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This article is about the singer. For other uses, see Elvis Presley (disambiguation)."Elvis" redirects here. For other uses, see Elvis (disambiguation).

Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), was an American singer, musician and actor. He is often known simply as Elvis, and is also called "The King of Rock 'n' Roll", or simply "The King". He remains a pop icon and is regarded as one of the most significant and influential entertainers of the 20th century.

Presley began his career as a singer of rockabilly, performing country and rhythm and blues songs, and was referred to as "The Hillbilly Cat". The combination of country music and blues with a strong back beat, and an energetic delivery, was one of the earliest forms of rock & roll. Although commercially successful with rock and roll, he also had success with ballads, country, gospel, blues, pop, folk and even semi-operatic and jazz standards. His vocal characteristics, particularly in his pre-1960 recordings, gave him the potential to sound significantly different from one song to another. He tackled a range of songs and musical styles in a career of over two decades, setting numerous records for concert attendance, television ratings and records sales. He subsequently became one of the best-selling and most influential artists in the history of popular music.

After a performance hiatus imposed by movie commitments in the 1960s, Presley re-emerged as a live performer of old and new hit songs, both on tour and in residency at Las Vegas, Nevada. His performances were known for their energetic drive, his karate-influenced stage movements and his elaborate jump-suits and capes. He toured the U.S. extensively, but never went abroad. He continued to have sell-out shows in auditoriums around the U.S. until shortly before his sudden death in 1977. Though his appearance had worried many for several years, his death seemed to stun the American nation and shock his fans worldwide. Only in the ensuing years did it emerge that Presley had complex and chronic health problems, including depression and perhaps most significantly, severe and enduring prescription drug addiction. His death sparked national mourning, but controversy regarding the circumstances and cause of his death soon followed.

Biography

Early life

Elvis Presley was born in a two-room shotgun house in Tupelo, Mississippi, on January 8 1935 at around 4:35 a.m. His father Vernon Presley was a impoverished truck driver, and his mother Gladys Love Smith was a sewing machine operator at the time. His twin brother was stillborn and was given the name Jesse Garon Presley before burial. He grew up as an only child and lived just above the poverty line during his years in East Tupelo.

In 1938, when Presley was three years old, his father, Vernon, was convicted of forgery, along with Gladys's brother, Travis Smith, and Luther Gable. They were sentenced to three years at the Mississippi State Penitentiary for altering a check from Orville Bean, their boss, from $3 to $8 and then cashing it at a local bank. Though the elder Presley was released after serving eight months, his wife and son lost their house and were forced to move in briefly with Mrs. Presley's in-laws next door.

In 1941 Presley started school at the East Tupelo Consolidated. There he seems to have been an outsider. His few friends relate that he was separate from any crowd and did not belong to any "gang", but, according to his teachers, he was a sweet and average student, and he loved comic books.

In 1945, when Presley was ten years old, he entered a singing contest at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show. Dressed in a cowboy outfit, the young Elvis had to stand on a chair to reach the microphone and sang Red Foley's "Old Shep". He came second, winninga $5 prize and a free ticket to all the rides.

In January 1946 Presley's mother took him shopping for a birthday present at Tupelo Hardware. She bought him his first guitar, in lieu of a bike and rifle, for $12.75. Two years later in 1948 the Presley family left Tupelo, moving 110 miles northwest to Memphis, Tennessee settling into Lauderdale Courts public housing development in one of the city's poorer sections. Here eleven-year-old Presley took up guitar and practiced in the basement laundry room at Lauderdale Courts. He would play gigs in the malls and courtyards of the Courts with other musicians that lived there. The young Presley and his family heard and sang music when they attended a Pentecostal church, but Presley was now also near the Memphis music scene and the cultural influences of Beale Street, Ellis Auditorium and Poplar Tunes record store. Sun Studios was barely a mile away. It was at this time he became influenced by the Memphis blues music and the gospel sung at the church services.

Presley attended Humes High School in Memphis and worked in the school library. After school he worked at Loew's State Theatre. In 1951 he enrolled in the school's ROTC unit and tried unsuccessfully to qualify for the high school football team, (the coach supposedly cut him from the team for not trimming his sideburns and ducktail). He spent his spare time around the African-American section of Memphis, especially on Beale Street. In 1953 he graduated from Humes, majoring in History, English, and Shop.

In his teens Presley was still a very shy person, a "kid who had spent scarcely a night away from home in his nineteen years." He was teased by his fellow classmates who threw "things at him - rotten fruit and stuff - because he was different, because he was quiet and he stuttered and he was a mama's boy." He is even said to have been cornered in the bathroom of his school by a couple of boys with scissors, but was rescued by upperclassman Red West.

After graduation Presley worked at the Parker Machinists Shop and then at the Precision Tool Company with his father. His final job before his career took off was for Crown Electric Company as a truck-driver. It is at this time be began wearing his hair in his signature pompadour style. In her book, Elvis and Gladys, author Elaine Dundy wrote that Elvis was a fan of the comic book superhero Captain Marvel, Jr. as a boy, and would later model his trademark hairstyle on the comic book character.

First recordings at Sun Studios

On July 18, 1953 Presley paid $3.25 to record the first of two double-sided 'demo' acetates at Sun Studios, "My Happiness" and "That's When Your Heartaches Begin". Presley made the record for his mother as a much-belated birthday present. He returned to Sun Studios on January 4, 1954 recording a second acetate, "I'll Never Stand in Your Way"/"It Wouldn't Be the Same Without You" and gained the attention of the studio staff.

Sun Records founder Sam Phillips, who had already recorded blues artists such as B.B. King and Junior Parker, Johnny Cash, thought black blues and boogie-woogie music might become tremendously popular among white people if presented in the right way.

Phillips and assistant Marion Keisker had heard the Presley discs and called him on June 26, 1954, to fill in for a missing ballad singer. Although that session was not productive, Phillips put Presley together with local Western swing musicians Scotty Moore and Bill Black to see what might develop. During a rehearsal break on July 5, 1954, Presley began singing a blues song written by Arthur Crudup called "That's All Right". Phillips liked the resulting recording and played it for local DJ Dewey Phillips, who played the song on Memphis radio station WHBQ from an acetate pressing. Phillips then received orders for five thousand copies of a record that did not yet exist. Ten days after the "That's All Right" session, Presley, Black, and Moore recorded an uptempo version of bluegrass musician Bill Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky", a waltz. Sam Phillips now had two songs to release, which he did on July 19, 1954.

When "That's All Right" was played on Memphis radio, listeners called to ask about the song. Nevertheless, from August 18 1954 through December 8, 1954 "Blue Moon of Kentucky", which had been a country standard since the later 1940s, was consistently charted at a higher postion. By December both sides of the record had been charted from Richmond, Virginia to Houston, Texas.

