In the 1950s, Elvis Presley's music began to take the world by storm. His music transcended racial and cultural boundaries, blending country, blues, and hillbilly rock into a distinctive style that shook the pop world and sent rock 'n' roll sweeping across the globe like a whirlwind. Although Elvis never recorded a song in a foreign language except in a handful of movie
songs, and except for five shows in three Canadian cities, he never played a concert outside the United States. Handsome looks, gifted musical spirit, uninhibited nature and inspiring stage presence became the label of Elvis Presley, but also made him the world's fanatical worship of the star, Elvis in Graceland home, the awards showroom full of gold and platinum records, as well as a variety of accolades from all over the world, some of whom are Norway, Yugoslavia, Japan, Australia, South Africa, Britain, Sweden, Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, the United States, the United States, the United States and the United States. Some of them were from Norway, Yugoslavia, Japan, Australia, South Africa, England, Sweden, Germany, France, Canada, Belgium and the Netherlands. His influence lasted for more than 20 years from the 50's to the 70's and his popularity has endured, and after his death in 1977, his old favorites have remained popular, with any reissues selling very consistently. There is no doubt that Elvis is the highest selling artist in the history of popular music.
It is estimated that Elvis has sold over 1,000,000,000 albums worldwide, making him the biggest selling artist in the history of the recording industry. In the United States alone, Elvis has 131 gold and platinum albums posthumously awarded by RCA Records and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It is estimated that 40 percent of Elvis' total sales were generated outside the United States.
Elvis Presley was born on January 8, 1935, in the United States in a poor farm worker family. He grew up addicted to gospel music. At the same time, the young Elvis was y moved by the up-tempo Negro music popular in the ghetto, as well as by the blues and folk music. He was inspired by the church choirs, and the passionate singing and dancing of the congregation, from which he derived his famous and controversial crotch-twisting moves.
In 1948, Elvis moved his family to Memphis. It was here that Elvis began his career as a professional musician, and by chance he joined the Blackwood Brothers, a four-piece gospel singing group. The move was the beginning of Elvis' musical career, and the black soul and R&B of Memphis, combined with white country music, became the roots of Elvis' distinctive style of music and singing.
One day in 1953, while recording a song for his mother at a studio owned by Sun Records owner Sam Phillips, he met Phillips' assistant, Marion Keisker, and was recognized by Keisker. In June 1954, Phillips asked Elvis to go to SUN to record a song from Nashville, and also invited were local musicians Scotty Moore (guitar) and Bill Black (bass), who accompanied Elvis. The combination didn't work well at first, and it wasn't until Elvis sang Arthur Crudupiz's rhythm and blues song "That's All Right" that they found their groove. The song eventually became Elvis' first single on Sun Records and won over local fans. Since then Elvis has released several albums along the way and has begun touring. His music, which embodied the combination of country music and rhythm and blues, and his wild and uninhibited demeanor took rock and roll by storm like never before. Elvis was on the road to success, and a superstar was on the rise.
Sam Phillips foresaw that a white singer with a black flavor like Elvis Presley would be a sensation, because he showed people that white music and black music styles could be fused in a very personal and innovative way. So Phillips was ingenious in producing Elvis' recordings, utilizing the company's original recording facilities and Phillips' constant use of echo technology to create the so-called "Sun sound," which, combined with a country-based instrumental section with distinctly black rhythms, created Elvis' unique style. In his Sun recordings, Elvis showed a deep understanding of the style of black musicians. He never simply copied someone else's songs, and with the assistance of radio music programmer Fontana on drums, as well as Bill Black and Scotty Moore, he always approached the compositions in a new way that didn't dilute the original power of the songs, as other white singers have done in their approach.
Sun released a number of Elvis Presley's singles on HMV in England that always collected a blues song on one side and a country song on the other, and all took a radical, different approach to performance. These included "That's All Right" and Bill Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky," "Good Rocking Tonight"/"I Don't Care If the Sun Don't Shine," and "I Don't Care If the Sun Don't Shine. the Sun Don't Shine), Milk Cow Blues Boogie / You're a Heartbreaker, Baby Let's Play House / I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone (I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone). Left, You're Right, She's Gone" and "Mystery Train"/"I Forgot to Remember to Forget". Those recorded by Sun but purchased by RCA prior to release include two versions of "I Love You Because" (the version recorded in July 1954 was not included on the album Elvis A Legendary Performer: Vol-1 until 1974) and "I Love You Because" (the version recorded in July 1954 was not included on the album Elvis A Legendary Performer: Vol-1). Vol-1), as well as "Blue Moon", "I'll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin')", "Just Because" and the excellent "Trying to Get to You". Other unreleased songs from the period were included on an illegally released album, Swing Tonight.
