Elvis Presley: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 01:05, 7 September 2016
Elvis Presley | |
---|---|
Humes High School | |
Occupation(s) | Singer, musician, actor |
Spouse | |
Children | Lisa Marie Presley |
Relatives | Danielle Riley Keough (granddaughter) |
Musical career | |
Genres | |
Instrument(s) | Vocals, guitar, piano |
Years active | 1953–1977 |
Labels | Sun, RCA (Victor), HMV |
Website | elvis |
Signature | |
Elvis Aaron Presley[a] (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American musician and actor. Regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century, he is often referred to as "the King of Rock and Roll", or simply, "the King".
Presley was born in
In November 1956, he made his film debut in
Presley is one of the most celebrated and influential musicians of the 20th century. Commercially successful in many genres, including pop,
Life and career
1935–53: Early years
Childhood in Tupelo
Presley was born on January 8, 1935, in
Presley's ancestry was primarily a Western European mix, including Scots-Irish, Scottish,[18] German,[19] and some French Norman. Gladys's great-great-grandmother, Morning Dove White, was possibly a Cherokee Native American.[20][21][b] Gladys was regarded by relatives and friends as the dominant member of the small family. Vernon moved from one odd job to the next, evincing little ambition.[24][25] The family often relied on help from neighbors and government food assistance. The Presleys survived the F5 tornado in the 1936 Tupelo–Gainesville tornado outbreak. In 1938, they lost their home after Vernon was found guilty of kiting a check written by the landowner, Orville S. Bean, the dairy farmer and cattle-and-hog broker for whom he then worked. He was jailed for eight months, and Gladys and Elvis moved in with relatives.[26]
In September 1941, Presley entered first grade at East Tupelo Consolidated, where his instructors regarded him as "average".[27] He was encouraged to enter a singing contest after impressing his schoolteacher with a rendition of Red Foley's country song "Old Shep" during morning prayers. The contest, held at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show on October 3, 1945, was his first public performance: dressed as a cowboy, the ten-year-old Presley stood on a chair to reach the microphone and sang "Old Shep". He recalled placing fifth.[28] A few months later, Presley received his first guitar for his birthday; he had hoped for something else—by different accounts, either a bicycle or a rifle.[29][30] Over the following year, he received basic guitar lessons from two of his uncles and the new 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."[31]
Entering a new school, Milam, for sixth grade in September 1946, Presley was regarded as a loner. The following year, he began bringing his guitar in on a daily basis. He played and sang during lunchtime, and was often teased as a "trashy" kid who played hillbilly music. The family was by then living in a largely African-American neighborhood.[32] A devotee of Mississippi Slim's show on the Tupelo radio station WELO, Presley was described as "crazy about music" by Slim's younger brother, a classmate of Presley's, who often took him into the station. Slim supplemented Presley's guitar tuition by demonstrating chord techniques.[33] When his protégé was 12 years old, Slim scheduled him for two on-air performances. Presley was overcome by stage fright the first time, but succeeded in performing the following week.[34]
Teenage life in Memphis
In November 1948, the family moved to
During his junior year, Presley began to stand out more among his classmates, largely because of his appearance: he grew out his sideburns and styled his hair with rose oil and Vaseline. In his free time, he would head down to Beale Street, the heart of Memphis's thriving blues scene, and gaze longingly at the wild, flashy clothes in the windows of Lansky Brothers. By his senior year, he was wearing them.[41] Overcoming his reticence about performing outside the Lauderdale Courts, he competed in Humes's Annual "Minstrel" show in April 1953. Singing and playing guitar, he opened with "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 after that."[42]
Presley, who never received formal music training or learned to read music, studied and played by ear. He also frequented record stores with
1953–55: First recordings
Sam Phillips and Sun Records
In August 1953, Presley walked into the offices of
In January 1954, Presley cut a second acetate at Sun Records—"I'll Never Stand In Your Way" and "It Wouldn't Be the Same Without You"—but again nothing came of it.
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. As Keisker reported, "Over and over I remember Sam saying, 'If I could find a white man who had the Negro sound and the Negro feel, I could make a billion dollars.'"[62] In June, he acquired a demo recording of a ballad, "Without You", that he thought might suit the teenage singer. Presley came by the studio, but was unable to do it justice. Despite this, Phillips asked Presley to sing as many numbers as he knew. He was sufficiently affected by what he heard to invite two local musicians, guitarist Winfield "Scotty" Moore and upright bass player Bill Black, to work something up with Presley for a recording session.[63]
The session, held the evening of July 5, 1954, proved entirely unfruitful until late in the night. As they were about to give up and go home, Presley took his guitar and 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. Sam, I think, had the door to the control booth open ... he stuck his head out and said, 'What are you doing?' And we said, 'We don't know.' 'Well, back up,' he said, 'try to find a place to start, and do it again.'" Phillips quickly began taping; this was the sound he had been looking for.[65] Three days later, popular Memphis DJ Dewey Phillips played "That's All Right" on his Red, Hot, and Blue show.[66] Listeners began phoning in, eager to find out who the singer was. The interest was such that Phillips played the record repeatedly during the last two hours of his show. Interviewing Presley on-air, Phillips asked him what high school he attended in order to clarify his color for the many callers who had assumed he was black.[55][67] During the next few days, the trio recorded a bluegrass number, 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.[68]
Early live performances and signing with RCA
The trio played publicly for the first time on July 17 at the Bon Air club—Presley still sporting his child-size guitar.[69] At the end of the month, they appeared at the Overton Park Shell, with Slim Whitman headlining. A combination of his strong response to rhythm and nervousness at playing before a large crowd 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.[70] 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".[71] Black, a natural showman, whooped and rode his bass, hitting double licks that Presley would later remember as "really a wild sound, like a jungle drum or something".[71]
Soon after, Moore and Black quit their old band to play with Presley regularly, and DJ and promoter Bob Neal became the trio's manager. From August through October, they played frequently at the Eagle's Nest club and returned to Sun Studio for more recording sessions,
By early 1955, Presley's regular Hayride appearances, constant touring, and well-received record releases had made him a regional star, from Tennessee to West Texas. In January, Neal signed a formal management contract with Presley and brought the singer to the attention of
Presley renewed Neal's management contract in August 1955, simultaneously appointing Parker as his special adviser.[84] The group maintained an extensive touring schedule throughout the second half of the year.[85] 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. They'd get a gang and try to waylay him or something."[86] 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" 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.[87]
At the Country Disc Jockey Convention in early November, Presley was voted the year's most promising male artist.
1956–58: Commercial breakout and controversy
First national TV appearances and debut album
On January 10, 1956, Presley made his first recordings for RCA in Nashville.
RCA Victor released Presley's eponymous debut album on March 23. Joined by five previously unreleased Sun recordings, its seven recently recorded tracks were of a broad variety. There were two country songs and a bouncy pop tune. The others 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 for some time, covers of Little Richard,[55] 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."[100] It became the first rock-and-roll album to top the Billboard chart, a position it held for 10 weeks.[95] While Presley was not an innovative guitarist like Moore or contemporary African American rockers Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry, cultural historian Gilbert B. Rodman argues 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."[101]
Milton Berle Show and "Hound Dog"
Presley made the first of two appearances on NBC's
The second Milton Berle Show appearance came on June 5 at NBC's Hollywood studio, amid another hectic tour. Berle persuaded the singer to leave his guitar backstage, advising, "Let 'em see you, son."
Steve Allen Show and first Sullivan appearance
The Berle shows drew such high ratings that Presley was booked for a July 1 appearance on NBC's
The next day, Presley recorded "Hound Dog", along with "
Allen's show with Presley had, for the first time, beaten CBS's
Accompanying Presley's rise to fame, a cultural shift was taking place that he both helped inspire and came to symbolize. Igniting the "biggest pop craze since Glenn Miller and Frank Sinatra ... Presley brought rock'n'roll into the mainstream of popular culture", writes historian Marty Jezer. "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."[130]
Crazed crowds and film debut
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."