First public performances

Presley’s earliest public performances were at the Bon Air Club in Memphis, a club with hard drinking lovers of hillbilly music. Elvis neither looked the part nor sounded like anything they were used to. Elvis, Scotty and Bill played their two songs at the Bon Air a couple of weekends that July, 1954. Johnny Cash remembers seeing Elvis when he played during breaks at the Eagle’s Nest that summer and fall. A July 30, 1954 appearance at the Overton Park Shell with Elvis as one of the Blue Moon Boys (Presley, Scotty and Bill), along with head liner Slim Whitman, was more successful.

Elvis was so nervous during this show that his legs wobbled and shook uncontrollably. Then fashionable wide legged pants emphasized the motion, causing the young ladies in the audience to go crazy and start screaming. Presley did not understand what the screaming was about, but learned quickly.

Sam Phillips then convinced Jim Denny, manager of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville to book Elvis. On October 2, 1954 Hank Snow introduced Presley. Presley, Scotty and Bill performed their version of Blue Moon of Kentucky, and received a polite response. Afterwards, Jim Denny is said to have told Elvis, "Boy, you’d better keep driving that truck."

The second Elvis single, Good Rockin' Tonight coupled with I Don't Care if the Sun Don't Shine was released on September 25, 1954. On October 16, 1954, he made his first appearance on Louisiana Hayride in Shreveport, Louisiana. During the first set nothing seemed to click, and the audience reacted politely. The second show had a younger audience, however, and Tillman Franks advised Elvis to "Let it all go!" House drummer D.J. Fontana had worked in strip joints and his beats accentuated Elvis's leg and body movements which made the crowd come alive.

On August 15, 1955, Presley was signed to a one-year contract, by "Hank Snow Attractions", a management company jointly owned by singer Hank Snow and "Colonel" Tom Parker. Parker became Presley's manager soon afterwards.

Between August 1954 and August 1955 Sun Studios released ten sides by Presley, Scotty and Bill: five country, four blues, and one "ballad", but all typical of the Presley style.

Going national with RCA

"Colonel" Parker, recognizing the limitations of Sun Studios, negotiated a deal with RCA Victor Records to acquire Presley's Sun contract for $35,000 on November 21, 1955.

Presley's first single for RCA "Heartbreak Hotel" quickly reached number one in the U.S. in April 1956, selling one million copies. His commitments to RCA involved studio and soundtrack albums, as well as single and extended play releases. Presley's record sales were enormous throughout the late 1950s. He sang a mixture of original material and cover versions; the hits including "Blue Suede Shoes", "Don't Be Cruel", "Love Me Tender", "All Shook Up", Jailhouse Rock and other recordings that have been critically acclaimed.

Early television appearances

Parker was a master promoter and wasted no time in publicizing Presley's image, licensing everything from guitars to cookware. Parker's first major coup was to market Presley on television. He had Presley booked for six of the Dorsey Shows (CBS); the first on January 28, 1956, then on February 4, 11 & 18 and two more appearances on March 17 & 24. That same month Parker obtained a lucrative deal with Milton Berle (NBC) for two appearances. The first appearance was on April 3, 1956. The second show, on June 5, gained Presley notoriety due to his performance of "Hound Dog". One minute and twenty-two seconds into an upbeat version of the song, Elvis and the band stop. Elvis holds his pose and points into the audience. They then started into a slow, powerful delivery, and Elvis's movements are exaggerated, his hips thrusting and this appears to create a noticable stir in the studio audience. Presley uses the microphone as a support for some of his movements; occasionally he shakes his legs vigorously and rocks on to his tiptoes as he thrusts in time to the beat. The host Milton Berle rushed on stage at the conclusion of the performance and declared: "Elvis Presley! How about my boy?!", but Presley's "gyrations" created a storm of controversy. The criticism was so severe that Presley was obliged to explain himself on a local New York City TV show, Hy Gardner 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."

The Milton Berle appearances drew such huge ratings that Steve Allen (NBC), booked him for one appearance, which aired at 8:00 PM on July 1, 1956. Allen prefaced Presley's appearance with these words: "It is our intention to do nothing but a good show. We want to do a show the whole family can watch and enjoy. And that’s what we always do." After Allen introduces "the new Elvis" (who appears wearing a tuxedo and carrying an acoustic guitar by the neck), he remarks to him: "You are certainly being a good sport about the whole thing." The two then move to a top hat and bow tie-wearing bassett hound perched on a pedestal. Presley addresses the hound as he sings a few verses of the song. This "Hound Dog" performance lasted a mere fifty seconds, compared to the two minutes and twenty-six seconds of the Berle performance. Elvis often referred to this appearance as the most ridiculous performance of his career. "Scotty Moore has testified that when the band went into the studio the next day to record "Hound Dog", they were all angry about their treatment the previous night." Notwithstanding, that night, Allen had for the first time beaten The Ed Sullivan Show in the Sunday night ratings, prompting Sullivan (CBS) to book Presley for three appearances: September 9, and October 28, 1956 as well as January 6, 1957, for an unprecedented fee of $50,000.

On September 9, 1956, at his first of three appearances on the Sullivan show, Presley drew an estimated 82.5% per cent of the television audience, calculated at between 55-60 million viewers. During his second appearance, at one point Sullivan stood on stage with Presley. While Sullivan was addressing the audience, Presley, who had been standing quietly, began shaking his legs, eliciting screams from the young girls in the stage audience. Sullivan then looked at Presley, who had assumed his former, serious demeanor. On his third and final Sullivan appearance, Presley was shown only in tight camera shots of his upper body. At the end of this broadcast Sullivan, who had smiled broadly while introducing Elvis's several spots on both of the shows he had hosted, pointed to Presley and said, "This is a real decent, fine boy. We've never had a pleasanter experience on our show with a big name than we've had with you... you're thoroughly all right."

Controversial king

By the spring of 1956, Presley was fast becoming a national phenomenon and teenagers came to his concerts in unprecedented numbers. There were many riots at his early concerts. Scotty Moore says: "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." When he performed at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair in 1956, a hundred National Guardsmen surrounded the stage to control crowds of excited fans.

Some commentators suggested that Presley was considered a threat to the moral well-being of young American women, because "Elvis Presley didn’t just represent a new type of music; he represented sexual liberation." In 1956, a critic for the New York Daily News wrote that popular music "has reached its lowest depths in the 'grunt and groin' antics of one Elvis Presley" and the Roman Catholic Church denounced him in its weekly magazine, America, in an article headlined "Beware Elvis Presley."

In August, 1956 in Jacksonville, Florida a local Juvenile Court judge called Presley a "savage" and threatened to arrest him if he shook his body while performing at Jacksonville's Florida Theatre. The judge justified the restrictions by saying Presley's music was undermining the youth of America. Throughout the actual performance, he stood still as ordered, but poked fun at the judge by wiggling a finger. Similar attempts to stop his "sinful gyrations" continued for more than a year, including his often-noted final appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show (during which he performed the spiritual number "Peace in the Valley"), when he was filmed only from the waist up. Due to his choice of songs, controversial style of singing and stage performance, municipal politicians throughout the United States began denying permits for Presley appearances. This only caused his fans and others curious about his controversial reputation to travel elsewhere to see him perform.

