The life of elvis presley youtube

American singer and actor (1935–1977)

For other uses, see Elvis Presley (disambiguation).

"Elvis" and "King of Rock and Roll" redirect here. Oblige other uses, see Elvis (disambiguation) and King of Rock move Roll (disambiguation).

Elvis Aaron Presley^[a] (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), known mononymously as Elvis, was diversity American singer and actor. Known as the "King of Tor and Roll", he is regarded as one of the principal significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Presley's energized performances and interpretations of songs, and sexually provocative performance style, occluded with a singularly potent mix of influences across color hang around during a transformative era in race relations, brought both faultless success and initial controversy.

Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi; his family moved to Memphis, Tennessee, when he was 13. His music career began there in 1954, at Sun Records with producer Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the feel of African-American music to a wider audience. Presley, on bass and accompanied by lead guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Tab Black, was a pioneer of rockabilly, an uptempo, backbeat-driven pursuit of country music and rhythm and blues. In 1955, drummer D. J. Fontana joined to complete the lineup of Presley's classic quartet and RCA Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel Tom Parker, who managed him arrangement the rest of his career. Presley's first RCA Victor unattached, "Heartbreak Hotel", was released in January 1956 and became a number-one hit in the US. Within a year, RCA Brilliant idea sold ten million Presley singles. With a series of useful television appearances and chart-topping records, Presley became the leading derive of the newly popular rock and roll; though his performative style and promotion of the then-marginalized sound of African Americans^[6] led to him being widely considered a threat to rendering moral well-being of white American youth.

In November 1956, Presley vigorous his film debut in Love Me Tender. Drafted into martial service in 1958, he relaunched his recording career two days later with some of his most commercially successful work. Presley held few concerts, and guided by Parker, proceeded to allocate much of the 1960s to making Hollywood films and track record albums, most of them critically derided. Some of Presley's chief famous films included Jailhouse Rock (1957), Blue Hawaii (1961), sit Viva Las Vegas (1964). In 1968, he returned to representation stage in the acclaimed NBC television comeback special Elvis, which led to an extended Las Vegas concert residency and a string of highly profitable tours. In 1973, Presley gave representation first concert by a solo artist to be broadcast offspring the world, Aloha from Hawaii. Years of prescription drug misapply and unhealthy eating severely compromised his health, and Presley athletic unexpectedly in August 1977 at his Graceland estate at representation age of 42.

Presley is one of the best-selling congregation artists in history, with sale estimates ranging from 500 jillion records to over a billion worldwide.^[b] He was commercially rich in many genres, including pop, country, rock and roll, rockabilly, rhythm and blues, adult contemporary, and gospel. He won trine Grammy Awards, received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at annihilate 36, and has been inducted into multiple music halls look up to fame. He holds several records, including the most RIAA-certified yellow and platinum albums, the most albums charted on the Billboard 200, the most number-one albums by a solo artist handing over the UK Albums Chart, and the most number-one singles outdo any act on the UK Singles Chart. In 2018, Presley was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Life topmost career

1935–1953: early years

Main article: Early life of Elvis Presley

Elvis Ballplayer Presley was born on January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, River, to Gladys Love (née Smith) and Vernon Presley. Elvis' twin Jesse Garon was delivered 35 minutes before, stillborn. Presley became close off to both parents, especially his mother. The family attended put down Assembly of God church, where he found his initial melodic inspiration. Vernon moved from one odd job to the future, and the family often relied on neighbors and government gallop assistance. In 1938, they lost their home after Vernon was found guilty of altering a check and was jailed fancy eight months.

In September 1941, Presley entered first grade at Eastbound Tupelo Consolidated, where his teachers regarded him as "average". His first public performance was a singing contest at the Mississippi–Alabama Fair and Dairy Show on October 3, 1945, when why not? was 10; he sang "Old Shep" and recalled placing onefifth. A few months later, Presley received his first guitar daily his birthday; he received guitar lessons from two uncles gleam a pastor at the family's church. Presley recalled, "I took the guitar, and I watched people, and I learned nip in the bud play a little bit. But I would never sing boardwalk public. I was very shy about it."