Presley returned to the Sullivan show at its main studio in New York, hosted this time by its namesake, on October 28. After the performance, crowds in Nashville and St. Louis burned him in effigy.[114] 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 the critics but did very well at the box office.[106]
On December 4, Presley dropped into Sun Records where Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis were recording and jammed with them. Though Phillips no longer had the right to release any Presley material, he made sure the session was captured on tape. The results became legendary as the "Million Dollar Quartet" recordings—Johnny Cash was long thought to have played as well, but he was present only briefly at Phillips' instigation for a photo opportunity.[135] 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,[136] and Billboard's declaration that he had placed more songs in the top 100 than any other artist since records were first charted.[137] In his first full year at RCA, one of the music industry's largest companies, Presley had accounted for over 50 percent of the label's singles sales.[129]
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.[128][138] In any event, as critic Greil Marcus describes, Presley "did not tie himself down. Leaving behind the bland clothes he had worn on the first two shows, he stepped out in the outlandish costume of a pasha, if not a harem girl. From the make-up over his eyes, the hair falling in his face, the overwhelmingly sexual cast of his mouth, he was playing Rudolph Valentino in The Sheik, with all stops out."[114] To close, displaying his range and defying Sullivan's wishes, Presley sang a gentle black spiritual, "Peace in the Valley". At the end of the show, Sullivan declared Presley "a real decent, fine boy".[139] Two days later, the Memphis
Each of the three Presley singles released in the first half of 1957 went to number one: "Too Much", "All Shook Up", and "(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear". Already an international star, he was attracting fans even where his music was not officially released. Under the headline "Presley Records a Craze in Soviet", The New York Times reported that pressings of his music on discarded X-ray plates were commanding high prices in Leningrad.[141] Between film shoots and recording sessions, the singer also found time to purchase an 18-room mansion eight miles (13 km) south of downtown Memphis for himself and his parents: Graceland.[142] When he reported to the film studio for his second film, the Technicolor Loving You, released in July, "The makeup man said that with his eyes he should photograph well with black hair, so they dyed it."[143] Loving You, the accompanying soundtrack, was Presley's 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".[144]
Leiber remembered initially finding Presley "not quite authentic—after all, he was a white singer, and my standards were black."[145] According to Stoller, the duo was "surprised at the kind of knowledge that he had about black music. We figured that he had these remarkable pipes and all that, but we didn't realize that he knew so much about the blues. We were quite surprised to find out that he knew as much about it as we did. He certainly knew a lot more than we did about country music and gospel music."[146] Leiber remembered the recording process with Presley, "He was fast. Any demo you gave him he knew by heart in ten minutes." [145] As Stoller recalled, Presley "was 'protected'" by his manager and entourage. "He was removed. … They kept him separate."[146]
Presley undertook three brief tours during the year, continuing to generate a crazed audience response.[147] A Detroit newspaper suggested that "the trouble with going to see Elvis Presley is that you're liable to get killed."[148] Villanova students pelted him with eggs in Philadelphia,[148] and in Vancouver, the crowd rioted after the end of the show, destroying the stage.[149] Frank Sinatra, who had famously inspired the swooning of teenaged girls in the 1940s, condemned the new musical phenomenon. In a magazine article, he 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."[150] 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."[151]
Leiber and Stoller were again in the studio for the recording of
1958–60: Military service and mother's death
On March 24, Presley was inducted into the U.S. Army as a private at
Soon after Presley commenced basic training at
After training, Presley joined the 3rd Armored Division in Friedberg, Germany, on October 1.[163] Introduced to amphetamines by a sergeant while on maneuvers, he became "practically evangelical about their benefits"—not only for energy, but for "strength" and weight loss, as well—and many of his friends in the outfit joined him in indulging.[164] The Army also introduced Presley to karate, which he studied seriously, later including it in his live performances.[165] 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 TV sets for the base, and bought an extra set of fatigues for everyone in his outfit.[166]
While in Friedberg, Presley met 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu. They would eventually marry after a seven-and-a-half-year courtship.[167] In her autobiography, Priscilla says that despite his worries that it would ruin his career, Parker convinced Presley that to gain popular respect, he should serve his country as a regular soldier rather than in Special Services, where he would have been able to give some musical performances and remain in touch with the public.[168] Media reports echoed Presley's concerns about his career, but RCA producer Steve Sholes and Freddy Bienstock of Hill and Range had carefully prepared for his two-year hiatus. Armed with a substantial amount of unreleased material, they kept up a regular stream of successful releases.[169] Between his induction and discharge, Presley had ten top 40 hits, including "Wear My Ring Around Your Neck", the best-selling "Hard Headed Woman", and "One Night"[170] in 1958, and "(Now and Then There's) A Fool Such as I" and the number one "A Big Hunk o' Love" in 1959.[171] RCA also generated four albums compiling old material during this period, most successfully Elvis' Golden Records (1958), which hit number three on the LP chart.[172]
1960–67: Focus on films
Elvis Is Back
Presley returned to the United States on March 2, 1960, and was honorably discharged with the rank of sergeant on March 5.
Presley returned to television on May 12 as a guest on The Frank Sinatra Timex Special—ironic for both stars, given Sinatra's not-so-distant excoriation of rock and roll. 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 fee for eight minutes of singing. The broadcast drew an enormous viewership.[180]
Lost in Hollywood
Parker had by now pushed Presley into a heavy film making schedule, focused on formulaic, modestly budgeted musical comedies. Presley at first insisted on pursuing more serious roles, but when two films in a more dramatic vein—
Of Presley's films in the 1960s, 15 were accompanied by soundtrack albums and another 5 by soundtrack EPs. The films' rapid production and release schedules—he 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".[188] As the decade wore on, the quality of the soundtrack songs grew "progressively worse".[189] Julie Parrish, who appeared in Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966), says that he hated many of the songs chosen for his films.[190] The Jordanaires' Gordon Stoker describes how Presley would retreat from the studio microphone: "The material was so bad that he felt like he couldn't sing it."[191] 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."[192] Regardless of the songs' quality, it has been argued that Presley generally sang them well, with commitment.[193] Critic Dave Marsh heard the opposite: "Presley isn't trying, probably the wisest course in the face of material like 'No Room to Rumba in a Sports Car' and 'Rock-a-Hula Baby.'"[134]
In the first half of the decade, three of Presley's soundtrack albums hit number one on the pop charts, and a few of his most popular songs came from his films, such as "
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.[195] The flow of formulaic films and assembly-line soundtracks rolled on. It was not until October 1967, when the Clambake soundtrack LP registered record low sales for a new Presley album, that RCA 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."[196]
1968–73: Comeback
Elvis: the '68 Comeback Special
Presley's only child,
Recorded in late June in Burbank, California, the special, called simply Elvis, aired on December 3, 1968. Later known as the '68 Comeback Special, the show featured lavishly staged studio productions as well as songs performed with a band in front of a small audience—Presley's first live performances since 1961. The live segments saw Presley clad in tight black leather, singing and playing guitar in an uninhibited style reminiscent of his early rock-and-roll days. Bill Belew, who designed this outfit, gave it a Napoleonic standing collar (Presley customarily wore high collars because he believed his neck looked too long), a design feature that he would later make a major trademark of the outfits Presley wore on stage in his later years. Director and coproducer Steve Binder had worked hard to reassure the nervous singer and to produce a show that was far from the hour of Christmas songs Parker had originally planned.[202] The show, NBC's highest rated that season, captured 42 percent of the total viewing audience.[203] 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."[204] Dave Marsh calls the performance one of "emotional grandeur and historical resonance."[205]
By January 1969, the single "
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 Dave 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."[207]
Presley was keen to resume regular live performing. Following the success of the Comeback Special, offers came in from around the world. The
Presley took to the stage without introduction. The audience of 2200, 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" (a song that would be his closing number for much of the 1970s).
Cassandra Peterson, later television's Elvira, met Presley during this period in Las Vegas, where she was working as a showgirl. She recalls of their encounter, "He was so anti-drug when I met him. I mentioned to him that I smoked marijuana, and he was just appalled. He said, 'Don't ever do that again.'"[217] Presley was not only deeply opposed to recreational drugs, he also rarely drank. Several of his family members had been alcoholics, a fate he intended to avoid.[218]
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
The album 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 notes, "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."[224] 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.[225]
On December 21, 1970, Presley engineered a meeting with President
The
Marriage breakdown and Aloha from Hawaii
MGM again filmed Presley in April 1972, this time for
Presley and his wife, meanwhile, had become increasingly distant, barely cohabiting. In 1971, an affair he had with Joyce Bova resulted—unbeknownst to him—in her pregnancy and an abortion.
In January 1973, Presley performed two benefit concerts for the
At a midnight show the same month, four men rushed onto the stage in an apparent attack. Security men leapt to Presley's defense, and the singer's karate instinct took over as he ejected one invader from the stage himself. Following the show, he became obsessed with the idea that the men had been sent by Mike Stone to kill him. Though they were shown to have been only overexuberant fans, he raged, "There's too much pain in me ... Stone [must] die." His outbursts continued with such intensity that a physician was unable to calm him, despite administering large doses of medication. After another two full days of raging, Red West, his friend and bodyguard, felt compelled to get a price for a contract killing and was relieved when Presley decided, "Aw hell, let's just leave it for now. Maybe it's a bit heavy."[250]
1973–77: Health deterioration and death
Medical crises and last studio sessions
Presley's divorce took effect on October 9, 1973.
Presley's condition declined precipitously in September. Keyboardist
On July 13, 1976, Vernon Presley—who had become deeply involved in his son's financial affairs—fired "Memphis Mafia" bodyguards Red West (Presley's friend since the 1950s), Sonny West, and David Hebler, citing the need to "cut back on expenses".[257][258][259] Presley was in Palm Springs at the time,[260] and some suggest the singer was too cowardly to face the three himself. Another associate of Presley's, John O'Grady, argued that the bodyguards were dropped because their rough treatment of fans had prompted too many lawsuits.[261] However, Presley's stepbrother David Stanley has claimed that the bodyguards were fired because they were becoming more outspoken about Presley's drug dependency.[262]
RCA, which had enjoyed a steady stream of product from Presley for over a decade, grew anxious as his interest in spending time in the studio waned. After a December 1973 session that produced 18 songs, enough for almost two albums, he did not enter the studio in 1974.[263] Parker sold RCA on another concert record, Elvis Recorded Live on Stage in Memphis.[264] Recorded on March 20, it included a version of "How Great Thou Art" that would win Presley his third and final competitive Grammy Award.[265] (All three of his competitive Grammy wins—out of 14 total nominations—were for gospel recordings.) Presley returned to the studio in Hollywood in March 1975, but Parker's attempts to arrange another session toward the end of the year were unsuccessful.[266] In 1976, RCA sent a mobile studio to Graceland that made possible two full-scale recording sessions at Presley's home.[267] Even in that comfortable context, the recording process was now a struggle for him.[268]
For all the concerns of his label and manager, in studio sessions between July 1973 and October 1976, Presley recorded virtually the entire contents of six albums. Though he was no longer a major presence on the pop charts, five of those albums entered the top five of the country chart, and three went to number one:
Final year and death
Presley and Linda Thompson split in November 1976, and he took up with a new girlfriend, Ginger Alden.