In a November 1955 poll of radio music programmers, he was considered one of the most promising "country and western" singers. Parker "The Colonel" became Elvis's manager, and Phillips transferred his contract with Elvis to Victor, a division of RCA, which had the power to market and distribute his records nationally, for $35,000. Combined with Parker's success in arranging selective television appearances, Elvis immediately became a national star, and every one of his subsequent records topped the charts. topped the charts. The first single from RCA, "Heartbreak Hotel/I Was The One," was Elvis' first number one hit, and in March of the same year, Elvis Presley released his first album with RCA, which topped the Billboard album charts for 10 weeks. When his second album Elvis was released, the single Love Me Tender topped four charts in the United States. Meanwhile, more than two dozen types of Elvis merchandise, including shirts, scarves, jeans, and lipstick, were released in quick succession, earning Elvis $20 million in his first year at RCA.
Elvis' first recordings at RCA took place in Nashville in January 1956, with a backing lineup that included Chet Atkins and the Jordanaires, among others. Some of the subsequent recordings were made at the company's main studio in New York. Critics felt that Elvis' move to RCA signaled a rapid decline in the quality of his work, and this trend continued. Although the recordings made during this period (until 1958, when Elvis joined the Army) show a considerable change in the style and content of Elvis's music, historically, the genre formed by these compositions is actually the essence of mainstream rock and roll in the 1950s." Songs like "Don't Be Cruel" and "One Sided Love Affair" exemplify Elvis's transition from the breezy, frantic Sun Corp. style to the depressing, darker, heavier styles of later years. The latter tended to be more commercial, but still remained exciting and sexy. Moreover, it was this type of song that introduced countless white teenagers to rock and roll music through prime-time television broadcasts, especially through Elvis's somber image, such as "Heartbreak Hotel" and "Hound Dog". Some of Elvis's earlier recordings, which were not released until he left for Germany to serve in the army, are also in this vein: "One Night", "I Got Stung". A Fool Such As I," and "Big Hunk O' Love."
By the late '50s, Elvis' stature was so high that his songs were becoming more sophisticated and more comfortable, and in September 1956, RCA made an unprecedented attempt to release seven of his singles at the same time, and Elvis topped the charts every week from August through December.
Meanwhile, "Colonel" Parker was busy furthering Elvis's image -- making his first movie, "Love Me Tender," and agreeing with manufacturers to make everything from key rings to pillowcases. Similarly, a commercial savvy was evident in the recording of the album, Elvis' Christmas Album, released in 1957, which was a clever mix of folk and rock songs, with some religious, choral, and popular show tunes thrown in without missing a beat.Ten days before Christmas in 1957, the three U.S. militaries Ten days before Christmas in 1957, the U.S. Army was trying to get Elvis to enlist as a singer, but Elvis declined the offer and accepted the draft as a civilian. After two performances for his hometown, on March 24, 1958, he reported to the 2nd Armored Division camp in suburban Killeen, Texas, in full military regalia, and began his military career. In 1960, Elvis Presley began filming his first movie, "G.I. Blues", and the soundtrack was released in October and quickly climbed back to #1, remaining on the charts for 111 weeks, more weeks than any of Elvis' albums. At this time, Priscilla moved into Graceland with Elvis.
Returning from military service in Germany in March 1960, Elvis' wild, brutal, "my way or the highway" style of 1958 remained intact. But the album Elvis is Back seemed to be torn between re-experimenting with rhythm and blues and country music and embarking on a new, softer approach to singing. This tender voice and singing style felt uninspired and lost the passion and exuberance of the past. The style continued through most of Elvis' later work.
The governor of Tennessee proclaimed February 25, 1961, "Elvis Day," and every year since then, Elvis has performed in his hometown on Christmas Day for charity. During the period between the release of the album "Stick It To You" and the beginning of Beatlemania in the United States, Elvis Presley maintained his status as one of the most prominent singles publishers, although there were only a handful of albums, such as "A Mess Of Blues" (A Mess Of Blues) and "It is Latest Flame" / "Little Sister" (A Mess Of Blues), which were released in the United States. Little Sister" - no less glorious than his '50s. From this point on, however, Elvis shifted his focus to Hollywood, appearing in 25 movies, including "Blue Hawaii". Although Elvis was at the peak of his career in terms of sales, his image was not as bright as it had been in the 1950s. Most of his most revered songs are gentle, soothing compositions such as "It's Now Or Never," "Are You Lonesome Tonight," and "Surrender," or movie interludes such as "Wooden Heart" and "Surrender. Heart" and "Wild in the Country". In addition, he released a number of albums, a large portion of which consisted of interludes from the long list of Hollywood musicals in which he began to appear.