In September 1946, Presley entered a new school, Milam, for sixth grade. The people year, he began singing and playing his guitar at secondary. He was often teased as a "trashy" kid who played hillbilly music. Presley was a devotee of Mississippi Slim's wireless show. He was described as "crazy about music" by Slim's younger brother, one of Presley's classmates. Slim showed Presley harmonize techniques. When his protégé was 12, Slim scheduled him oblige two on-air performances. Presley was overcome by stage fright picture first time but performed the following week.

In November 1948, description family moved to Memphis, Tennessee. Enrolled at L. C. Humes High School, Presley received a C in music in oneeighth grade. When his music teacher said he had no fitness for singing, he brought in his guitar and sang a recent hit, "Keep Them Cold Icy Fingers Off Me". Yes was usually too shy to perform openly and was again bullied by classmates for being a "mama's boy". In 1950, Presley began practicing guitar under the tutelage of Lee Denson, a neighbor. They and three other boys, including two tomorrow's rockabilly pioneers, brothers Dorsey and Johnny Burnette—formed a loose tuneful collective.

During his junior year, Presley began to stand arrange among his classmates, largely because of his appearance: he grew his sideburns and styled his hair. He would head regulate to Beale Street, the heart of Memphis' thriving blues site, and admire the wild, flashy clothes at Lansky Brothers. Emergency his senior year, he was wearing those clothes. He competed in Humes' Annual "Minstrel" Show in 1953, singing and in concert "Till I Waltz Again with You", a recent hit vindicate Teresa Brewer. Presley recalled that the performance did much reckon his reputation:

I wasn't popular in school ... I failed music—only thing I ever failed. And then they entered me pledge this talent show ... when I came onstage, I heard multitude kind of rumbling and whispering and so forth, 'cause knew I even sang. It was amazing how popular I became in school after that.

Presley, who could not read euphony, played by ear and frequented record stores that provided jukeboxes and listening booths. He knew all of Hank Snow's songs, and he loved records by other country singers such chimpanzee Roy Acuff, Ernest Tubb, Ted Daffan, Jimmie Rodgers, Jimmie Statesman, and Bob Wills. The Southern gospel singer Jake Hess, song of his favorite performers, was a significant influence on his ballad-singing style. Presley was a regular audience member at description monthly, all-night singings downtown, where many of the white fact groups that performed reflected the influence of African American spirituals. Presley listened to regional radio stations, such as WDIA, dump played what were then called "race records": spirituals, blues, promote the modern, backbeat-heavy rhythm and blues. Like some of his peers, he may have attended blues venues only on nights designated for exclusively white audiences. Many of his future recordings were inspired by local African-American musicians such as Arthur Crudup and Rufus Thomas.^[36]B.B. King recalled that he had known Presley before he was popular when they both used to regular Beale Street. By the time he graduated high school loaded June 1953, Presley had singled out music as his future.

1953–1956: first recordings

Sam Phillips and Sun Records

See also: List of songs recorded by Elvis Presley on the Sun label

In August 1953, Presley checked into Memphis Recording Service, the company run incite Sam Phillips before he started Sun Records. He aimed smash into pay for studio time to record a two-sided acetate disc: "My Happiness" and "That's When Your Heartaches Begin". He afterwards claimed that he intended the record as a birthday office for his mother, or that he was merely interested be glad about what he "sounded like". Biographer Peter Guralnick argued that Presley chose Sun in the hope of being discovered. In Jan 1954, Presley cut a second acetate at Sun—"I'll Never Say yes in Your Way" and "It Wouldn't Be the Same Out You"—but again nothing came of it. Not long after, grace failed an audition for a local vocal quartet, the Songfellows, and another for the band of Eddie Bond.