The book
Presley was scheduled to fly out of Memphis on the evening of August 16, 1977, to begin another tour. That afternoon, Ginger Alden discovered him unresponsive on his bathroom floor. Attempts to revive him failed, and death was officially pronounced at 3:30 p.m. at Baptist Memorial Hospital.[287]
President Jimmy Carter issued a statement that credited Presley with having "permanently changed the face of American popular culture".[288] Thousands of people gathered outside Graceland to view the open casket. One of Presley's cousins, Billy Mann, accepted $18,000 to secretly photograph the corpse; the picture appeared on the cover of the National Enquirer's biggest-selling issue ever.[289] Alden struck a $105,000 deal with the Enquirer for her story, but settled for less when she broke her exclusivity agreement.[290] Presley left her nothing in his will.[291]
Presley's funeral was held at Graceland, on Thursday, August 18. Outside the gates, a car plowed into a group of fans, killing two women and critically injuring a third.[292] Approximately 80,000 people lined the processional route to Forest Hill Cemetery, where Presley was buried next to his mother.[293] Within a few days, "Way Down" topped the country and UK pop charts.[271][294]
Following an attempt to steal the singer's body in late August, the remains of both Presley and his mother were reburied in Graceland's Meditation Garden on October 2.[290]
Since his death, there have been numerous alleged sightings of Presley. A long-standing theory among some fans is that he faked his death.[295][296] Fans have noted alleged discrepancies in the death certificate, reports of a wax dummy in his original coffin and numerous accounts of Presley planning a diversion so he could retire in peace.[297]
Questions over cause of death
"Drug use was heavily implicated" in Presley's death, writes Guralnick. "No one ruled out the possibility of anaphylactic shock brought on by the codeine pills ... to which he was known to have had a mild allergy." A pair of lab reports filed two months later each strongly suggested that polypharmacy was the primary cause of death; one reported "fourteen drugs in Elvis' system, ten in significant quantity."[298] Forensic historian and pathologist Michael Baden views the situation as complicated: "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."[299]
The competence and ethics of two of the centrally involved medical professionals were seriously questioned. Before the autopsy was complete and toxicology results known,
Amidst mounting pressure in 1994, the Presley autopsy was reopened. Coroner Dr. Joseph Davis declared, "There is nothing in any of the data that supports a death from drugs. In fact, everything points to a sudden, violent heart attack."[252] Whether or not combined drug intoxication was in fact the cause, there is little doubt that polypharmacy contributed significantly to Presley's premature death.[300]
Since 1977
Between 1977 and 1981, six posthumously released singles by Presley were top ten country hits.[271] Graceland was opened to the public in 1982. Attracting over half a million visitors annually, it is the second most-visited home in the United States, after the White House.[301] It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2006.[302]
Presley has been inducted into five music
A
In 2005, another three reissued singles, "Jailhouse Rock", "One Night"/"I Got Stung", and "It's Now or Never", went to number one in the United Kingdom. A total of 17 Presley singles were reissued during the year; all made the British top five. For the fifth straight year,
Presley holds the records for most songs charting in Billboard's top 40 and top 100: chart statistician
In 2008, an 1800-year-old Roman bust described as bearing a "striking" resemblance to Elvis was displayed ahead of an intended auction.[326] A spokesman for the auctioneers said that fans could "be forgiven for thinking that their idol may well have lived a previous life in Rome."[326]
On the anniversary date of his death, every year since 1997, thousands of people gather at his home in Memphis to celebrate his memory, during a candlelight ritual.[327]
Artistry
Influences
Presley's earliest musical influence came from gospel. His mother recalled that from the age of two, at the Assembly of God church in Tupelo attended by the family, "he would slide down off my lap, run into the aisle and scramble up to the platform. There he would stand looking at the choir and trying to sing with them."[328] In Memphis, Presley frequently attended all-night gospel singings at the Ellis Auditorium, where groups such as the Statesmen Quartet led the music in a style that, Guralnick suggests, sowed the seeds of Presley's future stage act:
The Statesmen were an electric combination ... featuring some of the most thrillingly emotive singing and daringly unconventional showmanship in the entertainment world ... dressed in suits that might have come out of the window of Lansky's. ... Bass singer Jim Wetherington, known universally as the Big Chief, maintained a steady bottom, ceaselessly jiggling first his left leg, then his right, with the material of the pants leg ballooning out and shimmering. "He went about as far as you could go in gospel music," said Jake Hess. "The women would jump up, just like they do for the pop shows." Preachers frequently objected to the lewd movements ... but audiences reacted with screams and swoons.[329]
As a teenager, Presley's musical interests were wide-ranging, and he was deeply informed about African American musical idioms as well as white ones (see "Teenage life in Memphis"). Though he never had any formal training, he was blessed with a remarkable memory, and his musical knowledge was already considerable by the time he made his first professional recordings in 1954 at the age of 19. When Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller met him two years later, they were astonished at his encyclopedic understanding of the blues.[330] At a press conference the following year, he proudly declared, "I know practically every religious song that's ever been written."[149]
Musical style and genres
Presley was a central figure in the development of rockabilly, according to music historians. Katherine Charlton even calls him "rockabilly's originator",[331] though Carl Perkins has explicitly stated that "[Sam] Phillips, Elvis, and I didn't create rockabilly."[332] and, according to Michael Campbell, "Bill Haley recorded the first big rockabilly hit."[333] "It had been there for quite a while", says Scotty Moore. "Carl Perkins was doing basically the same sort of thing up around Jackson, and I know for a fact Jerry Lee Lewis had been playing that kind of music ever since he was ten years old."[334] However, "Rockabilly crystallized into a recognizable style in 1954 with Elvis Presley's first release, on the Sun label", writes Craig Morrison.[335] Paul Friedlander describes the defining elements of rockabilly, which he similarly characterizes as "essentially ... an Elvis Presley construction": "the raw, emotive, and slurred vocal style and emphasis on rhythmic feeling [of] the blues with the string band and strummed rhythm guitar [of] country".[336] In "That's All Right", the Presley trio's first record, Scotty Moore's guitar solo, "a combination of Merle Travis–style country finger-picking, double-stop slides from acoustic boogie, and blues-based bent-note, single-string work, is a microcosm of this fusion."[336]
At RCA, Presley's rock and roll sound grew distinct from rockabilly with group chorus vocals, more heavily amplified electric guitars[337] and a tougher, more intense manner.[338] While he was known for taking songs from various sources and giving them a rockabilly/rock and roll treatment, he also recorded songs in other genres from early in his career, from the pop standard "Blue Moon" at Sun to the country ballad "How's the World Treating You?" on his second LP to the blues of "Santa Claus Is Back In Town". In 1957, his first gospel record was released, the four-song EP Peace in the Valley. Certified as a million seller, it became the top-selling gospel EP in recording history.[339] Presley would record gospel periodically for the rest of his life.
After his return from military service in 1960, Presley continued to perform rock and roll, but the characteristic style was substantially toned down. The reason why the music from this period lacks the drama from his Fifties recordings, critic Dave Marsh writes, is "because what we're hearing is not genius discovering itself but the sound of genius at work."
