Irish-descended
Elvis Aaron Presley, son of Vernon and Gladys Presley of Tupelo,
Mississippi, was born on January 8, 1935. His identical-twin
brother, Jesse Garon, died at birth; consequently, Elvis's
parents were fiercely protective of their surviving son and
raised him up to be a God-fearing, right-thinking young man.
Singing came naturally to Elvis, and he seasoned his vocal gifts
in the choir at the local Assembly of God meetinghouse and later
performed at revivals and camp meetings. At the tender age of
ten, Elvis took second prize for his soulful rendition of the
deep-South ditty Old Shep in a talent contest sponsored by radio
station WELO at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show.
Pleased that their son had discovered a respectable hobby, his
proud parents bought him an acoustic guitar for his next
birthday; he taught himself to strum chords by listening to
blues tunes and old spirituals. The family moved to Memphis,
Tennessee, in 1949, shortly before Elvis entered high school.
Following graduation, he found work driving a truck for the
Crown Electric Company (for a whopping $1.25 an hour), and
started evening classes with the aim of becoming an electrical
repairman.
In spite of his rebel posturing, Presley remained studiously
polite to his elders and was devoted to his mother. Indeed, it
was his filial affection that first prompted him to visit Sun
Records, whose studios offered the sophisticated equivalent of a
fairground recording booth service. As a birthday present to his
mother, Gladys, Presley cut a version of the Ink Spots''My
Happiness', backed with the Raskin/Brown/Fisher standard 'That's
When Your Heartaches Begin'. The studio manager, Marion Keisker,
noted Presley's unusual but distinctive vocal style and informed
Sun's owner/producer Sam Phillips of his potential. Phillips
nurtured the boy for almost a year before putting him together
with country guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black.
Their early sessions showed considerable promise, especially
when Presley began alternating his unorthodox low-key delivery
with a high-pitched whine.
The amplified guitars of Moore and Black contributed strongly to
the effect and convinced Phillips that the singer was
startlingly original. In Presley, Phillips saw something that he
had long dreamed of discovering: a white boy who sang like a
negro. Presley's debut disc on Sun was the extraordinary 'That's
All Right (Mama)', a showcase for his rich, multi-textured vocal
dexterity, with sharp, solid backing from his compatriots. The
b-side, 'Blue Moon Of Kentucky', was a country song, but the
arrangement showed that Presley was threatening to slip into an
entirely different genre, closer to R&B. Local response to these
strange-sounding performances was encouraging and Phillips
eventually shifted 20,000 copies of the disc.
For his second single, Presley recorded Roy Brown 's 'Good
Rockin' Tonight' backed by the zingy 'I Don't Care If The Sun
Don't Shine'. The more roots-influenced 'Milkcow Blues Boogie'
followed, while the b-side, 'You're A Heartbreaker', had some
strong tempo changes that neatly complemented Presley's quirky
vocal. 'Baby Let's Play House'/'I'm Left, You're Right, She's
Gone' continued the momentum and led to Presley performing on
the Grand Old Opry and Louisiana Hayride radio programmes. A
series of live dates commenced in 1955 with drummer D.J. Fontana
added to the ranks. Presley toured clubs in Arkansas, Louisiana
and Texas billed as 'The King Of Western Bop' and 'The Hillbilly
Cat'. Audience reaction verged on the fanatical, which was
hardly surprising given Presley's semi-erotic performances.
His hip-swivelling routine, in which he cascaded across the
stage and plunged to his knees at dramatic moments in a song,
was remarkable for the period and prompted near-riotous fan
mania. The final Sun single, a cover version of Junior Parker 's
'Mystery Train', was later acclaimed by many as the definitive
rock 'n' roll single, with its chugging rhythm, soaring vocal
and enticing lead guitar breaks. It established Presley as an
artist worthy of national attention and ushered in the next
phase of his career, which was dominated by the imposing figure
of Colonel Tom Parker. The Colonel was a former fairground
huckster who managed several country artists including Hank Snow
and Eddy Arnold.
After relieving disc jockey Bob Neal of Presley's managership,
Parker persuaded Sam Phillips that his financial interests would
be better served by releasing the boy to a major label. RCA
Records had already noted the commercial potential of the
phenomenon under offer and agreed to pay Sun Records a release
fee of $35,000, an incredible sum for the period.
The sheer diversity of Presley's musical heritage and his
remarkable ability as a vocalist and interpreter of material
enabled him to escape the cultural parochialism of his
R&B-influenced predecessors. The attendant rock 'n' roll
explosion, in which Presley was both a creator and participant,
ensured that he could reach a mass audience, many of them newly
affluent teenagers.
It was
on 10 January 1956, a mere two days after his 21st birthday, that
Presley entered RCA's studios in Nashville to record his first tracks
for a major label. His debut session produced the epochal 'Heartbreak
Hotel', one of the most striking pop records ever released. Co-composed
by Hoyt Axton 's mother Mae, the song evoked nothing less than a vision
of absolute funereal despair.
