Elvis Presley

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Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley in Jailhouse Rock (1957)
Presley in a publicity photograph for the 1957 film Jailhouse Rock
Born
Elvis Aaron Presley[a]

(1935-01-08)January 8, 1935
DiedAugust 16, 1977(1977-08-16) (aged 42)
Resting placeGraceland, Memphis
35°2′46″N 90°1′23″W / 35.04611°N 90.02306°W / 35.04611; -90.02306
Occupations
  • Singer
  • actor
Works
Spouse
(m. 1967; div. 1973)
ChildrenLisa Marie Presley
RelativesRiley Keough (granddaughter)
Brandon Presley (second cousin)
Harold Ray Presley (first cousin once removed)
Musical career
Genres
Instruments
  • Vocals
  • guitar
  • piano
Years active1953–1977
Labels
Military service[1]
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[a] (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), also 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 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

RCA Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel Tom Parker, who would manage him for more than two decades. Presley's first RCA Victor single, "Heartbreak Hotel", was released in January 1956 and became a number-one hit in the United States. 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[6] led to him being widely considered a threat to the moral well-being of white American youth.[7]

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, following a seven-year break from live performances, 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 habits severely compromised his health, and Presley died unexpectedly in August 1977 at his Graceland estate at the age of 42.

Having sold roughly 500 million records worldwide, Presley is one of the

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 also 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

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
Presley's parents

Elvis Aaron Presley was born on January 8, 1935, in

Assembly of God church, where he found his initial musical inspiration.[11] Vernon moved from one odd job to the next,[12][13] 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 jailed for eight months.[11]

In September 1941, Presley entered first grade at East Tupelo Consolidated, where his teachers regarded him as "average".[14] 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.[15] A few months later, Presley received his first guitar for his birthday;[16][17] 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."[18]

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.[19] 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.[20] 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.[21]

In November 1948, the family moved to Memphis, Tennessee.[22] 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".[23] He was usually too shy to perform openly and was occasionally bullied by classmates for being a "mama's boy".[24] 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.[25]

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.[26] 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.[27]

Presley, who could not

B.B. King recalled that he had known Presley before he was popular when they both used to frequent Beale Street.[37] By the time he graduated high school in June 1953, Presley had singled out music as his future.[38][39]

1953–1956: first recordings

Sam Phillips and Sun Records

Elvis in a tuxedo
Presley in a Sun Records promotional photograph, 1954

In August 1953, Presley checked into

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.[40] 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.[41] Not long after, he failed an audition for a local vocal quartet, the Songfellows,[42] and another for the band of Eddie Bond.[43]

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.[45] 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.[46] 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.[47] 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.[48] 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.[49] 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.[50]

Early live performances and RCA Victor contract

The trio played publicly for the first time at the Bon Air club on July 17, 1954.

Rubber Legs", his signature dance movement.[52][53] 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.[54] Moore recalled, "During the instrumental parts, he would back off from the mike and be playing and shaking, and the crowd would just go wild."[55]

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.[56] 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."[57] Amid these live performances, Presley returned to Sun studio for more recording sessions.[58] 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.[59][60]

Louisiana Hayride, radio commercial, and first television performances

In November 1954, Presley performed on

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.[63][64]

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.[63][64]

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".[65] 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."[66] 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".[67]

Presley renewed Neal's management contract in August 1955, simultaneously appointing Parker as his special adviser.[68] The group maintained an extensive touring schedule.[69] 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."[70] 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.[71]

At the Country Disc Jockey Convention in early November, Presley was voted the year's most promising male artist.

RCA Victor on November 21 to acquire Presley's Sun contract for an unprecedented $40,000.[73][b] Presley, aged 20, was legally still a minor, so his father signed the contract.[74] 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.[75][c] By December, RCA had begun to heavily promote its new singer, and before month's end had reissued many of his Sun recordings.[78]

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.

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.[81] Neal's contract was terminated and Parker became Presley's manager.[82]

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.[83]

It became the first rock and roll album to top the Billboard chart, a position it held for ten weeks.[79] 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."[84]

Milton Berle Show and "Hound Dog"

Presley signing autographs in Minneapolis in 1956

On April 3, Presley made the first of two appearances on

Midwest in mid-May, covering fifteen cities in as many days.[90] 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.[91]

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. ... [His] 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.[92]

Presley's second Milton Berle Show appearance came on June 5 at

bordellos".[96] Ed Sullivan, whose variety show was the nation's most popular, declared Presley "unfit for family viewing".[97] To Presley's displeasure, he soon found himself being referred to as "Elvis the Pelvis", which he called "childish".[98]

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

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?"[96]

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."[103] 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.[104] 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.[105] 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".[106]

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.[107] The first, on September 9, 1956, was seen by approximately 60 million viewers—a record 82.6 percent of the television audience.[108] Actor Charles Laughton hosted the show, filling in while Sullivan was recovering from a car accident.[97] 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!"[109] Sullivan publicly told TV Guide, "As for his gyrations, the whole thing can be controlled with camera shots."[107] 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.[110][111] Presley's performance of his forthcoming single, the ballad "Love Me Tender", prompted a record-shattering million advance orders.[112] More than any other single event, it was this first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show that made Presley a national celebrity.[97]

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.[113]

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."