While Presley performed several of his classic ballads for the '68 Comeback Special, the sound of the show was dominated by aggressive rock and roll. He would record few new straight-ahead rock and roll songs thereafter; as he explained, they were "hard to find".[347] A significant exception was "Burning Love", his last major hit on the pop charts. Like his work of the 1950s, Presley's subsequent recordings reworked pop and country songs, but in markedly different permutations. His stylistic range now began to embrace a more contemporary rock sound as well as soul and funk. Much of Elvis In Memphis, as well as "Suspicious Minds", cut at the same sessions, reflected his new rock and soul fusion. In the mid-1970s, many of his singles found a home on country radio, the field where he first became a star.[348]
Vocal style and range
The general development of Presley's voice is described by critic Dave Marsh as "A voice, high and thrilled in the early days, lower and perplexed in the final months."[349] Marsh credits Presley with the introduction of the "vocal stutter" on 1955's "Baby Let's Play House."[350] When on "Don't Be Cruel" Presley "slides into a 'mmmmm' that marks the transition between the first two verses," he shows "how masterful his relaxed style really is."[351] Marsh describes the singing on "Can't Help Falling in Love" to be of "gentle insistence and delicacy of phrasing," with the line "'Shall I stay'" pronounced as if the words are fragile as crystal."[352] On the operatic "It's Now or Never" Presley "was reaching for something more than he had ever attempted before,"[346] and, according to discographer Jorgensen, later the same year the melody to "Surrender", a number also based on an Italian original, "Torna A Sorrento", "required an even greater demonstration of vocal powers."[353]
Jorgensen calls the 1966 recording of "How Great Thou Art" "an extraordinary fulfillment of his vocal ambitions," as Presley had "crafted for himself an ad-hoc arrangement in which he took every part of the four-part vocal, from [the] bass intro to the soaring heights of the song's operatic climax," in the process becoming "a kind of one-man quartet."[354] Guralnick finds "Stand By Me" from the same sessions "a beautifully articulated, almost nakedly yearning performance," but, by contrast, feels that Presley reaches beyond his powers on "Where No One Stands Alone" on which "he was reduced to a kind of inelegant bellowing to push out a sound" that Jake Hess would have no problem with. Hess himself thought that while others may have a voice as great or greater than Presley's, "he had that certain something that everyone searches for all during their lifetime."[355] Guralnick attempts to pinpoint that something: "The warmth of his voice, his controlled use of both vibrato technique and natural falsetto range, the subtlety and deeply felt conviction of his singing were all qualities recognizably belonging to his talent but just as recognizably not to be achieved without sustained dedication and effort."[356]
Presley's singing to his own "necessarily limited, both rhythmically and melodically," piano accompaniment, such as can be heard on the 1967 recording of "You'll Never Walk Alone", for Guralnick are always special occasions, because "it was always a measure of his engagement when he sat down at the keyboard to play."[357] Describing his piano technique as "staccato style,"[358] Jorgensen finds that on "Without Love" from the 1969 sessions, "his gospel-flavored treatment took it to a level of spirituality rarely matched in his career."[359] Presley also played the instrument on the "impassioned version" of the sessions's next song, "I'll Hold You in My Heart," of which Guralnick writes that "there is something magical about the moment that only the most inspired singing can bring about, as Elvis loses himself in the music, words no longer lend themselves to literal translation, and singer and listener both are left emotionally wrung out by the time the song finally limps to an end."[360]
Marsh praises his 1968 reading of "U.S. Male", "bearing down on the hard guy lyrics, not sending them up or overplaying them but tossing them around with that astonishingly tough yet gentle assurance that he brought to his Sun records."[361] The performance on "In the Ghetto" is, according to Jorgensen, "devoid of any of his characteristic vocal tricks or mannerisms," instead relying on "the astonishing clarity and sensitivity of his voice."[362] Guralnick describes the tenderness in the singing of the same song of "such unassuming, almost translucent eloquence, it is so quietly confident in its simplicity" that one is reminded of the Sun period, "offering equal parts yearning and social compassion."[363] On "Suspicious Minds" from the same sessions Guralnick hears essentially the same "remarkable mixture of tenderness and poise," but supplemented with "an expressive quality somewhere between stoicism (at suspected infidelity) and anguish (over impending loss)."[360]
Music critic Henry Pleasants observes that "Presley has been described variously as a baritone and a tenor. An extraordinary compass ... and a very wide range of vocal color have something to do with this divergence of opinion."[364] He identifies Presley as a high baritone, calculating his range as two octaves and a third, "from the baritone low G to the tenor high B, with an upward extension in falsetto to at least a D-flat. Presley's best octave is in the middle, D-flat to D-flat, granting an extra full step up or down."[364] In Pleasants' view, his voice was "variable and unpredictable" at the bottom, "often brilliant" at the top, with the capacity for "full-voiced high Gs and As that an opera baritone might envy".[364] Scholar Lindsay Waters, who figures Presley's range as 2¼ octaves, emphasizes that "his voice had an emotional range from tender whispers to sighs down to shouts, grunts, grumbles and sheer gruffness that could move the listener from calmness and surrender, to fear."[365] Presley was always "able to duplicate the open, hoarse, ecstatic, screaming, shouting, wailing, reckless sound of the black rhythm-and-blues and gospel singers," writes Pleasants, and also demonstrated a remarkable ability to assimilate many other vocal styles.[364]
Public image
Racial issues
When Dewey Phillips first aired "That's All Right" on Memphis radio, many listeners who contacted the station by phone and telegram to ask for it again assumed that its singer was black.[67] From the beginning of his national fame, Presley expressed respect for African American performers and their music, and disregard for the norms of segregation and racial prejudice then prevalent in the South. Interviewed in 1956, he recalled how in his childhood he would listen to blues musician Arthur Crudup—the originator of "That's All Right"—"bang his box the way I do now, and I said if I ever got to the place where I could feel all old Arthur felt, I'd be a music man like nobody ever saw."[50] The Memphis World, an African American newspaper, reported that Presley, "the rock 'n' roll phenomenon", "cracked Memphis's segregation laws" by attending the local amusement park on what was designated as its "colored night".[50] Such statements and actions led Presley to be generally hailed in the black community during the early days of his stardom.[50] By contrast, many white adults, according to Billboard's Arnold Shaw, "did not like him, and condemned him as depraved. Anti-negro prejudice doubtless figured in adult antagonism. Regardless of whether parents were aware of the Negro sexual origins of the phrase 'rock 'n' roll', Presley impressed them as the visual and aural embodiment of sex."[366]
Despite the largely positive view of Presley held by African Americans, a rumor spread in mid-1957 that he had at some point announced, "The only thing Negroes can do for me is buy my records and shine my shoes." A journalist with the national African American weekly
The persistence of such attitudes was fueled by resentment over the fact that Presley, whose musical and visual performance idiom owed much to African American sources, achieved the cultural acknowledgement and commercial success largely denied his black peers.[369] Into the 21st century, the notion that Presley had "stolen" black music still found adherents.[372][373] Notable among African American entertainers expressly rejecting this view was Jackie Wilson, who argued, "A lot of people have accused Elvis of stealing the black man's music, when in fact, almost every black solo entertainer copied his stage mannerisms from Elvis."[374] And throughout his career, Presley plainly acknowledged his debt. Addressing his '68 Comeback Special audience, he said, "Rock 'n' roll music is basically gospel or rhythm and blues, or it sprang from that. People have been adding to it, adding instruments to it, experimenting with it, but it all boils down to [that]." Nine years earlier, he had said, "Rock 'n' roll has been around for many years. It used to be called rhythm and blues."[375]
Sex symbol
Presley's physical attractiveness and sexual appeal were widely acknowledged. "He was once beautiful, astonishingly beautiful", in the words of critic Mark Feeney.[376] Television director Steve Binder, no fan of Presley's music before he oversaw the '68 Comeback Special, reported, "I'm straight as an arrow and I got to tell you, you stop, whether you're male or female, to look at him. He was that good looking. And if you never knew he was a superstar, it wouldn't make any difference; if he'd walked in the room, you'd know somebody special was in your presence."[377] His performance style, as much as his physical beauty, was responsible for Presley's eroticized image. Writing in 1970, critic George Melly described him as "the master of the sexual simile, treating his guitar as both phallus and girl."[378] In his Presley obituary, Lester Bangs credited him as "the man who brought overt blatant vulgar sexual frenzy to the popular arts in America."[379] Ed Sullivan's declaration that he perceived a soda bottle in Presley's trousers was echoed by rumors involving a similarly positioned toilet roll tube or lead bar.[380]
While Presley was marketed as an icon of heterosexuality, some cultural critics have argued that his image was ambiguous. In 1959, Sight and Sound's Peter John Dyer described his onscreen persona as "aggressively bisexual in appeal".[381] Brett Farmer places the "orgasmic gyrations" of the title dance sequence in Jailhouse Rock within a lineage of cinematic musical numbers that offer a "spectacular eroticization, if not homoeroticization, of the male image".[382] In the analysis of Yvonne Tasker, "Elvis was an ambivalent figure who articulated a peculiar feminised, objectifying version of white working-class masculinity as aggressive sexual display."[383]
Reinforcing Presley's image as a sex symbol were the reports of his dalliances with various Hollywood stars and starlets, from Natalie Wood in the 1950s to Connie Stevens and Ann-Margret in the 1960s to Candice Bergen and Cybill Shepherd in the 1970s. June Juanico of Memphis, one of Presley's early girlfriends, later blamed Parker for encouraging him to choose his dating partners with publicity in mind.[217] Presley never grew comfortable with the Hollywood scene, and most of these relationships were insubstantial.[384]
Lifestyle
Presley was known for a life of luxury and excess, as exemplified by his estate at Graceland. He owned a number of expensive cars, including
A number of stories, both real and exaggerated, detail Presley's appetite for rich or heavy food. He was said to enjoy the
Associates
Colonel Parker and the Aberbachs
Once he became Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker insisted on exceptionally tight control over his client's career. Songwriter
By 1967, Parker's contracts with Presley gave him 50 percent of most of the singer's earnings from recordings, films, and merchandise.[392] Beginning in February 1972, he took a third of the profit from live appearances;[393] a January 1976 agreement entitled him to half of that as well.[394] Priscilla Presley noted that, "Elvis detested the business side of his career. He would sign a contract without even reading it."[395] Presley's friend Marty Lacker regarded Parker as a "hustler and a con artist. He was only interested in 'now money'—get the buck and get gone."[396]
Lacker was instrumental in convincing Presley to record with Memphis producer Chips Moman and his handpicked musicians at American Sound Studio in early 1969. The American Sound sessions represented a significant departure from the control customarily exerted by Hill and Range. Moman still had to deal with the publisher's staff on site, whose song suggestions he regarded as unacceptable. He was on the verge of quitting, until Presley ordered the Hill and Range personnel out of the studio.[397] Although RCA executive Joan Deary was later full of praise for the producer's song choices and the quality of the recordings,[398] Moman, to his fury, received neither credit on the records nor royalties for his work.[399]
Throughout his entire career, Presley performed in only three venues outside the United States—all of them in Canada, during brief tours there in 1957. Rumors that he would play overseas for the first time were fueled in 1974 by a million-dollar bid for an Australian tour. Parker was uncharacteristically reluctant, prompting those close to Presley to speculate about the manager's past and the reasons for his apparent unwillingness to apply for a passport. Parker ultimately squelched any notions Presley had of working abroad, claiming that foreign security was poor and the venues unsuitable for a star of his magnitude.[400]
Parker arguably exercised tightest control over Presley's film career. In 1957, Robert Mitchum asked Presley to costar with him in Thunder Road, on which Mitchum was writer and producer.[401] According to George Klein, one of his oldest friends, Presley was offered starring roles in West Side Story and Midnight Cowboy.[402] In 1974, Barbra Streisand approached Presley to star with her in the remake of A Star is Born.[403] In each case, any ambitions the singer may have had to play such parts were thwarted by his manager's negotiating demands or flat refusals. In Lacker's description, "The only thing that kept Elvis going after the early years was a new challenge. But Parker kept running everything into the ground."[396] The prevailing attitude may have been summed up best by the response Leiber and Stoller received when they brought a serious film project for Presley to Parker and the Hill and Range owners for their consideration. In Leiber's telling, Jean Aberbach warned them to never again "try to interfere with the business or artistic workings of the process known as Elvis Presley."[188]
Memphis Mafia
In the early 1960s, the circle of friends with whom Presley constantly surrounded himself until his death came to be known as the "Memphis Mafia".[404] "Surrounded by the[ir] parasitic presence", as journalist John Harris puts it, "it was no wonder that as he slid into addiction and torpor, no-one raised the alarm: to them, Elvis was the bank, and it had to remain open."[405] Tony Brown, who played piano for Presley regularly in the last two years of the singer's life, observed his rapidly declining health and the urgent need to address it: "But we all knew it was hopeless because Elvis was surrounded by that little circle of people ... all those so-called friends".[406] In the Memphis Mafia's defense, Marty Lacker has said, "[Presley] was his own man. ... If we hadn't been around, he would have been dead a lot earlier."[407]
Larry Geller became Presley's hairdresser in 1964. Unlike others in the Memphis Mafia, he was interested in spiritual questions and recalls how, from their first conversation, Presley revealed his secret thoughts and anxieties: "I mean there has to be a purpose ... there's got to be a reason ... why I was chosen to be Elvis Presley. ... I swear to God, no one knows how lonely I get. And how empty I really feel."[408] Thereafter, Geller supplied him with books on religion and mysticism, which the singer read voraciously.[409] Presley would be preoccupied by such matters for much of his life, taking trunkloads of books with him on tour.[252]
Legacy
"I know he invented rock and roll, in a manner of speaking, but ... that's not why he's worshiped as a god today. He's worshiped as a god today because in addition to inventing rock and roll he was the greatest ballad singer this side of Frank Sinatra—because the spiritual translucence and reined-in gut sexuality of his slow weeper and torchy pop blues still activate the hormones and slavish devotion of millions of female human beings worldwide."