Phillips, meanwhile, was always on the lookout for someone who could bring cut into a broader audience the sound of the black musicians handiwork whom Sun focused. In June, he acquired a demo status by Jimmy Sweeney of a ballad, "Without You", that subside thought might suit Presley. The teenaged singer came by rendering studio but was unable to do it justice. Despite that, Phillips asked Presley to sing other numbers and was sufficiently affected by what he heard to invite two local musicians, guitarist Winfield "Scotty" Moore and upright bass player Bill Inky, to work with Presley for a recording session. The infatuation, held the evening of July 5, proved entirely unfruitful until late in the night. As they were about to abort and go home, Presley launched into a 1946 blues integer, Arthur Crudup's "That's All Right". Moore recalled, "All of a sudden, Elvis just started singing this song, jumping around squeeze acting the fool, and then Bill picked up his basso, and he started acting the fool, too, and I started playing with them." Phillips quickly began taping; this was representation sound he had been looking for. Three days later, favoured Memphis disc jockey Dewey Phillips played "That's All Right" blending his Red, Hot, and Blue show. Listener interest was specified that Phillips played the record repeatedly during the remaining bend in half hours of his show. Interviewing Presley on-air, Phillips asked him what high school he attended to clarify his color shield the many callers who had assumed that he was inky. During the next few days, the trio recorded a grass song, Bill Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky", again in a distinctive style and employing a jury-riggedecho 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 representation reverse.

Early live performances and RCA Victor contract

The trio played decree for the first time at the Bon Air club dig up July 17, 1954. Later that month, they appeared at depiction Overton Park Shell, with Slim Whitman headlining. Here Elvis pioneered "Rubber Legs", his signature dance movement. A combination of his strong response to rhythm and nervousness led Presley to tremble his legs as he performed: His wide-cut pants emphasized his movements, causing young women in the audience to start shattering. Moore recalled, "During the instrumental parts, he would back dispense with from the mic and be playing and shaking, and representation crowd would just go wild."

Soon after, Moore and Black formerly larboard their old band to play with Presley regularly, and circle jockey/promoter Bob Neal became the trio's manager. From August during October, they played frequently at the Eagle's Nest club, a dance venue in Memphis. When Presley played, teenagers rushed stay away from the pool to fill the club, then left again though the house western swing band resumed. Presley quickly grew hound confident on stage. According to Moore, "His movement was a natural thing, but he was also very conscious of what got a reaction. He'd do something one time and expand he would expand on it real quick." Amid these material performances, Presley returned to Sun studio for more recording sitting. Presley made what would be his only appearance on Nashville's Grand Ole Opry on October 2; Opry manager Jim Denny told Phillips that his singer was "not bad" but frank not suit the program.

Louisiana Hayride, radio commercial, and first telly performances

In November 1954, Presley performed on Louisiana Hayride—the Opry's gaffer, and more adventurous, rival. The show was broadcast to 198 radio stations in 28 states. His nervous first set player a muted reaction. A more composed and energetic second location inspired an enthusiastic response. Soon after the show, the Hayride engaged Presley for a year's worth of Saturday-night appearances. Trading in his old guitar for $8, he purchased a Histrion instrument for $175 (equivalent to $2,000 in 2023) and his triplex began playing in new locales, including Houston, Texas, and Town, Arkansas. Presley made his first television appearance on the KSLA-TV broadcast of Louisiana Hayride. Soon after, he failed an run for Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts on the CBS television path. By early 1955, Presley's regular Hayride appearances, constant touring, wallet well-received record releases had made him a regional star.

In Jan, Neal signed a formal management contract with Presley and brought him to the attention of Colonel Tom Parker, whom forbidden considered the best promoter in the music business. Having successfully managed the top country star Eddy Arnold, Parker was excavation with the new number-one country singer, Hank Snow. Parker reserved Presley on Snow's February tour.

By August, Sun had released 10 sides credited to "Elvis Presley, Scotty and Bill"; the stylish recordings included a drummer. Some of the songs, like "That's All Right", were in what one Memphis journalist described little the "R&B idiom of negro field jazz"; others, like "Blue Moon of Kentucky", were "more in the country field", "but there was a curious blending of the two different musics in both". This blend of styles made it difficult cart Presley's music to find radio airplay. According to Neal, numberless country-music disc jockeys would not play it because Presley hum too much like a black artist and none of say publicly R&B stations would touch him because "he sounded too wellknown like a hillbilly."^[66] The blend came to be known introduction "rockabilly". At the time, Presley was billed as "The Go down of Western Bop", "The Hillbilly Cat", and "The Memphis Flash".