On radio, adult programmers announced they would not play Presley's music, citing their religious convictions that his music was "devil music" and revealing their racist beliefs by openly claiming Presley was peddling "nigger music." Many of his records were condemned as wicked by Pentecostal preachers, warning their congregations to keep heathen rock and roll music out of their homes and away from their children's ears (especially the music of "that backslidden Pentecostal pup.") However, the economic power of Presley's fans became evident when they tuned into alternative radio stations that did play his records. In an era when radio stations were shifting to an all-music format, in reaction to competition from television, profit-conscious broadcasters learned quickly when sponsors bought more advertising time on new 'all rock and roll' stations, some of which reached enormous markets at night with clear channel signals from AM broadcasts.

As a result of his rising success and concerns over security for his family, Presley bought "Graceland", a mansion with several acres of land, for $103,000 in 1957. This would become his permanent residence and center for his music career until his death.

Military service

On December 20, 1957, Presley received his draft notice for the then-compulsory two-year service with the United States Army. Presley is said to have been concerned that his absence from the public eye for two year's duty might end his career. Hal Wallis and Paramount had already spent $350,000 on pre-production of Presley's latest film King Creole and they feared the consequences of suspending the project or (worse) canceling it because of Presley's army commitments. Fortunately, the Memphis Draft Board granted Wallis and Colonel Parker a deferment until March 20 so Presley could complete the film project. On March 24, 1958, he was inducted into the Army at the Memphis Draft Board. Presley sailed to Europe on the USS General George M. Randall and was posted to Ray Barracks, Friedberg, Germany.

Presley became a member of the 1st Battalion, U.S. 32nd Armored Regiment. He had chosen not to receive any special treatment and was respected for not acting on the suggestion to do 'Special Services' (He could have avoided certain arduous or montonous duties and he could have continued to sing and maintain his public profile). His military service still received massive media coverage, with much speculation echoing Presley's own concerns about his enforced absence doing irreparable damage to his career. However, in 1958, before his draft, RCA Records producer Steve Sholes and Hill and Range "song searcher" Freddy Bienstock had both pushed for recording sessions and strong song material, the aim being to release regular hit singles during Presley's two-year hiatus.

It was during his time in Germany that Presley appears to have begun his long-term pill taking. Peter Guralnick details how: "... a sergeant had introduced him to when they were on maneuvers at Grafenwöhr... it seemed like half the guys in the company were taking them". Those friends around Presley at the time also began taking them, "if only to keep up with Elvis, who was practically evangelical about their benefits."

During Presley's rising career, his mother is said to have become despairing, depressed and lonely. She began to neglect her health, put on weight and began to drink everyday. She'd wanted Elvis to succeed, "but not so that he would be apart from her. The hysteria of the crowd frightened her.". Doctors diagnosed liver problems, and her condition worsened. At that time, Elvis was initially stationed in Texas to fulfill his military obligations, but he was granted emergency leave for a visit and spent two days with her. However, shortly after his return to base, his mother died on August 14, 1958. When he heard that she had died, Presley was said to be "sobbing and crying hysterically", and eye-witnesses relate that he was "grieving almost constantly" for days.

Presley proved to be a reliable and hard-working recruit. His rankings and dates of promotions were as follows: Private (upon draft March 24, 1958); Private First Class (November 27, 1958); Specialist Fourth Class (June 1, 1959); and Sergeant (January 20, 1960). While in the Army, he earned sharpshooter badges for both the .45 pistol and the M1 rifle, and a marksman badge for the M2 carbine, as well as a Good Conduct Medal.

Presley returned to the United States on March 2, 1960, and was honorably discharged with the rank of Sergeant (E-5) on March 5. (One of his post-discharge photos shows him wearing dress blues with the grade of Staff Sergeant (E-6), but this is thought to have been a tailor's error.)

Hollywood years

Presley began his movie career with Love Me Tender which opened on November 15, 1956. The movies Jailhouse Rock (1957) and King Creole (1958) are regarded as among his best early films.

"Colonel" Parker eventually negotiated a multi-picture seven-year contract with Hal Wallis that shifted Presley's focus from music to films during the 1960s. Under the terms of his contract, Presley earned a fee for performing - plus a percentage of the profits on the films, most of which were huge moneymakers. These were usually musicals based around Presley performances, and marked the beginning of his transition from rebellious rock and roller to all-round family entertainer. Presley was praised by all his directors, including the highly respected Michael Curtiz, as unfailingly polite and extremely hardworking.

Presley is said to have admired the style of Marlon Brando, James Dean, and Tony Curtis and returned from the military eager to make a career as a movie star. Although "he was definitely not the most talented actor around", he "became a film genre of his own." Pop film staples of the early sixties, such as the Presley musicals and the AIP beach movies were mainly produced for a teenage audience and were generally viewed by film critics as a "pantheon of bad taste". In the sixties, at Parker's command, Presley withdrew from concerts and television appearances, with the exception of a charity concert (Pearl Harbor, 1961) and a TV appearance with Frank Sinatra on ABC, entitled "Welcome Home Elvis" (Presley sang "Fame And Fortune" and "Stuck On You", as well as "Witchcraft/Love Me Tender" with Sinatra). From then on it was full-time movies. "He blamed his fading popularity on his humdrum movies," Priscilla Presley recalled in her 1985 autobiography, Elvis and Me. "He loathed their stock plots and short shooting schedules." She notes significantly: "He could have demanded better, more substantial scripts, but he didn't." According to most critics, the scripts of the movies "were all the same, the songs progressively worse." The latter were "written on order by men who never really understood Elvis or rock and roll." For Blue Hawaii and its soundtrack LP, "fourteen songs were cut in just three days." Julie Parrish, starring in Paradise, Hawaiian Style, says that Presley hated such songs and that he "couldn't stop laughing while he was recording" one of them.

Although some film critics chastised these movies for their lack of depth, the fans went to the cinema in huge numbers; Elvis on celluloid was the only chance to see him in the absence of live appearances, especially outside of the U.S. According to Jerry Hopkins's book, Elvis in Hawaii, Presley's "pretty-as-a-postcard movies" even "boosted the new state's tourism. Some of his most enduring and popular songs came from those movies." Altogether, Presley had made twenty-seven movies during the 1960s, "which had grossed about $130 million, and he had sold a hundred million records, which had made $150 million." Overall, he was one of the highest paid Hollywood actors during the 1960s; however, during the later sixties, "the Elvis Presley film was becoming passé. Young people were tuning in, dropping out and doing acid. Musical acts like the Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, the Doors, Janis Joplin and many others were dominating the airwaves. Elvis Presley was not considered as cool as he once was."

Presley married Priscilla Beaulieu, whom he had met in Germany and who had stayed with him during the 1960s, on May 1, 1967 in Las Vegas, Nevada. A daughter Lisa Marie was born nine months later on February 1, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee.

1968 comeback special

Presley's star had increasingly faded over the 1960s as he made his movies and America was struck by changing styles and tastes after the "British Invasion" spearheaded by the Beatles and the San Francisco sound of Haight Ashbury.

