}}
* {{cite book |last=Nash |first=Alanna |year=2005 |title=Elvis and the Memphis Mafia |publisher=Aurum |isbn=978-1-84513-128-9}}
* {{cite web |publisher=National Park Service |year=2010 |title=Graceland |url=http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1146152923&ResourceType=Building |access-date=January 7, 2010 |ref={{sfnRef|National Park Service|2010}} |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111230214217/http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1146152923&ResourceType=Building |archive-date=December 30, 2011 }}
* {{Cite book |last=Neibaur |first=James L. |year=2014 |title=The Elvis Movies |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-4422-3074-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u95XAwAAQBAJ |access-date=March 21, 2024 |archive-date=March 21, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240321182638/https://books.google.com/books?id=u95XAwAAQBAJ |url-status=live}}
* {{cite news |newspaper=The New York Times |title=Long Live the King |date=August 16, 2002 |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0CE0DD143DF935A2575BC0A9649C8B63 |access-date=December 30, 2009 |ref={{sfnRef|New York Times|2002}} |archive-date=January 19, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080119104830/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0CE0DD143DF935A2575BC0A9649C8B63 |url-status=live }}
* {{cite news |last=O'Malley |first=Sheila |title=Love Me Tender |date=April 4, 2016 |work=Bright Wall/Dark Room |url=http://www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2016/04/04/love-me-tender/ |access-date=January 17, 2018 |archive-date=January 18, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180118182902/http://www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2016/04/04/love-me-tender/ |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last=Osborne |first=Jerry |year=2000 |title=Elvis: Word for Word |publisher=Harmony |isbn=978-0-609-60803-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/elvis00jerr}}
* {{cite book |last=Osborne |first=Jerry |title=Presleyana VIII – the Elvis Presley Record, CD, and Memorabilia Price Guide |year=2017 |publisher=Jerry Osborne Enterprises |isbn=978-0-932117-97-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CE6JPQyNKawC |access-date=March 21, 2024 |archive-date=March 21, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240321182514/https://books.google.com/books?id=CE6JPQyNKawC |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last=Palladino |first=Grace |year=1996 |title=Teenagers: An American History |publisher=Westview |isbn=978-0-465-00766-0}}
* {{cite book |last1=Pendergast |first1=Sara |last2=Pendergast |first2=Tom |year=2000 |title=St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture |edition=4th |publisher=St. James Press |isbn=978-1-55862-404-7}}
* {{cite web |last=Pilgrim |first=David |title=Question of the Month: Elvis Presley and Racism |date=March 2006 |publisher=Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia |url=http://www.ferris.edu/JIMCROW/question/mar06/ |access-date=December 28, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120106054126/http://www.ferris.edu/JIMCROW/question/mar06/ |archive-date=January 6, 2012}}
* {{cite book |last=Pleasants |first=Henry |year=2004 |title=Popular Music: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies, Volume 3: Popular Music Analysis |publisher=Routledge |chapter=Elvis Presley |editor=Frith, Simon |isbn=978-0-415-33269-9}}
* {{cite magazine |last=Pomerantz |first=Dorothy |title=The Top-Earning Dead Celebrities |date=October 25, 2011 |magazine=Forbes |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/dorothypomerantz/2011/10/25/the-top-earning-dead-celebrities/ |access-date=January 6, 2012 |archive-date=April 7, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190407203457/https://www.forbes.com/sites/dorothypomerantz/2011/10/25/the-top-earning-dead-celebrities/ |url-status=live}}
* {{cite magazine |last1=Pomerantz |first1=Dorothy |last2=Lacey |first2=Rose |first3=Streib |last3=Lauren |last4=Thibault |first4=Marie |title=Top-Earning Dead Celebrities |date=October 27, 2009 |magazine=Forbes |url=https://www.forbes.com/2009/10/27/top-earning-dead-celebrities-list-dead-celebs-09-entertainment_land.html |access-date=January 5, 2010 |ref={{sfnRef|Pomerantz et al.|2009}} |archive-date=December 5, 2012 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121205021043/http://www.forbes.com/2009/10/27/top-earning-dead-celebrities-list-dead-celebs-09-entertainment_land.html |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |last=Ponce de Leon |first=Charles L. |year=2007 |title=Fortunate Son: The Life of Elvis Presley |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-0-8090-1641-9}}
* {{cite book |last=Presley |first=Priscilla |year=1985 |title=Elvis and Me |publisher=G.P. Putnam's Sons |isbn=978-0-399-12984-1}}
* {{cite web |last=Ramsland |first=Katherine |year=2010 |title=Cyril Wecht: Forensic Pathologist{{snd}}Coverup for a King |publisher=TruTV |url=http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/criminal_mind/forensics/cyril_wecht/4.html/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131105181517/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/criminal_mind/forensics/cyril_wecht/4.html/index.html |archive-date=November 5, 2013 }}
* {{cite web |publisher=Recording Industry Association of America |year=2010 |title=Top 100 Albums |url=https://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?table=tblTop100 |access-date=January 31, 2010 |ref={{sfnRef|RIAA|2010}} |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070701162536/http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?table=tblTop100 |archive-date=July 1, 2007 }}
* {{cite web |publisher=Recording Industry Association of America |year=2020 |title=Gold & Platinum: Top Artists (Albums) |url=https://www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/?tab_active=top_tallies&ttt=TAA |access-date=February 8, 2020 |ref={{sfnRef|RIAA|2020a}} |archive-date=December 3, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171203033345/https://www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/?tab_active=top_tallies&ttt=TAA |url-status=live }}
* {{cite web |publisher=Recording Industry Association of America |year=2020 |title=Gold & Platinum: Artists{{snd}}Albums/EPs (Gold) |url=https://www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/?tab_active=awards_by_artist&col=gold_units&ord=desc#search_section |access-date=February 8, 2020 |ref={{sfnRef|RIAA|2020b}} |archive-date=April 24, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200424044216/https://www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/?tab_active=awards_by_artist&col=gold_units&ord=desc#search_section |url-status=live }}
* {{cite web |publisher=Recording Industry Association of America |year=2020 |title=Gold & Platinum: Artists{{snd}}Albums/EPs (Platinum) |url=https://www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/?tab_active=awards_by_artist&col=platinum_units&ord=desc#search_section |access-date=February 8, 2020 |ref={{sfnRef|RIAA|2020c}} |archive-date=April 24, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200424070914/https://www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/?tab_active=awards_by_artist&col=platinum_units&ord=desc#search_section |url-status=live }}
* {{cite web |publisher=Recording Industry Association of America |year=2020 |title=Gold & Platinum: Artists{{snd}}Albums/EPs (Multi-Platinum) |url=https://www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/?tab_active=awards_by_artist&col=multi_platinum_units&ord=desc#search_section |access-date=February 8, 2020 |ref={{sfnRef|RIAA|2020d}} |archive-date=April 24, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200424070736/https://www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/?tab_active=awards_by_artist&col=multi_platinum_units&ord=desc#search_section |url-status=live }}
* {{cite web |publisher=Recording Industry Association of America |year=2020 |title=Gold & Platinum: Artists{{snd}}Singles (Gold) |url=https://www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/?advance_search=1&tab_active=awards_by_artist&format_option=singles&type_option=ST&col=gold_units&ord=desc#search_section |access-date=February 8, 2020 |ref={{sfnRef|RIAA|2020e}} |archive-date=June 13, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200613130432/https://www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/?advance_search=1&tab_active=awards_by_artist&format_option=singles&type_option=ST&col=gold_units&ord=desc#search_section |url-status=live }}
* {{cite web |publisher=Recording Industry Association of America |year=2020 |title=Gold & Platinum: Artists{{snd}}Singles (Platinum) |url=https://www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/?advance_search=1&tab_active=awards_by_artist&format_option=singles&type_option=ST&col=platinum_units&ord=desc#search_section |access-date=February 8, 2020 |ref={{sfnRef|RIAA|2020f}} |archive-date=June 13, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200613113423/https://www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/?advance_search=1&tab_active=awards_by_artist&format_option=singles&type_option=ST&col=platinum_units&ord=desc#search_section |url-status=live }}
* {{cite magazine |title=Red Carpet for Elvis LP |date=April 18, 1960 |magazine=Billboard |page=11 |url={{GBurl |id=xh8EAAAAMBAJ}} |ref={{sfnRef|"Red Carpet"|1960}} }}
* {{cite news |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-universal-music-elvis-idCAKCN2M40UH |title=Universal Music can't help falling for Elvis Presley, to manage song catalog |date=April 12, 2022 |work=] |access-date=March 19, 2023 |ref={{sfnRef|Reuters|2022}} |archive-date=July 18, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220718055826/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-universal-music-elvis-idCAKCN2M40UH |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |last=Robertson |first=John |year=2004 |title=Elvis Presley: The Complete Guide to His Music |publisher=Omnibus Press |isbn=978-1-84449-711-9}}
* {{cite web |publisher=Rock and Roll Hall of Fame |year=2010 |title=Elvis Presley |url=http://rockhall.com/exhibits/featured-collections/elvis-presley/ |access-date=July 22, 2010 |ref={{sfnRef|RRHF|2010}} |archive-date=June 29, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160629124806/http://www.rockhall.com/exhibits/featured-collections/elvis-presley/ }}
* {{cite magazine |title=Elvis Presley: 'King of Rock' |year=1956 |magazine=Rock 'N Roll Stars |pages=2–13 |ref={{sfnRef|Rock 'N Roll Stars|1956}}}} via {{cite magazine |first=Jans |last=Rabbers |title=Rock 'N Roll Stars (1956) |magazine=Smelly Paper Vintage Magazines |date=July 11, 2013 |ref=none |url=http://www.elvisechoesofthepast.com/rock-n-roll-stars-1956/ |access-date=December 5, 2013 |archive-date=October 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231007172218/http://www.elvisechoesofthepast.com/rock-n-roll-stars-1956/ |url-status=dead}}
* {{cite book |last=Rodman |first=Gilbert B. |year=1996 |title=Elvis After Elvis, The Posthumous Career of a Living Legend |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-11002-0 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/elvisafterelvisp0000rodm}}
* {{Cite book |last=Rodman |first=Gilbert B. |title=Elvis After Elvis The Posthumous Career of a Living Legend |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-136-15506-2}}
* {{cite book |last=Rogers |first=Dave |year=1982 |title=Rock 'n' Roll |publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul |isbn=978-0-7100-0938-8}}
* {{cite magazine |magazine=Rolling Stone |title=The Immortals: The First Fifty |date=April 15, 2004 |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5939214/the_immortals_the_first_fifty |access-date=December 29, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080625061212/http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5939214/the_immortals_the_first_fifty |archive-date=June 25, 2008 |ref={{sfnRef|Rolling Stone|2004}} }}
* {{cite magazine |magazine=Rolling Stone |year=2009 |title=1969 Rolling Stone Covers |ref={{sfnRef|Rolling Stone|2009}} |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/coverwall/1969#0037 |access-date=November 20, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080705162924/http://www.rollingstone.com/photos/gallery/5392211/1969_rolling_stone_covers/photo/13 |archive-date=July 5, 2008 }}
* {{Cite magazine |date=January 1, 2023 |title=The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-singers-all-time-1234642307/elvis-presley-18-1234643185/ |access-date=October 11, 2023 |magazine=Rolling Stone |ref={{sfnref|Rolling Stone|2023}} |archive-date=October 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231024005113/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-singers-all-time-1234642307/elvis-presley-18-1234643185/ |url-status=live }}
* {{cite magazine |last=Rose |first=Lacey |title=Top-Earning Dead Celebrities |date=October 24, 2006 |magazine=Forbes |url=https://www.forbes.com/2006/10/23/celebrities-earnings-fame-tech-media-06deadcelebs-cx_lr_topearnintro.html |access-date=June 5, 2011 |archive-date=December 8, 2012 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121208153548/http://www.forbes.com/2006/10/23/celebrities-earnings-fame-tech-media-06deadcelebs-cx_lr_topearnintro.html |url-status=live}}
* {{cite magazine |last1=Rose |first1=Lacey |last2=Pomerantz |first2=Dorothy |last3=Greenburg |first3=Zack O'Malley |last4=Paine |first4=Jake |title=In Pictures: The 13 Top-Earning Dead Celebs{{snd}}No. 2 Elvis Presley |date=October 25, 2010 |magazine=Forbes |url=https://www.forbes.com/2010/10/21/michael-jackson-elvis-presley-tolkien-business-entertainment-dead-celebs-10_slide_3.html |access-date=June 5, 2011 |ref={{sfnRef|Rose et al.|2010}} |archive-date=July 30, 2012 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120730101503/http://www.forbes.com/2010/10/21/michael-jackson-elvis-presley-tolkien-business-entertainment-dead-celebs-10_slide_3.html |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |publisher=W. W. Norton |title=The Norton/Grove Concise Encyclopedia of Music |year=1994 |editor-last=Sadie |editor-first=Stanley |edition=Revised |isbn=978-0-393-03753-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/nortongroveconci0000sadi}}
* {{cite news |last=Salisbury |first=Harrison |title=Presley Records a Craze in Soviet |date=February 3, 1957 |newspaper=The New York Times}}
* {{cite magazine |last=Scherman |first=Tony |title=Elvis Dies |date=August 16, 2006 |magazine=American Heritage |url=http://www.southingtonschools.org/file.cfm?resourceid=5339&filename=The%20Death%20of%20Elvis.docx |access-date=December 29, 2009 |archive-date=October 8, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231008211539/https://www.southingtonschools.org/file.cfm?resourceid=5339&filename=The%20Death%20of%20Elvis.docx |url-status=live}}
* {{cite journal |last=Segré |first=Gabriel |title=Le rite de la Candlelight |date=2002 |journal=Ethnologie française |volume=32 |page=149 |doi=10.3917/ethn.021.0149|doi-access=free |issn=0046-2616}}
* {{cite magazine |last=Sexton |first=Paul |magazine=Billboard |title=New Presley Reissue Campaign Aimed at U.K. |date=August 3, 2007 |url=https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/1050223/new-presley-reissue-campaign-aimed-at-uk |access-date=January 21, 2018 |archive-date=May 10, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180510082108/https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/1050223/new-presley-reissue-campaign-aimed-at-uk |url-status=live}}
* {{cite magazine |last=Sexton |first=Paul |magazine=Billboard |title=The King Reigns Again as Elvis Presley Takes U.K. Album Honors |date=October 28, 2016 |url=https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/7557774/elvis-presley-wonder-of-you-uk-charts-little-mix |access-date=January 20, 2018 |archive-date=November 11, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211111130125/https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/7557774/elvis-presley-wonder-of-you-uk-charts-little-mix |url-status=live}}
* {{cite news |last=Slater |first=Nigel |title=Grease Is the Word |date=August 11, 2002 |newspaper=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2002/aug/11/elvis25yearson.elvispresley6 |access-date=January 20, 2018 |archive-date=January 21, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180121072058/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2002/aug/11/elvis25yearson.elvispresley6 |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last1=Slaughter |first1=Todd |last2=Nixon |first2=Anne E. |year=2004 |title=The Elvis Archives |publisher=Omnibus Press |isbn=978-1-84449-380-7}}
* {{cite news |last=Smith |first=Liz |title=Ain't Nothin' but a Chow Hound |date=November 10, 2002 |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/10/magazine/ain-t-nothin-but-a-chow-hound.html |access-date=January 20, 2018 |archive-date=August 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230824100751/https://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/10/magazine/ain-t-nothin-but-a-chow-hound.html |url-status=live}}
* {{Cite web|url=https://people.com/music/elvis-presley-former-fiancee-ginger-alden-pays-tribute-lisa-marie-presley-you-were-loved/|title=Elvis Presley's Former Fiancée Ginger Alden Pays Tribute to Lisa Marie: 'You Were Loved' |website=People|last=Speakman|first=Kimberlee|date=January 13, 2023}}
* {{cite book |last1=Stanley |first1=David |last2=Coffey |first2=Frank |year=1998 |title=The Elvis Encyclopedia |publisher=Virgin Books |isbn=978-0-7535-0293-8}}
* {{cite news |last=Stein |first=Ruthe |title=Girls! Girls! Girls! |date=August 3, 1997 |website=] |url=http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Girls-Girls-Girls-From-small-town-women-to-2814423.php |access-date=December 29, 2009 |archive-date=August 30, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230830125539/https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Girls-Girls-Girls-From-small-town-women-to-2814423.php |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last=Szatmary |first=David |year=1996 |title=A Time to Rock: A Social History of Rock 'n' Roll |publisher=Schirmer Books |isbn=978-0-02-864670-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/timetorocksocial00szat}}
* {{cite book |last=Tasker |first=Yvonne |year=2007 |title=Genre, Gender, Race, and World Cinema: An Anthology |publisher=Blackwell |chapter=Cowgirl Tales |editor=Codell, Julie F. |isbn=978-1-4051-3232-9}}
* {{cite magazine |last=Tennant |first=Forest |magazine=Practical Pain Management |title=Elvis Presley: Head Trauma, Autoimmunity, Pain, and Early Death |date=June 2013 |url=https://www.practicalpainmanagement.com/pain/other/brain-injury/elvis-presley-head-trauma-autoimmunity-pain-early-death |access-date=January 9, 2018 |archive-date=October 28, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211028004415/https://www.practicalpainmanagement.com/pain/other/brain-injury/elvis-presley-head-trauma-autoimmunity-pain-early-death |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last=Tillery |first=Gary |year=2013 |title=The Seeker King: A Spiritual Biography of Elvis Presley |publisher=Quest Books |access-date=February 2, 2018 |isbn=978-0-8356-0915-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fFdbBgAAQBAJ&pg=PT40 |archive-date=March 21, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240321182438/https://books.google.com/books?id=fFdbBgAAQBAJ&pg=PT40#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live}}
* {{cite magazine |last=Trust |first=Gary |title=Elvis Presley's Billboard Chart Records |date=January 8, 2015 |magazine=Billboard |url=https://www.billboard.com/pro/elvis-presleys-billboard-chart-records/#! |access-date=April 5, 2023 |archive-date=April 5, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405152304/https://www.billboard.com/pro/elvis-presleys-billboard-chart-records/#! |url-status=live}}
* {{cite magazine |last=Trust |first=Gary |date=January 1, 2019 |title=Elvis Presley Earns Highest-Charting Billboard Hot 100 Hit Since 1981 as 'Blue Christmas' Jingles In at No. 40 |magazine=] |url=https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/8491989/elvis-presley-highest-charting-hot-100-hit-since-1978-blue-christmas-debut |access-date=July 1, 2019 |archive-date=January 1, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190101173530/https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/8491989/elvis-presley-highest-charting-hot-100-hit-since-1978-blue-christmas-debut |url-status=live}}
* {{cite magazine |last=Trust |first=Gary |title=Drake & 21 Savage's 'Jimmy Cooks' Soars in at No. 1 on Billboard Hot 100 |date=June 27, 2022 |magazine=Billboard |url=https://www.billboard.com/music/chart-beat/drake-21-savage-jimmy-cooks-number-1-hot-100-1235106933/ |access-date=March 19, 2023 |archive-date=July 1, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220701055305/https://www.billboard.com/music/chart-beat/drake-21-savage-jimmy-cooks-number-1-hot-100-1235106933/ |url-status=live}}
* {{cite magazine |last=Trust |first=Gary |title=Mariah Carey's 'All I Want for Christmas Is You' Adds 12th Week Atop Hot 100, Nat King Cole Hits Top 10 |date=January 3, 2023 |magazine=Billboard |url=https://www.billboard.com/music/chart-beat/mariah-carey-all-i-want-for-christmas-is-you-12-weeks-number-one-nat-king-cole-top-10-1235192947/ |access-date=March 19, 2023 |archive-date=January 3, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230103152607/https://www.billboard.com/music/chart-beat/mariah-carey-all-i-want-for-christmas-is-you-12-weeks-number-one-nat-king-cole-top-10-1235192947/ |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last=Turner |first=John Frayn |year=2004 |title=Frank Sinatra |publisher=Taylor Trade Publications |isbn=978-1-58979-145-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/franksinatra00john}}
* {{cite book |date=March 5, 1960 |title=Presley, Elvis Aron; DD 214: Armed Forces of the United States Report of Transfer or Discharge |publisher=] |ref={{sfnRef|US Department of Defense|1960}} }}
* {{cite magazine |magazine=Variety |year=2005 |title=100 Icons of the Century |url=https://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=variety100 |access-date=December 29, 2009 |ref={{sfnRef|Variety|2005}} |archive-date=December 30, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091230082420/http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=variety100 |url-status=live }}
* {{cite web |publisher=VH1 |year=1998 |title=100 Greatest Artists of Rock & Roll |url=http://www.rockonthenet.com/archive/1998/vh1artists.htm |access-date=December 29, 2009 |ref={{sfnRef|VH1|1998}} |archive-date=November 19, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191119191122/http://www.rockonthenet.com/archive/1998/vh1artists.htm |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |last=Victor |first=Adam |year=2008 |title=The Elvis Encyclopedia |publisher=Overlook Duckworth |isbn=978-1-58567-598-2}}
* {{cite news |last=Wadey |first=Paul |title=Jake Hess |date=January 8, 2004 |newspaper=The Independent |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/jake-hess-549231.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100713025605/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/jake-hess-549231.html |archive-date=July 13, 2010}}
* {{cite web |last=Walker |first=Howard |title=Elvis Presley's Dilapidated Private Jet Sat in the Desert for 40 Years. It Just Sold for $260,000. |date=January 9, 2023 |website=Robb Report |url=https://robbreport.com/motors/aviation/elvis-presley-private-jet-sells-mecum-collector-car-auction-1234792793/ |access-date=February 16, 2024 |archive-date=February 16, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240216195254/https://robbreport.com/motors/aviation/elvis-presley-private-jet-sells-mecum-collector-car-auction-1234792793/ |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last1=Warwick |first1=Neil |last2=Kutner |first2=Jon |last3=Brown |first3=Tony |year=2004 |title=The Complete Book of the British Charts: Singles & Albums |edition=3rd |publisher=Omnibus Press |isbn=978-1-84449-058-5}}
* {{cite journal |last=Waters |first=Lindsay |date=Spring 2003 |title=Come Softly, Darling, Hear What I Say: Listening in a State of Distraction{{snd}}A Tribute to the Work of Walter Benjamin, Elvis Presley, and Robert Christgau |journal=Boundary 2 |volume=30 |pages=199–212 |doi=10.1215/01903659-30-1-199 |s2cid=161635612 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/41348 |access-date=February 25, 2017 |archive-date=May 18, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220518012109/https://muse.jhu.edu/article/41348 |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |last=Whitburn |first=Joel |year=1993 |title=Billboard Top 1000 Singles 1955–1992 |publisher=Billboard Books |isbn=978-0-7935-2072-5}}
* {{cite book |last=Whitburn |first=Joel |year=2006 |title=The Billboard Book of Top 40 Country Hits |edition=2nd |publisher=Billboard Books |isbn=978-0-8230-8291-9}}
* {{cite book |last=Whitburn |first=Joel |year=2010 |title=The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits |publisher=Billboard Books |edition=9th |isbn=978-0-8230-8554-5}}
* {{cite news |last=Williams |first=Todd |title=Why I Stopped Hating Elvis Presley |date=August 20, 2012 |newspaper=Creative Loafing |url=https://creativeloafing.com/content-153575-why-i-stopped-hating-elvis-presley |access-date=January 20, 2018 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160704192651/http://clatl.com/cribnotes/archives/2012/08/20/why-i-stopped-hating-elvis-presley |archive-date=July 4, 2016}}
* {{cite book |last=Williamson |first=Joel |year=2015 |title=Elvis Presley: A Southern Life |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-986317-4}}
* {{cite book |last=Wilson |first=Bee |year=2010 |title=Sandwich: A Global History |publisher=Reaktion |isbn=978-1-86189-771-8}}
* {{cite book |last=Wolfe |first=Charles |year=1994 |title=Amazing Grace: His Greatest Sacred Performances |publisher=CD Booklet RCA/BMG. UPC 7863664212}}
* {{cite web |last1=Woolley |first1=John T. |last2=Peters |first2=Gerhard |title=Jimmy Carter: Death of Elvis Presley Statement by the President |date=August 17, 1977 |website=American Presidency Project |publisher=University of California, Santa Barbara |url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/243942 |access-date=May 15, 2021 |archive-date=March 21, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240321182640/https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/statement-the-president-the-death-elvis-presley |url-status=live}}
{{refend}}