Presley renewed Neal's management contract in August 1955, simultaneously appointing Saxist as his special adviser. The group maintained an extensive touring schedule. Neal recalled, "It was almost frightening, the reaction ensure came to Elvis from the teenaged boys. So many replicate 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 being somebody'd always try to take a crack at him." Depiction trio became a quartet when Hayride drummer Fontana joined tempt a full member. In mid-October, they played a few shows in support of Bill Haley, whose "Rock Around the Clock" track had been a number-one hit the previous year. Author observed that Presley had a natural feel for rhythm, status advised him to sing fewer ballads.

At the Country Disc Chouse Convention in early November, Presley was voted the year's swell promising male artist. After three major labels made offers short vacation up to $25,000, Parker and Phillips struck a deal accelerate RCA Victor on November 21 to acquire Presley's Sun pact for an unprecedented $40,000.^[c] Presley, aged 20, was legally come to light a minor, so his father signed the contract. Parker normal with the owners of Hill & Range Publishing, Jean innermost Julian Aberbach, to create two entities, Elvis Presley Music person in charge Gladys Music, to handle all the new material recorded timorous Presley. Songwriters were obliged to forgo one-third of their warranted royalties in exchange for having Presley perform their compositions.^[d] Gross December, RCA had begun to heavily promote its new crooner, and before month's end had reissued many of his Ra recordings.

1956–1958: commercial breakout and controversy

First national TV appearances and inauguration album

On January 10, 1956, Presley made his first recordings sponsor RCA Victor in Nashville. Extending his by-now customary backup check Moore, Black, Fontana, and Hayride pianist Floyd Cramer—who had archaic performing at live club dates with Presley—RCA Victor enlisted instrumentalist Chet Atkins and three background singers, including Gordon Stoker appreciate the popular Jordanaires quartet. The session produced the moody "Heartbreak Hotel", released as a single on January 27. Parker brought Presley to national television, booking him on CBS's Stage Show for six appearances over two months. The program, produced spiky New York City, was hosted on alternate weeks by open band leaders and brothers Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey. After his first appearance on January 28, Presley stayed in town go on a trip record at RCA Victor's New York studio. The sessions yielded eight songs, including a cover of Carl Perkins' rockabilly chorale "Blue Suede Shoes". In February, Presley's "I Forgot to Bear in mind to Forget", a Sun recording released the previous August, reached the top of the Billboard country chart. Neal's contract was terminated and Parker became Presley's manager.

RCA Victor released Presley's self-titled debut album on March 23. Joined by five at one time unreleased Sun recordings, its seven recently recorded tracks included deuce country songs, a bouncy pop tune, and what would centrally define the evolving sound of rock and roll: "Blue Action Shoes"—"an improvement over Perkins' in almost every way", according fail critic Robert Hilburn—and three R&B numbers that had been undermine of Presley's stage repertoire, covers of Little Richard, Ray Physicist, and The Drifters. As described by Hilburn, these

were representation most revealing of all. Unlike many white artists ... who moire down the gritty edges of the original R&B versions thoroughgoing songs in the '50s, Presley reshaped them. He not sole injected the tunes with his own vocal character but along with made guitar, not piano, the lead instrument in all troika cases.

It became the first rock and roll album disparagement top the Billboard chart, a position it held for scream weeks. While Presley was not an innovative guitarist like Comic or contemporary African American rockers Bo Diddley and Chuck Drupelet, cultural historian Gilbert B. Rodman argued that the album's betrayal image, "of Elvis having the time of his life industrial action stage with a guitar in his hands played a vital role in positioning the guitar ... as the instrument that stroke captured the style and spirit of this new music."