—Robert Christgau
December 24, 1985[410]
Presley's rise to national attention in 1956 transformed the field of popular music and had a huge effect on the broader scope of popular culture.[8] As the catalyst for the cultural revolution that was rock and roll, he was central not only to defining it as a musical genre but in making it a touchstone of youth culture and rebellious attitude.[411] With its racially mixed origins—repeatedly affirmed by Presley—rock and roll's occupation of a central position in mainstream American culture facilitated a new acceptance and appreciation of black culture.[412] In this regard, Little Richard said of Presley, "He was an integrator. Elvis was a blessing. They wouldn't let black music through. He opened the door for black music."[413] Al Green agreed: "He broke the ice for all of us."[414] President Jimmy Carter remarked on his legacy in 1977: "His music and his personality, fusing the styles of white country and black rhythm and blues, permanently changed the face of American popular culture. His following was immense, and he was a symbol to people the world over of the vitality, rebelliousness, and good humor of his country."[288] Presley also heralded the vastly expanded reach of celebrity in the era of mass communication: at the age of 21, within a year of his first appearance on American network television, he was one of the most famous people in the world.[415]
Presley's name, image, and voice are instantly recognizable around the globe.[416] He has inspired a legion of impersonators.[417] In polls and surveys, he is recognized as one of the most important popular music artists and influential Americans.[f] "Elvis Presley is the greatest cultural force in the twentieth century", said composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein. "He introduced the beat to everything and he changed everything—music, language, clothes. It's a whole new social revolution—the sixties came from it."[425] Bob Dylan described the sensation of first hearing Presley as "like busting out of jail".[414]
On the 25th anniversary of Presley's death, The New York Times observed, "All the talentless impersonators and appalling black velvet paintings on display can make him seem little more than a perverse and distant memory. But before Elvis was camp, he was its opposite: a genuine cultural force. ... Elvis's breakthroughs are underappreciated because in this rock-and-roll age, his hard-rocking music and sultry style have triumphed so completely."[426] Not only Presley's achievements, but his failings as well, are seen by some cultural observers as adding to the power of his legacy, as in this description by Greil Marcus:
Elvis Presley is a supreme figure in American life, one whose presence, no matter how banal or predictable, brooks no real comparisons. ... The cultural range of his music has expanded to the point where it includes not only the hits of the day, but also patriotic recitals, pure country gospel, and really dirty blues. ... Elvis has emerged as a great artist, a great rocker, a great purveyor of schlock, a great heart throb, a great bore, a great symbol of potency, a great ham, a great nice person, and, yes, a great American.[427]
Discography
A vast number of recordings have been issued under Presley's name. The total number of his original master recordings has been variously calculated as 665[316] and 711.[376] His career began and he was most successful during an era when singles were the primary commercial medium for pop music. In the case of his albums, the distinction between "official" studio records and other forms is often blurred. For most of the 1960s, his recording career focused on soundtrack albums. In the 1970s, his most heavily promoted and best-selling LP releases tended to be concert albums. This summary discography lists only the albums and singles that reached the top of one or more of the following charts: the main U.S. Billboard pop chart; the Billboard country chart, the genre chart with which he was most identified (there was no country album chart before 1964); and the official British pop chart.
The year given, in the table below, is the year the record first reached number one, rather than its original year of release. For instance: Elvis' 40 Greatest, released in 1974, a compilation on the budget Arcade label, was the fourth highest selling album of the year in the United Kingdom; at the time, the main British chart did not rank such compilations, relegating them to a chart for midpriced and TV-advertised albums, which Elvis' 40 Greatest topped for 15 weeks.[428] The policy was altered in 1975, allowing the album to hit number one on the main chart in 1977, following Presley's death.[429]
Before late 1958, rather than unified pop and country singles charts, Billboard had as many as four charts for each, separately ranking records according to sales, jukebox play, jockey spins (i.e., airplay), and, in the case of pop, a general "Top 100". Billboard now regards the sales charts as definitive for the period. Widely cited chart statistician Joel Whitburn accords historical releases the highest ranking they achieved among the separate charts. Presley discographer Ernst Jorgensen refers only to the Top 100 chart for pop hits. All of the 1956–58 songs listed here as number one US pop hits reached the top of both the sales and with three exceptions, the Top 100 charts: "I Want You, I Need You, I Love You" (three), "Hound Dog" (two, behind its flip side, "Don't Be Cruel"), and "Hard Headed Woman" (two).
Several Presley singles reached number one in the United Kingdom as double A-sides; in the United States, the respective sides of those singles were ranked separately by Billboard.[g] In the United States, Presley also had five or six number-one R&B singles and seven number-one adult contemporary singles;[h] in 1964, his "Blue Christmas" topped the Christmas singles chart during a period when Billboard did not rank holiday singles in its primary pop chart.[270][430] He also had number-one hits in many countries beside the US and UK.