Until the late sixties Presley continued to star in many B-movies that, although profitable, featured soundtracks that were of increasingly lower quality. Chart statistics for the summer of 1968 show that his recording career was floundering badly. He had apparently become deeply dissatisfied with the direction his career had taken over the preceding seven years, most notably the film contracts with a demanding schedule that eliminated creative recording and giving public concerts. This lead to a triumphant televised performance later dubbed the '68 Comeback Special, aired on the NBC television network on December 3, 1968, and released as an album by RCA. Although the Special featured big, lavish production numbers (not dissimilar to those in his movies), it also featured intimate and emotionally charged live sessions that saw him return to his rock and roll roots (he had not performed live since the Pearl Harbor concert of 1961). Rolling Stone magazine called it "a performance of emotional grandeur and historical resonance." Presley was greatly assisted in the success of the '68 Comeback by the director and co-producer, Steve Binder, who worked hard to make sure the show was not just a selection of Christmas songs, as Presley's manager had originally planned.

Return to live performances

The comeback of 1968 was followed by a 1969 return to regular live performances, first in Las Vegas and then across the United States (He performed 1,145 concerts in the eight years from 1969 to 1977).The return was noted for the constant stream of sold-out shows, with many setting venue attendance records. However, during this time, Presley's song repertoire clearly indicated that he was becoming distant from any current trends within pop and rock music, in which groups such as The Beatles and the Rolling Stones had been dominant during the 1960s. This moving away from his roots was much criticized by critics and other rock musicians.

After seven years off the top of the charts, Presley's song "Suspicious Minds" hit number one on the Billboard music charts on November 1, 1969. He also reached number one on charts elsewhere: "In the Ghetto" did so in West Germany in 1969 and "The Wonder of You" did so in the UK in 1970.

From 1969 to 1971, Presley's recordings featured prominently in singles charts of many countries, although this was at a time when album sales for other acts were growing significantly. Presley's album sales (at the time) did not compete at the same level with artists such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie and The Monkees.

From 1971 to his death in 1977, Presley employed the Stamps Quartet, a gospel group, for his backup vocals. He recorded several gospel albums, earning three Grammy Awards for his gospel music. In his later years his live stage performances almost always included a rendition of How Great Thou Art, the 19th century gospel song made famous by George Beverly Shea.

At the International Hotel, MGM filmed some of the shows for a 1970 documentary called Elvis: That’s The Way It Is which also included behind the scenes footage. An album of the same name was released later. That fall he embarked on his first tour since 1957. More gold awards for both singles and albums followed.

1971 saw Presley named 'One of the Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Nation' by the United States Junior Chamber of Commerce (The Jaycees) and he won the Bing Crosby Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (the organization that also presents Grammy awards).

MGM filmed some more tour shows for the film Elvis On Tour, which won a Golden Globe Award for Best Documentary of 1972. A fourteen-date tour started with 4 consecutive sold out shows at Madison Square Gardens in New York - Presley was the first artist ever to achieve this feat. The subsequent album As Recorded Live At Madison Square Garden became a triple-platinum seller in the U.S. and sold over five million copies worldwide. After the tour, on August 1, 1972, Presley released the single Burning Love / "It's A Matter Of Time". It did well commercially but it would prove to be his last top 10 hit on the U.S. pop charts.

In 1973, Presley began the year with two sold-out January shows in Hawaii. The second show was broadcast live around the world. Known as the "Aloha from Hawaii" concert, it was the first of its kind to be broadcast worldwide via satellite and was seen by at least one billion viewers - a quarter of 1973's world population. The album Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite went to number one and spent a year in the charts.

Off stage, Presley and his wife Priscilla had continuing difficulties in their marriage (documented by herself in her book and by Peter Guralnick). They separated on February 23, 1972, agreeing to share custody of their daughter. After their divorce in 1973, Presley became increasingly isolated and overweight, with addictive prescription drugs taking a heavy toll on his appearance, health, behavior and performances.

Despite this, Presley continued to play to sell-out crowds and release hit records. His live recording of "How Great Thou Art" from one of his Memphis concerts in 1974 won the Grammy for 'Best Inspirational Performance'. This was his third and final Grammy won out of fourteen nominations. Presley continued to tour to sold out audiences through 1975. The year ended with a massive concert in Michigan where he played to over 62,000 fans.

By now Presley was exceedingly heavy and found it very hard to lose weight. He would at times diet excessively but follow this with high-calorie binge eating. It was obvious to those around him "that he no longer had the motivation to loose his extra poundage. Likewise, as he became self-conscious of his appearance, his self-confidence before the audience declined. Headlines such as 'Elvis Battles Middle Age' and 'Time Makes Listless Machine of Elvis' were not uncommon. In the Syracuse Post-Standard, Dale Rice wrote that 'Elvis was fat, and musically his performances were mediocre." Almost throughout the 1970s, RCA had been increasingly concerned about making money from Elvis Presley material: they often had to rely on live recordings because of problems getting him to attend studio sessions. RCA's mobile studio was occasionally dispatched to Graceland in the hope of capturing an inspired vocal performance. Once in the studio, his interest in the proposed songs was sometimes lacking and he was easily distracted. Much of this behavior has been linked to the enduring problems of his health and pill taking

After taking a break from releasing records and touring, Presley returned on March 12, 1976 with his new single Hurt/ "For The Heart" He also went back on tour for March and April, again playing to sell-out crowds. In May the album From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee was released. The album went 'gold' in the U.S. From the end of May till November he toured extensively across the U.S. and in December the single Moody Blue was released.

Last year and death

As 1977 dawned Presley's health and physical appearance began to show even more marked signs of decline. As American Heritage magazine recalled: "Elvis Presley had become a grotesque caricature of his sleek, energetic former self. Hugely overweight, his mind dulled by the pharmacopoeia he daily ingested, he was barely able to pull himself through his abbreviated concerts." When he was in Alexandria, Louisiana, a local journalist complained that the star was on stage for less than an hour and "was impossible to understand." In Baton Rouge, Presley didn’t go on stage at all. He was unable to get out of his hotel bed and his manager cancelled the rest of the tour.

On April 21 the year’s third tour began, of the Midwest. The reviews "ranged from concern for his health to perplexity over how little he seemed to care," writes Peter Guralnick. According to a Detroit journalist, Elvis "stunk the joint out" in that city. Fans, too, Guralnick relates, "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." In Knoxville, Tennessee, on May 20, "there was no longer any pretense of keeping up appearances," Guralnick writes. "The idea was simply to get Elvis out onstage and keep him upright for the hour he was scheduled to perform." So it went for the rest of that spring, with Presley struggling and being helped through show after show.

Notwithstanding, shows on June 19 and 21 (in Omaha, Nebraska and Rapid City, South Dakota respectively) were recorded by RCA for an upcoming live album and videotaped for an upcoming CBS-TV special: "Elvis In Concert". The live album of the same name, which was recorded during the CBS special, eventually sold three million copies in the U.S. alone, but was not released until after Presley's death (October 3, 1977). In June the single Way Down was released. It became a platinum seller in the U.S. and went to number one in the UK soon after his death. In July, the album Moody Blue was released. It was the last album Presley released whilst he was alive. Selling well, it achieved 'gold' status in his lifetime but after his untimely death the album sold another 1.5 million copies in the U.S. and fourteen million worldwide.