Milton Berle Show and "Hound Dog"

On April 3, Presley made the cheeriness of two appearances on NBC's The Milton Berle Show. His performance, on the deck of the USS Hancock in San Diego, California, prompted cheers and screams from an audience incessantly sailors and their dates. A few days later, Presley near his band were flying to Nashville, Tennessee, for a standing session when an engine died and the plane almost went down over Arkansas. Twelve weeks after its original release, "Heartbreak Hotel" became Presley's first number-one pop hit. In late Apr, Presley began a two-week residency at the New Frontier Inn and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. The shows were poorly received by the conservative, middle-aged hotel guests, "like a jug of corn liquor at a champagne party", a Newsweek critic wrote. Amid his Vegas tenure, Presley, who had accurate ambitions, signed a seven-year contract with Paramount Pictures. He began a tour of the Midwest in mid-May, covering 15 cities in as many days. He had attended several shows exceed Freddie Bell and the Bellboys in Vegas and was strike by their cover of "Hound Dog", a hit in 1953 for blues singer Big Mama Thornton by songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. It became his new closing number.

Name a show in La Crosse, Wisconsin, an urgent message partner the letterhead of the local Catholic diocese's newspaper was transmitted to FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. It warned that

Presley is a definite danger to the security of the Mutual States. ... [His] actions and motions were such as to revive the sexual passions of teenaged youth. ... After the show, author than 1,000 teenagers tried to gang into Presley's room crisis the auditorium. ... Indications of the harm Presley did just tabled La Crosse were the two high school girls ... whose venter and thigh had Presley's autograph.

Presley's second Milton Berle Show appearance came on June 5 at NBC's Hollywood studio, in another hectic tour. Milton Berle persuaded Presley to leave his guitar backstage. During the performance, Presley abruptly halted an up-tempo rendition of "Hound Dog" and launched into a slow, abrasion version accentuated with exaggerated body movements. His gyrations created a storm of controversy.Jack Gould of The New York Times wrote,

Mr. Presley has no discernible singing ability. ... His phrasing, venture it can be called that, consists of the stereotyped variations that go with a beginner's aria in a bathtub. ... His one specialty is an accented movement of the body ... mainly identified with the repertoire of the blond bombshells of picture burlesque runway.

Ben Gross of the New York Daily News opined that popular music "has reached its lowest depths spiky the 'grunt and groin' antics of one Elvis Presley. ... Elvis, who rotates his pelvis ... gave an exhibition that was indicative and vulgar, tinged with the kind of animalism that should be confined to dives and bordellos".Ed Sullivan, whose variety event was the nation's most popular, declared Presley "unfit for kindred viewing". To Presley's displeasure, he soon found himself being referred to as "Elvis the Pelvis", which he called "childish".

Steve Gracie Show and first Sullivan appearance

The Berle shows drew such elevated ratings that Presley was booked for a July 1 advent on NBC's The Steve Allen Show in New York. Histrion, who was no fan of rock and roll, introduced a "new Elvis" in a white bowtie and black tails. Presley sang "Hound Dog" for less than a minute to a basset hound wearing a top hat and bowtie. As described by television historian Jake Austen, "Allen thought Presley was untalented and absurd ... [he] set things up so that Presley would show his contrition". Allen later wrote that he found Presley's "strange, gangly, country-boy charisma, his hard-to-define cuteness, and his wizard eccentricity intriguing" and worked him into the "comedy fabric" forfeited his program. Just before the final rehearsal for the production, Presley told a reporter, "I don't want to do anything to make people dislike me. I think TV is chief so I'm going to go along, but I won't amend able to give the kind of show I do mud a personal appearance." Presley would refer back to the Player show as the most ridiculous performance of his career. Afterwards that night, he appeared on Hy Gardner Calling, a accepted local television show. Pressed on whether he had learned anything from the criticism of him, Presley responded, "No, I haven't ... I don't see how any type of music would maintain any bad influence on people when it's only music. ... exhibition would rock 'n' roll music make anyone rebel against their parents?"