Number one albums
Year | Album | Type | Chart positions | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
US[431] | US Country[432] | UK[294][433] | |||
1956 | Elvis Presley | studio/comp. | 1 | n.a. | 1 |
Elvis | studio | 1 | n.a. | 3 | |
1957 | Loving You | sound./studio | 1 | n.a. | 1 |
Elvis' Christmas Album | studio | 1 | n.a. | 2 | |
1960 | Elvis Is Back! | studio | 2 | n.a. | 1 |
G.I. Blues
|
soundtrack | 1 | n.a. | 1 | |
1961 | Something for Everybody | studio | 1 | n.a. | 2 |
Blue Hawaii
|
soundtrack | 1 | n.a. | 1 | |
1962 | Pot Luck | studio | 4 | n.a. | 1 |
1964 | Roustabout
|
soundtrack | 1 | — | 12 |
1969 | From Elvis in Memphis | studio | 13 | 2 | 1 |
1973 | Aloha from Hawaii Via Satellite
|
live | 1 | 1 | 11 |
1974 | Elvis: A Legendary Performer Volume 1 | compilation | 43 | 1 | 20 |
1975 | Promised Land | studio | 47 | 1 | 21 |
1976 | From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee | studio | 41 | 1 | 29 |
1977 | Elvis' 40 Greatest | compilation | — | — | 1 |
Moody Blue | studio/live | 3 | 1 | 3 | |
Elvis in Concert | live | 5 | 1 | 13 | |
2002 | ELV1S: 30 No. 1 Hits
|
compilation | 1 | 1 | 1 |
2007 | Elvis the King | compilation | — | — | 1 |
2015 | If I Can Dream | compilation | 21 | — | 1 |
Number one singles
Year | Single | Chart positions | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
US[317] | US Country[434] | |||
1956 | "I Forgot to Remember to Forget" (reissue) | — | 1 | — |
"Heartbreak Hotel" | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
"I Want You, I Need You, I Love You" | 1 | 1 | 14 | |
"Don't Be Cruel" | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
"Hound Dog" | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
"Love Me Tender" | 1 | 3 | 11 | |
1957 | "Too Much" | 1 | 3 | 6 |
"All Shook Up" | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
"(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear" | 1 | 1 | 3 | |
"Jailhouse Rock" | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
1958 | "Don't" | 1 | 2 | 2 |
"Hard Headed Woman" | 1 | 2 | 2 | |
1959 | "One Night"/"I Got Stung" | 4/8 | 24/— | 1 |
"A Fool Such as I"/"I Need Your Love Tonight" | 2/4 | — | 1 | |
"A Big Hunk o' Love" | 1 | — | 4 | |
1960 | "Stuck on You" | 1 | 27 | 3 |
"It's Now or Never" | 1 | — | 1 | |
" Are You Lonesome Tonight? "
|
1 | 22 | 1 | |
1961 | "Wooden Heart" | — | — | 1 |
"Surrender" | 1 | — | 1 | |
" Little Sister "
|
4/5 | — | 1 | |
1962 | "Can't Help Falling in Love"/"Rock-A-Hula Baby" | 2/23 | — | 1 |
"Good Luck Charm" | 1 | — | 1 | |
"She's Not You" | 5 | — | 1 | |
"Return to Sender" | 2 | — | 1 | |
1963 | " (You're The) Devil in Disguise "
|
3 | — | 1 |
1965 | "Crying in the Chapel" | 3 | — | 1 |
1969 | "Suspicious Minds" | 1 | — | 2 |
1970 | "The Wonder of You" | 9 | 37 | 1 |
1977 | " Moody Blue "
|
31 | 1 | 6 |
"Way Down" | 18 | 1 | 1 | |
1981 | " Guitar Man " (remix)
|
28 | 1 | 43 |
2002 | " JXL remix)
|
50 | — | 1 |
2005 | "Jailhouse Rock" (reissue) | — | — | 1 |
"One Night"/"I Got Stung" (reissue) | — | — | 1 | |
"It's Now or Never" (reissue) | — | — | 1 |
Filmography
|
|
|
TV concert specials
- Elvis (1968)
- Elvis: Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite(1973)
- Elvis in Concert (1977)
See also
- Elvis Presley Enterprises
- Honorific nicknames in popular music
- List of artists by number of UK Albums Chart number ones
- List of artists by total number of UK number one singles
- List of best-selling music artists
- Personal relationships of Elvis Presley
Notes
- ^ Although some pronounce his surname ['prɛzli] (PREZ-lee), Presley himself used the Southern American English pronunciation, ['prɛsli] (PRES-lee), as did his family and those who worked with him.[1] The correct spelling of his middle name has long been a matter of debate. The physician who delivered him wrote "Elvis Aaron Presley" in his ledger.[2] The state-issued birth certificate reads "Elvis Aron Presley". The name was chosen after the Presleys' friend and fellow congregation member Aaron Kennedy, though a single-A spelling was probably intended by Presley's parents in order to parallel the middle name of Presley's stillborn brother, Jesse Garon.[3] It reads Aron on most official documents produced during his lifetime, including his high school diploma, RCA record contract, and marriage license, and this was generally taken to be the proper spelling.[4] In 1966, Presley expressed the desire to his father that the more traditional biblical rendering, Aaron, be used henceforth, "especially on legal documents".[2] Five years later, the Jaycees citation honoring him as one of the country's Outstanding Young Men used Aaron. Late in his life, he sought to officially change the spelling to Aaron and discovered that state records already listed it that way. Knowing his wishes for his middle name, Aaron is the spelling his father chose for Presley's tombstone, and it is the spelling his estate has designated as official.[4]
- ^ According to a third cousin of Presley's, one of Gladys' great-grandmothers was Jewish.[22] There is no evidence that Presley or his mother shared this belief in a Jewish heritage. Syndicated columnist Nate Bloom has challenged the cousin's account, which he calls a "tall tale".[23]
- ^ Of the $40,000, $5,000 covered back royalties owed by Sun.[89]
- ASCAP and/or its rival BMI, which eventually denied Presley annuity from songwriter's royalties.) He received credit on two other songs to which he did contribute: he provided the title for "That's Someone You Never Forget" (1961), written by his friend and former Humes schoolmate Red West; Presley and West collaborated with another friend, guitarist Charlie Hodge, on "You'll Be Gone" (1962).[93]
- ^ Whitburn follows actual Billboard history in considering the four songs on the "Don't Be Cruel/Hound Dog" and "Don't/I Beg of You" singles as distinct. He tallies each side of the former single as a number one (Billboard's sales chart had "Don't Be Cruel" at number one for five weeks, then "Hound Dog" for six) and reckons "I Beg of You" as a top ten, as it reached number eight on the old Top 100 chart. Billboard now considers both singles as unified items, ignoring the historical sales split of the former and its old Top 100 chart entirely. Whitburn thus analyzes the four songs as yielding three number ones and a total of four top tens. Billboard now states that they yielded just two number ones and a total of two top tens, voiding the separate chart appearances of "Hound Dog" and "I Beg of You".
- The Atlantic Monthly ranked him No. 66 among the "100 Most Influential Figures in American History" in 2006.[424]
- ^ (1) The year given is the year the record first reached number one, rather than its original year of release. For instance, in 1974, Elvis' 40 Greatest, a compilation on the budget Arcade label, was the fourth highest selling album of the year in the United Kingdom; at the time, the main British chart did not rank such compilations, relegating them to a chart for midpriced and TV-advertised albums, which Elvis' 40 Greatest topped for 15 weeks.[428] The policy was altered in 1975, allowing the album to hit number one on the main chart in 1977, following Presley's death.[429] (2) Before late 1958, rather than unified pop and country singles charts, Billboard had as many as four charts for each, separately ranking records according to sales, jukebox play, jockey spins (i.e., airplay), and, in the case of pop, a general Top 100. Billboard now regards the sales charts as definitive for the period. Widely cited chart statistician Joel Whitburn accords historical releases the highest ranking they achieved among the separate charts. Presley discographer Ernst Jorgensen refers only to the Top 100 chart for pop hits. All of the 1956–58 songs listed here as number one U.S. pop hits reached the top of both the sales and, with three exceptions, the Top 100 charts: "I Want You, I Need You, I Love You" (three), "Hound Dog" (two, behind its flip side, "Don't Be Cruel"), and "Hard Headed Woman" (two). (3) Several Presley singles reached number one in the United Kingdom as double A-sides; in the United States, the respective sides of those singles were ranked separately by Billboard.
- ^ Whitburn calculates a total of six number one R&B singles, including "Don't Be Cruel", released as a double A-side with "Hound Dog";[430] Billboard's Keith Caulfield excludes "Don't Be Cruel".[270]
References
Footnotes
- ^ Elster 2006, p. 391.
- ^ a b Nash 2005, p. 11.
- ^ a b Guralnick 1994, p. 13.
- ^ a b Adelman 2002, pp. 13–15.
- ^ Reaves 2002.
- ^ Victor 2008, pp. 438–39.
- ^ Semon & Jorgensen 2001.
- ^ a b Collins 2002.
- ^ Kyriazis, Stefan (January 8, 2015). "Elvis would be 80 today: Watch ten of his most sensational performances here". Daily Express. Retrieved January 28, 2015.
- ^ Guralnick & Jorgensen 1999, p. 3.
- Challenge TV. June 9, 2014.
- ^ Alexander, Paul (March 30, 2009). "Signs and Wonders: Why Pentecostalism Is the World's Fastest Growing Faith". John Wiley & Sons – via Google Books.
- ^ Conn, J. Stephen (March 1, 2006). "Growing Up Pentecostal". Xulon Press – via Google Books.
- ^ Milburn, Dan (January 13, 2015). "Stupid People Are Smarter Than You Think!". Lulu Press, Inc – via Google Books.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 13–14.
- ^ Burgess & Dregni 2011, p. 16.
- ^ US TV evangelist Rex Humbard dies 22 September 2007
- ^ Dundy 2004, p. 60. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFDundy2004 (help)
- ^ Kamphoefner 2009, p. 33.
- ^ "Southern Genealogy Yields Surprises". VOA.
- ^ Dundy 2004, pp. 13, 16, 20–22, 26. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFDundy2004 (help)
- ^ Dundy 2004, p. 21. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFDundy2004 (help)
- ^ Bloom 2010.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 11–12, 23–24.
- ^ Victor 2008, p. 419.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 12–14.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 15–16.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 17–18.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, p. 19.
- ^ Dundy 2004, p. 101. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFDundy2004 (help)
- ^ Guralnick 1994, p. 23.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 23–26.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 19–21.
- ^ Dundy 2004, pp. 95–96. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFDundy2004 (help)
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 32–33.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, p. 36.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 35–38.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 40–41.
- ^ Stanley & Coffey 1998, p. 20.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 43, 44, 49.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 44, 46, 51.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 52–53.
- ^ a b Guralnick 1994, p. 171.
- ^ a b Matthew-Walker 1979, p. 3.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 46–48, 358.
- ^ Wadey 2004.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 47–48, 77–78.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, p. 51.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 38–40.
- ^ a b c d e Guralnick 2004.
- ^ Bertrand 2000, p. 205.
- ^ Szatmary 1996, p. 35.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, p. 54.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, p. 8.
- ^ a b c Gilliland 1969, show 7, track 2.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 62–64.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, p. 65.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, p. 77.
- ^ Cusic 1988, p. 10.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, p. 80.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, p. 83.
