Talk:Elvis Presley/@comment-43814759-20200120053635

the public, but Parker had convinced him that to gain popular respect, he should serve his country as a regular soldier.[170]  Media reports echoed Presley's concerns about his career, but RCA producer Steve Sholes and Freddy Bienstock of Hill and Range had carefully prepared for his two-year hiatus. Armed with a substantial amount of unreleased material, they kept up a regular stream of successful releases.[171]  Between his induction and discharge, Presley had ten top 40 hits, including "Wear My Ring Around Your Neck", the best-selling "Hard Headed Woman", and "One Night" in 1958, and "(Now and Then There's) A Fool Such as I" and the number-one "A Big Hunk o' Love" in 1959.[172]  RCA also generated four albums compiling old material during this period, most successfully Elvis' Golden Records (1958), which hit number three on the LP chart.[173]

1960–1967: Focus on films
See also: Elvis Presley on film and television

Elvis Is Back
Presley returned to the United States on March 2, 1960, and was honorably discharged three days later with the rank of sergeant.[175]  The train that carried him from New Jersey to Tennessee was mobbed all the way, and Presley was called upon to appear at scheduled stops to please his fans.[176]  On the night of March 20, he entered RCA's Nashville studio to cut tracks for a new album along with a single, "Stuck on You", which was rushed into release and swiftly became a number-one hit.[177]  Another Nashville session two weeks later yielded a pair of his best-selling singles, the ballads "It's Now or Never" and "Are You Lonesome Tonight?", along with the rest of ''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_Is_Back! Elvis Is Back!]'' The album features several songs described by Greil Marcus as full of Chicago blues "menace, driven by Presley's own super-miked acoustic guitar, brilliant playing by Scotty Moore, and demonic sax work from Boots Randolph. Elvis' singing wasn't sexy, it was pornographic."[178]  As a whole, the record "conjured up the vision of a performer who could be all things", according to music historian John Robertson: "a flirtatious teenage idol with a heart of gold; a tempestuous, dangerous lover; a gutbucket blues singer; a sophisticated nightclub entertainer; [a] raucous rocker".[179]  Released only days after recording was complete, it reached number two on the album chart.[180] [181]



Presley with Juliet Prowse in G.I. Blues

Presley returned to television on May 12 as a guest on The Frank Sinatra Timex Special—ironic for both stars, given Sinatra's earlier excoriation of rock and roll. Also known as Welcome Home Elvis, the show had been taped in late March, the only time all year Presley performed in front of an audience. Parker secured an unheard-of $125,000 fee for eight minutes of singing. The broadcast drew an enormous viewership.[182]

G.I. Blues, the soundtrack to Presley's first film since his return, was a number-one album in October. His first LP of sacred material, His Hand in Mine, followed two months later. It reached number 13 on the U.S. pop chart and number 3 in the U.K., remarkable figures for a gospel album. In February 1961, Presley performed two shows for a benefit event in Memphis, on behalf of 24 local charities. During a luncheon preceding the event, RCA presented him with a plaque certifying worldwide sales of over 75 million records.[183]  A 12-hour Nashville session in mid-March yielded nearly all of Presley's next studio album, Something for Everybody.[184]  As described by John Robertson, it exemplifies the Nashville sound, the restrained, cosmopolitan style that would define country music in the 1960s. Presaging much of what was to come from Presley himself over the next half-decade, the album is largely "a pleasant, unthreatening pastiche of the music that had once been Elvis' birthright".[185]  It would be his sixth number-one LP. Another benefit concert, raising money for a Pearl Harbor memorial, was staged on March 25, in Hawaii. It was to be Presley's last public performance for seven years.[186]

Lost in Hollywood
Parker had by now pushed Presley into a heavy film making schedule, focused on formulaic, modestly budgeted musical comedies. Presley, at first, insisted on pursuing higher roles, but when two films in a more dramatic vein—Flaming Star (1960) and Wild in the Country (1961)—were less commercially successful, he reverted to the formula. Among the 27 films he made during the 1960s, there were a few further exceptions.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEPonce_de_Leon2007133_191-0">[187]  His films were almost universally panned; critic Andrew Caine dismissed them as a "pantheon of bad taste".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTECaine200521_192-0">[188]  Nonetheless, they were virtually all profitable. Hal Wallis, who produced nine of them, declared, "A Presley picture is the only sure thing in Hollywood."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEFields2007_193-0">[189]

Of Presley's films in the 1960s, 15 were accompanied by soundtrack albums and another 5 by soundtrack EPs. The films' rapid production and release schedules—he frequently starred in three a year—affected his music. According to Jerry Leiber, the soundtrack formula was already evident before Presley left for the Army: "three ballads, one medium-tempo [number], one up-tempo, and one break blues boogie".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1994449_194-0">[190]  As the decade wore on, the quality of the soundtrack songs grew "progressively worse".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKirchbergHendrickx199967_195-0">[191]  Julie Parrish, who appeared in Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966), says that he disliked many of the songs chosen for his films.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTELisanti200019,_136_196-0">[192]  The Jordanaires' Gordon Stoker describes how Presley would retreat from the studio microphone: "The material was so bad that he felt like he couldn't sing it."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEJorgensen1998201_197-0">[193]  Most of the film albums featured a song or two from respected writers such as the team of Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman. But by and large, according to biographer Jerry Hopkins, the numbers seemed to be "written on order by men who never really understood Elvis or rock and roll".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHopkins200232_198-0">[194]  Regardless of the songs' quality, it has been argued that Presley generally sang them well, with commitment.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMatthew-Walker197966_199-0">[195]  Critic Dave Marsh heard the opposite: "Presley isn't trying, probably the wisest course in the face of material like 'No Room to Rumba in a Sports Car' and 'Rock-A-Hula Baby'."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMarsh1980395_137-1">[133]

In the first half of the decade, three of Presley's soundtrack albums were ranked number one on the pop charts, and a few of his most popular songs came from his films, such as "Can't Help Falling in Love" (1961) and "Return to Sender" (1962). ("Viva Las Vegas", the title track to the 1964 film, was a minor hit as a B-side, and became truly popular only later.) But, as with artistic merit, the commercial returns steadily diminished. During a five-year span—1964 through 1968—Presley had only one top-ten hit: "Crying in the Chapel" (1965), a gospel number recorded back in 1960. As for non-film albums, between the June 1962 release of Pot Luck and the November 1968 release of the soundtrack to the television special that signaled his comeback, only one LP of new material by Presley was issued: the gospel album How Great Thou Art (1967). It won him his first Grammy Award, for Best Sacred Performance. As Marsh described, Presley was "arguably the greatest white gospel singer of his time [and] really the last rock & roll artist to make gospel as vital a component of his musical personality as his secular songs".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMarsh2004650_200-0">[196]

Shortly before Christmas 1966, more than seven years since they first met, Presley proposed to Priscilla Beaulieu. They were married on May 1, 1967, in a brief ceremony in their suite at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1999261–63_201-0">[197]  The flow of formulaic films and assembly-line soundtracks rolled on. It was not until October 1967, when the Clambake soundtrack LP registered record low sales for a new Presley album, that RCA executives recognized a problem. "By then, of course, the damage had been done", as historians Connie Kirchberg and Marc Hendrickx put it. "Elvis was viewed as a joke by serious music lovers and a has-been to all but his most loyal fans."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKirchbergHendrickx199973_202-0">[198]