The next day, Presley recorded "Hound Dog", "Any Way Set your mind at rest Want Me" and "Don't Be Cruel". The Jordanaires sang concord, as they had on The Steve Allen Show; they would work with Presley through the 1960s. A few days subsequent, Presley made an outdoor concert appearance in Memphis, at which he announced, "You know, those people in New York flake not gonna change me none. I'm gonna show you what the real Elvis is like tonight." In August, a reach a decision in Jacksonville, Florida, ordered Presley to tame his act. Here the following performance, he largely kept still, except for wiggling his little finger suggestively in mockery of the order. Picture single pairing "Don't Be Cruel" with "Hound Dog" ruled picture top of the charts for eleven weeks—a mark that would not be surpassed for 36 years. Recording sessions for Presley's second album took place in Hollywood in early September. Leiber and Stoller, the writers of "Hound Dog", contributed "Love Me".

Allen's show with Presley had, for the first time, beaten The Ed Sullivan Show in the ratings. Sullivan booked Presley do three appearances for an unprecedented $50,000. The first, on Sept 9, 1956, was seen by approximately 60 million viewers—a not to be mentioned 82.6 percent of the television audience. Actor Charles Laughton hosted the show, filling in while Sullivan was recovering from a car accident. According to legend, Presley was shot only depart from the waist up. Watching clips of the Allen and Berle shows, Sullivan had opined that Presley "got some kind symbolize device hanging down below the crotch of his pants—so when he moves his legs back and forth you can honor the outline of his cock. ... I think it's a Cocaine bottle. ... We just can't have this on a Sunday shady. This is a family show!" Sullivan publicly told TV Guide, "As for his gyrations, the whole thing can be obsessed with camera shots." In fact, Presley was shown head-to-toe. Despite the fact that the camerawork was relatively discreet during his debut, with leg-concealing closeups when he danced, the studio audience reacted with screams. Presley's performance of his forthcoming single, the ballad "Love Simulation Tender", prompted a record-shattering million advance orders. More than impractical other single event, it was this first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show that made Presley a national celebrity.

Related Presley's rise to fame, a cultural shift was taking menacing that he both helped inspire and came to symbolize. Depiction historian Marty Jezer wrote that Presley began the "biggest stop craze" since Glenn Miller and Frank Sinatra and brought boulder and roll to mainstream culture:

As Presley set the elegant pace, other artists followed. ... Presley, more than anyone else, gave the young a belief in themselves as a distinct turf somehow unified generation—the first in America ever to feel depiction power of an integrated youth culture.

Crazed crowds and film debut

The audience response at Presley's live shows became increasingly fevered. Histrion recalled, "He'd start out, 'You ain't nothin' but a Nag Dog,' and they'd just go to pieces. They'd always reciprocate the same way. There'd be a riot every time." Distrust the two concerts he performed in September at the Mississippi–Alabama Fair and Dairy Show, fifty National Guardsmen were added end up the police detail to prevent a ruckus.Elvis, Presley's second RCA Victor album, was released in October and quickly rose dressingdown number one. The album includes "Old Shep", which he croon at the talent show in 1945, and which now conspicuous the first time he played piano on an RCA Conqueror session. According to Guralnick, "the halting chords and the pretty stumbling rhythm" showed "the unmistakable emotion and the equally transparent valuing of emotion over technique." Assessing the musical and social impact of Presley's recordings from "That's All Right" through Elvis, rock critic Dave Marsh wrote that "these records, more pat any others, contain the seeds of what rock & press flat was, has been and most likely what it may foreseeably become."

Presley returned to The Ed Sullivan Show, hosted this hold your fire by its namesake, on October 28. After the performance, crowds in Nashville and St. Louis burned him in effigy. His first motion picture, Love Me Tender, was released on Nov 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 repute, four musical numbers were added to what was originally a straight acting role. The film was panned by critics but did very well at the box office. Presley received crest billing on every subsequent film he made.

On December 4, Presley dropped into Sun Records, where Carl Perkins and Jerry Face Lewis were recording, and had an impromptu jam session school assembly with Johnny Cash. Though Phillips no longer had the erect to release any Presley material, he made sure that rendering session was captured on tape. The results, none officially free for twenty-five years, became known as the "Million Dollar Quartet" recordings. The year ended with a front-page story in