There was nothing in the pop charts of the period that even hinted at
the degree of desolation described in the song. Presley's reading was
extraordinarily mature and moving, with a determined avoidance of any
histrionics in favour of a pained and resigned acceptance of loneliness
as death. The economical yet acutely emphatic piano work of Floyd Cramer
enhanced the stark mood of the piece, which was frozen in a suitably
minimalist production.
The startling originality and intensity of 'Heartbreak Hotel' entranced
the American public and pushed the single to number 1 for an astonishing
eight weeks. Whatever else he achieved, Presley was already assured a
place in pop history for one of the greatest major label debut records
ever released.
During the same month that 'Heartbreak Hotel' was recorded, Presley made
his national television debut displaying his sexually enticing gyrations
before a bewildered adult audience whose alleged outrage subsequently
persuaded producers to film the star exclusively from the waist upwards.
Having outsold his former Sun colleague Carl Perkins with 'Blue Suede
Shoes', Presley released a debut album that contained several of the
songs he had previously recorded with Sam Phillips, including Little
Richard 's 'Tutti Fruitti', the R&B classic 'I Got A Woman' and an
eerie, wailing version of Richard Rodgers /Lorenz Hart 's 'Blue Moon',
which emphasized his remarkable vocal range. After hitting number 1 for
the second time with the slight ballad 'I Want You, I Need You, I Love
You', Presley released what was to become the most commercially
successful double-sided single in pop history, 'Hound Dog'/'Don't Be
Cruel'.
Celluloid fame for Presley next beckoned with Love Me Tender, produced
by David Weisbert. Presley's movie debut received mixed reviews but was
a box-office smash, while the smouldering, perfectly enunciated title
track topped the US charts for five weeks. The spate of Presley singles
continued in earnest through 1957 and one of the biggest was another
Otis Blackwell composition, 'All Shook Up', which the singer used as a
cheekily oblique comment on his by now legendary dance movements.
Incredibly, three major films were completed in the next two-and-a-half
years. Loving You boasted a quasi-autobiographical script with Presley
playing a truck driver who becomes a pop star. The title track became
the b-side of '(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear' which reigned at number 1
for seven weeks. The third movie, Jailhouse Rock , was Presley's most
successful to date with an excellent soundtrack and some inspired
choreography.
The Leiber and Stoller title track was an instant classic that again
topped the US charts for seven weeks and made pop history by entering
the UK listings at number 1. The fourth celluloid outing, King Creole
(adapted from the Harold Robbins novel, A Stone For Danny Fisher), is
regarded by many as Presley's finest film and a firm indicator of his
sadly unfulfilled potential as a serious actor. Once more the soundtrack
album featured some surprisingly strong material such as the haunting
'Crawfish' and the vibrant 'Dixieland Rock'.
By the time King Creole was released in 1958, Elvis had already been
inducted into the US Forces. A publicity photograph of the singer having
his hair shorn symbolically commented on his approaching musical
emasculation. Although rock 'n' roll purists mourned the passing of the
old Elvis, it seemed inevitable in the context of the 50s that he would
move towards a broader base appeal and tone down his rebellious image.
From 1958-60, Presley served in the US Armed Forces, spending much of
his time in Germany where he was regarded as a model soldier. It was
during this period that he first met 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu,
whom he later married in 1967. Back in America, the Colonel kept his
absent star's reputation intact via a series of films, record releases
and extensive merchandising.
In 1967, he married Priscilla, and following the birth of their
daughter, Lisa Marie, the next year, he returned to touring, beginning
with a critically acclaimed Christmas special broadcast on NBC. This
brief career renaissance peaked in 1972 with the release of his last
top-ten single, Burning Love. Following the breakup of his marriage the
next year, Elvis began secluding himself for long periods at Graceland,
the expansive Memphis estate he had originally commissioned to be built
for his mother. He lived by night, as he had a paranoid, but probably
justified, fear of being mobbed during daylight, and his heavy drug use
left him in a narcotic haze much of the time. Elvis got stoned, got fat,
got philosophical, and occasionally practiced karate, a hobby he also
picked up during his stint in the military.
Remarkably, he continued to undertake live appearances, covering up his
bloated frame with brightly coloured jump suits and an enormous,
ostentatiously jewelled belt. He collapsed onstage on a couple of
occasions and finally on 16 August 1977 his tired, burnt-out body
expired. The official cause of death was a heart attack, undoubtedly
brought on by barbiturate usage over a long period. In the weeks
following his demise, his record sales predictably rocketed and 'Way
Down' proved a fittingly final UK number 1.
Presley, in spite of his apparent creative inertia, was not a
one-dimensional artist clinging to history but a multi-faceted performer
whose career spanned several decades and phases. For purists and
rockabilly enthusiasts it is the early Presley that remains of greatest
importance and there is no doubting that his personal fusion of black
and white musical influences, incorporating R&B and country, produced
some of the finest and most durable recordings of the century.