Elvis: the '68 Comeback Special
Main article: Singer Presents...Elvis



The '68 Comeback Special produced "one of the most famous images" of Presley.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKeogh2004263_203-0">[199]  Taken on June 29, 1968, it was adapted for the cover of Rolling Stone in July 1969.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKeogh2004263_203-1">[199] <sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTERolling_Stone2009_204-0">[200]

Presley's only child, Lisa Marie, was born on February 1, 1968, during a period when he had grown deeply unhappy with his career.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1999171_205-0">[201]  Of the eight Presley singles released between January 1967 and May 1968, only two charted in the top 40, and none higher than number 28.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWhitburn2010521_206-0">[202]  His forthcoming soundtrack album, Speedway, would rank at number 82 on the Billboard chart. Parker had already shifted his plans to television, where Presley had not appeared since the Sinatra Timex show in 1960. He maneuvered a deal with NBC that committed the network to both finance a theatrical feature and broadcast a Christmas special.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKubernick20084_207-0">[203]

Recorded in late June in Burbank, California, the special, simply called Elvis, aired on December 3, 1968. Later known as the '68 Comeback Special, the show featured lavishly staged studio productions as well as songs performed with a band in front of a small audience—Presley's first live performances since 1961. The live segments saw Presley dressed in tight black leather, singing and playing guitar in an uninhibited style reminiscent of his early rock and roll days. Director and co-producer Steve Binder had worked hard to produce a show that was far from the hour of Christmas songs Parker had originally planned.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1999293,_296_208-0">[204]  The show, NBC's highest rated that season, captured 42 percent of the total viewing audience.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKubernick200826_209-0">[205]  Jon Landau of Eye magazine remarked, "There is something magical about watching a man who has lost himself find his way back home. He sang with the kind of power people no longer expect of rock 'n' roll singers. He moved his body with a lack of pretension and effort that must have made Jim Morrison green with envy."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHopkins2007215_210-0">[206]  Dave Marsh calls the performance one of "emotional grandeur and historical resonance".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMarsh2004649_211-0">[207]

By January 1969, the single "If I Can Dream", written for the special, reached number 12. The soundtrack album rose into the top ten. According to friend Jerry Schilling, the special reminded Presley of what "he had not been able to do for years, being able to choose the people; being able to choose what songs and not being told what had to be on the soundtrack. ... He was out of prison, man."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKubernick200826_209-1">[205]  Binder said of Presley's reaction, "I played Elvis the 60-minute show, and he told me in the screening room, 'Steve, it's the greatest thing I've ever done in my life. I give you my word I will never sing a song I don't believe in.'"<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKubernick200826_209-2">[205]

From Elvis in Memphis and the International


Presley in a publicity photo for the film The Trouble with Girls, released September 1969

Buoyed by the experience of the Comeback Special, Presley engaged in a prolific series of recording sessions at American Sound Studio, which led to the acclaimed From Elvis in Memphis. Released in June 1969, it was his first secular, non-soundtrack album from a dedicated period in the studio in eight years. As described by Dave Marsh, it is "a masterpiece in which Presley immediately catches up with pop music trends that had seemed to pass him by during the movie years. He sings country songs, soul songs and rockers with real conviction, a stunning achievement."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMarsh1980396_213-0">[209]  The album featured the hit single "In the Ghetto", issued in April, which reached number three on the pop chart—Presley's first non-gospel top ten hit since "Bossa Nova Baby" in 1963. Further hit singles were culled from the American Sound sessions: "Suspicious Minds", "Don't Cry Daddy", and "Kentucky Rain".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEJorgensen1998419_214-0">[210]

Presley was keen to resume regular live performing. Following the success of the Comeback Special, offers came in from around the world. The London Palladium offered Parker $28,000 for a one-week engagement. He responded, "That's fine for me, now how much can you get for Elvis?"<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGordon2005146_215-0">[211]  In May, the brand new International Hotel in Las Vegas, boasting the largest showroom in the city, announced that it had booked Presley. He was scheduled to perform 57 shows over four weeks beginning July 31. Moore, Fontana, and the Jordanaires declined to participate, afraid of losing the lucrative session work they had in Nashville. Presley assembled new, top-notch accompaniment, led by guitarist James Burton and including two gospel groups, The Imperials and Sweet Inspirations.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEJorgensen1998283_216-0">[212]  Costume designer Bill Belew, responsible for the intense leather styling of the Comeback Special, created a new stage look for Presley, inspired by Presley's passion for karate.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1999343_217-0">[213]  Nonetheless, he was nervous: his only previous Las Vegas engagement, in 1956, had been dismal. Parker, who intended to make Presley's return the show business event of the year, oversaw a major promotional push. For his part, hotel owner Kirk Kerkorian arranged to send his own plane to New York to fly in rock journalists for the debut performance.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1999346–47_218-0">[214]

Presley took to the stage without introduction. The audience of 2,200, including many celebrities, gave him a standing ovation before he sang a note and another after his performance. A third followed his encore, "Can't Help Falling in Love" (a song that would be his closing number for much of the 1970s).<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGordon2005149–50_219-0">[215]  At a press conference after the show, when a journalist referred to him as "The King", Presley gestured toward Fats Domino, who was taking in the scene. "No," Presley said, "that's the real king of rock and roll."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTECook200439_220-0">[216]  The next day, Parker's negotiations with the hotel resulted in a five-year contract for Presley to play each February and August, at an annual salary of $1 million.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnickJorgensen1999259,_262_221-0">[217]  Newsweek commented, "There are several unbelievable things about Elvis, but the most incredible is his staying power in a world where meteoric careers fade like shooting stars."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMoyer200273_222-0">[218]  Rolling Stone called Presley "supernatural, his own resurrection."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEJorgensen1998287_223-0">[219]  In November, Presley's final non-concert film, Change of Habit, opened. The double album From Memphis to Vegas/From Vegas to Memphis came out the same month; the first LP consisted of live performances from the International, the second of more cuts from the American Sound sessions. "Suspicious Minds" reached the top of the charts—Presley's first U.S. pop number-one in over seven years, and his last.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWhitburn2010521–22_224-0">[220]

Cassandra Peterson, later television's Elvira, met Presley during this period in Las Vegas, where she was working as a showgirl. She recalled of their encounter, "He was so anti-drug when I met him. I mentioned to him that I smoked marijuana, and he was just appalled. He said, 'Don't ever do that again.'"<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStein1997_225-0">[221]  Presley was not only deeply opposed to recreational drugs, he also rarely drank. Several of his family members had been alcoholics, a fate he intended to avoid.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMason200781_226-0">[222]