== Further reading ==
{{refbegin|30em}}
* Allen, Lew (2007). ''Elvis and the Birth of Rock''. Genesis. {{ISBN|978-1-905662-00-5}}.
* {{cite news |last=Bennet |first=Mark |url=http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20170815/news/308159978 |title=Elvis impersonator reviews his career highlights, wardrobe |date=August 15, 2017 |newspaper=] |access-date=February 2, 2018 |ref=none |archive-date=May 4, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180504232317/http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20170815/news/308159978 |url-status=live}}
* {{cite magazine |magazine=Billboard |year=2018 |title=Elvis Presley: Chart History&nbsp;– Classical Albums |url=https://www.billboard.com/artist/elvis-presley/chart-history/coa/ |access-date=January 9, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180507043025/https://www.billboard.com/music/elvis-presley/chart-history/classical-albums |archive-date=May 7, 2018 |url-status=deviated |url-access=subscription |ref=none}}
* {{cite magazine |last=Bloom |first=Nate |year=2010 |title=The Jews Who Wrote Christmas Songs |url=https://18doors.org/the_jews_who_wrote_christmas_songs_2012/ |access-date=February 6, 2011 |magazine=] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111109001825/http://www.interfaithfamily.com/arts_and_entertainment/popular_culture/The_Jews_Who_Wrote_Christmas_Songs_2010.shtml |archive-date=November 9, 2011 |ref=none}}
* Cantor, Louis (2005). ''Dewey and Elvis: The Life and Times of a Rock 'n' Roll Deejay''. University of Illinois Press. {{ISBN|978-0-252-02981-3}}.
* Dickerson, James L. (2001). ''Colonel Tom Parker: The Curious Life of Elvis Presley's Eccentric Manager''. Cooper Square Press. {{ISBN|978-0-8154-1267-0}}.
* {{Cite book |first1=Kimberly |last1=Gatto |first2=Victoria |last2=Racimo |title=All the King's Horses: the Equestrian Life of Elvis Presley. |year=2017 |publisher=Regnery History |isbn=978-1-62157-603-7 |ref=none}}
* ] (1981). ''Elvis.'' McGraw-Hill. {{ISBN|978-0-07-023657-8}}.
* Goldman, Albert (1990). ''Elvis: The Last 24 Hours.'' St. Martin's. {{ISBN|978-0-312-92541-3}}.
* Klein, George (2010). ''Elvis: My Best Man: Radio Days, Rock 'n' Roll Nights, and My Lifelong Friendship with Elvis Presley''. Virgin Books. {{ISBN|978-0-307-45274-0}}
* Marcus, Greil (1991). ''Dead Elvis: A Chronicle of a Cultural Obsession''. Doubleday. {{ISBN|978-0-385-41718-1}}.
* Marcus, Greil (2000). ''Double Trouble: Bill Clinton and Elvis Presley in a Land of No Alternative''. Picador. {{ISBN|978-0-571-20676-6}}.
* {{cite web |last=Mawer |first=Sharon |date=2007a |title=Album Chart History{{snd}}1974 |publisher=Official Charts Company |url=http://www.theofficialcharts.com/album_chart_history_1974.php |access-date=February 1, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071217123646/http://www.theofficialcharts.com/album_chart_history_1974.php |archive-date=December 17, 2007 |ref=none }}
* {{cite web |last=Mawer |first=Sharon |date=2007b |title=Album Chart History{{snd}}1977 |publisher=Official Charts Company |url=http://www.theofficialcharts.com/album_chart_history_1977.php |access-date=February 1, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080415042918/http://www.theofficialcharts.com/album_chart_history_1977.php |archive-date=April 15, 2008 |ref=none }}
* Nash, Alanna (2010). ''Baby, Let's Play House: Elvis Presley and the Women Who Loved Him''. It Books. {{ISBN|978-0-06-169984-9}}.
* Roy, Samuel (1985). ''Elvis: Prophet of Power''. Branden, {{ISBN|978-0-8283-1898-3}}.
* {{cite news |agency=Voice of America |date=October 27, 2009 |title=Southern Genealogy Yields Surprises |url=http://www.voanews.com/content/a-13-2007-07-25-voa66-66720472/560593.html |access-date=January 19, 2018 |ref=none |archive-date=April 19, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160419205537/http://www.voanews.com/content/a-13-2007-07-25-voa66-66720472/560593.html |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last=Wertheimer |first=Neil |title=Total Health for Men |publisher=Rodale Press |year=1997 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Whitburn |first=Joel |year=2007 |title=Joel Whitburn Presents the Billboard Albums |edition=6th |publisher=Record Research |isbn=978-0-89820-166-6 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Whitburn |first=Joel |year=2008 |title=Joel Whitburn Presents Hot Country Albums: Billboard 1964 to 2007 |publisher=Record Research |isbn=978-0-89820-173-4 |ref=none}}
* Red West, Sonny West, and Dave Hebler as told to ] (1977). '']'' Bantam Books. {{ISBN|978-0-345-27215-7}}.
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
{{Wikiquote}}
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{{colbegin}}
* at ]
* {{IMDb name|id=0000062|name=Elvis Presley}}
* {{TCMDb name}}
* official record label site
* on officially sanctioned Elvis Australia site
* episode of 1968 ''Pop Chronicles'' radio series
{{colend}}


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Latest revision as of 20:32, 22 December 2024

American singer and actor (1935–1977) For other uses, see Elvis Presley (disambiguation). "Elvis" and "King of Rock and Roll" redirect here. For other uses, see Elvis (disambiguation) and King of Rock and Roll (disambiguation).

Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley in Jailhouse Rock (1957)A publicity photograph for the 1957 film Jailhouse Rock
BornElvis Aaron Presley
(1935-01-08)January 8, 1935
Tupelo, Mississippi, U.S.
DiedAugust 16, 1977(1977-08-16) (aged 42)
Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.
Resting placeGraceland, Memphis
35°2′46″N 90°1′23″W / 35.04611°N 90.02306°W / 35.04611; -90.02306
Other namesKing of Rock and Roll
Occupations
  • Singer
  • actor
Works
Spouse Priscilla Beaulieu ​ ​(m. 1967; div. 1973)
ChildrenLisa Marie Presley
RelativesRiley Keough (granddaughter)
Brandon Presley (second cousin)
Harold Ray Presley (first cousin once removed)
AwardsFull list
Musical career
Genres
Instruments
  • Vocals
  • guitar
  • piano
Years active1953–1977
Labels
Musical artist
Military service
AllegianceUnited States
BranchUnited States Army
Years of service1958–1960
RankSergeant
UnitHeadquarters Company, 1st Medium Tank Battalion, 32d Armor, 3d Armored Division
AwardsGood Conduct Medal
Signature

Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), known mononymously as Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Known as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Presley's energized performances and interpretations of songs, and sexually provocative performance style, combined with a singularly potent mix of influences across color lines during a transformative era in race relations, brought both great success and initial controversy.

Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi; his family relocated to Memphis, Tennessee, when he was 13. His music career began there in 1954, at Sun Records with producer Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African-American music to a wider audience. Presley, on guitar and accompanied by lead guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, was a pioneer of rockabilly, an uptempo, backbeat-driven fusion of country music and rhythm and blues. In 1955, drummer D. J. Fontana joined to complete the lineup of Presley's classic quartet and RCA Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel Tom Parker, who managed him for the rest of his career. Presley's first RCA Victor single, "Heartbreak Hotel", was released in January 1956 and became a number-one hit in the US. Within a year, RCA Victor would sell ten million Presley singles. With a series of successful television appearances and chart-topping records, Presley became the leading figure of the newly popular rock and roll; though his performative style and promotion of the then-marginalized sound of African Americans led to him being widely considered a threat to the moral well-being of white American youth.

In November 1956, Presley made his film debut in Love Me Tender. Drafted into military service in 1958, he relaunched his recording career two years later with some of his most commercially successful work. Presley held few concerts, however, and guided by Parker, proceeded to devote much of the 1960s to making Hollywood films and soundtrack albums, most of them critically derided. Some of Presley's most famous films included Jailhouse Rock (1957), Blue Hawaii (1961), and Viva Las Vegas (1964). In 1968, he returned to the stage in the acclaimed NBC television comeback special Elvis, which led to an extended Las Vegas concert residency and a string of highly profitable tours. In 1973, Presley gave the first concert by a solo artist to be broadcast around the world, Aloha from Hawaii. However, years of prescription drug abuse and unhealthy eating severely compromised his health, and Presley died unexpectedly in August 1977 at his Graceland estate at the age of 42.

Presley is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with sale estimates ranging from 500 million records to over a billion worldwide. He was commercially successful in many genres, including pop, country, rock and roll, rockabilly, rhythm and blues, adult contemporary, and gospel. He won three Grammy Awards, received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at age 36, and has been inducted into multiple music halls of fame. He holds several records, including the most RIAA-certified gold and platinum albums, the most albums charted on the Billboard 200, the most number-one albums by a solo artist on the UK Albums Chart, and the most number-one singles by any act on the UK Singles Chart. In 2018, Presley was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Life and career

1935–1953: early years

Main article: Early life of Elvis Presley
Present-day photograph of a whitewashed house, about 15 feet wide. Four banistered steps in the foreground lead up to a roofed porch that holds a swing wide enough for two. The front of the house has a door and a single-paned window. The visible side of the house, about 30 feet long, has double-paned windows.
Presley's birthplace in Tupelo, Mississippi

Elvis Aaron Presley was born on January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi, to Gladys Love (née Smith) and Vernon Presley. Elvis' twin Jesse Garon was delivered 35 minutes before, stillborn. Presley became close to both parents, especially his mother. The family attended an Assembly of God church, where he found his initial musical inspiration. Vernon moved from one odd job to the next, and the family often relied on neighbors and government food assistance. In 1938, they lost their home after Vernon was found guilty of altering a check and was jailed for eight months.

In September 1941, Presley entered first grade at East Tupelo Consolidated, where his teachers regarded him as "average". His first public performance was a singing contest at the Mississippi–Alabama Fair and Dairy Show on October 3, 1945, when he was 10; he sang "Old Shep" and recalled placing fifth. A few months later, Presley received his first guitar for his birthday; he received guitar lessons from two uncles and a pastor at the family's church. Presley recalled, "I took the guitar, and I watched people, and I learned to play a little bit. But I would never sing in public. I was very shy about it."

In September 1946, Presley entered a new school, Milam, for sixth grade. The following year, he began singing and playing his guitar at school. He was often teased as a "trashy" kid who played hillbilly music. Presley was a devotee of Mississippi Slim's radio show. He was described as "crazy about music" by Slim's younger brother, one of Presley's classmates. Slim showed Presley chord techniques. When his protégé was 12, Slim scheduled him for two on-air performances. Presley was overcome by stage fright the first time but performed the following week.

In November 1948, the family moved to Memphis, Tennessee. Enrolled at L. C. Humes High School, Presley received a C in music in eighth grade. When his music teacher said he had no aptitude for singing, he brought in his guitar and sang a recent hit, "Keep Them Cold Icy Fingers Off Me". He was usually too shy to perform openly and was occasionally bullied by classmates for being a "mama's boy". In 1950, Presley began practicing guitar under the tutelage of Lee Denson, a neighbor. They and three other boys, including two future rockabilly pioneers, brothers Dorsey and Johnny Burnette—formed a loose musical collective.

During his junior year, Presley began to stand out among his classmates, largely because of his appearance: he grew his sideburns and styled his hair. He would head down to Beale Street, the heart of Memphis' thriving blues scene, and admire the wild, flashy clothes at Lansky Brothers. By his senior year, he was wearing those clothes. He competed in Humes' Annual "Minstrel" Show in 1953, singing and playing "Till I Waltz Again with You", a recent hit for Teresa Brewer. Presley recalled that the performance did much for his reputation:

I wasn't popular in school ... I failed music—only thing I ever failed. And then they entered me in this talent show ... when I came onstage, I heard people kind of rumbling and whispering and so forth, 'cause nobody knew I even sang. It was amazing how popular I became in school after that.

Presley, who could not read music, played by ear and frequented record stores that provided jukeboxes and listening booths. He knew all of Hank Snow's songs, and he loved records by other country singers such as Roy Acuff, Ernest Tubb, Ted Daffan, Jimmie Rodgers, Jimmie Davis, and Bob Wills. The Southern gospel singer Jake Hess, one of his favorite performers, was a significant influence on his ballad-singing style. Presley was a regular audience member at the monthly All-Night Singings downtown, where many of the white gospel groups that performed reflected the influence of African American spirituals. Presley listened to regional radio stations, such as WDIA, that played what were then called "race records": spirituals, blues, and the modern, backbeat-heavy rhythm and blues. Like some of his peers, he may have attended blues venues only on nights designated for exclusively white audiences. Many of his future recordings were inspired by local African-American musicians such as Arthur Crudup and Rufus Thomas. B.B. King recalled that he had known Presley before he was popular when they both used to frequent Beale Street. By the time he graduated high school in June 1953, Presley had singled out music as his future.

1953–1956: first recordings

Sam Phillips and Sun Records

See also: List of songs recorded by Elvis Presley on the Sun label
Elvis in a tuxedo
Presley in a Sun Records promotional photograph, 1954

In August 1953, Presley checked into Memphis Recording Service, the company run by Sam Phillips before he started Sun Records. He aimed to pay for studio time to record a two-sided acetate disc: "My Happiness" and "That's When Your Heartaches Begin". He later claimed that he intended the record as a birthday gift for his mother, or that he was merely interested in what he "sounded like". Biographer Peter Guralnick argued that Presley chose Sun in the hope of being discovered. In January 1954, Presley cut a second acetate at Sun—"I'll Never Stand in Your Way" and "It Wouldn't Be the Same Without You"—but again nothing came of it. Not long after, he failed an audition for a local vocal quartet, the Songfellows, and another for the band of Eddie Bond.

"That's All Right" Presley transformed not only the sound but the emotion of the song, turning what had been written as a "lament for a lost love into a satisfied declaration of independence."
Problems playing this file? See media help.

Phillips, meanwhile, was always on the lookout for someone who could bring to a broader audience the sound of the black musicians on whom Sun focused. In June, he acquired a demo recording by Jimmy Sweeney of a ballad, "Without You", that he thought might suit Presley. The teenaged singer came by the studio but was unable to do it justice. Despite this, Phillips asked Presley to sing other numbers and was sufficiently affected by what he heard to invite two local musicians, guitarist Winfield "Scotty" Moore and upright bass player Bill Black, to work with Presley for a recording session. The session, held the evening of July 5, proved entirely unfruitful until late in the night. As they were about to abort and go home, Presley launched into a 1946 blues number, Arthur Crudup's "That's All Right". Moore recalled, "All of a sudden, Elvis just started singing this song, jumping around and acting the fool, and then Bill picked up his bass, and he started acting the fool, too, and I started playing with them." Phillips quickly began taping; this was the sound he had been looking for. Three days later, popular Memphis disc jockey Dewey Phillips (no relation to Sam Phillips) played "That's All Right" on his Red, Hot, and Blue show. Listener interest was such that Phillips played the record repeatedly during the remaining two hours of his show. Interviewing Presley on-air, Phillips asked him what high school he attended to clarify his color for the many callers who had assumed that he was black. During the next few days, the trio recorded a bluegrass song, Bill Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky", again in a distinctive style and employing a jury-rigged echo effect that Sam Phillips dubbed "slapback". A single was pressed with "That's All Right" on the A-side and "Blue Moon of Kentucky" on the reverse.

Early live performances and RCA Victor contract

The trio played publicly for the first time at the Bon Air club on July 17, 1954. Later that month, they appeared at the Overton Park Shell, with Slim Whitman headlining. Here Elvis pioneered "Rubber Legs", his signature dance movement. A combination of his strong response to rhythm and nervousness led Presley to shake his legs as he performed: His wide-cut pants emphasized his movements, causing young women in the audience to start screaming. Moore recalled, "During the instrumental parts, he would back off from the mic and be playing and shaking, and the crowd would just go wild."

Soon after, Moore and Black left their old band to play with Presley regularly, and disc jockey/promoter Bob Neal became the trio's manager. From August through October, they played frequently at the Eagle's Nest club, a dance venue in Memphis. When Presley played, teenagers rushed from the pool to fill the club, then left again as the house western swing band resumed. Presley quickly grew more confident on stage. According to Moore, "His movement was a natural thing, but he was also very conscious of what got a reaction. He'd do something one time and then he would expand on it real quick." Amid these live performances, Presley returned to Sun studio for more recording sessions. Presley made what would be his only appearance on Nashville's Grand Ole Opry on October 2; Opry manager Jim Denny told Phillips that his singer was "not bad" but did not suit the program.

Louisiana Hayride, radio commercial, and first television performances

In November 1954, Presley performed on Louisiana Hayride—the Opry's chief, and more adventurous, rival. The show was broadcast to 198 radio stations in 28 states. His nervous first set drew a muted reaction. A more composed and energetic second set inspired an enthusiastic response. Soon after the show, the Hayride engaged Presley for a year's worth of Saturday-night appearances. Trading in his old guitar for $8, he purchased a Martin instrument for $175 (equivalent to $2,000 in 2023) and his trio began playing in new locales, including Houston, Texas, and Texarkana, Arkansas. Presley made his first television appearance on the KSLA-TV broadcast of Louisiana Hayride. Soon after, he failed an audition for Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts on the CBS television network. By early 1955, Presley's regular Hayride appearances, constant touring, and well-received record releases had made him a regional star.

Presley performing with Scotty Moore and Bill Black in 1956

In January, Neal signed a formal management contract with Presley and brought him to the attention of Colonel Tom Parker, whom he considered the best promoter in the music business. Having successfully managed the top country star Eddy Arnold, Parker was working with the new number-one country singer, Hank Snow. Parker booked Presley on Snow's February tour.

By August, Sun had released ten sides credited to "Elvis Presley, Scotty and Bill"; the latest recordings included a drummer. Some of the songs, like "That's All Right", were in what one Memphis journalist described as the "R&B idiom of negro field jazz"; others, like "Blue Moon of Kentucky", were "more in the country field", "but there was a curious blending of the two different musics in both". This blend of styles made it difficult for Presley's music to find radio airplay. According to Neal, many country-music disc jockeys would not play it because Presley sounded too much like a black artist and none of the R&B stations would touch him because "he sounded too much like a hillbilly." The blend came to be known as "rockabilly". At the time, Presley was billed as "The King of Western Bop", "The Hillbilly Cat", and "The Memphis Flash".

Presley renewed Neal's management contract in August 1955, simultaneously appointing Parker as his special adviser. The group maintained an extensive touring schedule. Neal recalled, "It was almost frightening, the reaction that came to Elvis from the teenaged boys. So many of them, through some sort of jealousy, would practically hate him. There were occasions in some towns in Texas when we'd have to be sure to have a police guard because somebody'd always try to take a crack at him." The trio became a quartet when Hayride drummer Fontana joined as a full member. In mid-October, they played a few shows in support of Bill Haley, whose "Rock Around the Clock" track had been a number-one hit the previous year. Haley observed that Presley had a natural feel for rhythm, and advised him to sing fewer ballads.