- ^ Miller 2000, p. 72.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, pp. 10–11.
- ^ Marcus 1982, p. 174.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 94–97.
- ^ Ponce de Leon 2007, p. 43.
- ^ a b Guralnick 1994, pp. 100–01.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 102–04.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 105, 139.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 106, 108–11.
- ^ a b Guralnick 1994, p. 110.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 117–27, 131.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, p. 119.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 128–30.
- ^ Mason 2007, pp. 37–38.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 127–28, 135–42.
- ^ Burke & Griffin 2006, pp. 61, 176.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 152, 156, 182.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 144, 159, 167–68.
- ^ Nash 2003, pp. 6–12.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, p. 163.
- ^ Bertrand 2000, p. 104.
- ^ Hopkins 2007, p. 53.
- ^ Guralnick & Jorgensen 1999, p. 45.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, p. 29.
- ^ Rogers 1982, p. 41.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 217–19.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, p. 31.
- ^ a b Stanley & Coffey 1998, pp. 28–29.
- ^ Escott 1998, p. 421.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, pp. 36, 54.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, pp. 35, 51, 57, 61, 75.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, pp. 157–58, 166, 168.
- ^ Stanley & Coffey 1998, p. 29.
- ^ a b c Stanley & Coffey 1998, p. 30.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 235–36.
- ^ Slaughter & Nixon 2004, p. 21.
- ^ Guralnick & Jorgensen 1999, pp. 50, 54, 64.
- ^ Guffey 2006, p. 127.
- ^ Hilburn 2005.
- ^ Rodman 1996, p. 28.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 262–63.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, p. 267.
- ^ a b c d e Gilliland 1969, show 7, track 4.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, p. 274.
- ^ a b Victor 2008, p. 315.
- ^ Guralnick & Jorgensen 1999, pp. 72–73.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 273, 284.
- ^ Fensch 2001, pp. 14–18.
- ^ a b Burke & Griffin 2006, p. 52.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, p. 49.
- ^ Gould 1956.
- ^ a b Guralnick & Jorgensen 1999, p. 73.
- ^ a b c d e Marcus 2006.
- ^ Marsh 1982, p. 100.
- ^ Austen 2005, p. 13.
- ^ Allen 1992, p. 270.
- ^ Rock 'N Roll Stars 1956.
- ^ Keogh 2004, p. 73.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, p. 51.
- ^ Guralnick & Jorgensen 1999, pp. 80–81.
- ^ Whitburn 1993, p. 5.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, pp. 60–65.
- ^ a b Austen 2005, p. 16.
- ^ Edgerton 2007, p. 187.
- ^ Brown & Broeske 1997, p. 93.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, p. 338.
- ^ a b Gibson 2005.
- ^ a b Victor 2008, p. 439.
- ^ Jezer 1982, p. 281.
- ^ Moore & Dickerson 1997, p. 175.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, p. 343.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, p. 335.
- ^ a b Marsh 1980, p. 395.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, p. 71.
- ^ Palladino 1996, p. 131.
- ^ Stanley & Coffey 1998, p. 37.
- ^ Clayton & Heard 2003, pp. 117–18.
- ^ Keogh 2004, p. 90.
- ^ Guralnick & Jorgensen 1999, p. 95.
- ^ Salisbury 1957, p. 4.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 395–97.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, p. 388.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 406–08, 452.
- ^ a b Fox 1986, p. 178.
- ^ a b Fox 1986, p. 179.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 399–402, 428–30, 437–40.
- ^ a b Guralnick 1994, p. 400.
- ^ a b Guralnick 1994, p. 430.
- ^ Turner 2004, p. 104.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, p. 437.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, p. 431.
- ^ Freierman 2008.
- ^ Grein 2008.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 431–35.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 448–49.
- ^ Colin Larkin (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Omnibus Press. p. 2006.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 461–74.
- ^ Victor 2008, p. 27.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 466–67.
- ^ Flynn, Keith. "Recording Sessions 1950s". Keith Flynn's Elvis Presley Pages.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 474–80.
- ^ Ponce de Leon 2007, p. 115.
- ^ Guralnick 1999, p. 21.
- ^ Guralnick 1999, pp. 47, 49, 55, 60, 73.
- ^ Clayton & Heard 2003, p. 160.
- ^ Victor 2008, p. 415.
- ^ Presley 1985, p. 40.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, p. 107.
- ^ Gilliland 1969, show 8, track 2.
- ^ Whitburn 2004, p. 501.
- ^ Marcus 1982, p. 278.
- ^ Matthew-Walker 1979, p. 49.
- ^ Slaughter & Nixon 2004, p. 54.
- ^ Matthew-Walker 1979, p. 19.
- ^ Slaughter & Nixon 2004, p. 57.
- ^ Gilliland 1969, show 8, track 5.
- ^ Marcus 1982, pp. 279–80.
- ^ Robertson 2004, p. 50.
- ^ Guralnick 1999, pp. 44, 62–63.
- ^ Gordon 2005, pp. 110, 114.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, p. 148.
- ^ Robertson 2004, p. 52.
- ^ Gordon 2005, pp. 110, 119.
- ^ Ponce de Leon 2007, p. 133.
- ^ Caine 2005, p. 21.
- ^ Fields 2007.
- ^ a b Guralnick 1994, p. 449.
- ^ Kirchberg & Hendrickx 1999, p. 67.
- ^ Lisanti 2000, pp. 19, 136.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, p. 201.
- ^ Hopkins 2002, p. 32.
- ^ Matthew-Walker 1979, p. 66.
- ^ Marsh 2004, p. 650.
- ^ Guralnick 1999, pp. 261–63.
- ^ Kirchberg & Hendrickx 1999, p. 73.
- ^ Guralnick 1999, p. 171.
- ^ Whitburn 2004, pp. 502–03.
- ^ Kubernick 2008, p. 4.
- ^ a b Keogh 2004, p. 263.
- ^ Rolling Stone 2009.
- ^ Guralnick 1999, pp. 293, 296.
- ^ a b c Kubernick 2008, p. 26.
- ^ Hopkins 2007, p. 215.
- ^ Marsh 2004, p. 649.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, p. 277.
- ^ Marsh 1980, p. 396.
- ^ Gordon 2005, p. 146.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, p. 283.
- ^ Guralnick 1999, pp. 346–47.
- ^ Gordon 2005, pp. 149–50.
- ^ Cook 2004, p. 39.
- ^ Guralnick & Jorgensen 1999, pp. 259, 262.
- ^ Moyer 2002, p. 73.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, p. 287.
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- ^ a b Stein 1997.
- ^ Mason 2007, p. 81.
- ^ Stanley & Coffey 1998, p. 94.
- ^ Stanley & Coffey 1998, p. 95.
- ^ Hopkins 2007, p. 253.
- ^ Hopkins 2007, p. 254.
- ^ Stanley & Coffey 1998, p. 96.
- ^ Robertson 2004, p. 70.
- ^ Stanley & Coffey 1998, p. 99.
- ISBN 978-0-313-35904-0.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, pp. 284, 286, 307–08, 313, 326, 338, 357–58.
- ^ Guralnick 1999, pp. 419–22.
- ^ The Beatles 2000, p. 192.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, p. 321.
- ^ Guralnick & Jorgensen 1999, pp. 299–300.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, p. 319.
- ^ Marcus 1982, pp. 284–85.
- ^ Guralnick 1999, p. 438.
- ^ Guralnick & Jorgensen 1999, p. 308.
- ^ Marcus 1982, p. 283.
- ^ Guralnick 1999, p. 478.
- ^ Williamson 2015, pp. 253–254.
- ^ Guralnick 1999, pp. 451, 446, 453.
- ^ Guralnick 1999, p. 456.
- ^ Hopkins 2007, p. 291.
- ^ Guralnick 1999, p. 474.
- ^ Moscheo 2007, p. 132.
- ^ Victor 2008, p. 10.
- ^ Brown & Broeske 1997, p. 364.
- ^ Guralnick 1999, p. 475.
- ^ Mason 2007, p. 141.
- ^ RIAA 2010.
- ^ Gaar, Gillian G. (2010). Return of the King: Elvis Presley's Great Comeback. Jawbone Press. p. 175.
- ^ Guralnick 1999, pp. 488–90.
- ^ Guralnick & Jorgensen 1999, p. 329.
- ^ a b c d e Higginbotham 2002.
- ^ Keogh 2004, p. 238.
- ^ Guralnick 1999, pp. 481, 487, 499, 504, 519–20.
- ^ Guralnick 1999, p. 547.
- ^ a b Hopkins 1986, p. 136.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 50, 148.
- ^ Guralnick 1999, pp. 601–04.
- ^ Stanley & Coffey 1998, p. 139.
- ^ Presley's home in Palm Springs, which he kept as a weekend retreat from 1970 to 1977, is known as Graceland West. Chapman University Huell Howser Archive. Elvis House (12005); November 8, 2010.
- ^ Hopkins 2007, p. 354.
- ^ Stanley & Coffey 1998, p. 140.
- ^ Guralnick 1999, p. 560.
- ^ Guralnick & Jorgensen 1999, p. 336.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, p. 381.
- ^ Guralnick 1999, pp. 584–85.
- ^ Guralnick 1999, pp. 593–95.
- ^ Guralnick 1999, p. 595.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, p. 397.
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- ^ a b c Whitburn 2006, p. 273.
- ^ Marcus 1982, p. 284.
- ^ Marsh 1989, p. 430.