Back on tour and meeting Nixon
Presley returned to the International early in 1970 for the first of the year's two-month-long engagements, performing two shows a night. Recordings from these shows were issued on the album On Stage.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStanleyCoffey199894_227-0">[223]  In late February, Presley performed six attendance-record–breaking shows at the Houston Astrodome.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStanleyCoffey199895_228-0">[224]  In April, the single "The Wonder of You" was issued—a number one hit in the U.K., it topped the U.S. adult contemporary chart, as well. MGM filmed rehearsal and concert footage at the International during August for the documentary Elvis: That's the Way It Is. Presley was performing in a jumpsuit, which would become a trademark of his live act. During this engagement, he was threatened with murder unless $50,000 was paid. Presley had been the target of many threats since the 1950s, often without his knowledge.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHopkins2007253_229-0">[225]  The FBI took the threat seriously and security was stepped up for the next two shows. Presley went onstage with a Derringer in his right boot and a .45 pistol in his waistband, but the concerts succeeded without any incidents.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHopkins2007254_230-0">[226] <sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStanleyCoffey199896_231-0">[227]

The album, That's the Way It Is, produced to accompany the documentary and featuring both studio and live recordings, marked a stylistic shift. As music historian John Robertson noted, "The authority of Presley's singing helped disguise the fact that the album stepped decisively away from the American-roots inspiration of the Memphis sessions towards a more middle-of-the-road sound. With country put on the back burner, and soul and R&B left in Memphis, what was left was very classy, very clean white pop—perfect for the Las Vegas crowd, but a definite retrograde step for Elvis."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTERobertson200470_232-0">[228]  After the end of his International engagement on September 7, Presley embarked on a week-long concert tour, largely of the South, his first since 1958. Another week-long tour, of the West Coast, followed in November.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStanleyCoffey199899_233-0">[229]



Presley meets U.S. President Richard Nixon in the White House Oval Office, December 21, 1970

On December 21, 1970, Presley engineered a meeting with President Richard Nixon at the White House, where he expressed his patriotism and explained how he believed he could reach out to the hippies to help combat the drug culture he and the president abhorred. He asked Nixon for a Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs badge, to add to similar items he had begun collecting and to signify official sanction of his patriotic efforts. Nixon, who apparently found the encounter awkward, expressed a belief that Presley could send a positive message to young people and that it was therefore important that he "retain his credibility".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1999419–22_234-0">[230]  Presley told Nixon that The Beatles, whose songs he regularly performed in concert during the era,<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEJorgensen1998284,_286,_307–08,_313,_326,_338,_357–58_235-0">[231]  exemplified what he saw as a trend of anti-Americanism.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1999420_236-0">[232]  Presley and his friends previously had a four-hour get-together with The Beatles at his home in Bel Air, California in August 1965. On hearing reports of the meeting, Paul McCartney later said that he "felt a bit betrayed. ... The great joke was that we were taking [illegal] drugs, and look what happened to him", a reference to Presley's early death, linked to prescription drug abuse.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEThe_Beatles2000192_237-0">[233]

The U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce named Presley one of its annual Ten Most Outstanding Young Men of the Nation on January 16, 1971.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEJorgensen1998321_238-0">[234]  Not long after, the City of Memphis named the stretch of Highway 51 South on which Graceland is located "Elvis Presley Boulevard". The same year, Presley became the first rock and roll singer to be awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award (then known as the Bing Crosby Award) by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Grammy Award organization.<sup id="cite_ref-239">[235] <sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnickJorgensen1999299–300_240-0">[236]  Three new, non-film Presley studio albums were released in 1971, as many as had come out over the previous eight years. Best received by critics was Elvis Country, a concept record that focused on genre standards.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEJorgensen1998319_241-0">[237]  The biggest seller was Elvis Sings the Wonderful World of Christmas, "the truest statement of all", according to Greil Marcus. "In the midst of ten painfully genteel Christmas songs, every one sung with appalling sincerity and humility, one could find Elvis tom-catting his way through six blazing minutes of 'Merry Christmas Baby,' a raunchy old Charles Brown blues. ... If [Presley's] sin was his lifelessness, it was his sinfulness that brought him to life".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMarcus1982284–85_242-0">[238]

Marriage breakdown and Aloha from Hawaii
See also: Aloha from Hawaii Via Satellite



Presley with friends Bill Porter and Paul Anka backstage at the Las Vegas Hilton on August 5, 1972

MGM again filmed Presley in April 1972, this time for Elvis on Tour, which went on to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Documentary Film that year. His gospel album He Touched Me, released that month, would earn him his second competitive Grammy Award, for Best Inspirational Performance. A 14-date tour commenced with an unprecedented four consecutive sold-out shows at New York's Madison Square Garden.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnickJorgensen1999308_243-0">[239]  The evening concert on July 10 was recorded and issued in an LP form a week later. Elvis: As Recorded at Madison Square Garden became one of Presley's biggest-selling albums. After the tour, the single "Burning Love" was released—Presley's last top ten hit on the U.S. pop chart. "The most exciting single Elvis has made since 'All Shook Up'," wrote rock critic Robert Christgau. "Who else could make 'It's coming closer, the flames are now licking my body' sound like an assignation with James Brown's backup band?"<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMarcus1982283_244-0">[240]



Presley came up with his outfit's eagle motif, as "something that would say 'America' to the world".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1999478_245-0">[241]

Presley and his wife, meanwhile, had become increasingly distant, barely cohabiting. In 1971, an affair he had with Joyce Bova resulted—unbeknownst to him—in her pregnancy and an abortion.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWilliamson2015253–54_246-0">[242]  He often raised the possibility of her moving into Graceland, saying that he was likely to leave Priscilla.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1999451,_446,_453_247-0">[243]  The Presleys separated on February 23, 1972, after Priscilla disclosed her relationship with Mike Stone, a karate instructor Presley had recommended to her. Priscilla related that when she told him, Presley "grabbed ... and forcefully made love to" her, declaring, "This is how a real man makes love to his woman."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1999456_248-0">[244]  She later stated in an interview that she regretted her choice of words in describing the incident, and said it had been an overstatement.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMarsh2015_249-0">[245]  Five months later, Presley's new girlfriend, Linda Thompson, a songwriter and one-time Memphis beauty queen, moved in with him.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHopkins2007291_250-0">[246]  Presley and his wife filed for divorce on August 18.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1999474_251-0">[247]  According to Joe Moscheo of the Imperials, the failure of Presley's marriage "was a blow from which he never recovered."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMoscheo2007132_252-0">[248]  At a rare press conference that June, a reporter had asked Presley whether he was satisfied with his image. Presley replied, "Well, the image is one thing and the human being another ... it's very hard to live up to an image."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKeogh2004234–35_253-0">[249]