In the early '60s, Elvis began taking on three movies a year, although these typical Hollywood films were disappointingly crude one after the other, and then while Elvis himself sang all of the songs in them, these songs, which were used only to fill in the empty movie plots, tended to be third-rate, in contrast to his earlier films: "Love Me Tender" (1956), "Loving You (1957), and Jailhouse Rock (1958), the songs used in his earlier films, as well as the standard of the songwriters. The films dedicated to Elvis that followed, such as Flaming Star (1960) and Wild in the Country (1961), which numbered more than 20, are of little interest. Recordings during this period included a series of singles starting with Good Luck Charm, She's Not for You, Return to Sender and One Broken Heart for Sale.
In 1966 Elvis and Priscilla's relationship came to fruition, and he formally proposed to Priscilla, marrying her at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas the following year. 1968 saw the birth of their daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, which allowed Elvis to start enjoying a relaxing home life. However, the good times didn't last long. In 1972, Elvis and Priscilla broke up, and Priscilla took their daughter Lisa Marie with her, and chose to file for divorce on Elvis' birthday the following year, and the court ruled that Priscilla had custody of her daughter. Although Elvis was a romantic and scandalous man, Priscilla was the only love of his life, and the only legally married wife he ever had.
After 1968, Elvis was seen as the epitome of cynicism, weakness and regression in pop music. In addition, the profits from his movies declined and the quality of his films deteriorated, and even Elvis himself made it clear that he hated them as much as his audiences did.
Then, for the first time since 1960, he attempted to expand his career on television, this time with his own TV specials and wearing a black leather outfit on a small stage surrounded by an audience. He gave the impression of an Elvis Presley regeneration: a leader-like charisma, a relaxed ease and a hint of portentousness that thrilled fans around the world.
The success of the program pushed Elvis to a difficult fork in the road: either use it as a starting point for a new, but very risky, musical experiment, or go back to his old production routines, with a few minor changes in detail. At first, his records seemed to maintain a balance between the two. The single "If I Can Dream" from his TV show was very powerful, as if trying to shake off his '60s weakness, and then he went back to Memphis in early 1969 to record the album Elvis in Memphis, which he recorded using Chips Moman's "American Recording Studios" and had some of the area's outstanding musicians as his backing group, and the album once again thrilled his fans and became his most inspirational work in some time.
Elvis then performed his first live show in Las Vegas since 1961. Despite his great band lineup and his great work, people didn't get to see the Elvis that was expected, an expectation that was birthed by Elvis' TV specials. Soon Elvis returned to his old style of music, as safe as his movies, as evidenced by a series of "live recordings" from New York, Hawaii and Las Vegas. These were a collection of random covers of old songs, and none of the songs were comparable to their original versions. Still, when the Hawaiian Live Recordings album reached No. 1 on the U.S. charts in 1973, it -- along with other '70s hits -- proved what was soon to be discredited: that Elvis was still the biggest-selling musician of all time, that his career wasn't over, and that, while it wasn't what it used to be, Elvis's influences and supporters were still something of which he could be proud.
Ironically it is clear from Elvis's downward trend since 1960 that he favored less commercialized music in his work choices over his former songs. His early practice of recording black music continued into the 1970s. He recorded songs by Ivory Joe Hunter in 1958 and 1973, and his post-service recordings included selections from such artists as Chuck Jackson, Little Walter, O. C. Smith, "The Voyagers" (Coasters), Jerry Butler, Ketty Lester, Chuck Berry, Clovers, Drifters, Rufus Thomas, Willie Dixon ( Elvis also sang songs by a new generation of Southern writers, such as Jerry Reed's "Guitar Man," Mac Davis's "In the Ghetto," Tony Joe White's "The Ghetto," and "The Ghetto," and "The Ghetto," as well as a number of other songs by the same artists. White's "Polk Salad Annie" and Dennis Linde's "Burning Love."
The effort and risk taken in selecting the songs makes the fact that Elvis' recordings were never very good all the more inexplicable. In fact, since 1960, he has done very little that is as remarkable as he did in the '50s: 1960's religiously styled "His Hand in Mine" had a very refined and pure vocal treatment, and the B-side of "Kissin' Cousins" (1965), "It Hurts Me" (1965), suddenly saw Elvis again in a new light. On the B-side of "Kissin' Cousins," "It Hurts Me" (1965), the excitement and adventurous spirit of Elvis Presley's '50s era suddenly shines through. Notable albums include From Elvis in Memphis and Elvis Country (1971), as well as the live-recorded "American Trilogy" album Elvis: Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite (1973).
