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Elvis Presley
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Pop Icon
Elvis Presley Remembered on Anniversary of Death
Singer who sold 1 billion records and defined an era died
August 16, 1977
By Michael Jay Friedman and Carolee Walker
Washington File Staff Writers
Washington -- Before "Elvis," Beatles vocalist and rhythm
guitarist John Lennon once said, "there was nothing." Lennon
exaggerated -- but not by much. By the late 1950s, Elvis
Aaron Presley (1935�1977), a dirt-poor country boy had
emerged as �The King" -- Hollywood star, top-selling
recording artist (of all time, by some measures) and
cultural icon. His first and perhaps most lasting
achievement, though, was introducing the rhythm-and-blues
music pioneered by African Americans to a white audience.
Elvis fused what then often was known as "black music" with
the "country" sound prevalent in the South. The result was
called �rockabilly,� but subsequent generations -- John
Lennon included -- heard the beginning of rock 'n' roll.
Elvis was born on January 8, 1935, in what has been
described as a "two-room shotgun house" in East Tupelo,
Mississippi. (A "shotgun house" typically refers to a narrow
one-story dwelling without halls, each room placed single
file behind the other; so named because in theory a shotgun
fired through the front door would pass through each room
and out the back door.)
In 1948, the Presley family moved to Memphis, Tennessee, a
city associated with the blues since at least 1912, when W.C.
Handy published the hit song "Memphis Blues." After World
War II, the Memphis blues scene had turned electric,
pioneering separate roles for lead and rhythm guitar.
Artists congregated on Beale Street, a major nexus of
African American-owned clubs, restaurants and shops (it also
was emblematic of the rougher side of town; one music
producer called Beale Street "the center of all evil in the
known universe.� Today, much rehabilitated, it is a national
landmark.) Among the blues masters plying their trade there
were Howlin' Wolf, Ike Turner and B.B. King. King later
would recall how the teenage Presley "used to come around
and be around us a lot."
Young Presley�s other great musical influence came from the
local Pentecostal churches he attended. The gospel music he
heard there would shape his future sound, as would the
country-and-western music popular among southern whites.
In 1953, Presley made his first demo recording for producer
Sam Phillips' Memphis-based Sun Records. Phillips believed
that a white artist capable of making that music accessible
to a white audience�"a white man who had the Negro sound and
the Negro feel" -- would enjoy great commercial success.
Elvis frankly acknowledged his debt to his African-American
predecessors: "The colored folks been singing it and playing
it just like I'm doin' now, man, for more years than I
know," he said on one occasion. "They played it like that in
the shanties and in their juke joints, and nobody paid it no
mind 'til I goosed it up. I got it from them." Presley�s
success in turn helped early black rockers like Chuck Berry
and Little Richard sell records to white teenagers.
Between 1953 and 1955, Presley recorded a number of regional
hits for Sun. Some were country-flavored, while others were
remakes, or "covers," of African-American blues. In November
1955, his manager, "Colonel" Tom Parker (actually born in
the Netherlands as Andreas Cornelius van Kuijk) arranged the
purchase of Presley's contract by the much larger RCA
Records.
Major hit records followed: classics like "Heartbreak
Hotel," "I Want You, I Need You, I Love You," "Don�t Be
Cruel" "Hound Dog," and "Love Me Tender" in 1956 alone.
These hits fused a number of American musical traditions:
blues, bluegrass, R&B, hillbilly boogie and more.
Elvis swiftly emerged as �The King." Tall and slim, with
long sideburns and a pompadour, he had unlimited star
potential. RCA arranged a number of national television
appearances. Criticism of Presley's allegedly suggestive hip
"gyrations" and swivels during an April 1956 performance of
"Hound Dog" only increased his popularity�and earned him the
sobriquet "Elvis the Pelvis." By fall, The Ed Sullivan Show
paid Elvis an unprecedented $50,000 for three appearances.
The first, in September 1956, drew an estimated 82.5 percent
of the television audience.
Presley's fame grew. He began to star in motion pictures
like Love Me Tender (1956) and Jailhouse Rock (1957). While
Elvis was not a trained actor, his charisma filled the big
screen. He continued to star in films like Blue Hawaii and
Viva Las Vegas throughout the 1960s.
In March 1958, Presley was inducted into the United States
Army for a two-year stint. Thousands of fans wrote pleading
letters, begging that their hero not be drafted. Thousands
more (female) fans reportedly wept when their hero's locks
were sheared in a regulation military crew cut. But Elvis
returned to civilian life two years later, and more hit
records and movies followed. It has been estimated that The
King has sold more than 1 billion recordings.
Presley continued to enjoy commercial success during the
1960s, although changing tastes brought artists associated
with Motown and the "British Invasion" more to the fore with
younger listeners. Elvis' audience aged with him, and for
many, Presley symbolized the America of their youth. In his
1986 song Graceland, named for Elvis� Memphis estate, now a
pilgrimage site for Presley's fans, Paul Simon memorably
declared: "For reasons I cannot explain | There's some part
of me wants to see Graceland.�
Elvis Presley died at Graceland on August 16, 1977. His
music, personality and verve touched millions, from American
teens of the 1950s to Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi, who paid his respects in June as one of the 750,000
annual visitors to Graceland. (See related article.)
Elvis' greatest legacy, though, is the music, and the
rockers and other musicians who built on it. When Presley
died, superstar Bruce Springsteen said: "It was like he
whispered his dream in all our ears and then we dreamed it."
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