In January 1973, Presley performed two benefit concerts for the Kui Lee Cancer Fund in connection with a groundbreaking TV special, Aloha from Hawaii, which would be the first concert by a solo artist to be aired globally. The first show served as a practice run and backup should technical problems affect the live broadcast two days later. On January 14, Aloha from Hawaii aired live via satellite to prime-time audiences in Japan, South Korea, Thailand, the Philippines, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as to U.S. servicemen based across Southeast Asia. In Japan, where it capped a nationwide Elvis Presley Week, it smashed viewing records. The next night, it was simulcast to 28 European countries, and in April an extended version finally aired in the U.S., where it won a 57 percent share of the TV audience.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHopkins200261,_67,_73_254-0">[250]  Over time, Parker's claim that it was seen by one billion or more people<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHopkins200273_255-0">[251]  would be broadly accepted,<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEVictor200810_256-0">[252] <sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBrownBroeske1997364_257-0">[253] <sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1999475_258-0">[254]  but that figure appeared to have been sheer invention.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEFessier2013_259-0">[255]  Presley's stage costume became the most recognized example of the elaborate concert garb with which his latter-day persona became closely associated. As described by Bobbie Ann Mason, "At the end of the show, when he spreads out his American Eagle cape, with the full stretched wings of the eagle studded on the back, he becomes a god figure."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMason2007141_260-0">[256]  The accompanying double album, released in February, went to number one and eventually sold over 5 million copies in the United States.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTERIAA2010_261-0">[257]  It proved to be Presley's last U.S. number-one pop album during his lifetime.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEJorgensen1998422–25_262-0">[258]

At a midnight show the same month, four men rushed onto the stage in an apparent attack. Security men came to Presley's defense, and he ejected one invader from the stage himself. Following the show, he became obsessed with the idea that the men had been sent by Mike Stone to kill him. Though they were shown to have been only overexuberant fans, he raged, "There's too much pain in me ... Stone [must] die." His outbursts continued with such intensity that a physician was unable to calm him, despite administering large doses of medication. After another two full days of raging, Red West, his friend and bodyguard, felt compelled to get a price for a contract killing and was relieved when Presley decided, "Aw hell, let's just leave it for now. Maybe it's a bit heavy."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1999488–90_263-0">[259]

Medical crises and last studio sessions
Presley's divorce was finalized on October 9, 1973.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnickJorgensen1999329_264-0">[260]  By then, his health was in major and serious decline. Twice during the year, he overdosed on barbiturates, spending three days in a coma in his hotel suite after the first incident. Towards the end of 1973, he was hospitalized, semi-comatose from the effects of a pethidine addiction. According to his primary care physician, Dr. George C. Nichopoulos, Presley "felt that by getting drugs from a doctor, he wasn't the common everyday junkie getting something off the street".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHigginbotham2002_265-0">[261]  Since his comeback, he had staged more live shows with each passing year, and 1973 saw 168 concerts, his busiest schedule ever.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKeogh2004238_266-0">[262]  Despite his failing health, in 1974, he undertook another intensive touring schedule.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1999481,_487,_499,_504,_519–20_267-0">[263]

Presley's condition declined precipitously in September. Keyboardist Tony Brown remembered Presley's arrival at a University of Maryland concert: "He fell out of the limousine, to his knees. People jumped to help, and he pushed them away like, 'Don't help me.' He walked on stage and held onto the mic for the first thirty minutes like it was a post. Everybody's looking at each other like, 'Is the tour gonna happen'?"<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1999547_268-0">[264]  Guitarist John Wilkinson recalled, "He was all gut. He was slurring. He was so fucked up. ... It was obvious he was drugged. It was obvious there was something terribly wrong with his body. It was so bad the words to the songs were barely intelligible. ... I remember crying. He could barely get through the introductions."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHopkins1986136_269-0">[265]  Wilkinson recounted that a few nights later in Detroit, "I watched him in his dressing room, just draped over a chair, unable to move. So often I thought, 'Boss, why don't you just cancel this tour and take a year off ...?' I mentioned something once in a guarded moment. He patted me on the back and said, 'It'll be all right. Don't you worry about it.'"<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHopkins1986136_269-1">[265]  Presley continued to play to sellout crowds. Cultural critic Marjorie Garber wrote that he was now widely seen as a garish pop crooner: "In effect, he had become Liberace. Even his fans were now middle-aged matrons and blue-haired grandmothers."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGarber1997364_270-0">[266]

On July 13, 1976, Vernon Presley—who had become deeply involved in his son's financial affairs—fired "Memphis Mafia" bodyguards Red West (Presley's friend since the 1950s), Sonny West, and David Hebler, citing the need to "cut back on expenses".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick199450,_148_271-0">[267] <sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1999601–04_272-0">[268] <sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStanleyCoffey1998139_273-0">[269]  Presley was in Palm Springs at the time, and some suggested that he was too cowardly to face the three himself. Another associate of Presley's, John O'Grady, argued that the bodyguards were dropped because their rough treatment of fans had prompted too many lawsuits.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHopkins2007354_274-0">[270]  However, Presley's stepbrother, David Stanley, claimed that the bodyguards were fired because they were becoming more outspoken about Presley's drug dependency.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStanleyCoffey1998140_275-0">[271]

RCA, which had enjoyed a steady stream of product from Presley for over a decade, grew anxious as his interest in spending time in the studio waned. After a December 1973 session that produced 18 songs, enough for almost two albums, he did not enter the studio in 1974.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1999560_276-0">[272]  Parker sold RCA on another concert record, Elvis Recorded Live on Stage in Memphis.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnickJorgensen1999336_277-0">[273]  Recorded on March 20, it included a version of "How Great Thou Art" that would win Presley his third and final competitive Grammy Award.<sup id="cite_ref-:0_6-1">[5] <sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEJorgensen1998381_278-0">[274]  (All three of his competitive Grammy wins—out of 14 total nominations—were for gospel recordings.)<sup id="cite_ref-:0_6-2">[5]  Presley returned to the studio in Hollywood in March 1975, but Parker's attempts to arrange another session toward the end of the year were unsuccessful.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1999584–85_279-0">[275]  In 1976, RCA sent a mobile studio to Graceland that made possible two full-scale recording sessions at Presley's home.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1999593–95_280-0">[276]  Even in that comfortable context, the recording process became a struggle for him.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1999595_281-0">[277] For all the concerns of his label and manager, in studio sessions between July 1973 and October 1976, Presley recorded virtually the entire contents of six albums. Though he was no longer a major presence on the pop charts, five of those albums entered the top five of the country chart, and three went to number one: Promised Land (1975), From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee (1976), and Moody Blue (1977).<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTECaulfield200424_283-0">[279]  The story was similar with his singles—there were no major pop hits, but Presley was a significant force in not just the country market, but on adult contemporary radio as well. Eight studio singles from this period released during his lifetime were top ten hits on one or both charts, four in 1974 alone. "My Boy" was a number-one adult contemporary hit in 1975, and "Moody Blue" topped the country chart and reached the second spot on the adult contemporary chart in 1976.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWhitburn2006273_284-0">[280]  Perhaps his most critically acclaimed recording of the era came that year, with what Greil Marcus described as his "apocalyptic attack" on the soul classic "Hurt".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMarcus1982284_285-0">[281]  "If he felt the way he sounded", Dave Marsh wrote of Presley's performance, "the wonder isn't that he had only a year left to live but that he managed to survive that long."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMarsh1989430_286-0">[282]