At the Country Disc Jockey Convention in early November, Presley was voted the year's most promising male artist. After three major labels made offers of up to $25,000, Parker and Phillips struck a deal with RCA Victor on November 21 to acquire Presley's Sun contract for an unprecedented $40,000. Presley, aged 20, was legally still a minor, so his father signed the contract. Parker arranged with the owners of Hill & Range Publishing, Jean and Julian Aberbach, to create two entities, Elvis Presley Music and Gladys Music, to handle all the new material recorded by Presley. Songwriters were obliged to forgo one-third of their customary royalties in exchange for having Presley perform their compositions. By December, RCA had begun to heavily promote its new singer, and before month's end had reissued many of his Sun recordings.

1956–1958: commercial breakout and controversy

First national TV appearances and debut album

Billboard magazine advertisement, March 10, 1956

On January 10, 1956, Presley made his first recordings for RCA Victor in Nashville. Extending his by-now customary backup of Moore, Black, Fontana, and Hayride pianist Floyd Cramer—who had been performing at live club dates with Presley—RCA Victor enlisted guitarist Chet Atkins and three background singers, including Gordon Stoker of the popular Jordanaires quartet. The session produced the moody "Heartbreak Hotel", released as a single on January 27. Parker brought Presley to national television, booking him on CBS's Stage Show for six appearances over two months. The program, produced in New York City, was hosted on alternate weeks by big band leaders and brothers Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey. After his first appearance on January 28, Presley stayed in town to record at RCA Victor's New York studio. The sessions yielded eight songs, including a cover of Carl Perkins' rockabilly anthem "Blue Suede Shoes". In February, Presley's "I Forgot to Remember to Forget", a Sun recording released the previous August, reached the top of the Billboard country chart. Neal's contract was terminated and Parker became Presley's manager.

RCA Victor released Presley's self-titled debut album on March 23. Joined by five previously unreleased Sun recordings, its seven recently recorded tracks included two country songs, a bouncy pop tune, and what would centrally define the evolving sound of rock and roll: "Blue Suede Shoes"—"an improvement over Perkins' in almost every way", according to critic Robert Hilburn—and three R&B numbers that had been part of Presley's stage repertoire, covers of Little Richard, Ray Charles, and The Drifters. As described by Hilburn, these

were the most revealing of all. Unlike many white artists ... who watered down the gritty edges of the original R&B versions of songs in the '50s, Presley reshaped them. He not only injected the tunes with his own vocal character but also made guitar, not piano, the lead instrument in all three cases.

It became the first rock and roll album to top the Billboard chart, a position it held for ten weeks. While Presley was not an innovative guitarist like Moore or contemporary African American rockers Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry, cultural historian Gilbert B. Rodman argued that the album's cover image, "of Elvis having the time of his life on stage with a guitar in his hands played a crucial role in positioning the guitar ... as the instrument that best captured the style and spirit of this new music."

Milton Berle Show and "Hound Dog"

Presley signing autographs in Minneapolis in 1956

On April 3, Presley made the first of two appearances on NBC's The Milton Berle Show. His performance, on the deck of the USS Hancock in San Diego, California, prompted cheers and screams from an audience of sailors and their dates. A few days later, Presley and his band were flying to Nashville, Tennessee for a recording session when an engine died and the plane almost went down over Arkansas. Twelve weeks after its original release, "Heartbreak Hotel" became Presley's first number-one pop hit. In late April, Presley began a two-week residency at the New Frontier Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. The shows were poorly received by the conservative, middle-aged hotel guests, "like a jug of corn liquor at a champagne party", a Newsweek critic wrote. Amid his Vegas tenure, Presley, who had acting ambitions, signed a seven-year contract with Paramount Pictures. He began a tour of the Midwest in mid-May, covering fifteen cities in as many days. He had attended several shows by Freddie Bell and the Bellboys in Vegas and was struck by their cover of "Hound Dog", a hit in 1953 for blues singer Big Mama Thornton by songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. It became his new closing number.

After a show in La Crosse, Wisconsin, an urgent message on the letterhead of the local Catholic diocese's newspaper was sent to FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. It warned that

Presley is a definite danger to the security of the United States. ... actions and motions were such as to rouse the sexual passions of teenaged youth. ... After the show, more than 1,000 teenagers tried to gang into Presley's room at the auditorium. ... Indications of the harm Presley did just in La Crosse were the two high school girls ... whose abdomen and thigh had Presley's autograph.

Presley's second Milton Berle Show appearance came on June 5 at NBC's Hollywood studio, amid another hectic tour. Milton Berle persuaded Presley to leave his guitar backstage. During the performance, Presley abruptly halted an up-tempo rendition of "Hound Dog" and launched into a slow, grinding version accentuated with exaggerated body movements. His gyrations created a storm of controversy. Jack Gould of The New York Times wrote,

Mr. Presley has no discernible singing ability. ... His phrasing, if it can be called that, consists of the stereotyped variations that go with a beginner's aria in a bathtub. ... His one specialty is an accented movement of the body ... primarily identified with the repertoire of the blond bombshells of the burlesque runway.

Ben Gross of the New York Daily News opined that popular music "has reached its lowest depths in the 'grunt and groin' antics of one Elvis Presley. ... Elvis, who rotates his pelvis ... gave an exhibition that was suggestive and vulgar, tinged with the kind of animalism that should be confined to dives and bordellos". Ed Sullivan, whose variety show was the nation's most popular, declared Presley "unfit for family viewing". To Presley's displeasure, he soon found himself being referred to as "Elvis the Pelvis", which he called "childish".

Steve Allen Show and first Sullivan appearance

Photo of Elvis and Ed Sullivan
Ed Sullivan and Presley during rehearsals for his second appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, October 26, 1956

The Berle shows drew such high ratings that Presley was booked for a July 1 appearance on NBC's The Steve Allen Show in New York. Allen, no fan of rock and roll, introduced a "new Elvis" in a white bowtie and black tails. Presley sang "Hound Dog" for less than a minute to a basset hound wearing a top hat and bowtie. As described by television historian Jake Austen, "Allen thought Presley was talentless and absurd ... set things up so that Presley would show his contrition". Allen later wrote that he found Presley's "strange, gangly, country-boy charisma, his hard-to-define cuteness, and his charming eccentricity intriguing" and worked him into the "comedy fabric" of his program. Just before the final rehearsal for the show, Presley told a reporter, "I don't want to do anything to make people dislike me. I think TV is important so I'm going to go along, but I won't be able to give the kind of show I do in a personal appearance." Presley would refer back to the Allen show as the most ridiculous performance of his career. Later that night, he appeared on Hy Gardner Calling, a popular local television show. Pressed on whether he had learned anything from the criticism of him, Presley responded, "No, I haven't... I don't see how any type of music would have any bad influence on people when it's only music. ... how would rock 'n' roll music make anyone rebel against their parents?"

The next day, Presley recorded "Hound Dog", "Any Way You Want Me" and "Don't Be Cruel". The Jordanaires sang harmony, as they had on The Steve Allen Show; they would work with Presley through the 1960s. A few days later, Presley made an outdoor concert appearance in Memphis, at which he announced, "You know, those people in New York are not gonna change me none. I'm gonna show you what the real Elvis is like tonight." In August, a judge in Jacksonville, Florida, ordered Presley to tame his act. Throughout the following performance, he largely kept still, except for wiggling his little finger suggestively in mockery of the order. The single pairing "Don't Be Cruel" with "Hound Dog" ruled the top of the charts for eleven weeks—a mark that would not be surpassed for thirty-six years. Recording sessions for Presley's second album took place in Hollywood in early September. Leiber and Stoller, the writers of "Hound Dog", contributed "Love Me".

Allen's show with Presley had, for the first time, beaten The Ed Sullivan Show in the ratings. Sullivan booked Presley for three appearances for an unprecedented $50,000. The first, on September 9, 1956, was seen by approximately 60 million viewers—a record 82.6 percent of the television audience. Actor Charles Laughton hosted the show, filling in while Sullivan was recovering from a car accident. According to legend, Presley was shot only from the waist up. Watching clips of the Allen and Berle shows, Sullivan had opined that Presley "got some kind of device hanging down below the crotch of his pants—so when he moves his legs back and forth you can see the outline of his cock. ... I think it's a Coke bottle. ... We just can't have this on a Sunday night. This is a family show!" Sullivan publicly told TV Guide, "As for his gyrations, the whole thing can be controlled with camera shots." In fact, Presley was shown head-to-toe. Though the camerawork was relatively discreet during his debut, with leg-concealing closeups when he danced, the studio audience reacted with screams. Presley's performance of his forthcoming single, the ballad "Love Me Tender", prompted a record-shattering million advance orders. More than any other single event, it was this first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show that made Presley a national celebrity.

Accompanying Presley's rise to fame, a cultural shift was taking place that he both helped inspire and came to symbolize. The historian Marty Jezer wrote that Presley began the "biggest pop craze" since Glenn Miller and Frank Sinatra and brought rock and roll to mainstream culture:

As Presley set the artistic pace, other artists followed. ... Presley, more than anyone else, gave the young a belief in themselves as a distinct and somehow unified generation—the first in America ever to feel the power of an integrated youth culture.

Crazed crowds and film debut

Elvis performing on stage
Presley performing live at the Mississippi-Alabama Fairgrounds in Tupelo, September 26, 1956

The audience response at Presley's live shows became increasingly fevered. Moore recalled, "He'd start out, 'You ain't nothin' but a Hound Dog,' and they'd just go to pieces. They'd always react the same way. There'd be a riot every time." At the two concerts he performed in September at the Mississippi–Alabama Fair and Dairy Show, fifty National Guardsmen were added to the police detail to prevent a ruckus. Elvis, Presley's second RCA Victor album, was released in October and quickly rose to number one. The album includes "Old Shep", which he sang at the talent show in 1945, and which now marked the first time he played piano on an RCA Victor session. According to Guralnick, "the halting chords and the somewhat stumbling rhythm" showed "the unmistakable emotion and the equally unmistakable valuing of emotion over technique." Assessing the musical and cultural impact of Presley's recordings from "That's All Right" through Elvis, rock critic Dave Marsh wrote that "these records, more than any others, contain the seeds of what rock & roll was, has been and most likely what it may foreseeably become."

"We're gonna do a sad song ..." Presley's definition of rock and roll included a sense of humor—here, during his second Sullivan appearance, he introduces one of his signature numbers.
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Presley returned to The Ed Sullivan Show, hosted this time by its namesake, on October 28. After the performance, crowds in Nashville and St. Louis burned him in effigy. His first motion picture, Love Me Tender, was released on November 21. Though he was not top-billed, the film's original title—The Reno Brothers—was changed to capitalize on his latest number-one record: "Love Me Tender" had hit the top of the charts earlier that month. To further take advantage of Presley's popularity, four musical numbers were added to what was originally a straight acting role. The film was panned by critics but did very well at the box office. Presley would receive top billing on every subsequent film he made.

On December 4, Presley dropped into Sun Records, where Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis were recording, and had an impromptu jam session along with Johnny Cash. Though Phillips no longer had the right to release any Presley material, he made sure that the session was captured on tape. The results, none officially released for twenty-five years, became known as the "Million Dollar Quartet" recordings. The year ended with a front-page story in The Wall Street Journal reporting that Presley merchandise had brought in $22 million on top of his record sales, and Billboard's declaration that he had placed more songs in the top 100 than any other artist since records were first charted. In his first full year at RCA Victor, then the record industry's largest company, Presley had accounted for over fifty percent of the label's singles sales.

Leiber and Stoller collaboration and draft notice

Presley made his third and final Ed Sullivan Show appearance on January 6, 1957—on this occasion indeed shot only down to the waist. Some commentators have claimed that Parker orchestrated an appearance of censorship to generate publicity. In any event, as critic Greil Marcus describes, Presley "did not tie himself down. Leaving behind the bland clothes he had worn on the first two shows, he stepped out in the outlandish costume of a pasha, if not a harem girl. From the make-up over his eyes, the hair falling in his face, the overwhelmingly sexual cast of his mouth, he was playing Rudolph Valentino in The Sheik, with all stops out." To close, displaying his range and defying Sullivan's wishes, Presley sang a gentle black spiritual, "Peace in the Valley". At the end of the show, Sullivan declared Presley "a real decent, fine boy". Two days later, the Memphis draft board announced that Presley would be classified 1-A and would probably be drafted sometime that year.

Each of the three Presley singles released in the first half of 1957 went to number one: "Too Much", "All Shook Up", and "(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear". Already an international star, he was attracting fans even where his music was not officially released: The New York Times reported that pressings of his music on discarded X-ray plates were commanding high prices in Leningrad. Presley purchased his 18-room mansion, Graceland, on March 19, 1957. Before the purchase, Elvis recorded Loving You—the soundtrack to his second film, which was released in July. It was his third straight number-one album. The title track was written by Leiber and Stoller, who were then retained to write four of the six songs recorded at the sessions for Jailhouse Rock, Presley's next film. The songwriting team effectively produced the Jailhouse sessions and developed a close working relationship with Presley, who came to regard them as his "good-luck charm". "He was fast," said Leiber. "Any demo you gave him he knew by heart in ten minutes." The title track became another number-one hit, as was the Jailhouse Rock EP.

Elvis embraces Judy Tyler
Presley and costar Judy Tyler in the trailer for Jailhouse Rock, released in October 1957

Presley undertook three brief tours during the year, continuing to generate a crazed audience response. A Detroit newspaper suggested that "the trouble with going to see Elvis Presley is that you're liable to get killed". Villanova students pelted the singer with eggs in Philadelphia, and in Vancouver the crowd rioted after the show ended, destroying the stage. Frank Sinatra, who had inspired the swooning and screaming of teenage girls in the 1940s, decried rock and roll as "brutal, ugly, degenerate, vicious. ... It fosters almost totally negative and destructive reactions in young people. It smells phoney and false. It is sung, played and written, for the most part, by cretinous goons. ... This rancid-smelling aphrodisiac I deplore." Asked for a response, Presley said:

I admire the man. He has a right to say what he wants to say. He is a great success and a fine actor, but I think he shouldn't have said it. ... This is a trend, just the same as he faced when he started years ago.

Leiber and Stoller were again in the studio for the recording of Elvis' Christmas Album. Toward the end of the session, they wrote a song on the spot at Presley's request: "Santa Claus Is Back in Town", an innuendo-laden blues. The holiday release stretched Presley's string of number-one albums to four and would become the best-selling Christmas album ever in the United States, with eventual sales of over 20 million worldwide. After the session, Moore and Black—drawing only modest weekly salaries, sharing in none of Presley's massive financial success—resigned, though they were brought back on a per diem basis a few weeks later.

On December 20, Presley received his draft notice, though he was granted a deferment to finish the forthcoming film King Creole. A couple of weeks into the new year, "Don't", another Leiber and Stoller tune, became Presley's tenth number-one seller. Recording sessions for the King Creole soundtrack were held in Hollywood in mid-January 1958. Leiber and Stoller provided three songs, but it would be the last time Presley and the duo worked closely together. As Stoller later recalled, Presley's manager and entourage sought to wall him off. A brief soundtrack session on February 11 marked the final occasion on which Black was to perform with Presley.