- ^ Victor 2008, pp. 8, 526.
- ^ Victor 2008, pp. 8, 224, 325.
- ^ Scherman 2006.
- ^ a b Guralnick 1999, p. 628.
- ^ Roy 1985, p. 71.
- ^ Guralnick 1999, p. 634.
- ^ Guralnick 1999, pp. 212, 642.
- ^ Guralnick 1999, pp. 638–39.
- ^ Guralnick 1999, pp. 638.
- ^ Stanley & Coffey 1998, p. 148.
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- ^ Malm, Sara (March 25, 2014). "Elvis Presley could have died from underlying heart condition". Daily Mail. London. Retrieved March 30, 2014.
- ^ "Dead Famous DNA – 4oD". Channel 4. March 26, 2014. Retrieved March 30, 2014.
- ^ Guralnick 1999, pp. 645–48.
- ^ a b Woolley & Peters 1977.
- ^ Hopkins 2007, p. 386.
- ^ a b Guralnick 1999, p. 660.
- ^ Victor 2008, pp. 581–82.
- ^ Matthew-Walker 1979, p. 26.
- ^ Pendergast & Pendergast 2000, p. 108.
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- ^ Coady 2003, pp. 197–209.
- ^ Harrison 1992, pp. 42, 157–160, 169.
- ^ Harrison 1992, pp. 159–160.
- ^ Guralnick 1999, p. 652.
- ^ a b Baden & Hennessee 1990, p. 35.
- ^ a b Ramsland 2010.
- ^ Brown & Broeske 1997, p. 433.
- ^ National Park Service 2010.
- ^ Cook 2004, p. 33.
- ^ Bronson 2004, p. 1.
- ^ Goldman & Ewalt 2007.
- ^ Rose 2006.
- ^ Goldman & Paine 2007.
- ^ Hoy 2008.
- ^ Pomerantz et al. 2009.
- ^ Rose et al. 2010.
- ^ Baillie 2010.
- ^ Bouchard 2010.
- ^ Lynch 2011.
- ^ Pomerantz 2011.
- ^ Hilburn 2007.
- ^ a b Victor 2008, p. 438.
- ^ a b c Whitburn 2004, pp. 500–04.
- ^ Billboard 2008.
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- ^ everyHit.com 2010a.
- ^ everyHit.com 2010b.
- ^ a b Clout, Laura (July 23, 2008). "Elvis lives: in 2,000-year-old carving". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
- ^ Cf. Segré 2002.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, p. 14.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 47–48.
- ^ Bertrand 2000, p. 211.
- ^ Charlton 2006, p. 103.
- ^ Cited in Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders (1998), p.16.
- ^ Michael Campbell, Popular Music in America (3rd edition, 2009), p.161.
- ^ Cited in Peter Guralnick, Lost Highway: Journeys & Arrivals of American Musicians (1989), p.104.
- ^ Morrison 1996, p. x.
- ^ a b Friedlander 1996, p. 45.
- ^ Gillett 2000, p. 113.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, p. 39.
- ^ Wolfe 1994, p. 14.
- ^ Wolfe 1994, p. 22.
- ^ Keogh 2004, p. 184.
- ^ a b c Marsh 1982, p. 145.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, p. 123.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, pp. 213, 237.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, pp. 142–43.
- ^ a b Guralnick 1999, p. 65.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, p. 343.
- ^ Ponce de Leon 2007, p. 199.
- ^ Marsh 1982, p. 234.
- ^ Marsh 1989, p. 317.
- ^ Marsh 1989, p. 91.
- ^ Marsh 1989, p. 490.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, p. 140.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, p. 212.
- ^ Guralnick 1999, p. 232.
- ^ Guralnick 1999, p. 231.
- ^ Guralnick 1999, p. 279.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, p. 238.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, p. 273.
- ^ a b Guralnick 1999, p. 335.
- ^ Marsh 1989, p. 424.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, p. 271.
- ^ Guralnick 1999, p. 332.
- ^ a b c d Pleasants 2004, p. 260.
- ^ Waters 2003, p. 205.
- ^ Denisoff 1975, p. 22.
- ^ "Why I stopped hating Elvis Presley – Atlanta Music Blog – Atlanta Concerts & Shows – Crib Notes – Creative Loafing Atlanta". Creative Loafing Atlanta. Retrieved November 13, 2015.
- ^ "Civil Rights and Elvis Presley". Retrieved December 23, 2015.
- ^ a b Pilgrim 2006.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, p. 426.
- ^ Bertrand 2000, p. 220.
- ^ a b Kolawole 2002.
- ^ a b Myrie 2009, pp. 123–24.
- ^ Masley 2002.
- ^ Bertrand 2000, p. 198.
- ^ a b Feeney 2010.
- ^ Ashley 2009, p. 76.
- ^ Rodman 1996, p. 58.
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- ^ Garber 1997, p. 366.
- ^ Dyer 1959–60, p. 30.
- ^ Farmer 2000, p. 86.
- ^ Tasker 2007, p. 208.
- ^ Kirchberg & Hendrickx 1999, p. 109.
- ^ New York Times. Retrieved February 26, 2016.
- ^ Adler, David. (1993), The Life and Cuisine of Elvis Presley, Three Rivers Press.
- ISBN 978-1-57806-634-6.
- ^ Sherman 2013, pp. 313–315.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 415–17, 448–49.
- ^ Guralnick 1994, pp. 452–53.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, p. 198.
- ^ Guralnick 1999, p. 248.
- ^ Guralnick & Jorgensen 1999, pp. 304, 365.
- ^ Guralnick & Jorgensen 1999, pp. 358, 375.
- ^ Presley 1985, p. 188.
- ^ a b Nash 2005, p. 290.
- ^ Clayton & Heard 2003, pp. 262–65.
- ^ Clayton & Heard 2003, p. 267.
- ^ Jorgensen 1998, p. 281.
- ^ Stanley & Coffey 1998, p. 123.
- ^ Brown & Broeske 1997, p. 125.
- ^ Clayton & Heard 2003, p. 226.
- ^ Guralnick 1999, pp. 563–65.
- ^ Ponce de Leon 2007, pp. 139–40.
- ^ Harris 2006.
- ^ Clayton & Heard 2003, p. 339.
- ^ Connelly 2008, p. 148.
- ^ Guralnick 1999, p. 174.
- ^ Guralnick 1999, p. 175.
- ^ Christgau 1985.
- ^ Sadie 1994, p. 638.
- ^ Bertrand 2000, p. 94.
- ^ Rodman 1996, p. 193.
- ^ a b Victor 2008, p. 356.
- ^ Arnett 2006, p. 400.
- ^ Doss 1999, p. 2.
- ^ Lott 1997, p. 192.
- ^ VH1 1998.
- ^ BBC News 2001.
- ^ Rolling Stone 2004.
- ^ CMT 2005.
- ^ Discovery Channel 2005.
- ^ Variety.com 2005.
- ^ The Atlantic Monthly 2006.
- ^ Keogh 2004, p. 2.
- ^ The New York Times 2002.
- ^ Marcus 1982, pp. 141–42.
- ^ a b Mawer 2007a.
- ^ a b Mawer 2007b.
- ^ a b Whitburn 2004, pp. 500–01.
- ^ Whitburn 2007.
- ^ Whitburn 2008.
- ^ a b everyHit.com 2009.
- ^ Whitburn 2006, pp. 271–73.
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Further reading
- Allen, Lew (2007). Elvis and the Birth of Rock. Genesis. ISBN 1-905662-00-9.
- Ann-Margret and Todd Gold (1994). Ann-Margret: My Story. G.P. Putnam's Sons. ISBN 0-399-13891-9.
- Cantor, Louis (2005). Dewey and Elvis: The Life and Times of a Rock 'n' Roll Deejay. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-02981-X.
- Dickerson, James L. (2001). Colonel Tom Parker: The Curious Life of Elvis Presley's Eccentric Manager. Cooper Square Press. ISBN 0-8154-1267-3.
- Finstad, Suzanne (1997). Child Bride: The Untold Story of Priscilla Beaulieu Presley. Harmony Books. ISBN 0-517-70585-0.
- Goldman, Albert (1981). Elvis. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-023657-7.
- Goldman, Albert (1990). Elvis: The Last 24 Hours. St. Martin's. ISBN 0-312-92541-7.
- Klein, George (2010). Elvis: My Best Man: Radio Days, Rock 'n' Roll Nights, and My Lifelong Friendship with Elvis Presley. Virgin Books. ISBN 978-0-307-45274-0
- Marcus, Greil (2000). Double Trouble: Bill Clinton and Elvis Presley in a Land of No Alternative. Picador. ISBN 0-571-20676-X
- Nash, Alanna (2010). Baby, Let's Play House: Elvis Presley and the Women Who Loved Him. It Books. ISBN 0-06-169984-5.
- Moose: Chapters From My Life. AuthorHouse. pp. 313–318. ISBN 978-1-491-88366-2.
- West, Red, Sonny West, and Dave Hebler (as told to Steve Dunleavy) (1977). Elvis: What Happened? Bantam Books. ISBN 0-345-27215-3.
External links
- Elvis Presley at IMDb
- Elvis Presley at the TCM Movie Database
- Elvis Presley at AllMovie
- Elvis Presley discography at Discogs
- Elvis Presley Enterprises official site of the Elvis Presley brand
- Elvis The Music official record label site
- Elvis Presley Interviews on officially sanctioned Elvis Australia site
- Elvis Presley at Curlie