Final months and death
Presley and Linda Thompson split in November 1976, and he took up with a new girlfriend, Ginger Alden.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEVictor20088,_526_287-0">[283]  He proposed to Alden and gave her an engagement ring two months later, though several of his friends later claimed that he had no serious intention of marrying again.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEVictor20088,_224,_325_288-0">[284]  Journalist Tony Scherman wrote that by early 1977, "Presley had become a grotesque caricature of his sleek, energetic former self. Hugely overweight, his mind dulled by the pharmacopia he daily ingested, he was barely able to pull himself through his abbreviated concerts."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEScherman2006_289-0">[285]  In Alexandria, Louisiana, he was on stage for less than an hour, and "was impossible to understand".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1999628_290-0">[286]  On March 31, Presley failed to perform in Baton Rouge, unable to get out of his hotel bed; a total of four shows had to be canceled and rescheduled.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1999628–30_291-0">[287]  Despite the accelerating deterioration of his health, he stuck to most touring commitments. According to Guralnick, fans "were becoming increasingly voluble about their disappointment, but it all seemed to go right past Presley, whose world was now confined almost entirely to his room and his spiritualism books."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1999634_292-0">[288]  A cousin, Billy Smith, recalled how Presley would sit in his room and chat for hours, sometimes recounting favorite Monty Python sketches and his own past escapades, but more often gripped by paranoid obsessions that reminded Smith of Howard Hughes.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1999212,_642_293-0">[289]

"Way Down", Presley's last single issued during his career, was released on June 6. That month, CBS filmed two concerts for a TV special, Elvis in Concert, to be aired in October. In the first, shot in Omaha on June 19, Presley's voice, Guralnick writes, "is almost unrecognizable, a small, childlike instrument in which he talks more than sings most of the songs, casts about uncertainly for the melody in others, and is virtually unable to articulate or project".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1999638_294-0">[290]  Two days later, in Rapid City, South Dakota, "he looked healthier, seemed to have lost a little weight, and sounded better, too", though by the conclusion of the performance, his face was "framed in a helmet of blue-black hair from which sweat sheets down over pale, swollen cheeks".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1999638_294-1">[290]  His final concert was held in Indianapolis at Market Square Arena, on June 26.



Presley's gravestone at Graceland

The book Elvis: What Happened?, co-written by the three bodyguards fired the previous year, was published on August 1.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStanleyCoffey1998148_295-0">[291]  It was the first exposé to detail Presley's years of drug misuse. He was devastated by the book and tried unsuccessfully to halt its release by offering money to the publishers.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHumphries200379_296-0">[292]  By this point, he suffered from multiple ailments: glaucoma, high blood pressure, liver damage, and an enlarged colon, each magnified—and possibly caused—by drug abuse.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHigginbotham2002_265-1">[261]

On the evening of Tuesday, August 16, 1977, Presley was scheduled to fly out of Memphis to begin another tour. That afternoon, Ginger Alden discovered him in an unresponsive state on a bathroom floor. According to her eyewitness account, "Elvis looked as if his entire body had completely frozen in a seated position while using the commode and then had fallen forward, in that fixed position, directly in front of it. [...] It was clear that, from the time whatever hit him to the moment he had landed on the floor, Elvis hadn't moved."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEAlden2014_297-0">[293]  Attempts to revive him failed, and his death was officially pronounced at 3:30 p.m. at the Baptist Memorial Hospital.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1999645–48_298-0">[294]

President Jimmy Carter issued a statement that credited Presley with having "permanently changed the face of American popular culture".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWoolleyPeters1977_299-0">[295]  Thousands of people gathered outside Graceland to view the open casket. One of Presley's cousins, Billy Mann, accepted $18,000 to secretly photograph the corpse; the picture appeared on the cover of the National Enquirer's biggest-selling issue ever.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHopkins2007386_300-0">[296]  Alden struck a $105,000 deal with the Enquirer for her story, but settled for less when she broke her exclusivity agreement.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1999660_301-0">[297]  Presley left her nothing in his will.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEVictor2008581–82_302-0">[298]

Presley's funeral was held at Graceland on Thursday, August 18. Outside the gates, a car plowed into a group of fans, killing two women and critically injuring a third.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMatthew-Walker197926_303-0">[299]  About 80,000 people lined the processional route to Forest Hill Cemetery, where Presley was buried next to his mother.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEPendergastPendergast2000108_304-0">[300]  Within a few weeks, "Way Down" topped the country and U.K. pop charts.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWhitburn2006273_284-1">[280] <sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWarwick_et_al.2004860–66_305-0">[301]  Following an attempt to steal Presley's body in late August, the remains of both Presley and his mother were reburied in Graceland's Meditation Garden on October 2.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1999660_301-1">[297]

Cause of death
While an autopsy, undertaken the same day Presley died, was still in progress, Memphis medical examiner Dr. Jerry Francisco announced that the immediate cause of death was cardiac arrest. Asked if drugs were involved, he declared that "drugs played no role in Presley's death".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTERamsland2010_306-0">[302]  In fact, "drug use was heavily implicated" in Presley's death, writes Guralnick. The pathologists conducting the autopsy thought it possible, for instance, that he had suffered "anaphylactic shock brought on by the codeine pills he had gotten from his dentist, to which he was known to have had a mild allergy". A pair of lab reports filed two months later strongly suggested that polypharmacy was the primary cause of death; one reported "fourteen drugs in Elvis' system, ten in significant quantity".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1999651–53_307-0">[303]  In 1979, forensic pathologist Cyril Wecht conducted a review of the reports and concluded that a combination of central nervous system depressants had resulted in Presley's accidental death.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTERamsland2010_306-1">[302]  Forensic historian and pathologist Michael Baden viewed the situation as complicated: "Elvis had had an enlarged heart for a long time. That, together with his drug habit, caused his death. But he was difficult to diagnose; it was a judgment call."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBadenHennessee199035_308-0">[304]

The competence and ethics of two of the centrally involved medical professionals were seriously questioned. Dr. Francisco had offered a cause of death before the autopsy was complete; claimed the underlying ailment was cardiac arrhythmia, a condition that can be determined only in someone who is still alive; and denied drugs played any part in Presley's death before the toxicology results were known.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTERamsland2010_306-2">[302]  Allegations of a cover-up were widespread.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBadenHennessee199035_308-1">[304]  While a 1981 trial of Presley's main physician, Dr. George Nichopoulos, exonerated him of criminal liability for his death, the facts were startling: "In the first eight months of 1977 alone, he had [prescribed] more than 10,000 doses of sedatives, amphetamines, and narcotics: all in Elvis' name." His license was suspended for three months. It was permanently revoked in the 1990s after the Tennessee Medical Board brought new charges of over-prescription.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHigginbotham2002_265-2">[261]