1958–1960: military service and mother's death

Main article: Military career of Elvis Presley
Elvis being sworn in to the US Army
Presley being sworn in to the Army on March 24, 1958, at Fort Chaffee

On March 24, 1958, Presley was drafted into the United States Army at Fort Chaffee in Arkansas. His arrival was a major media event. Hundreds of people descended on Presley as he stepped from the bus; photographers accompanied him into the installation. Presley announced that he was looking forward to his military service, saying that he did not want to be treated any differently from anyone else.

Between March 28 and September 17, 1958, Presley completed basic and advanced training at Fort Hood, Texas, where he was temporarily assigned to Company A, 2d Medium Tank Battalion, 37th Armor. During the two weeks' leave between his basic and advanced training in early June, he recorded five songs in Nashville. In early August, Presley's mother was diagnosed with hepatitis, and her condition rapidly worsened. Presley was granted emergency leave to visit her and arrived in Memphis on August 12. Two days later, she died of heart failure at age 46. Presley was devastated and never the same; their relationship had remained extremely close—even into his adulthood, they would use baby talk with each other and Presley would address her with pet names.

Elvis Presley poses for the camera during his military service at a US base in Germany.
Presley, wearing the 3d Armored Division Shoulder Sleeve Insignia, poses atop a tank at Ray Barracks

On October 1, 1958, Presley was assigned to the 1st Medium Tank Battalion, 32d Armor, 3d Armored Division, at Ray Barracks, West Germany, where he served as an armor intelligence specialist. On November 27, he was promoted to private first class and on June 1, 1959, to specialist fourth class. While on maneuvers, Presley was introduced to amphetamines and became "practically evangelical about their benefits", not only for energy but for "strength" and weight loss. Karate became a lifelong interest: he studied with Jürgen Seydel, and later included it in his live performances. Fellow soldiers have attested to Presley's wish to be seen as an able, ordinary soldier despite his fame, and to his generosity. He donated his Army pay to charity, purchased television sets for the base, and bought an extra set of fatigues for everyone in his outfit. Presley was promoted to sergeant on February 11, 1960.

While in Bad Nauheim, Presley, aged 24, met 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu. They would marry after a seven-and-a-half-year courtship. In her autobiography, Priscilla said that Presley was concerned that his 24 months in the military would ruin his career. In Special Services, he would have been able to perform and remain in touch with the public, but Parker had convinced him that to gain popular respect, he should serve as a regular soldier. Media reports echoed Presley's concerns about his career, but RCA Victor producer Steve Sholes and Freddy Bienstock of Hill and Range had carefully prepared: armed with a substantial amount of unreleased material, they kept up a regular stream of successful releases. Between his induction and discharge, Presley had ten top-40 hits, including "Wear My Ring Around Your Neck", the bestselling "Hard Headed Woman", and "One Night" in 1958, and "(Now and Then There's) A Fool Such as I" and the number-one "A Big Hunk o' Love" in 1959. RCA Victor also generated four albums compiling previously issued material during this period, most successfully Elvis' Golden Records (1958), which hit number three on the LP chart.

1960–1968: focus on films

See also: Elvis Presley on film and television

Elvis Is Back

"It's Now or Never" Presley broke new stylistic ground and displayed his vocal range with this number-one hit. The quasi-operatic ballad ends with Presley "soaring up to an incredible top G sharp."
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Presley returned to the U.S. on March 2, 1960, and was honorably discharged three days later. The train that carried him from New Jersey to Tennessee was mobbed all the way, and Presley was called upon to appear at scheduled stops to please his fans. On the night of March 20, he entered RCA's Nashville studio to cut tracks for a new album along with a single, "Stuck on You", which was rushed into release and swiftly became a number-one hit. Another Nashville session two weeks later yielded a pair of bestselling singles, the ballads "It's Now or Never" and "Are You Lonesome Tonight?", along with the rest of Elvis Is Back! The album features several songs described by Greil Marcus as full of Chicago blues "menace, driven by Presley's own super-miked acoustic guitar, brilliant playing by Scotty Moore, and demonic sax work from Boots Randolph. Elvis' singing wasn't sexy, it was pornographic." The record "conjured up the vision of a performer who could be all things", according to music historian John Robertson: "a flirtatious teenage idol with a heart of gold; a tempestuous, dangerous lover; a gutbucket blues singer; a sophisticated nightclub entertainer; raucous rocker". Released only days after recording was complete, it reached number two on the album chart.

Presley with Juliet Prowse in G.I. Blues

Presley returned to television on May 12 as a guest on The Frank Sinatra Timex Special. Also known as Welcome Home Elvis, the show had been taped in late March, the only time all year Presley performed in front of an audience. Parker secured an unheard-of $125,000 for eight minutes of singing. The broadcast drew an enormous viewership.

G.I. Blues, the soundtrack to Presley's first film since his return, was a number-one album in October. His first LP of sacred material, His Hand in Mine, followed two months later; it reached number 13 on the U.S. pop chart and number 3 in the United Kingdom, remarkable figures for a gospel album. In February 1961, Presley performed two shows in Memphis, for a benefit for twenty-four local charities. During a luncheon preceding the event, RCA Victor presented him with a plaque certifying worldwide sales of over 75 million records. A twelve-hour Nashville session in mid-March yielded nearly all of Presley's next studio album, Something for Everybody. According to John Robertson, it exemplifies the Nashville sound, the restrained, cosmopolitan style that would define country music in the 1960s. Presaging much of what was to come from Presley over the next half-decade, the album is largely "a pleasant, unthreatening pastiche of the music that had once been Elvis' birthright". It would be his sixth number-one LP. Another benefit concert, for a Pearl Harbor memorial, was staged on March 25 in Hawaii. It was to be Presley's last public performance for seven years.

Lost in Hollywood

Parker had by now pushed Presley into a heavy filmmaking schedule, focused on formulaic, modestly budgeted musical comedies. Presley initially insisted on pursuing higher roles, but when two films in a more dramatic vein—Flaming Star (1960) and Wild in the Country (1961)—were less commercially successful, he reverted to the formula. Among the twenty-seven films he made during the 1960s, there were a few further exceptions. His films were almost universally panned; critic Andrew Caine dismissed them as a "pantheon of bad taste". Nonetheless, they were virtually all profitable. Hal Wallis, who produced nine, declared, "A Presley picture is the only sure thing in Hollywood."

Of Presley's films in the 1960s, fifteen were accompanied by soundtrack albums and another five by soundtrack EPs. The films' rapid production and release schedules—Presley frequently starred in three a year—affected his music. According to Jerry Leiber, the soundtrack formula was already evident before Presley left for the Army: "three ballads, one medium-tempo , one up-tempo, and one break blues boogie". As the decade wore on, the quality of the soundtrack songs grew "progressively worse". Julie Parrish, who appeared in Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966), says that Presley disliked many of the songs. The Jordanaires' Gordon Stoker describes how he would retreat from the studio microphone: "The material was so bad that he felt like he couldn't sing it." Most of the film albums featured a song or two from respected writers such as the team of Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman. But by and large, according to biographer Jerry Hopkins, the numbers seemed to be "written on order by men who never really understood Elvis or rock and roll".

Presley and his wife, Priscilla Presley, holding their newborn daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, in 1968

In the first half of the decade, three of Presley's soundtrack albums were ranked number one on the pop charts, and a few of his most popular songs came from his films, such as "Can't Help Falling in Love" (1961) and "Return to Sender" (1962). However, the commercial returns steadily diminished. From 1964 through 1968, Presley had only one top-ten hit: "Crying in the Chapel" (1965), a gospel number recorded in 1960. As for non-film albums, between the June 1962 release of Pot Luck and the November 1968 release of the soundtrack to the television special that signaled his comeback, only one LP of new material by Presley was issued: the gospel album How Great Thou Art (1967). It won him his first Grammy Award, for Best Sacred Performance. As Marsh described, Presley was "arguably the greatest white gospel singer of his time really the last rock & roll artist to make gospel as vital a component of his musical personality as his secular songs".

Shortly before Christmas 1966, more than seven years since they first met, Presley proposed to Priscilla Beaulieu. They were married on May 1, 1967, in a brief ceremony in their suite at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas. The flow of formulaic films and assembly-line soundtracks continued. It was not until October 1967, when the Clambake soundtrack LP registered record low sales for a new Presley album, that RCA Victor executives recognized a problem. "By then, of course, the damage had been done", as historians Connie Kirchberg and Marc Hendrickx put it. "Elvis was viewed as a joke by serious music lovers and a has-been to all but his most loyal fans."

1968–1973: Comeback

Elvis: the '68 Comeback Special

Main article: Singer Presents...Elvis
Presley, wearing a tight black leather jacket with Napoleonic standing collar, black leather wristbands, and black leather pants, holds a microphone with a long cord. His hair, which looks black as well, falls across his forehead. In front of him is an empty microphone stand. Behind, beginning below stage level and rising up, audience members watch him. A young woman with long black hair in the front row gazes up ecstatically.
The '68 Comeback Special produced "one of the most famous images" of Presley; taken on June 29, 1968, it was adapted for the cover of Rolling Stone in July 1969

Presley's only child, Lisa Marie, was born on February 1, 1968, during a period when he had grown deeply unhappy with his career. Of the eight Presley singles released between January 1967 and May 1968, only two charted in the top 40, none higher than number 28. His forthcoming soundtrack album, Speedway, would rank at number 82. Parker had already shifted his plans to television: he maneuvered a deal with NBC that committed the network to finance a theatrical feature and broadcast a Christmas special.

Recorded in late June in Burbank, California, the special, simply called Elvis, aired on December 3, 1968. Later known as the '68 Comeback Special, the show featured lavishly staged studio productions as well as songs performed with a band in front of a small audience—Presley's first live performances since 1961. The live segments saw Presley dressed in tight black leather, singing and playing guitar in an uninhibited style reminiscent of his early rock and roll days. Director and co-producer Steve Binder worked hard to produce a show that was far from the hour of Christmas songs Parker had originally planned. The show, NBC's highest-rated that season, captured forty-two percent of the total viewing audience. Jon Landau of Eye magazine remarked:

There is something magical about watching a man who has lost himself find his way back home. He sang with the kind of power people no longer expect of rock 'n' roll singers. He moved his body with a lack of pretension and effort that must have made Jim Morrison green with envy.

Marsh calls the performance one of "emotional grandeur and historical resonance".

By January 1969, the single "If I Can Dream", written for the special, reached number 12. The soundtrack album rose into the top ten. According to friend Jerry Schilling, the special reminded Presley of what "he had not been able to do for years, being able to choose the people; being able to choose what songs and not being told what had to be on the soundtrack. ... He was out of prison, man." Binder said of Presley's reaction, "I played Elvis the 60-minute show, and he told me in the screening room, 'Steve, it's the greatest thing I've ever done in my life. I give you my word I will never sing a song I don't believe in.'"

From Elvis in Memphis and the International

"Power of My Love" Beginning with his American Sound recordings, soul music became a central element in Presley's fusion of styles. Here, he revels in lyrics full of sexual innuendos.
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Buoyed by the experience of the Comeback Special, Presley engaged in a prolific series of recording sessions at American Sound Studio, which led to the acclaimed From Elvis in Memphis. Released in June 1969, it was his first secular, non-soundtrack album from a dedicated period in the studio in eight years. As described by Marsh, it is "a masterpiece in which Presley immediately catches up with pop music trends that had seemed to pass him by during the movie years. He sings country songs, soul songs and rockers with real conviction, a stunning achievement." The album featured the hit single "In the Ghetto", issued in April, which reached number three on the pop chart—Presley's first non-gospel top ten hit since "Bossa Nova Baby" in 1963. Further hit singles were culled from the American Sound sessions: "Suspicious Minds", "Don't Cry Daddy", and "Kentucky Rain".

Presley was keen to resume regular live performing. Following the success of the Comeback Special, offers came in from around the world. The London Palladium offered Parker US$28,000 (equivalent to $233,000 in 2023) for a one-week engagement. He responded, "That's fine for me, now how much can you get for Elvis?" In May, the brand-new International Hotel in Las Vegas, boasting the largest showroom in the city, booked Presley for fifty-seven shows over four weeks, beginning July 31. Moore, Fontana, and the Jordanaires declined to participate, afraid of losing the lucrative session work they had in Nashville. Presley assembled new, top-notch accompaniment, led by guitarist James Burton and including two gospel groups, The Imperials and Sweet Inspirations. Costume designer Bill Belew, responsible for the intense leather styling of the Comeback Special, created a new stage look for Presley, inspired by his passion for karate. Nonetheless, Presley was nervous: his only previous Las Vegas engagement, in 1956, had been dismal. Parker oversaw a major promotional push, and International Hotel owner Kirk Kerkorian arranged to send his own plane to New York to fly in rock journalists for the debut performance.

Presley took to the stage without introduction. The audience of 2,200, including many celebrities, gave him a standing ovation before he sang a note and another after his performance. A third followed his encore, "Can't Help Falling in Love" (which would be his closing number for much of his remaining life). At a press conference after the show, when a journalist referred to him as "The King", Presley gestured toward Fats Domino, who was taking in the scene. "No," Presley said, "that's the real king of rock and roll." The next day, Parker's negotiations with the hotel resulted in a five-year contract for Presley to play each February and August, at an annual salary of $1 million. Newsweek commented, "There are several unbelievable things about Elvis, but the most incredible is his staying power in a world where meteoric careers fade like shooting stars." Rolling Stone called Presley "supernatural, his own resurrection." In November, Presley's final non-concert film, Change of Habit, opened. The double album From Memphis to Vegas/From Vegas to Memphis came out the same month; the first LP consisted of live performances from the International, the second of more cuts from the American Sound sessions. "Suspicious Minds" reached the top of the charts—Presley's first U.S. pop number-one in over seven years, and his last.

Cassandra Peterson, later television's Elvira, met Presley during this period in Las Vegas. She recalled of their encounter, "He was so anti-drug when I met him. I mentioned to him that I smoked marijuana, and he was just appalled." Presley also rarely drank—several of his family members had been alcoholics, a fate he intended to avoid.