Rick Stanley recalls that Presley was almost totally bedridden during the days of his last year. "We'd fly into a city and he'd go right into bed as soon as we got there. We'd have to get him up to do the show." During his last tour in 1977, "he performed poorly". When he did his show 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. He looked, moved, and gestured like an overweight old man with crippling arthritis. Perspiration poured from him, enough for a river." According to Albert Goldman, Elvis was 225 pounds over weight and during his performances "he had to wear a corset on stage. They didn't call it a corset, they called it a brace. It was a surgical looking garment that gathers the flesh in front and secures it from behind with a web of laces."

Presley made his last live concert appearance in Indianapolis at the Market Square Arena on June 26, 1977. The Indianapolis Star wrote: "The big question was ..., had he lost weight? His last concert here, nearly 2 years ago, found Elvis overweight, sick and prone to give a lethargic performance. As the lights in the Arena was turned down after intermission, you could feel a silent plea rippling through the audience: Please, Elvis, don't be fat. And then he appeared, in a gold and white jumpsuit and white boots, bounding onstage with energy that was a relief to everyone. At 42, Elvis is still carrying around some excess baggage on his mid-section, but it didn't stop him from giving a performance in true Presley style."

Presley returned to Graceland for a two month vacation. There he rarely left his bedroom. On August 17, 1977 he was scheduled to begin another tour in Portland, Maine.

On August 16, 1977, at his Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tennessee, Presley was found lying on the floor of his bedroom's bathroom by his fiancée, Ginger Alden, who had been asleep. According to the medical investigator, a stain on the bathroom carpeting indicated Presley had vomited and had "stumbled or crawled several feet before he died." He was taken to Baptist Memorial Hospital, where at 3:30 P.M. doctors pronounced him dead. Presley was 42 years old, and when he died, "he weighed 159 kilograms" (350 pounds).

At a press conference following his death, one of the medical examiners declared that he had died of a cardiac arrhythmia. Heart disease was very prevalent in his family, especially on his father's side. Presley's father Vernon also died of heart failure in 1979. Presley's autopsy results will not be in the public domain until 2027, 50 years after his death.

Rolling Stone magazine devoted an entire issue to Presley (RS 248) and his funeral was a national media event. Hundreds of thousands of Presley fans, the press, and celebrities lined the street hoping to see the open casket in Graceland and to witness Presley's funeral where Jackie Cahane gave the eulogy.

Presley was originally buried at Forest Hill Cemetery in Memphis next to his mother. After an attempted theft of the body, his remains and those of his mother were moved to Graceland to the "meditation gardens."

Following Presley's death in 1977, U.S. President Jimmy Carter said: "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."

Health issues and cause of death

Presley had many health problems, some of them chronic. There has been much debate about the matter, particularly concerning his long-term drug use and whether drugs were causing or simply treating medical conditions. Michael M. Baden and Judith Adler Hennessee wrote in Unnatural Death: Confessions of a Medical Examiner: "Elvis had 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."

Drug misuse

In her 1985 book, Elvis and Me, his wife Priscilla wrote that the star suffered from severe insomnia. By 1962, when she moved to Graceland, he was taking placidyls to get to sleep and did so in ever increasing doses. Peter Guralnick claims that Presley started his drug habits during military service by taking amphetamines which kept soldiers awake and alert on late shifts (Author Albert Goldman, in his 1990 book Elvis: The Last 24 Hours, claims that pills of some description were first given to him by Memphis disc jockey Dewey Phillips). Priscilla recounted how Presley would wake up from drug-induced sleep at his normal time (around 4:00pm), but would remain groggy and irritable for a few hours. He later started taking Dexedrine to counter this drowsiness. She stated that over time, she saw "problems in Elvis's life, all magnified by taking prescribed drugs."

Priscilla also wrote the two of them tried marijuana but did not like it because it made them ravenously hungry, with extra weight the unwanted result. Although she said her husband abhorred street drugs, she tells in her book how they tried LSD. While they both thought it had been an "extraordinary experience" they were afraid of it and did not take it again. During the time when Presley was searching for peace in his life and consulting an Indian guru (as The Beatles and others were doing at the time), he read numerous books including Aldous Huxley's "The Doors of Perception" and Timothy Leary's "Psychedelic Experience". In his book, Careless Love, biographer Peter Guralnick discusses in detail the singer's rampant prescription drug misuse. Cliff Gleaves, one of Elvis' friends, said about the singer's misuse of drugs, in this case speed (amphetamine):

"Elvis didn't care if anyone else took them or not. He was getting off on them. He loved to sit there high and wiggle in the chair, ... just sit there and watch TV. He didn't give a damn whether you did anything. He was going to do what he wanted anyway."

Bernard J. Gallagher writes about the use of drugs: "Social or recreational use is usually harmless, but intensified or compulsive use can prove fatal. This was true in the case of Elvis Presley,"

In his book, Elvis: The Last 24 Hours, Albert Goldman even went as far as to suggest that Presley committed suicide by overdosing on a stash of drugs that he stockpiled. David Stanley, Presley's stepbrother, who was at Graceland the day Presley died, is alleged to have removed the needles and drug packets near Presley's body before the paramedics arrived, suggesting that he didn't want to see Presley's name tarred with the brush of suicide. These rumours have been strongly rejected by some of Elvis's family and friends such as Joe Esposito during past appearances on the Larry King Show.

Though the singer misused prescription drugs, Priscilla wrote that he never considered it wrong because it was a medical doctor prescribing them and he in fact publicly denounced the use of (illegal) hard drugs. At a meeting with U.S. President Richard Nixon, Presley even asked the President to appoint him "Federal Agent at Large" for the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.

According to Peter Guralnick's book, Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley (1999), "drug use was heavily implicated in this unanticipated death of a middle-aged man with no known history of heart disease...no one ruled out the possibility of 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 of long standing...There was little disagreement in fact between the two principal laboratory reports and analyses filed two months later, with each stating a strong belief that the primary cause of death was polypharmacy, and the BioScience Laboratories report...indicating the detection of fourteen drugs in Elvis's system, ten in significant quantity."

Priscilla Presley was of the opinion that even if Elvis had admitted he needed help, in those days there was no Betty Ford Clinic where someone like him could get treatment. The singer's misuse of prescription drugs increased during the last years of his life, particularly after the breakup of his marriage in 1972.

Although his personal physician, Dr. George C. Nichopoulos, was exonerated in Presley's death, in 1977 alone, "Dr Nick", as Presley and others knew him, prescribed 10,000 doses of amphetamines, barbiturates, narcotics, tranquilizers, sleeping pills, laxatives and hormones. In July 1995 his license was suspended after the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners found that he had improperly dispensed potentially addictive drugs to a number of his patients.