In 1994, the Presley autopsy report was reopened. Dr. Joseph Davis, who had conducted thousands of autopsies as Miami-Dade County coroner,<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTETennant20132_309-0">[305]  declared at its completion, "There is nothing in any of the data that supports a death from drugs. In fact, everything points to a sudden, violent heart attack."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHigginbotham2002_265-3">[261]  More recent research has revealed that Dr. Francisco did not speak for the entire pathology team. Other staff "could say nothing with confidence until they got the results back from the laboratories, if then. That would be a matter of weeks." One of the examiners, Dr. E. Eric Muirhead "could not believe his ears. Francisco had not only presumed to speak for the hospital's team of pathologists, he had announced a conclusion that they had not reached. ... Early on, a meticulous dissection of the body ... confirmed [that] Elvis was chronically ill with diabetes, glaucoma, and constipation. As they proceeded, the doctors saw evidence that his body had been wracked over a span of years by a large and constant stream of drugs. They had also studied his hospital records, which included two admissions for drug detoxification and methadone treatments."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWilliamson201511–14_310-0">[306]  Writer Frank Coffey thought Elvis's death was due to "a phenomenon called the Valsalva maneuver (essentially straining on the toilet leading to heart stoppage—plausible because Elvis suffered constipation, a common reaction to drug use)".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTECoffey1997247_311-0">[307]  In similar terms, Dr. Dan Warlick, who was present at the autopsy, "believes Presley's chronic constipation—the result of years of prescription drug abuse and high-fat, high-cholesterol gorging—brought on what's known as Valsalva's maneuver. Put simply, the strain of attempting to defecate compressed the singer's abdominal aorta, shutting down his heart."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWertheimer1997132_312-0">[308]

However, in 2013, Dr. Forest Tennant, who had testified as a defense witness in Nichopoulos' trial, described his own analysis of Presley's available medical records. He concluded that Presley's "drug abuse had led to falls, head trauma, and overdoses that damaged his brain", and that his death was due in part to a toxic reaction to codeine—exacerbated by an undetected liver enzyme defect—which can cause sudden cardiac arrhythmia.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTETennant2013_313-0">[309]  DNA analysis in 2014 of a hair sample purported to be Presley's found evidence of genetic variants that can lead to glaucoma, migraines, and obesity; a crucial variant associated with the heart-muscle disease hypertrophic cardiomyopathy was also identified.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuardian2014_314-0">[310]

Later developments
Between 1977 and 1981, six of Presley's posthumously released singles were top-ten country hits.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWhitburn2006273_284-2">[280]

Graceland was opened to the public in 1982. Attracting over half a million visitors annually, it became the second most-visited home in the United States, after the White House.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBrownBroeske1997433_315-0">[311]  It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2006.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTENational_Park_Service2010_316-0">[312]

Presley has been inducted into five music halls of fame: the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1986), the Country Music Hall of Fame (1998), the Gospel Music Hall of Fame (2001), the Rockabilly Hall of Fame (2007), and the Memphis Music Hall of Fame (2012). In 1984, he received the W. C. Handy Award from the Blues Foundation and the Academy of Country Music's first Golden Hat Award. In 1987, he received the American Music Awards' Award of Merit.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTECook200433_317-0">[313]

A Junkie XL remix of Presley's "A Little Less Conversation" (credited as "Elvis Vs JXL") was used in a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nike,_Inc. Nike] advertising campaign during the 2002 FIFA World Cup. It topped the charts in over 20 countries, and was included in a compilation of Presley's number-one hits, ELV1S, which was also an international success. The album returned Presley to the Billboard summit for the first time in almost three decades.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGarrity2002_318-0">[314]

In 2003, a remix of "Rubberneckin'", a 1969 recording of Presley's, topped the U.S. sales chart, as did a 50th-anniversary re-release of "That's All Right" the following year.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBronson20041_319-0">[315]  The latter was an outright hit in Britain, debuting at number three on the pop chart; it also made the top ten in Canada.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTE"Hits_of_the_World"2004_320-0">[316]  In 2005, another three reissued singles, "Jailhouse Rock", "One Night"/"I Got Stung", and "It's Now or Never", went to number one in the United Kingdom. They were part of a campaign that saw the re-release of all 18 of Presley's previous chart-topping U.K. singles. The first, "All Shook Up", came with a collectors' box that made it ineligible to chart again; each of the other 17 reissues hit the British top five.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESexton2007_321-0">[317]

In 2005, Forbes named Presley the top-earning deceased celebrity for the fifth straight year, with a gross income of $45 million.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGoldmanEwalt2007_322-0">[318]  He placed second in 2006,<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTERose2006_323-0">[319]  returned to the top spot the next two years,<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGoldmanPaine2007_324-0">[320] <sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHoy2008_325-0">[321]  and ranked fourth in 2009.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEPomerantz_et_al.2009_326-0">[322]  The following year, he was ranked second, with his highest annual income ever—$60 million—spurred by the celebration of his 75th birthday and the launch of Cirque du Soleil's Viva Elvis show in Las Vegas.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTERose_et_al.2010_327-0">[323]  In November 2010, Viva Elvis: The Album was released, setting his voice to newly recorded instrumental tracks.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBaillie2010_328-0">[324] <sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBouchard2010_329-0">[325]  As of mid-2011, there were an estimated 15,000 licensed Presley products,<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTELynch2011_330-0">[326]  and he was again the second-highest-earning deceased celebrity.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEPomerantz2011_331-0">[327]  Six years later, he ranked fourth with earnings of $35 million, up $8 million from 2016 due in part to the opening of a new entertainment complex, Elvis Presley's Memphis, and hotel, The Guest House at Graceland.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGreenburg2017_332-0">[328]

For much of his adult life, Presley, with his rise from poverty to riches and massive fame, had seemed to epitomize the American Dream.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTENash2005xv_333-0">[329] <sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHarrison2016149_334-0">[330]  In his final years and even more so after his death, and the revelations about its circumstances, he became a symbol of excess and gluttony.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTECosby2016144_335-0">[331] <sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDoll2016186_336-0">[332]  Increasing attention, for instance, was paid to his appetite for the rich, heavy Southern cooking of his upbringing, foods such as chicken-fried steak and biscuits and gravy.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMartin2000_337-0">[333] <sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESmith2002_338-0">[334]  In particular, his love of calorie-laden fried peanut butter, banana, and (sometimes) bacon sandwiches,<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDundy2004227,_256_339-0">[335] <sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMartin2000_337-1">[333]  now known as "Elvis sandwiches",<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWilson2010121_340-0">[336]  came to stand for this aspect of his persona.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESlater2002_341-0">[337]  But the Elvis sandwich represents more than just unhealthy overindulgence—as media and culture scholar Robert Thompson describes, the unsophisticated treat also signifies Presley's enduring all-American appeal: "He wasn't only the king, he was one of us."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMilly2002_342-0">[338]

Since 1977, there have been numerous alleged sightings of Presley. A long-standing conspiracy theory among some fans is that he faked his death.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHarrison199242,_157–60,_169_343-0">[339] <sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEClarke200677,_80_344-0">[340]  Adherents cite alleged discrepancies in the death certificate, reports of a wax dummy in his original coffin, and accounts of Presley planning a diversion so he could retire in peace.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHarrison1992159–60_345-0">[341]  An unusually large number of fans have domestic shrines devoted to Presley and journey to sites with which he is connected, however faintly.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHarrison201610_346-0">[342]  Every August 16, the anniversary of his death, thousands of people gather outside Graceland and celebrate his memory with a candlelight ritual.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESegré2002_347-0">[343]  "With Elvis, it is not just his music that has survived death", writes Ted Harrison. "He himself has been raised, like a medieval saint, to a figure of cultic status. It is as if he has been canonized by acclamation."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHarrison201610_346-1">[342]