Back on tour and meeting Nixon

Presley returned to the International early in 1970 for the first of the year's two-month-long engagements, performing two shows a night. Recordings from these shows were issued on the album On Stage. In late February, Presley performed six attendance-record–breaking shows at the Houston Astrodome. In April, the single "The Wonder of You" was issued—a number one hit in the UK, it topped the U.S. adult contemporary chart as well. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) filmed rehearsal and concert footage at the International during August for the documentary Elvis: That's the Way It Is. Presley was performing in a jumpsuit, which would become a trademark of his live act. During this engagement, he was threatened with murder unless US$50,000 (equivalent to $392,000 in 2023) was paid. Presley had been the target of many threats since the 1950s, often without his knowledge. The FBI took the threat seriously and security was increased for the next two shows. Presley went onstage with a Derringer in his right boot and a .45 caliber pistol in his waistband, but the concerts succeeded without any incidents.

That's the Way It Is, produced to accompany the documentary and featuring both studio and live recordings, marked a stylistic shift. As music historian John Robertson noted,

The authority of Presley's singing helped disguise the fact that the album stepped decisively away from the American-roots inspiration of the Memphis sessions towards a more middle-of-the-road sound. With country put on the back burner, and soul and R&B left in Memphis, what was left was very classy, very clean white pop—perfect for the Las Vegas crowd, but a definite retrograde step for Elvis.

After the end of his International engagement on September 7, Presley embarked on a week-long concert tour, largely of the South, his first since 1958. Another week-long tour, of the West Coast, followed in November.

A mutton-chopped Presley, wearing a long velour jacket and a giant buckle like that of a boxing championship belt, shakes hands with a balding man wearing a suit and tie. They are facing camera and smiling. Five flags hang from poles directly behind them.
Presley meets US President Richard Nixon in the White House Oval Office, December 21, 1970

On December 21, 1970, Presley engineered a meeting with U.S. President Richard Nixon at the White House, where he explained how he believed he could reach out to the hippies to help combat the drug culture he and the president abhorred. He asked Nixon for a Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs badge, to signify official sanction of his efforts. Nixon, who apparently found the encounter awkward, expressed a belief that Presley could send a positive message to young people and that it was, therefore, important that he "retain his credibility". Presley told Nixon that the Beatles, whose songs he regularly performed in concert during the era, exemplified what he saw as a trend of anti-Americanism. Presley and his friends previously had a four-hour get-together with the Beatles at his home in Bel Air, California, in August 1965. Paul McCartney later said that he "felt a bit betrayed. ... The great joke was that we were taking drugs, and look what happened to him", a reference to Presley's early death linked to prescription drug abuse.

The U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce named Presley one of its annual Ten Most Outstanding Young Men of the Nation on January 16, 1971. Not long after, the City of Memphis named the stretch of Highway 51 South on which Graceland is located "Elvis Presley Boulevard". The same year, Presley became the first rock and roll singer to be awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (then known as the Bing Crosby Award). Three new, non-film Presley studio albums were released in 1971. Best received by critics was Elvis Country, a concept record that focused on genre standards. The biggest seller was Elvis Sings The Wonderful World of Christmas. According to Greil Marcus,

In the midst of ten painfully genteel Christmas songs, every one sung with appalling sincerity and humility, one could find Elvis tom-catting his way through six blazing minutes of "Merry Christmas Baby", a raunchy old Charles Brown blues.  If sin was his lifelessness, it was his sinfulness that brought him to life.

Marriage breakdown and Aloha from Hawaii

See also: Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite
Presley (center) with friends Bill Porter (left) and Paul Anka (right) backstage at the Las Vegas Hilton on August 5, 1972

MGM filmed Presley in April 1972 for Elvis on Tour, which went on to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Documentary Film for that year's Golden Globe Awards. His gospel album He Touched Me, released that month, would earn him his second Grammy Award for Best Inspirational Performance. A fourteen-date tour commenced with an unprecedented four consecutive sold-out shows at New York's Madison Square Garden. The evening concert on July 10 was issued in LP form a week later. Elvis: As Recorded at Madison Square Garden became one of Presley's biggest-selling albums. After the tour, the single "Burning Love" was released—Presley's last top ten hit on the U.S. pop chart. "The most exciting single Elvis has made since 'All Shook Up'", wrote rock critic Robert Christgau.

Elvis and Priscilla Presley after their divorce was finalized in 1973

Presley and his wife had become increasingly distant, barely cohabiting. In 1971, an affair he had with Joyce Bova resulted—unbeknownst to him—in her pregnancy and an abortion. He often raised the possibility of Joyce moving into Graceland. The Presleys separated on February 23, 1972, after Priscilla disclosed her relationship with Mike Stone, a karate instructor Presley had recommended to her. Priscilla related that when she told him, Presley forcefully made love to her, declaring, "This is how a real man makes love to his woman". She later stated in an interview that she regretted her choice of words in describing the incident, and said it had been an overstatement. Five months later, Presley's new girlfriend, Linda Thompson, a songwriter and one-time Memphis beauty queen, moved in with him. Presley and his wife filed for divorce on August 18. According to Joe Moscheo of the Imperials, the failure of Presley's marriage "was a blow from which he never recovered". At a rare press conference that June, a reporter had asked Presley whether he was satisfied with his image. Presley replied, "Well, the image is one thing and the human being another ... it's very hard to live up to an image."

High-collared white jumpsuit resplendent with red, blue, and gold eagle motif in sequins
Presley came up with his outfit's eagle motif, as "something that would say 'America' to the world"

In January 1973, Presley performed two benefit concerts for the Kui Lee Cancer Fund in connection with a groundbreaking television special, Aloha from Hawaii, which would be the first concert by a solo artist to be aired globally. The first show served as a practice run and backup should technical problems affect the live broadcast two days later. On January 14, Aloha from Hawaii aired live via satellite to prime-time audiences in Japan, South Korea, Thailand, the Philippines, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as to U.S. servicemen based across Southeast Asia. In Japan, where it capped a nationwide Elvis Presley Week, it smashed viewing records. The next night, it was simulcast to twenty-eight European countries, and in April an extended version aired in the U.S., receiving a fifty-seven percent share of the TV audience. Over time, Parker's claim that it was seen by one billion or more people would be broadly accepted, but that figure appeared to have been sheer invention. Presley's stage costume became the most recognized example of the elaborate concert garb with which his latter-day persona became closely associated. As described by Bobbie Ann Mason, "At the end of the show, when he spreads out his American Eagle cape, with the full stretched wings of the eagle studded on the back, he becomes a god figure." The accompanying double album, released in February, went to number one and eventually sold over 5 million copies in the U.S. It was Presley's last U.S. number-one pop album during his lifetime.

At a midnight show that same month, four men rushed onto the stage in an apparent attack. Security personnel came to Presley's defense, and he ejected one invader from the stage himself. Following the show, Presley became obsessed with the idea that the men had been sent by Mike Stone to kill him. Though they were shown to have been only overexuberant fans, Presley raged, "There's too much pain in me ... Stone die." His outbursts continued with such intensity that a physician was unable to calm him, despite administering large doses of medication. After another two full days of raging, Red West, his friend and bodyguard, felt compelled to get a price for a contract killing and was relieved when Presley decided, "Aw hell, let's just leave it for now. Maybe it's a bit heavy."

1973–1977: health deterioration and death

Medical crises and last studio sessions

Presley's divorce was finalized on October 9, 1973. By then, his health was in serious decline. Twice during the year he overdosed on barbiturates, spending three days in a coma in his hotel suite after the first incident. In late 1973, he was hospitalized from the effects of a pethidine addiction. According to his primary care physician, George C. Nichopoulos, Presley "felt that by getting drugs from a doctor, he wasn't the common everyday junkie getting something off the street". Since his comeback, he had staged more live shows with each passing year, and 1973 saw 168 concerts, his busiest schedule ever. Despite his failing health, he undertook another intensive touring schedule in 1974.

Presley's condition declined precipitously that September. Keyboardist Tony Brown remembered his arrival at a University of Maryland concert: "He fell out of the limousine, to his knees. People jumped to help, and he pushed them away like, 'Don't help me.' He walked on stage and held onto the mic for the first thirty minutes like it was a post. Everybody's looking at each other like, 'Is the tour gonna happen'?" Guitarist John Wilkinson recalled:

He was all gut. He was slurring. He was so fucked up. ... It was obvious he was drugged. It was obvious there was something terribly wrong with his body. It was so bad the words to the songs were barely intelligible. ... I remember crying. He could barely get through the introductions.

On July 13, 1976, Vernon Presley—who had become deeply involved in his son's financial affairs—had fired "Memphis Mafia" bodyguards Red West (Presley's friend since the 1950s), Sonny West, and David Hebler, citing the need to "cut back on expenses". Presley was in Palm Springs at the time, and some suggest the singer was too cowardly to face the three himself. Another associate of Presley's, John O'Grady, argued that the bodyguards were dropped because their rough treatment of fans had prompted too many lawsuits. However, Presley's stepbrother David Stanley has claimed that the bodyguards were fired because they were becoming more outspoken about Presley's drug dependency.

RCA began to grow anxious as his interest in the recording studio waned. After a session in December 1973 that produced eighteen songs, enough for almost two albums, Presley made no official studio recordings in 1974. Parker delivered RCA another concert record, Elvis Recorded Live on Stage in Memphis. Recorded on March 20, it included a version of "How Great Thou Art" that won Presley his third and final Grammy Award for Best Inspirational Performance. All three of his competitive Grammy wins – out of fourteen total nominations – were for gospel recordings. Presley returned to the recording studio in March 1975, but Parker's attempts to arrange another session toward the end of the year were unsuccessful. In 1976, RCA sent a mobile recording unit to Graceland that made possible two full-scale recording sessions. However, the recording process had become a struggle for him.

Final months and death

See also: Elvis sightings
"Hurt" An R&B hit for Roy Hamilton in 1955 and a pop hit for blue-eyed soul singer Timi Yuro in 1961, Presley's deep soul version was picked up by country radio in 1976.
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After Presley's relationship with Linda Thompson ended, he began dating Ginger Alden in November 1976; he proposed marriage to Alden two months later.

Journalist Tony Scherman wrote that, by early 1977, "Presley had become a grotesque caricature of his sleek, energetic former self. Grossly overweight, his mind dulled by the pharmacopia he daily ingested, he was barely able to pull himself through his abbreviated concerts." According to Andy Greene of Rolling Stone, Presley's final performances were mostly "sad, sloppy affairs where a bloated, drugged Presley struggled to remember his lyrics and get through the night without collapsing ... Most everything from the final three years of his life is sad and hard to watch." In Alexandria, Louisiana, he was on stage for less than an hour and "was impossible to understand". On March 31, he canceled a performance in Baton Rouge, unable to get out of his hotel bed; four shows had to be canceled and rescheduled.

Despite the accelerating deterioration of his health, Presley fulfilled most of his touring commitments. According to Guralnick, fans "were becoming increasingly voluble about their disappointment, but it all seemed to go right past Presley, whose world was now confined almost entirely to his room and his spiritualism books". Presley's cousin, Billy Smith, recalled how he would sit in his room and chat for hours, sometimes recounting favorite Monty Python sketches and his past escapades, but more often gripped by paranoid obsessions.

"Way Down", Presley's last single issued during his lifetime, was released on June 6, 1977. That month, CBS taped two concerts for a television special, Elvis in Concert, to be broadcast in October. In the first, shot in Omaha on June 19, Presley's voice, Guralnick writes, "is almost unrecognizable, a small, childlike instrument in which he talks more than sings most of the songs, casts about uncertainly for the melody in others, and is virtually unable to articulate or project". Two days later, in Rapid City, South Dakota, "he looked healthier, seemed to have lost a little weight, and sounded better, too", though, by the conclusion of the performance, his face was "framed in a helmet of blue-black hair from which sweat sheets down over pale, swollen cheeks". Presley's final concert was held in Indianapolis at Market Square Arena, on June 26, 1977.

The book Elvis: What Happened?, co-written by the three bodyguards fired a year prior, was published on August 1. It was the first exposé to detail Presley's years of drug misuse. He was devastated by the book and tried unsuccessfully to halt its release by offering money to the publishers. By this point, he suffered from multiple ailments: glaucoma, high blood pressure, liver damage, and an enlarged colon, each magnified—and possibly caused—by drug abuse.

A long, ground-level gravestone reads "Elvis Aaron Presley", followed by the singer's dates, the names of his parents and daughter, and several paragraphs of smaller text. In the background is a small round pool, with a low decorative metal fence and several fountains.
Presley's grave at Graceland

On August 16, 1977, Presley was scheduled on an evening flight out of Memphis to Portland, Maine, to begin another tour. That afternoon, however, his fiancée Ginger Alden discovered him unresponsive on the bathroom floor of his Graceland mansion. Attempts to revive him failed, and he was pronounced dead at Baptist Memorial Hospital at 3:30 p.m.; he was 42.

President Jimmy Carter issued a statement that credited Presley with having "permanently changed the face of American popular culture". Thousands of people gathered outside Graceland to view the open casket. One of Presley's cousins, Billy Mann, accepted US$18,000 (equivalent to $91,000 in 2023) to secretly photograph the body; the picture appeared on the cover of the National Enquirer's biggest-selling issue ever. Alden struck a $105,000 (equivalent to $528,000 in 2023) deal with the Enquirer for her story, but settled for less when she broke her exclusivity agreement. Presley left her nothing in his will.

Presley's funeral was held at Graceland on August 18. Outside the gates, a car ploughed into a group of fans, killing two young women and critically injuring a third. About 80,000 people lined the processional route to Forest Hill Cemetery, where Presley was buried next to his mother. Within a few weeks, "Way Down" topped the country and UK singles chart. Following an attempt to steal Presley's body in late August, the remains of both Presley and his mother were exhumed and reburied in Graceland's Meditation Garden on October 2.

Cause of death

While an autopsy undertaken the same day Presley died was still in progress, Memphis medical examiner Jerry Francisco announced that the immediate cause of death was cardiac arrest and declared that "drugs played no role in Presley's death". In fact, "drug use was heavily implicated" in Presley's death, writes Guralnick. The pathologists conducting the autopsy thought it possible, for instance, that he had suffered "anaphylactic shock brought on by the codeine pills he had gotten from his dentist, to which he was known to have had a mild allergy". Lab reports filed two months later strongly suggested that polypharmacy was the primary cause of death; one reported "fourteen drugs in Elvis' system, ten in significant quantity". In 1979, forensic pathologist Cyril Wecht reviewed the reports and concluded that a combination of depressants had resulted in Presley's accidental death. Forensic historian and pathologist Michael Baden viewed the situation as complicated: "Elvis had an enlarged heart for a long time. That, together with his drug habit, caused his death. But he was difficult to diagnose; it was a judgment call."

