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Elvis Presley

Simply put, Elvis Presley was the first real rock & roll star. A white southerner singing blues laced with country and country tinged with gospel, he brought together American music from both sides of the color line and performed it with a natural hip-swiveling sexuality that made him a teen idol and a role model for generations of cool rebels. He was repeatedly dismissed as vulgar, incompetent, and a bad influence, but the force of his music and his image was no mere merchandising feat. Presley signaled to mainstream culture that it was time to let go.

Presley was the son of Gladys and Vernon Presley, a sewing-machine operator and a truck driver. Elvis’ twin brother, Jesse Garon, was stillborn, and Presley grew up an only child. When he was three, his father served an eight-month prison term for writing bad checks, and afterward Vernon Presley’s employment was erratic, keeping the family just above the poverty level. The Presleys attended the First Assembly of God Church, and its Pentecostal services always included singing.

	In 1945 Presley won second prize at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show for his rendition of Red Foley’s "Old Shep." The following January he received a guitar for his birthday. In 1948 the family moved to Memphis, and while attending L. C. Humes High School there, Presley spent much of his spare time hanging around the black section of town, especially on Beale Street, where bluesmen like Furry Lewis and B. B. King performed. Upon graduation in June 1953, Presley worked at the Precision Tool Company and then drove a truck for Crown Electric. He planned to become a truck driver and had begun to wear his long hair pompadoured, the current truck-driver style. That summer he recorded "My Happiness" and "That’s When Your Heartaches Begin" at the Memphis Recording Service, a sideline Sam Phillips had established in his Sun Records studios where anyone could record a ten-inch acetate for four dollars.

Presley was reportedly curious to know what he sounded like and gravely disappointed by what he heard. But he returned to the Recording Service again on January 4,1954, and recorded "Casual Love Affair" and "I’ll Never Stand in Your Way." This time he met Phillips, who called him later that spring to rerecord a song that Phillips had received on a demo, "Without You." Despite numerous takes, Presley failed miserably and at Phillips’ request just began singing songs in the studio. Phillips then began to believe that he had finally found what he had been looking for: "a white man with the Negro sound and the Negro feel."

Presley became a national star in 1956. He and Parker traveled to Nashville, where Presley cut his first records for RCA (including "I Got a Woman," "Heartbreak Hotel," and "I Was the One"), and on January 28, 1956, the singer made his national television debut on the Dorsey Brothers’ Stage Show, followed by six consecutive appearances. In March Parker signed Presley to a managerial agreement for which he would receive 25 percent of Presley’s earnings. The contract would last through Presley’s lifetime and beyond.

On March 24, 1958, Presley entered the army. The preceding months brought two hits: "Don’t" (#1, 1958) and "I Beg of You" (#8,1958). He took leave a few months later to be with his mother; Gladys Presley died the day after his arrival home in Memphis, on August 14,1958. In later interviews Presley would call her death the great tragedy of his life. In the years since his death, much has been written about his relationship with his mother and her impact on his life. He was shipped to Bremerhaven, West Germany, and in January 1960 was promoted to sergeant. He was discharged in March.

Presley was honored with countless Elvis Presley Days in cities around the country, and the U.S. Jaycees named him one of the ten most outstanding young men of America in 1970. His birthplace in Tupelo was opened to the public, and on January 18, 1972, the portion of Highway 51 South that ran in front of Graceland was renamed Elvis Presley Boulevard. That October Presley had his last Top Ten hit when "Burning Love" hit #2. Toward the end of his life, however, Presley would babble incoherently onstage and rip his pants, having grown quite obese, and on at least one occasion he collapsed onstage. Despite his clearly deteriorating health, he maintained a frantic tour schedule, because in 1973 Colonel Parker had negotiated a complex deal whereby Presley sold back to RCA the rights to many of his masters in exchange for a lump-sum payment of which only $2.8 million came to him. Essentially, after 1973 Parker was earning nearly 50 percent commission (as opposed to the 10 percent industry standard). Worse, however, Presley was not earning any more royalties on sides recorded before 1973 although they continued to sell in the millions year after year. Presley opposed tax shelters on principle; he naively relied on his father for business advice; he gave away expensive gifts and cash heedlessly. The result, by the mid-Seventies, was impending financial disaster.

Presley’s last live performance was on June 25,1977, in Indianapolis. He was reportedly horrified at the impending publication of Elvis: What Happened?, the tell-all written by three of his ex-bodyguards and Memphis mafiosi that was the first printed account of his drug abuse and obsession with firearms, to name just two headline-grabbing revelations. The book came out on August 12. On August 16, 1977 -- the day before his next scheduled concert -- Presley was discovered by his girlfriend Ginger Alden dead in his bathroom at Graceland. Although his death was at first attributed to congestive heart failure (an autopsy also revealed advanced arteriosclerosis and an enlarged liver), later investigation revealed evidence that drug abuse may have been at least part of the cause of death. Because the family was allowed to keep the official autopsy report private, speculation regarding contributing factors in Presley’s death has run wild. Through the years, several insiders have insisted that he was suffering from bone cancer, to name just one unsubstantiated claim. In September 1979 Presley’s private physician, Dr. George Nichopoulos, was charged by the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners with "indiscriminately prescribing 5,300 pills and vials for Elvis in the seven months before his death." He was later acquitted.

Interesting Links:

Elvis - Graceland

Apache Elvis

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