Influences
Presley's earliest musical influence came from gospel. His mother recalled that from the age of two, at the Assembly of God church in Tupelo attended by the family, "he would slide down off my lap, run into the aisle and scramble up to the platform. There he would stand looking at the choir and trying to sing with them."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick199414_348-0">[344]  In Memphis, Presley frequently attended all-night gospel singings at the Ellis Auditorium, where groups such as the Statesmen Quartet led the music in a style that, Guralnick suggests, sowed the seeds of Presley's future stage act: The Statesmen were an electric combination ... featuring some of the most thrillingly emotive singing and daringly unconventional showmanship in the entertainment world ... dressed in suits that might have come out of the window of Lansky's. ... Bass singer Jim Wetherington, known universally as the Big Chief, maintained a steady bottom, ceaselessly jiggling first his left leg, then his right, with the material of the pants leg ballooning out and shimmering. "He went about as far as you could go in gospel music," said Jake Hess. "The women would jump up, just like they do for the pop shows." Preachers frequently objected to the lewd movements ... but audiences reacted with screams and swoons.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick199447–48_349-0">[345] As a teenager, Presley's musical interests were wide-ranging, and he was deeply informed about both white and African-American musical idioms. Though he never had any formal training, he was blessed with a remarkable memory, and his musical knowledge was already considerable by the time he made his first professional recordings aged 19 in 1954. When Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller met him two years later, they were astonished at his encyclopedic understanding of the blues,<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBertrand2000211_350-0">[346]  and, as Stoller put it, "He certainly knew a lot more than we did about country music and gospel music."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEFox1986179_160-1">[156]  At a press conference the following year, he proudly declared, "I know practically every religious song that's ever been written."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1994430_151-1">[147]

Musicianship
Presley received his first guitar when he was 11 years old. He learned to play and sing; he gained no formal musical training but had an innate natural talent and could easily pick up music.<sup id="cite_ref-351">[347]  Presley played guitar, bass, and piano. While he couldn't read or write music and had no formal lessons, he was a natural musician and played everything by ear.<sup id="cite_ref-352">[348]  Presley often played an instrument in his recordings and produced his own music. Presley played rhythm acoustic guitar in most of his Sun recordings and his 1950s RCA albums. Presley played electric bass guitar in one of his recordings called (You're So Square) Baby I Don't Care after his bassist Bill Black had trouble with the instrument.<sup id="cite_ref-RobertsRoberts2001_353-0">[349]  Presley played the bass line including the intro. Presley played piano in songs such as "Old Shep" and First In Line from his 1956 album called Elvis.<sup id="cite_ref-Osborne2007_354-0">[350]  He is later credited with playing piano throughout some of the later albums that he recorded such as From Elvis in Memphis and "Moody Blue" which he played piano in Unchained Melody which was one of the last songs that he recorded.<sup id="cite_ref-Duffett2018_355-0">[351]  Presley played lead guitar in one of his successful singles called "One Night".<sup id="cite_ref-356">[352]  Presley also played guitar on one of his successful singles called "Are You Lonesome Tonight".<sup id="cite_ref-357">[353]  In the 68 Comeback Special, Elvis took over on lead electric guitar, the first time he had ever been seen with the electric guitar instrument in public and played it, performing songs such as Baby What You Want Me to Do, Lawdy Miss Clawdy, and others.<sup id="cite_ref-Marcus2015_358-0">[354]  Elvis played the back of his guitar in some of his hits such as "All Shook Up", "Don't Be Cruel", "(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear" and others providing a percussion through his guitar playing by slapping on it to create a beat.<sup id="cite_ref-TrynkaBacon1996_359-0">[355]  The album ''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_is_Back! Elvis is Back!]'' features Presley playing a lot of acoustic guitar in songs such as I Will Be Home Again, Like a Baby, and others.<sup id="cite_ref-Eder2013_360-0">[356]

Musical styles and genres


Presley with his longtime vocal backup group, the Jordanaires, March 1957

Presley was a central figure in the development of rockabilly, according to music historians. "Rockabilly crystallized into a recognizable style in 1954 with Elvis Presley's first release, on the Sun label", writes Craig Morrison.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMorrison1996x_361-0">[357]  Paul Friedlander describes the defining elements of rockabilly, which he similarly characterizes as "essentially ... an Elvis Presley construction": "the raw, emotive, and slurred vocal style and emphasis on rhythmic feeling [of] the blues with the string band and strummed rhythm guitar [of] country".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEFriedlander199645_362-0">[358]  In "That's All Right", the Presley trio's first record, Scotty Moore's guitar solo, "a combination of Merle Travis–style country finger-picking, double-stop slides from acoustic boogie, and blues-based bent-note, single-string work, is a microcosm of this fusion."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEFriedlander199645_362-1">[358]  While Katherine Charlton likewise calls Presley "rockabilly's originator",<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTECharlton2006103_363-0">[359]  Carl Perkins has explicitly stated that "[Sam] Phillips, Elvis, and I didn't create rockabilly."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEJancik199816_364-0">[360]  and, according to Michael Campbell, "Bill Haley recorded the first big rockabilly hit."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTECampbell2009161_365-0">[361]  In Moore's view, too, "It had been there for quite a while, really. Carl Perkins was doing basically the same sort of thing up around Jackson, and I know for a fact Jerry Lee Lewis had been playing that kind of music ever since he was ten years old."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1989104_366-0">[362]

At RCA, Presley's rock and roll sound grew distinct from rockabilly with group chorus vocals, more heavily amplified electric guitars<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGillett2000113_367-0">[363]  and a tougher, more intense manner.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEJorgensen199839_368-0">[364]  While he was known for taking songs from various sources and giving them a rockabilly/rock and roll treatment, he also recorded songs in other genres from early in his career, from the pop standard "Blue Moon" at Sun to the country ballad "How's the World Treating You?" on his second LP to the blues of "Santa Claus Is Back in Town". In 1957, his first gospel record was released, the four-song EP Peace in the Valley. Certified as a million seller, it became the top-selling gospel EP in recording history.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWolfe199414_369-0">[365]  Presley would record gospel periodically for the rest of his life. After his return from military service in 1960, Presley continued to perform rock and roll, but the characteristic style was substantially toned down. His first post-Army single, the number-one hit "Stuck on You", is typical of this shift. RCA publicity materials referred to its "mild rock beat"; discographer Ernst Jorgensen calls it "upbeat pop".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEJorgensen1998123_372-0">[368]  The number five "She's Not You" (1962) "integrates the Jordanaires so completely, it's practically doo-wop".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMarsh1982145_373-0">[369]  The modern blues/R&B sound captured with success on Elvis Is Back! was essentially abandoned for six years until such 1966–67 recordings as "Down in the Alley" and "Hi-Heel Sneakers".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEJorgensen1998213,_237_374-0">[370]  Presley's output during most of the 1960s emphasized pop music, often in the form of ballads such as "Are You Lonesome Tonight?", a number-one in 1960. "It's Now or Never", which also topped the chart that year, was a classically influenced variation of pop based on the Neapolitan "'O sole mio" and concluding with a "full-voiced operatic cadence".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick199965_375-0">[371]  These were both dramatic numbers, but most of what Presley recorded for his many film soundtracks was in a much lighter vein.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEJorgensen1998142–43_376-0">[372]