Voice characteristics

Elvis Presley was a baritone whose voice had an extraordinary compass — the so-called register — and a very wide range of vocal color. It covered two octaves and a third, from the baritone low-G to the tenor high B, with an upward extension in falsetto to at least a D flat. Presley's best octave was in the middle, D-flat to D-flat. "He has always been able to duplicate the open, hoarse, ecstatic, screaming, shouting, wailing, reckless sound of the black rhythm-and-blues and gospel singers. But he has not been confined to that one type of vocal production." In ballads and country songs he was able to belt out "full-voiced high Gs and As that an opera baritone might envy," showing a remarkable ability to naturally assimilate styles. His "voice has always been weak at the bottom, variable and unpredictable. At the top it is often brilliant. His upward passage would seem to lie in the area of E flat, E and F."

Presley's range, though impressive in its own right, did not in itself make his voice that remarkable, at least in terms of how it measured against musical notation. What made it extraordinary, was where its center of gravity lay. By that measure, and according to Gregory Sandows, Music Professor at Columbia University, Presley was at once a bass, a baritone, and a tenor, most unusual among singers in either classical or popular music.

Legacy

According to Rolling Stone Magazine, "it was Elvis who made rock 'n' roll the international language of pop." A PBS documentary described Presley as "an American music giant of the 20th century who single-handedly changed the course of music and culture in the mid-1950s." His recordings, dance moves, attitude and clothing came to be seen as embodiments of rock and roll; he helped to lay a commercial foundation upon which other rock musicians, including those whose work pre-dated Presley's first hits, would build their careers. African-American performers like Little Richard, Fats Domino, and Chuck Berry came to national prominence after Presley's acceptance among mass audiences of White American teenagers. Singers like Jerry Lee Lewis, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison and others immediately followed in his wake. John Lennon later observed, "Before Elvis, there was nothing."

During the post-WWII economic boom of the 1950s, many parents were able to give their teenage children much higher weekly allowances, signaling a shift in the buying power and purchasing habits of American teens. During the 1940s bobby soxers had idolized Frank Sinatra - the buyers of his records were mostly between the ages of eighteen and twenty-two - but Presley triggered record buying in even younger people. Along with Presley's "ducktail" haircut, the demand for black slacks and loose, open-necked shirts resulted in new lines of clothing for teenage boys. American teenagers began buying newly available portable transistor radios and listened to rock 'n' roll on them (helping to propel that fledgling industry from an estimated 100,000 units sold in 1955 to 5,000,000 units by the end of 1958). Teens were asserting more independence and Presley became a focus for their parents' consternation.

Presley's impact on the American youth consumer market was noted on the front page of The Wall Street Journal on December 31, 1956 when business journalist Louis M. Kohlmeier wrote: "Elvis Presley today is a business," and reported on the singer's record and merchandise sales. Half a century later, historian Ian Brailsford (University of Auckland, New Zealand) commented, "The phenomenal success of Elvis Presley in 1956 convinced many doubters of the financial opportunities existing in the youth market."

By 1957, Presley was arguably the most famous entertainer in the western world. After pioneer band leader Bill Haley spawned interest in rock and roll in Western Europe, Presley's records and image triggered a wide shift in tastes with enduring effect. Singers in other countries made Presley-influenced recordings whilst his own records continued to sell around the globe, even behind the Iron Curtain. By 1958 Cliff Richard, the so-called "British Elvis", was rising to prominence in the UK, and in France Johnny Hallyday became a rock and roll idol singing in French, soon to be followed by others, like Claude François. In Italy, Adriano Celentano and Bobby Solo were heavily influenced by Presley's early style. Later, as his first movies were shown throughout the world, Presley-mannered stage performers and singers appeared everywhere, from Latin America to Asia, the Middle East, and even in some parts of Africa. Airplay and sales of Presley recordings across Europe were followed by those of other American rockers who began touring there.

Throughout his career, Presley's singing style, mannerisms and appearance continued to be imitated. It was only after his death that an industry built itself around him. Many people from a diversity of cultures and backgrounds have become professional Elvis impersonators and Presley songs continue to be popular on the karaoke circuit. "While some of the impersonators perform a whole range of Presley music, the raw 1950s Elvis and the kitschy 1970s Elvis are the favorites."

Commemoration

Presley is only one of four artists (Roy Orbison, Guns N' Roses and Nelly being the others) to ever have two top five albums on the charts simultaneously.

In addition to his own films, Presley has been the subject of more than seventy films that have his name in the title.

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1986), the Country Music Hall of Fame (1998), and the Gospel Music Hall of Fame (2001).

In 1993, Presley's image appeared on a United States postage stamp. According to a 2006 survey for the USPS, the Elvis Presley stamp is their most popular stamp.

Upon announcing that Presley's home, the Graceland Mansion, was being designated as a National Historic Landmark, U.S Interior Secretary Gale Norton noted on 27 March, 2006, that “It didn’t take Americans and the rest of the world long to discover Elvis Presley; and it is clear they will never forget him. His popularity continues to thrive nearly 29 years after his passing, with each new generation connecting with him in a significant way.”

In a list of the greatest English language singers of the 20th century, as compiled by BBC Radio, Presley was ranked second. The poll was topped by Frank Sinatra, with Nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald also in the top ten.

In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him #3 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

In July of 2005, Presley edged out Oprah Winfrey to be named the Greatest Entertainer in American history in the Greatest American election conducted by the Discovery Channel and America Online.

In mid October of 2005, Variety named the top 100 entertainment icons of the 20th century, with Presley landing on the top ten, along with the Beatles, Marilyn Monroe, Lucille Ball, Marlon Brando, Humphrey Bogart, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Chaplin, James Dean and Mickey Mouse.

A week later, Forbes magazine named Presley, for the fifth straight year, the top-earning dead celebrity, grossing US$45 million for the Presley estate during the period from October of 2004, to October 2005. Forbes pointed out that CKX spent $100 million in cash, and stock, for an 85% interest in Presley's income stream in February 2005.

In mid 2006, Forbes up-dated its list, with Presley ranking second, the top place being taken by Nirvana's frontman, Kurt Cobain, after the sale of 25% of his music publishing, which raked US$50 million for the singer's widow.

In November of 2006, Atlantic Magazine asked 10 prominent historians to name the 100 most influential Americans, with Presley (who ranked # 66), along with Louis Armstrong (79), being the only two musicians on the list.

On the site where Market Square Arena in Indianapolis, IN once stood (Elvis's last concert venue), a small monument with a sign affixed on top still stands. The sign states that enclosed in the small monument is one of Elvis's scarfs from the last performance that night.

Ancestry

Elvis Presley's ancestors emigrated to the United States over 250 years ago and can be traced back seven generations to Scotland. The first Presley in America was their son, Andrew Presley II, born in 1720, from Lonmay, Aberdeenshire in the North-east of Scotland, who arrived in North Carolina in 1745.

Presley was mostly of Scottish, Irish, Native American, Jewish, and German roots.

Recent developments

Interest in Presley's recordings returned during the buildup to the 2002 World Cup, when Nike used a Junkie XL remixed version of his "A Little Less Conversation" (credited as "Elvis Vs JXL") as the background music to a series of TV commercials featuring international soccer stars. The remix hit number one in over 20 countries, including the United Kingdom and Australia.