The competence and ethics of two of the centrally involved medical professionals were seriously questioned. Francisco had offered a cause of death before the autopsy was complete; claimed the underlying ailment was cardiac arrhythmia, a condition that can be determined only in a living person; and denied drugs played any part in Presley's death before the toxicology results were known. Allegations of a cover-up were widespread. While a 1981 trial of Presley's main physician, George C. Nichopoulos, exonerated him of criminal liability, the facts were startling: "In the first eight months of 1977 alone, he had more than 10,000 doses of sedatives, amphetamines, and narcotics: all in Elvis' name." Nichopoulos' license was suspended for three months. It was permanently revoked in the 1990s after the Tennessee Medical Board brought new charges of over-prescription.

In 1994, the Presley autopsy report was reopened. Joseph Davis, who had conducted thousands of autopsies as Miami-Dade County coroner, declared at its completion, "There is nothing in any of the data that supports a death from drugs. In fact, everything points to a sudden, violent heart attack." More recent research has revealed that Francisco did not speak for the entire pathology team. Other staff "could say nothing with confidence until they got the results back from the laboratories, if then." One of the examiners, E. Eric Muirhead,

could not believe his ears. Francisco had not only presumed to speak for the hospital's team of pathologists, he had announced a conclusion that they had not reached. ... Early on, a meticulous dissection of the body ... confirmed Elvis was chronically ill with diabetes, glaucoma, and constipation. As they proceeded, the doctors saw evidence that his body had been wracked over a span of years by a large and constant stream of drugs. They had also studied his hospital records, which included two admissions for drug detoxification and methadone treatments.

1977–present: posthumous developments

Between 1977 and 1981, six of Presley's posthumously released singles were top-ten country hits. Graceland was opened to the public in 1982. Attracting over half a million visitors annually, it became the second-most-visited home in the United States, after the White House. The residence was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2006.

Presley has been inducted into five music halls of fame: the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1986), the Country Music Hall of Fame (1998), the Gospel Music Hall of Fame (2001), the Rockabilly Hall of Fame (2007), and the Memphis Music Hall of Fame (2012). In 1984, he received the W. C. Handy Award from the Blues Foundation and the Academy of Country Music's first Golden Hat Award. In 1987, he received the American Music Awards' Award of Merit.

A Junkie XL remix of Presley's "A Little Less Conversation" (credited as "Elvis Vs JXL") was used in a Nike advertising campaign during the 2002 FIFA World Cup. It topped the charts in over twenty countries and was included in a compilation of Presley's number-one hits, ELV1S, which was also an international success. The album returned Presley to the top of the Billboard chart for the first time in almost three decades.

In 2003, a remix of "Rubberneckin'", a 1969 recording, topped the U.S. sales chart, as did a 50th-anniversary re-release of "That's All Right" the following year. The latter was an outright hit in Britain, debuting at number three on the pop chart; it also made the top ten in Canada. In 2005, another three reissued singles, "Jailhouse Rock", "One Night"/"I Got Stung", and "It's Now or Never", went to number one in the UK. They were part of a campaign that saw the re-release of all eighteen of Presley's previous chart-topping UK singles. The first, "All Shook Up", came with a collectors' box that made it ineligible to chart again; each of the other seventeen reissues hit the British top five.

In 2005, Forbes magazine named Presley the top-earning deceased celebrity for the fifth straight year, with a gross income of $45 million. He was placed second in 2006, returned to the top spot the next two years, and ranked fourth in 2009. The following year, he was ranked second, with his highest annual income ever—$60 million—spurred by the celebration of his 75th birthday and the launch of Cirque du Soleil's Viva Elvis show in Las Vegas. In November 2010, Viva Elvis: The Album was released, setting his voice to newly recorded instrumental tracks. As of mid-2011, there were an estimated 15,000 licensed Presley products, and he was again the second-highest-earning deceased celebrity. Six years later, he ranked fourth with earnings of $35 million, up $8 million from 2016 due in part to the opening of a new entertainment complex, Elvis Presley's Memphis, and hotel, The Guest House at Graceland.

In 2018, RCA/Legacy released Elvis Presley – Where No One Stands Alone, a new album focused on Presley's love of gospel music. Produced by Joel Weinshanker, Lisa Marie Presley and Andy Childs, the album introduced newly recorded instrumentation along with vocals from singers who had performed in the past with Elvis. It included a reimagined duet with Lisa Marie, on the album's title track.

In 2022, Baz Luhrmann's film Elvis, a biographical film about Presley's life, was released. Presley is portrayed by Austin Butler and Parker by Tom Hanks. As of August 2022, the film had grossed $261.8 million worldwide on a $85 million budget, becoming the second-highest-grossing music biopic of all-time behind Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), and the fifth-highest-grossing Australian-produced film. For his portrayal of Presley, Butler won the Golden Globe and was nominated for the Oscar for Best Actor. In January 2023, his 1962 Lockheed 1329 JetStar sold at an auction for $260,000.

Artistry

Influences

Presley's earliest musical influence came from gospel. His mother recalled that from the age of two, at the Assembly of God church in Tupelo attended by the family, "he would slide down off my lap, run into the aisle and scramble up to the platform. There he would stand looking at the choir and trying to sing with them." In Memphis, Presley frequently attended all-night gospel singings at the Ellis Auditorium, where groups such as the Statesmen Quartet led the music in a style that, Guralnick suggests, sowed the seeds of Presley's future stage act:

The Statesmen were an electric combination ... featuring some of the most thrillingly emotive singing and daringly unconventional showmanship in the entertainment world ... dressed in suits that might have come out of the window of Lansky's. ... Bass singer Jim Wetherington, known universally as the Big Chief, maintained a steady bottom, ceaselessly jiggling first his left leg, then his right, with the material of the pants leg ballooning out and shimmering. "He went about as far as you could go in gospel music," said Jake Hess. "The women would jump up, just like they do for the pop shows." Preachers frequently objected to the lewd movements ... but audiences reacted with screams and swoons.

As a teenager, Presley's musical interests were wide-ranging, and he was deeply informed about both white and African-American musical idioms. Though he never had any formal training, he had a remarkable memory, and his musical knowledge was already considerable by the time he made his first professional recordings aged 19 in 1954. When Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller met him two years later, they were astonished at his encyclopedic understanding of the blues, and, as Stoller put it, "He certainly knew a lot more than we did about country music and gospel music." At a press conference the following year, he proudly declared, "I know practically every religious song that's ever been written."

Musicianship

Presley played guitar, bass, and piano; he received his first guitar when he was 11 years old. He could not read or write music and had no formal lessons, and played everything by ear. Presley often played an instrument on his recordings and produced his own music. Presley played rhythm acoustic guitar on most of his Sun recordings and his 1950s RCA Victor albums. Presley played piano on songs such as "Old Shep" and "First in Line" from his 1956 album Elvis. He is credited with playing piano on later albums such as From Elvis in Memphis and "Moody Blue", and on "Unchained Melody", which was one of the last songs that he recorded. Presley played lead guitar on one of his successful singles called "Are You Lonesome Tonight". At one point during the '68 Comeback Special, Elvis took over on lead electric guitar, the first time he had ever been seen with the instrument in public, playing it on songs such as "Baby What You Want Me to Do" and "One Night". The album Elvis is Back! features Presley playing a lot of acoustic guitar on songs such as "I Will Be Home Again" and "Like a Baby".

Musical styles and genres

Photo of Elvis and the Jordanaires
Presley with his longtime vocal backup group, the Jordanaires, March 1957

Presley was a central figure in the development of rockabilly, according to music historians. "Rockabilly crystallized into a recognizable style in 1954 with Elvis Presley's first release, on the Sun label," writes Craig Morrison. Paul Friedlander described rockabilly as "essentially ... an Elvis Presley construction", with the defining elements as "the raw, emotive, and slurred vocal style and emphasis on rhythmic feeling the blues with the string band and strummed rhythm guitar country". In "That's All Right", the Presley trio's first record, Scotty Moore's guitar solo, "a combination of Merle Travis–style country finger-picking, double-stop slides from acoustic boogie, and blues-based bent-note, single-string work, is a microcosm of this fusion". While Katherine Charlton calls Presley "rockabilly's originator", Carl Perkins, another pioneer of rock'n'roll, said that " Phillips, Elvis, and I didn't create rockabilly". According to Michael Campbell, the first major rockabilly song was recorded by Bill Haley. In Moore's view, "It had been there for quite a while, really. Carl Perkins was doing basically the same sort of thing up around Jackson, and I know for a fact Jerry Lee Lewis had been playing that kind of music ever since he was ten years old."

At RCA Victor, Presley's rock and roll sound grew distinct from rockabilly with group chorus vocals, more heavily amplified electric guitars, and a tougher, more intense manner. While he was known for taking songs from various sources and giving them a rockabilly/rock and roll treatment, he also recorded songs in other genres from early in his career, from the pop standard "Blue Moon" at Sun Records to the country ballad "How's the World Treating You?" on his second RCA Victor LP to the blues of "Santa Claus Is Back in Town". In 1957, his first gospel record was released, the four-song EP Peace in the Valley. Certified as a million-seller, it became the top-selling gospel EP in recording history. Presley would record gospel periodically for the rest of his life.

"Run On" From How Great Thou Art (1967), a traditional song popular in the black gospel tradition. The arrangement evokes "the percussive style of the 1930s Golden Gate Quartet."
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After his return from military service in 1960, Presley continued to perform rock and roll, but the characteristic style was substantially toned down. His first post-Army single, the number-one hit "Stuck on You", is typical of this shift. RCA Victor publicity referred to its "mild rock beat"; discographer Ernst Jorgensen calls it "upbeat pop". The number five "She's Not You" (1962) "integrates the Jordanaires so completely, it's practically doo-wop". The modern blues/R&B sound captured with success on Elvis Is Back! was essentially abandoned for six years until such 1966–67 recordings as "Down in the Alley" and "Hi-Heel Sneakers". Presley's output during most of the 1960s emphasized pop music, often in the form of ballads such as "Are You Lonesome Tonight?", a number-one in 1960. "It's Now or Never", which also topped the chart that year, was a classically influenced variation of pop based on the Neapolitan song "'O sole mio" and concluding with a "full-voiced operatic cadence". These were both dramatic numbers, but most of what Presley recorded for his many film soundtracks was in a much lighter vein.

While Presley performed several of his classic ballads for the '68 Comeback Special, the sound of the show was dominated by aggressive rock and roll. He recorded few new straight rock and roll songs thereafter; as he explained, they had become "hard to find". A significant exception was "Burning Love", his last major hit on the pop charts. Like his work of the 1950s, Presley's subsequent recordings reworked pop and country songs, but in markedly different permutations. His stylistic range now began to embrace a more contemporary rock sound as well as soul and funk. Much of Elvis in Memphis, as well as "Suspicious Minds", cut at the same sessions, reflected this new rock and soul fusion. In the mid-1970s, many of his singles found a home on country radio, the field where he first became a star.

Vocal style and range

Publicity photo of Elvis playing guitar
Publicity photo for the CBS program Stage Show, January 16, 1956

The developmental arc of Presley's singing voice, as described by critic Dave Marsh, goes from "high and thrilled in the early days, lower and perplexed in the final months." Marsh credits Presley with the introduction of the "vocal stutter" on 1955's "Baby Let's Play House". When on "Don't Be Cruel", Presley "slides into a 'mmmmm' that marks the transition between the first two verses," he shows "how masterful his relaxed style really is." Marsh describes the vocal performance on "Can't Help Falling in Love" as one of "gentle insistence and delicacy of phrasing", with the line "'Shall I stay' pronounced as if the words are fragile as crystal".

Jorgensen calls the 1966 recording of "How Great Thou Art" "an extraordinary fulfillment of his vocal ambitions", as Presley "crafted for himself an ad-hoc arrangement in which he took every part of the four-part vocal, from bass intro to the soaring heights of the song's operatic climax", becoming "a kind of one-man quartet". Guralnick finds "Stand by Me" from the same gospel sessions "a beautifully articulated, almost nakedly yearning performance", but, by contrast, feels that Presley reaches beyond his powers on "Where No One Stands Alone", resorting "to a kind of inelegant bellowing to push out a sound" that Jake Hess of the Statesmen Quartet had in his command. Hess himself thought that while others might have voices the equal of Presley's, "he had that certain something that everyone searches for all during their lifetime." Guralnick attempts to pinpoint that something: "The warmth of his voice, his controlled use of both vibrato technique and natural falsetto range, the subtlety and deeply felt conviction of his singing were all qualities recognizably belonging to his talent but just as recognizably not to be achieved without sustained dedication and effort."

Marsh praises his 1968 reading of "U.S. Male", "bearing down on the hard guy lyrics, not sending them up or overplaying them but tossing them around with that astonishingly tough yet gentle assurance that he brought to his Sun records." The performance on "In the Ghetto" is, according to Jorgensen, "devoid of any of his characteristic vocal tricks or mannerisms", instead relying on the exceptional "clarity and sensitivity of his voice". Guralnick describes the song's delivery as of "almost translucent eloquence ... so quietly confident in its simplicity". On "Suspicious Minds", Guralnick hears essentially the same "remarkable mixture of tenderness and poise", but supplemented with "an expressive quality somewhere between stoicism (at suspected infidelity) and anguish (over impending loss)".

Music critic Henry Pleasants observes that "Presley has been described variously as a baritone and a tenor. An extraordinary compass ... and a very wide range of vocal color have something to do with this divergence of opinion." He identifies Presley as a high baritone, calculating his range as 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 is in the middle, D-flat to D-flat, granting an extra full step up or down." In Pleasants' view, his voice was "variable and unpredictable" at the bottom, "often brilliant" at the top, with the capacity for "full-voiced high Gs and As that an opera baritone might envy". Scholar Lindsay Waters, who figures Presley's range as two-and-a-quarter octaves, emphasizes that "his voice had an emotional range from tender whispers to sighs down to shouts, grunts, grumbles, and sheer gruffness that could move the listener from calmness and surrender, to fear. His voice can not be measured in octaves, but in decibels; even that misses the problem of how to measure delicate whispers that are hardly audible at all." Presley was always "able to duplicate the open, hoarse, ecstatic, screaming, shouting, wailing, reckless sound of the black rhythm-and-blues and gospel singers", writes Pleasants, and also demonstrated a remarkable ability to assimilate many other vocal styles.

Public image

Relationship with the African-American community

Elvis Presley and Billy Ward, circa 1955

When Dewey Phillips first aired "That's All Right" on Memphis' WHBQ, many listeners who contacted the station to ask for it again assumed that its singer was black. From the beginning of his national fame, Presley expressed respect for African-American performers and their music, and disregard for the segregation and racial prejudice then prevalent in the South. Interviewed in 1956, he recalled how in his childhood he would listen to blues musician Arthur Crudup—the originator of "That's All Right"—"bang his box the way I do now, and I said if I ever got to the place where I could feel all old Arthur felt, I'd be a music man like nobody ever saw." The Memphis World, an African-American newspaper, reported that Presley "cracked Memphis' segregation laws" by attending the local amusement park on what was designated as its "colored night". Such statements and actions led Presley to be generally hailed in the black community during his early stardom. In contrast, many white adults "did not like him, and condemned him as depraved. Anti-negro prejudice doubtless figured in adult antagonism. Regardless of whether parents were aware of the Negro sexual origins of the phrase 'rock 'n' roll', Presley impressed them as the visual and aural embodiment of sex."