National Guardsmen were added to the police detail to prevent a ruckus.[115] 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."[116] 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."[117]

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.[97] 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.[89] Presley would receive top billing on every subsequent film he made.[118]

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.[119] 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,[120] and Billboard's declaration that he had placed more songs in the top 100 than any other artist since records were first charted.[121] 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.[112]

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.

classified 1-A and would probably be drafted sometime that year.[124]

Each of the three Presley singles released in the first half of 1957 went to number one: "

Leningrad.[125] Presley purchased his 18-room mansion, Graceland, on March 19, 1957.[126] 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".[127] "He was fast," said Leiber. "Any demo you gave him he knew by heart in ten minutes."[128] The title track became another number-one hit, as was the Jailhouse Rock EP.[129]

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.[130] A Detroit newspaper suggested that "the trouble with going to see Elvis Presley is that you're liable to get killed".[131] Villanova students pelted the singer with eggs in Philadelphia,[131] and in Vancouver the crowd rioted after the show ended, destroying the stage.[132] 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."[133] 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."[134]

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.[135] 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,[136][137] with eventual sales of over 20 million worldwide.[138] 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.[139]

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.[140] As Stoller later recalled, Presley's manager and entourage sought to wall him off.[141] A brief soundtrack session on February 11 marked the final occasion on which Black was to perform with Presley.[142]

1958–1960: military service and mother's death

Elvis being sworn into the US Army
Presley being sworn into 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.[143] 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.[144]

Between March 28 and September 17, 1958, Presley completed

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.[145] 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;[146][147] 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.[4]

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,

amphetamines and became "practically evangelical about their benefits", not only for energy but for "strength" and weight loss.[148] Karate became a lifelong interest: he studied with Jürgen Seydel,[149][150] and later included it in his live performances.[151][152][153] 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.[154] Presley was promoted to sergeant on February 11, 1960.[1]

While in Bad Nauheim, Presley, aged 24, met 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu.[155] 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.[156] 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.[157] 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.[158] 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.[159]

1960–1968: focus on films

Elvis Is Back

Presley returned to the U.S. on March 2, 1960, and was

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."[164] 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; [a] raucous rocker".[165] Released only days after recording was complete, it reached number two on the album chart.[166][167]

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.[168]

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.[169] A twelve-hour Nashville session in mid-March yielded nearly all of Presley's next studio album, Something for Everybody.[170] 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".[171] 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.[172]

Lost in Hollywood

Parker had by now pushed Presley into a heavy filmmaking schedule, focused on formulaic, modestly budgeted

Hal Wallis, who produced nine, declared, "A Presley picture is the only sure thing in Hollywood."[175]

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 [number], one up-tempo, and one break blues boogie".[176] As the decade wore on, the quality of the soundtrack songs grew "progressively worse".[177] Julie Parrish, who appeared in Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966), says that Presley disliked many of the songs.[178] 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."[179] 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".[180]

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 "

Grammy Award, for Best Sacred Performance. As Marsh described, Presley was "arguably the greatest white gospel singer of his time [and] really the last rock & roll artist to make gospel as vital a component of his musical personality as his secular songs".[181]

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.[182] 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."[183]

1968–1973: comeback

Elvis: the '68 Comeback Special

'68 Comeback Special produced "one of the most famous images" of Presley.[184] Taken on June 29, 1968, it was adapted for the cover of Rolling Stone in July 1969.[184][185]

Presley's only child,

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.[188]

Recorded in late June in

'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.[189] The show, NBC's highest-rated that season, captured forty-two percent of the total viewing audience.[190] 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."[191] Marsh calls the performance one of "emotional grandeur and historical resonance".[192]

By January 1969, the single "

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."[190] 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.'"[190]

From Elvis in Memphis and the International

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."[194] 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".[195]

Presley was keen to resume regular live performing. Following the success of the Comeback Special, offers came in from around the world. The

Sweet Inspirations.[197] 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.[198] 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.[199]

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).

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.[205]

marijuana, and he was just appalled."[206] Presley also rarely drank—several of his family members had been alcoholics, a fate he intended to avoid.[207]

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

.45 caliber pistol in his waistband, but the concerts succeeded without any incidents.[211][212]

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.[213]

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.[214]

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

prescription drug abuse.[218]

The

Elvis Country, a concept record that focused on genre standards.[222] 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 [Presley's] sin was his lifelessness, it was his sinfulness that brought him to life.[223]

Marriage breakdown and Aloha from Hawaii