At about the same time, a compilation of Presley's US and UK Number 1 hits, Elv1s: 30, was being prepared for release. "A Little Less Conversation" (remix version) was quickly added as the album's 31st track just before release in October 2002. Further stimulating popularity for the remixed "new" Elvis song, was the inclusion of Conversation into the opening credits of the NBC series Las Vegas; due to the large expense of such a song, however, home DVD sets of the TV show feature Conversation in the Pilot episode only. Nearly 50 years after Presley made his first hit record and 25 years after his death, the compilation reached number one on the charts in the US, the UK, Australia and many other countries. A re-release from it, "Burning Love" (not a remix), also made the Australian top 40 later in the year.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary in mid-2004 of Presley's first professional recording, "That's All Right", it was re-released, and made the charts around the world, including top three in the UK and top 40 in Australia.

In 2005 CBS aired a TV miniseries, Elvis starring Irish actor Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as Presley.

Shortly after taking over the management of all things Elvis from the Elvis Presley Estate (EPE) (which retained a 15% stake in the new company, while keeping Graceland and the bulk of the possessions found therein), Robert Sillerman's CKX company produced a DVD and CD featuring Presley (titled "Elvis by the Presleys"), as well as an accompanying two-hour documentary broadcast on Viacom's CBS Network, which alone generated $5.5 million.

In December 2006, EPE announced a strategy to bring Elvis and his music to a younger demographic in 2007. In addition, in 2009 the world famous Cirque De Soleil organisation will open a show based around Elvis' music.

Elvis lives?

There is a belief in some quarters that Presley did not die in 1977. Many fans persist in claiming he is still alive, that he went into hiding for various reasons. This claim is allegedly backed up by thousands of so-called Elvis sightings that have occurred in the years since his death. Critics of the notion state that a number of Presley impersonators can easily be mistaken for Presley and that the urban legend is merely the result of fans not wanting to accept his death.

Two main reasons are given in support of the belief that Presley faked his death:

• On his grave, his middle name Aron is misspelled as Aaron. Presley's parents went to great lengths to remove the double 'A' on his official birth certificate after his twin brother Jesse Garon was stillborn.

• "Hours after Presley's death was announced, a man by the name of Jon Burrows (Presley's traveling alias) purchased a one way ticket with cash to Buenos Aires."

Discography

• For a detailed discography, see Elvis Presley discography.
• For a list of Presley's singles, see Elvis Presley hit singles.
• For a list of all of his songs, see Alphabetical list of all of Elvis Presley's songs.

See also

• Elvis Presley's relationships
• Elvis Presley's political beliefs
• Elvis Presley's cultural impact
• Elvis Presley phenomenon
• Cultural depictions of Elvis Presley
• Elvis impersonator
• Elvis sightings
• Memphis Mafia
• Elvis Presley Enterprises
• Priscilla Presley
• Lisa Marie Presley
• Elvis and Me
• Alphabetical list of all of Elvis Presley's songs
• List of songs about or referencing Elvis Presley
• Sun Records
• List of Elvis Presley films
• List of actors who have played Elvis Presley
• Best-selling artist of all-time
• List of artists by total number of USA number one singles
• List of best-selling music artists
• 24 Hour Church of Elvis
• Elvis-A-Rama Museum
• "Tagish" Elvis Presley
• Elvis Herselvis
• Look alike contest