Despite the largely positive view of Presley held by African Americans, a rumor spread in mid-1957 that he had announced, "The only thing Negroes can do for me is buy my records and shine my shoes." A journalist with the national African American weekly Jet, Louie Robinson, pursued the story. On the set of Jailhouse Rock, Presley granted Robinson an interview, though he was no longer dealing with the mainstream press. He denied making such a statement:

I never said anything like that, and people who know me know that I wouldn't have said it. ... A lot of people seem to think I started this business. But rock 'n' roll was here a long time before I came along. Nobody can sing that kind of music like colored people. Let's face it: I can't sing like Fats Domino can. I know that.

Robinson found no evidence that the remark had ever been made, and elicited testimony from many individuals indicating that Presley was anything but racist. Blues singer Ivory Joe Hunter, who had heard the rumor before he visited Graceland, reported of Presley, "He showed me every courtesy, and I think he's one of the greatest." Though the rumored remark was discredited, it was still being used against Presley decades later.

The persistence of such attitudes was fueled by resentment over the fact that Presley, whose musical and visual performance idiom owed much to African-American sources, achieved the cultural acknowledgement and commercial success largely denied his black peers. Into the twenty-first century, the notion that Presley had "stolen" black music still found adherents. Notable among African-American entertainers expressly rejecting this view was Jackie Wilson, who argued, "A lot of people have accused Elvis of stealing the black man's music, when in fact, almost every black solo entertainer copied his stage mannerisms from Elvis." Moreover, Presley acknowledged his debt to African-American musicians throughout his career. Addressing his '68 Comeback Special audience, he said, "Rock 'n' roll music is basically gospel or rhythm and blues, or it sprang from that. People have been adding to it, adding instruments to it, experimenting with it, but it all boils down to ." Nine years earlier, he had said, "Rock 'n' roll has been around for many years. It used to be called rhythm and blues."

Sex symbol

Film poster with Presley on the left, holding a young woman around the waist, her arms draped over his shoulders. To the right, five young women wearing bathing suits and holding guitars stand in a row. The one in front taps Presley on the shoulder. Along with title and credits is the tagline "Climb aboard your dreamboat for the fastest-movin' fun 'n' music!"
Poster for the film Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962), visualizing Presley's sex symbol image

Presley's physical attractiveness and sexual appeal were widely acknowledged. "He was once beautiful, astonishingly beautiful", according to critic Mark Feeney. Television director Steve Binder reported, "I'm straight as an arrow and I got to tell you, you stop, whether you're male or female, to look at him. He was that good looking. And if you never knew he was a superstar, it wouldn't make any difference; if he'd walked in the room, you'd know somebody special was in your presence." His performance style was equally responsible for Presley's eroticized image. Critic George Melly described him as "the master of the sexual simile, treating his guitar as both phallus and girl". In his Presley obituary, Lester Bangs credited him with bringing "overt blatant vulgar sexual frenzy to the popular arts in America". Ed Sullivan's declaration that he perceived a soda bottle in Presley's trousers was echoed by rumors involving a similarly positioned toilet roll tube or lead bar.

While Presley was marketed as an icon of heterosexuality, some critics have argued that his image was ambiguous. In 1959, Sight and Sound's Peter John Dyer described his onscreen persona as "aggressively bisexual in appeal". Brett Farmer places the "orgasmic gyrations" of the title dance sequence in Jailhouse Rock within a lineage of cinematic musical numbers that offer a "spectacular eroticization, if not homoeroticization, of the male image". In the analysis of Yvonne Tasker, "Elvis was an ambivalent figure who articulated a peculiar feminised, objectifying version of white working-class masculinity as aggressive sexual display."

Reinforcing Presley's image as a sex symbol were the reports of his dalliances with Hollywood stars and starlets, from Natalie Wood in the 1950s to Connie Stevens and Ann-Margret in the 1960s to Candice Bergen and Cybill Shepherd in the 1970s. June Juanico of Memphis, one of Presley's early girlfriends, later blamed Parker for encouraging him to choose his dating partners with publicity in mind. Presley never grew comfortable with the Hollywood scene, and most of these relationships were insubstantial.

Legacy

Further information: Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, Cultural depictions of Elvis Presley, Elvis has left the building, and List of songs about or referencing Elvis Presley

I know he invented rock and roll, in a manner of speaking, but ... that's not why he's worshiped as a god today. He's worshiped as a god today because in addition to inventing rock and roll he was the greatest ballad singer this side of Frank Sinatra—because the spiritual translucence and reined-in gut sexuality of his slow weeper and torchy pop blues still activate the hormones and slavish devotion of millions of female human beings worldwide.

Robert Christgau
December 24, 1985

Presley's rise to national attention in 1956 transformed the field of popular music and had a huge effect on the broader scope of popular culture. As the catalyst for the cultural revolution that was rock and roll, he was central not only to defining it as a musical genre but in making it a touchstone of youth culture and rebellious attitude. With its racially mixed origins—repeatedly affirmed by Presley—rock and roll's occupation of a central position in mainstream American culture facilitated a new acceptance and appreciation of black culture.

In this regard, Little Richard said of Presley, "He was an integrator. Elvis was a blessing. They wouldn't let black music through. He opened the door for black music." Al Green agreed: "He broke the ice for all of us."

President Jimmy Carter remarked on Presley's legacy in 1977: "His music and his personality, fusing the styles of white country and black rhythm and blues, permanently changed the face of American popular culture." Presley also heralded the vastly expanded reach of celebrity in the era of mass communication: within a year of his first appearance on American network television, he was regarded as one of the most famous people in the world.

Elvis impersonators in 2005

Presley's name, image, and voice are recognized around the world. He has inspired a legion of impersonators. In polls and surveys, he is recognized as one of the most important popular music artists and influential Americans. American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein said, "Elvis Presley is the greatest cultural force in the twentieth century. He introduced the beat to everything and he changed everything—music, language, clothes." John Lennon said that "Nothing really affected me until Elvis." Bob Dylan described the sensation of first hearing Presley as "like busting out of jail".

Presley's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6777 Hollywood Blvd

For much of his adult life, Presley, with his rise from poverty to riches and fame, had seemed to epitomize the American Dream. In his final years, and following the revelations about his circumstances after his death, he became a symbol of excess and gluttony. Increasing attention was paid to his appetite for the rich, heavy Southern cooking of his upbringing, foods such as chicken-fried steak and biscuits and gravy. In particular, his love of fried peanut butter, banana, and (sometimes) bacon sandwiches, now known as "Elvis sandwiches", came to symbolize this characteristic.

Since 1977, there have been numerous alleged sightings of Presley. A long-standing conspiracy theory among some fans is that he faked his death. Adherents cite alleged discrepancies in the death certificate, reports of a wax dummy in his original coffin, and accounts of Presley planning a diversion so he could retire in peace. An unusually large number of fans have domestic shrines devoted to Presley and journey to sites with which he is connected, however faintly. On the anniversary of his death, thousands of people gather outside Graceland for a candlelight ritual. "With Elvis, it is not just his music that has survived death", writes Ted Harrison. "He himself has been raised, like a medieval saint, to a figure of cultic status. It is as if he has been canonized by acclamation."

On the 25th anniversary of Presley's death, The New York Times asserted:

All the talentless impersonators and appalling black velvet paintings on display can make him seem little more than a perverse and distant memory. But before Elvis was camp, he was its opposite: a genuine cultural force. ... Elvis' breakthroughs are underappreciated because in this rock-and-roll age, his hard-rocking music and sultry style have triumphed so completely.

He was ranked third on Rolling Stone's list of greatest artists. Bono wrote in appreciation:

In Elvis, you have the blueprint for rock & roll. The highness — the gospel highs. The mud — the Delta mud, the blues. Sexual liberation. Controversy. Changing the way people feel about the world. It's all there with Elvis.

Not only Presley's achievements but his failings as well, are seen by some cultural observers as adding to the power of his legacy, as in this description by Greil Marcus:

Elvis Presley is a supreme figure in American life, one whose presence, no matter how banal or predictable, brooks no real comparisons. ... The cultural range of his music has expanded to the point where it includes not only the hits of the day, but also patriotic recitals, pure country gospel, and really dirty blues. ... Elvis has emerged as a great artist, a great rocker, a great purveyor of schlock, a great heart throb, a great bore, a great symbol of potency, a great ham, a great nice person, and, yes, a great American.

Achievements

See also: List of accolades received by Elvis Presley

With a billion estimated record sales, Guinness World Records ranks Presley as the best-selling solo artist of all time. Presley's rankings for top ten and number-one hits vary depending on how the double-sided "Hound Dog/Don't Be Cruel" and "Don't/I Beg of You" singles, which precede the inception of Billboard's unified Hot 100 chart, are analyzed. According to Whitburn's analysis, Presley holds the record with 38, tying with Madonna; per Billboard's current assessment, he ranks second with 36. Whitburn and Billboard concur that the Beatles hold the record for most number-one hits with 20, and that Mariah Carey is second with 19. Whitburn has Presley with 18: Billboard has him third with 17. According to Billboard,  Presley has 79 cumulative weeks at number one: alone at 80, according to Whitburn and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with only Mariah Carey having more with 91 weeks. He holds the records for most number-one singles on the UK chart with 21 and singles reaching the top ten with 76.

As an album artist, Presley is credited by Billboard with the record for the most albums charting in the Billboard 200: 129, far ahead of second-place Frank Sinatra's 82. He also holds the record for most cumulative weeks at number one on the Billboard 200 for a male solo artists: 67 weeks In 2015 and 2016, two albums setting Presley's vocals against music by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, If I Can Dream and The Wonder of You, both reached number one in the UK. This gave him a new record for number-one UK albums by a solo artist with 13, and extended his record for longest span between number-one albums by anybody—Presley had first topped the British chart in 1956 with his self-titled debut.

As of 2023, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) credits Presley with 146.5 million certified album sales in the US, third all time behind the Beatles and Garth Brooks. He holds the records for most gold albums (101, nearly double second-place Barbra Streisand's 51), and most platinum albums (57). His 25 multi-platinum albums is second behind the Beatles' 26. His total of 197 album certification awards (including one diamond award), far outpaces the Beatles' second-best 122. He has the 9th-most gold singles (54, tied with Justin Bieber), and the 16th-most platinum singles (27).

In 2012, the spider Paradonea presleyi was named in his honor. In 2018, President Donald Trump awarded Presley the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously.

There is a street named after Presley in San Antonio, Texas.

Discography

Main articles: Elvis Presley albums discography, Elvis Presley singles discography, and List of songs recorded by Elvis Presley

A vast number of recordings have been issued under Presley's name. The number of his original master recordings has been variously calculated as 665 and 711. His career began and he was most successful during an era when singles were the primary commercial medium for pop music. For his albums, the distinction between "official" studio records and other forms is often blurred.

Studio albums

Soundtrack albums (original material)

Filmography

Main article: Elvis Presley on film and television
Films starred
TV concert specials

See also

Explanatory notes

  1. ^ Although some pronounce his surname /ˈprɛzli/ PREZ-lee, Presley himself pronounced it /ˈprɛsli/ PRESS-lee, as did his family and those who worked with him.

    The correct spelling of his middle name has long been a matter of debate. The physician who delivered him wrote "Elvis Aaron Presley" in his ledger. The state-issued birth certificate reads "Elvis Aron Presley". The name was chosen after the Presleys' friend and fellow congregation member Aaron Kennedy, though a single-A spelling was probably intended by Presley's parents to parallel the middle name of Presley's stillborn brother, Jesse Garon. It reads Aron on most official documents produced during his lifetime, including his high school diploma, RCA Victor record contract, and marriage license, and this was generally taken to be the proper spelling. In 1966, Presley expressed the desire to his father that the more traditional biblical rendering, Aaron, be used henceforth, "especially on legal documents". Five years later, the Jaycees citation honoring him as one of the country's Outstanding Young Men used Aaron. Late in his life, he sought to officially change the spelling to Aaron and discovered that state records already listed it that way. Knowing his wishes for his middle name, Aaron is the spelling his father chose for Presley's tombstone, and it is the spelling his estate has designated as official.

  2. ^ The estimates of Elvis Presley's record sales vary from 500 million – 1 billion records worldwide.
  3. Of the $40,000, $5,000 covered back royalties owed by Sun.
  4. In 1956–57, Presley was also credited as a co-writer on several songs where he had no hand in the writing process: "Heartbreak Hotel"; "Don't Be Cruel"; all four songs from his first film, including the title track, "Love Me Tender"; "Paralyzed"; and "All Shook Up". (Parker, however, failed to register Presley with such musical licensing firms as ASCAP and its rival BMI, which eventually denied Presley annuity from songwriter's royalties.) Presley received credit on two other songs to which he did contribute: he provided the title for "That's Someone You Never Forget" (1961), written by his friend and former Humes schoolmate Red West; they collaborated with another friend, guitarist Charlie Hodge, on "You'll Be Gone" (1962).
  5. VH1 ranked Presley No. 8 among the "100 Greatest Artists of Rock & Roll" in 1998. The BBC ranked him as the No. 2 "Voice of the Century" in 2001. Rolling Stone placed him No. 3 in its list of "The Immortals: The Fifty Greatest Artists of All Time" in 2004. CMT ranked him No. 15 among the "40 Greatest Men in Country Music" in 2005. The Discovery Channel placed him No. 8 on its "Greatest American" list in 2005. Variety put him in the top ten of its "100 Icons of the Century" in 2005. The Atlantic ranked him No. 66 among the "100 Most Influential Figures in American History" in 2006. Rolling Stone ranked him No. 17 on its 2023 list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.
  6. Whitburn follows actual Billboard history in considering the four songs on the "Don't Be Cruel/Hound Dog" and "Don't/I Beg of You" singles as distinct. He tallies each side of the former single as a number-one (Billboard's sales chart had "Don't Be Cruel" at number one for five weeks, then "Hound Dog" for six) and reckons "I Beg of You" as a top ten, as it reached number eight on the old Top 100 chart. Billboard now considers both singles as unified items, ignoring the historical sales split of the former and its old Top 100 chart entirely. Whitburn thus analyzes the four songs as yielding three number ones and a total of four top tens. Billboard now states that they yielded just two number ones and a total of two top tens, voiding the separate chart appearances of "Hound Dog" and "I Beg of You".

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