By the mid-'70s, Elvis once again seemed to have despairingly abandoned any attempt to gain respectability as an artist and settled into his last stereotypes. His voice was looser and more careless than ever, rough and harsh at higher volumes, wavering at lower ones, and completely devoid of its original vitality and nuance. His spirit seemed to become disoriented. To make matters worse, heavy drug use, overeating, and debauchery broke his body.
When Elvis was hospitalized in October '73 for a recurrence of pneumonia and pleurisy, dilated colon and hepatitis, his manager, Parker, profited from his own pressurized brokering tactics, which drove Elvis, in poor health, into financial ruin. Evidence suggests that Parker deliberately failed to pay Elvis royalties prior to 1973, and that Elvis was forced to tour to alleviate his financial woes, relying on drugs such as tranquilizers and other medications for his physical and mental exhaustion, which caused his health to deteriorate.
Even so, 1976 was a year of intensive touring, and by the end of November, Elvis had met his new girlfriend, Ginger Alden, who would become his last girlfriend before he died. 1977, in early April, Elvis fell ill again and was hospitalized, and after being released from the hospital he continued to tour until June. The concert in Indianapolis, Indiana, on June 26th was Elvis' last performance. Originally in Graceland home to recuperate in preparation for another concert Elvis, but was found by the tour manager (also said to be found by his girlfriend) collapsed in the bathroom, and was rushed to the hospital after emergency treatment, doctors announced that Elvis due to a serious arrhythmia (also said to be an overdose of medication) led to a heart attack and passed away at the age of only 42 years old. The news was released in the afternoon, shocking the world, thousands of fans went to Graceland to pay their respects. Elvis' body was finally buried with his mother in the 'Garden of Silence' at the back of Graceland.
After the death of his father in 1979, Elvis Presley's vast estate was inherited by his only daughter, Lisa Marie, who was 11 years old at the time, and after four lawsuits in the last two years, it was finally ruled that Parker, the agent, was compelled to return all of Elvis Presley's images and recordings to RCA and the family. By the fall of 1982, Graceland had become a tourist attraction for an average of nearly 600,000 people a year, and the Elvis Presley legacy was already worth more than $100 million. 1986 saw Elvis Presley become one of the top ten artists in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. As of August 1999, RCA Records and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)*** have posthumously awarded 131 gold and platinum albums to Elvis Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie, the largest number of gold and platinum albums in history, making Elvis Presley undoubtedly the greatest singing artist of all time. RCA also honored Elvis with a special 'Artsit Of The Century' award in memory of the star of the century.
The Elvis of the '50s influenced at least one generation, and since the '60s, they've been under the illusion that the Elvis of their minds was only defeated by himself, and that if the older, fatter Elvis would just change his Las Vegas/Hollywood lifestyle, and listen to his own music in a closed house full of jukeboxes from his early records, he would find a man who had been so great. He'd find an Elvis who had been so great, who had been so radiantly himself. He would then fight his own battles and eventually triumph to restore his former genius. Although this fantasy was not realized until the day Elvis died on August 16, 1977, his place in modern music remains unmatched. The rare and surprising foliage of talent he displayed in the '50s and occasionally thereafter was in no way compromised by his later activities. The pressures and successes he, as a white man, had in introducing racially tinged black rhythm and blues music to whites were extraordinary; he sacrificed his youth for an eternal legend, burned his life to brand a totem of 20th century pop culture, and more than anything else, he has stirred audiences around the globe to this day. His work transcended any of the influences that have shaped the history of rock 'n' roll, he shaped the form it would take, and for the first time, he enabled teenagers to value and develop their own musical individuality.... Although his songs were too simple and superficial, lacking in intensity and social responsibility, these long-running tracks are a true reflection of the first generation of teenagers influenced by rock and roll ideology, who not only possessed good looks, iconic crotch-twisting moves, and great stage presence, but also became a distinctive icon of the era, of this generation. The whole young generation, with its huge potential, found in him a spirit of rebellion and ****similarity. Since Elvis Presley, rock 'n' roll music, with its distinctive ideology and strong critique of reality, has spread rapidly. Because of his charisma, rock and roll became a national sport in the United States. Elvis Presley opened up the hard way forward for rock and roll.
Elvis Presley, the eternal king of rock and roll.