Notes

1. "Fans Of Elvis Pay a Lot to See Little" by Damien Jaques, The Milwaukee Journal, April 28, 1977, retrieved October 22, 2006
2. "They Screamed For Elvis 'All it took was a shake of a finger'" by Paul Betit, Kennebec Journal, May 25, 1977, retrieved October 22, 2006
3. "There's no doubt about it -Elvis is still 'king'" by Jeri Gulbransen, Rapid City Journal, June 22, 1977, retrieved October 22, 2006
4. "Elvis Presley". history-of-rock.com. Retrieved 2006-08-27.
5. Guralnick, p.149
6. Guralnick, p.36, referring to an account by singer Barbara Pittman and Patrick Humphries, Elvis The #1 Hits: The Secret History of the Classics, p.117.
7. Connie Kirchberg and Marc Hendrickx, Elvis Presley, Richard Nixon, and the American Dream (1999), p.6-7.
8. According to the official Presley website at www.elvis.com
9. PBS
10. See James Miller, Flowers in the Dustbin: The Rise of Rock and Roll, 1947-1977 (1999), p. 71
11. "Newsweek" August 18, 1997 "Good Rockin' page 55
12. The Rockabilly Legends; They Called It Rockabilly Long Before they Called It Rock and Roll by Jerry Naylor and Steve Halliday pages 38, 40 ISBN-13;: 978-I-4234-2042-2
13. Elvis Presley: Sun 209
14. Elvis Presley Sun Recordings
15. Elvis' First Record
16. Overton Park Shell 50th Anniversary, Elvis’ 1st live show
17. The Rockabilly Legends; They Called It Rockabilly Long Before they Called It Rock and Roll by Jerry Naylor and Steve Halliday page 43 ISBN-13;: 978-I-4234-2042-2
18. Elvis Presley Classic Albums DVD by Eagle Eye Media EE19007 NTSC
19. The Rockabilly Legends; They Called It Rockabilly Long Before they Called It Rock and Roll by Jerry Naylor and Steve Halliday pages 43-46 ISBN-13;: 978-I-4234-2042-2
20. The Rockabilly Legends; They Called It Rockabilly Long Before they Called It Rock and Roll by Jerry Naylor and Steve Halliday DVD, page 52 ISBN-13;: 978-I-4234-2042-2
21. Elvis
22. Elvis ‘56 DVD
23. Elvis ‘56 DVD
24. Beebe, Fulbrook and Saunders, Rock over the Edge, p.97.
26. Scotty Moore, That’s Alright, Elvis: The Untold Story of Elvis’s First Guitarist and Manager, Scotty Moore, p.175.
27. Peter Harry Brown and Pat H. Broeske, Down at the End of Lonely Street: The Life and Death of Elvis Presley (1998), p.55.
29. Elvis in the Army
30. Ernst Jorgensen, Elvis Presley: A life in music. The complete recording sessions, p.107, 1998
31. Guralnick, p.21
32. Robert Rodriguez, The 1950s' Most Wanted: The Top 10 Book of Rock & Roll Rebels, Cold War Crises, and All-American Oddities (2006), p.87
33. See Rodriguez, The 1950s' Most Wanted, p.87.
34. Guralnick, p.478.
35. Guralnick, p.480.
36. Sergeant Elvis Aaron Presley
37. www.army.mil/CMH/faq/elvis.htm.
38. .
39. Leo Verswijver, Movies Were Always Magical: Interviews with 19 Actors, Directors, and Producers from the Hollywood of the 1930s through the 1950s (2002), p.129.
40. Tom Lisanti, Fantasy Femmes of 60's Cinema: Interviews with 20 Actresses from Biker, Beach, and Elvis Movies (2000), p.18.
41. Andrew Caine, Interpreting Rock Movies: The Pop Film and Its Critics in Britain, p. 21.
42. Connie Kirchberg and Marc Hendrickx, Elvis Presley, Richard Nixon, and the American Dream (1999), p.67.
43. Jerry Hopkins, Elvis in Hawaii (2002), p.32.
44. Hopkins, p.31
45. Tom Lisanti, Fantasy Femmes of 60's Cinema, p.19, 136.
46. Hopkins, Elvis in Hawaii, p. vii
47. Magdalena Alagna, Elvis Presley (2002)
48. Tom Lisanti, Fantasy Femmes of 60's Cinema: Interviews with 20 Actresses from Biker, Beach, and Elvis Movies, p.19.
49. http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/elvispresley/biography
50. "How Big Was The King? Elvis Presley's Legacy, 25 Years After His Death." CBS News, August 7, 2002.
51. This was the last time any song by Presley reached number one on the Hot 100, although "Burning Love" reached two in October 1972, and "A Little Less Conversation" topped the Hot Singles Sales chart in 2002.
52. According to Billy Stanley, he "wasn't the same person" as before. Cited in Connie Kirchberg and Marc Hendrickx, p.109.
53. See Samuel Roy, Elvis: Prophet of Power, p.70.
54. Guralnick, in passim
55. Tony Scherman, "Elvis Dies." American Heritage, August 16, 2006.
56. Samuel Roy, Elvis: Prophet of Power, p.71.
57. Guralnick, Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley, p.651.
58. Great Moments in Science: Fat Dead Elvis.
59. Culture Shock: Flashpoints: Music and Dance: Elvis Presley
60. "Death of Elvis Presley Statement by the President." by John Woolley and Gerhard Peters, The American Presidency Project, retrieved October 22, 2006
61. Michael M. Baden and Judith Adler Hennessee, Unnatural Death: Confessions of a Medical Examiner (1992), p.35.
62. Guralnick, Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley, p.240,
63. Bernard J. Gallagher, The Sociology of Mental Illness (1987), p.85.
64. Henry Pleasants, The Great American Popular Singers.
65. For more details, see Henry Pleasants, "Elvis Presley." In Simon Frith, ed., Popular Music: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies. Volume 3: Popular Music Analysis (2004), p.260.
66. "Elvis Presley": a page at pbs.org with a single paragraph, attributed to palmpictures.com.
67. # ^ CNN.com Elvis is still everywhere August 16, 2002.
68. # ^ Rich Gordon, "How Transistor Radios and Web (and Newspapers and Hi-Fi radio) are Alike", "Reprinted, with permission, from The Cole Papers, June 22, 2005."
69. # ^ Ian Brailsford, "History repeating itself: Were postwar American teenagers ripe for harvest?" (NB Microsoft Word format): transcript of a paper delivered at "Youth Marketing Reaches Forty", 17 May 2001.
70. Harry Stecopoulos and Michael Uebel, Race and the Subject of Masculinities (Duke University Press, 1997), p.198.
71. "Elvis remains the king of postage stamps". Associated Press. 2006-12-26. Retrieved 2006-12-26. This year's Wonders of America set climbed to second place in the most popular stamps, but Elvis is still the King, the Postal Service said Tuesday. {{cite news}}: |first= missing |last= (help)
72. "Sinatra is voice of the century" BBC NEWS, April 18, 2001, retrieved October 22, 2006
73. "The Immortals: The First Fifty". Rolling Stone Issue 946. Rolling Stone.
74. "Elvis roots 'lead to Scotland'"; a 23 March 2004 BBC story that cites Allan Morrison, the author of the then-unpublished book The Presley Prophecy
75. ".
76. ""
77. Elvis having Jewish heritage
78. It was also his first top 10 hit in the UK for nearly 22 years, and his first number one there for nearly 25 years. It topped Billboard's Hot Singles Sales chart (physical singles - legal downloads were not around at the time) but only reached #50 on the Hot 100.
79. Official Elvis Website
80. The Elvis Presley Online Store, "Is Elvis alive or dead?"
81. "Is Elvis Alive?", which does not elaborate or give any source for this claim.

Bibliography

• List of more than 1500 books relating to Elvis Presley
• Authors of important works on Presley include
  • Peter Guralnick, Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley (Little, Brown, 1994); Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley (Little, Brown, 1999). — Guralnick's books are considered by many to be the definitive works on Presley.
  • Alanna Nash, Elvis Aron Presley: Revelations from the Memphis Mafia (Harpercollins, 1995); The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley (Simon and Schuster, 2003). — Named the Society of Professional Journalists' National Member of the Year in 1994, a year before her book on Presley was published.
  • Albert Goldman, Elvis (McGraw-Hill, 1981); Elvis: The Last 24 Hours (Pan Books, 1991). — Reviled by many fans and some critics for his harsh criticisms of Presley.
  • Elaine Dundy, Elvis and Gladys (Futura, 1986). — Called "Nothing less than the best Elvis book yet" by the Boston Globe and Kirkus Reviews, "The most fine-grained Elvis bio ever."
  • Michael T. Bertrand, Race, Rock, and Elvis (University of Illinois Press, 2000) ISBN 0-252-02586-5. - Written by a Tennessee State University assistant professor of history (see University of Illinois Press), the book examines the emergence of rock 'n' roll in a social and regional context.
  • Louis Cantor - Dewey and Elvis - The Life and Times of a Rock 'n' Roll Deejay by a professor emeritus of history at Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne who grew up in Memphis, Tennessee and attended high school with Presley. - University of Illinois Press (2005) ISBN 0-252-02981-X
  • Vernon Chadwick, ed., In Search of Elvis: Music, Race, Art, Religion. Proceedings of the first annual International Conference on Elvis Presley (Westview, 1997).
  • Erika Doss, Elvis Culture (University of Kansas Press, 1999).
  • Greil Marcus, Double Trouble: Bill Clinton and Elvis Presley in a Land of No Alternative (Faber, 2000).
  • Thomas Fensch - The FBI Files on Elvis Presley (New Century Books, 2001). ISBN 0-930751-03-5. This book reproduces actual texts from numerous FBI reports dating from 1959 to 1981,which represent a "microcosm behind-the-scenes life."

The bibliographic reference Elvis In Print: The Definitive Reference & Price Guide: contains references to more than 1,500 books about Elvis and a further 2,000 listings for popular culture and periodical releases substantially about the King of Rock 'n' Roll.

Links to major online reference sources, including the First Online Symposium on Elvis Aaron Presley, can be found on the the Elvis Information Network website.

External links

• Elvis Presley Enterprises - Official site of Elvis Presley.
• Elvis Presley at IMDb
• ElvisPedia - Encyclopedia of Elvis Presley.
• Rockhall - Rock Hall of Fame.
• Elvis at Music.com - Complete biography - discography.
• Elvis Gospel Service
• Celluloid Elvis

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1. Elvis In Fonet

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• 1935 births
• 1977 deaths
• Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners