Biography of Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley astonished the White culture of the American '50s with his overt sexuality and synthesis of hopped-up hillbilly music spot welded to the Blackest of blues sources. Preachers railed against it, parents hated it, teenage boys emulated it, and girls went hog-wild in ecstasy over it. It took the world by storm, and while his visual and musical styles had their cultural antecedents in Hollywood and the Mississippi Delta, no one had ever seen anything like him before. At some point in 1953, the 19-year-old Presley entered Sam Phillips's Sun studios and cut a vanity disc under the auspices of its being a gift for his mother. Truth be known, Elvis (too proud to risk rejection at a formal audition) developed the ploy in hopes of being discovered. By July of 1954, Presley was in the studio again, laying down a series of recordings that transformed Western culture, achieving effortlessly what others would spend their careers pursuing in vain. In 1955, after no commercial success of major consequence, virtually every label of standing was bidding for his services, including Atlantic, who (with a predominantly Black roster) were prepared to hock their entire assets to sign the unproven singer. His contract was eventually sold to RCA Victor under the guidance of Colonel Tom Parker, a former carnival hustler who aided in Presley's meteoric rise to the top and just as easily assured his slide into mediocrity. In 1957, at the height of his success, he was drafted into the army, only to return two years later into a world of grade-Z movies and equally abominable soundtrack albums that exhibited only periodic flashes of his original brilliance. In December of 1968, on his first-ever television special, Elvis (recently married and a father extolling family virtues) took the NBC stage sweating, greasy, and passionate, growling his way nervously through his past, rediscovering his roots, and reinventing his persona as The King of Rock & Roll.To cap this achievement, he returned to Memphis and recorded there for the first time since 1955. The resulting recordings were the most mature and passionate of his career. This was followed by a much-ballyhooed conquest of Las Vegas, the town that chased him out in 1956. By the end of 1970, after a two-year run of hits and another wall full of gold records, Elvis Presley was the single most successful entertainer in the world. But with worldwide success came the personal problems that would eventually overwhelm him. During the last few years of his life, Presley stumbled onto stages around the country to croon his former glories, an unreliable entertainer, bloated beyond belief, a parody of his former self.On June 26, 1977, Elvis was presented with a plaque commemorating his two-billionth record pressed by RCA. Less than two months later, on August 16, he died at Graceland, the victim of the progressively toxic effects of the veritable cornucopia of prescription drugs he had been taking for a decade or more. Whether his death was accidental, planned, or staged has been tabloid-magazine fodder ever since. What is certain is that, within days of his death, every record and tape on the planet earth with his name on it had been purchased by someone, somewhere. The real merchandising of Elvis Presley had begun in earnest... ~ Neal Umphred & Rick Clark & Cub Koda & Stephen Thomas Erlewine