While Presley performed several of his classic ballads for the '68 Comeback Special, the sound of the show was dominated by aggressive rock and roll. He would record few new straight-ahead rock and roll songs thereafter; as he explained, they were "hard to find".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEJorgensen1998343_377-0">[373]  A significant exception was "Burning Love", his last major hit on the pop charts. Like his work of the 1950s, Presley's subsequent recordings reworked pop and country songs, but in markedly different permutations. His stylistic range now began to embrace a more contemporary rock sound as well as soul and funk. Much of Elvis in Memphis, as well as "Suspicious Minds", cut at the same sessions, reflected his new rock and soul fusion. In the mid-1970s, many of his singles found a home on country radio, the field where he first became a star.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEPonce_de_Leon2007199_378-0">[374]

Vocal style and range
The developmental arc of Presley's singing voice, as described by critic Dave Marsh, goes from "high and thrilled in the early days, [to] lower and perplexed in the final months."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMarsh1982234_379-0">[375]  Marsh credits Presley with the introduction of the "vocal stutter" on 1955's "Baby Let's Play House".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMarsh1989317_380-0">[376]  When on "Don't Be Cruel", Presley "slides into a 'mmmmm' that marks the transition between the first two verses," he shows "how masterful his relaxed style really is."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMarsh198991_381-0">[377]  Marsh describes the vocal performance on "Can't Help Falling in Love" as one of "gentle insistence and delicacy of phrasing", with the line "'Shall I stay' pronounced as if the words are fragile as crystal".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMarsh1989490_382-0">[378]



Publicity photo for the CBS program Stage Show, January 16, 1956

Jorgensen calls the 1966 recording of "How Great Thou Art" "an extraordinary fulfillment of his vocal ambitions", as Presley "crafted for himself an ad-hoc arrangement in which he took every part of the four-part vocal, from [the] bass intro to the soaring heights of the song's operatic climax", becoming "a kind of one-man quartet".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEJorgensen1998212_383-0">[379]  Guralnick finds "Stand By Me" from the same gospel sessions "a beautifully articulated, almost nakedly yearning performance," but, by contrast, feels that Presley reaches beyond his powers on "Where No One Stands Alone", resorting "to a kind of inelegant bellowing to push out a sound" that Jake Hess of the Statesmen Quartet had in his command. Hess himself thought that while others might have voices the equal of Presley's, "he had that certain something that everyone searches for all during their lifetime."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1999232_384-0">[380]  Guralnick attempts to pinpoint that something: "The warmth of his voice, his controlled use of both vibrato technique and natural falsetto range, the subtlety and deeply felt conviction of his singing were all qualities recognizably belonging to his talent but just as recognizably not to be achieved without sustained dedication and effort."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1999231_385-0">[381]

Marsh praises his 1968 reading of "U.S. Male", "bearing down on the hard guy lyrics, not sending them up or overplaying them but tossing them around with that astonishingly tough yet gentle assurance that he brought to his Sun records."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMarsh1989424_386-0">[382]  The performance on "In the Ghetto" is, according to Jorgensen, "devoid of any of his characteristic vocal tricks or mannerisms", instead relying on the exceptional "clarity and sensitivity of his voice".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEJorgensen1998271_387-0">[383]  Guralnick describes the song's delivery as of "almost translucent eloquence ... so quietly confident in its simplicity".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1999332_388-0">[384]  On "Suspicious Minds", Guralnick hears essentially the same "remarkable mixture of tenderness and poise", but supplemented with "an expressive quality somewhere between stoicism (at suspected infidelity) and anguish (over impending loss)".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1999335_389-0">[385]

Music critic Henry Pleasants observes that "Presley has been described variously as a baritone and a tenor. An extraordinary compass ... and a very wide range of vocal color have something to do with this divergence of opinion."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEPleasants2004260_390-0">[386]  He identifies Presley as a high baritone, calculating his range as two octaves and a third, "from the baritone low G to the tenor high B, with an upward extension in falsetto to at least a D-flat. Presley's best octave is in the middle, D-flat to D-flat, granting an extra full step up or down."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEPleasants2004260_390-1">[386]  In Pleasants' view, his voice was "variable and unpredictable" at the bottom, "often brilliant" at the top, with the capacity for "full-voiced high Gs and As that an opera baritone might envy".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEPleasants2004260_390-2">[386]  Scholar Lindsay Waters, who figures Presley's range as two-and-a-quarter octaves, emphasizes that "his voice had an emotional range from tender whispers to sighs down to shouts, grunts, grumbles, and sheer gruffness that could move the listener from calmness and surrender, to fear. His voice can not be measured in octaves, but in decibels; even that misses the problem of how to measure delicate whispers that are hardly audible at all."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWaters2003205_391-0">[387]  Presley was always "able to duplicate the open, hoarse, ecstatic, screaming, shouting, wailing, reckless sound of the black rhythm-and-blues and gospel singers", writes Pleasants, and also demonstrated a remarkable ability to assimilate many other vocal styles.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEPleasants2004260_390-3">[386]

Racism
When Dewey Phillips first aired "That's All Right" on Memphis' WHBQ, many listeners who contacted the station by phone and telegram to ask for it again assumed that its singer was black.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1994100–01_65-1">[63]  From the beginning of his national fame, Presley expressed respect for African-American performers and their music, and disregard for the norms of segregation and racial prejudice then prevalent in the South. Interviewed in 1956, he recalled how in his childhood he would listen to blues musician Arthur Crudup—the originator of "That's All Right"—"bang his box the way I do now, and I said if I ever got to the place where I could feel all old Arthur felt, I'd be a music man like nobody ever saw."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick2004_49-1">[47]  The Memphis World, an African-American newspaper, reported that Presley, "the rock 'n' roll phenomenon", "cracked Memphis' segregation laws" by attending the local amusement park on what was designated as its "colored night".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick2004_49-2">[47]  Such statements and actions led Presley to be generally hailed in the black community during the early days of his stardom.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick2004_49-3">[47]  In contrast, many white adults, according to Billboard's Arnold Shaw, "did not like him, and condemned him as depraved. Anti-negro prejudice doubtless figured in adult antagonism. Regardless of whether parents were aware of the Negro sexual origins of the phrase 'rock 'n' roll', Presley impressed them as the visual and aural embodiment of sex."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDenisoff197522_392-0">[388]

Despite the largely positive view of Presley held by African Americans, a rumor spread in mid-1957 that he had at some point announced, "The only thing Negroes can do for me is buy my records and shine my shoes." A journalist with the national African-American weekly Jet, Louie Robinson, pursued the story. On the set of Jailhouse Rock, Presley granted Robinson an interview, though he was no longer dealing with the mainstream press. He denied making such a statement or holding in any way to its racist view: "I never said anything like that, and people who know me know that I wouldn't have said it. ... A lot of people seem to think I started this business. But rock 'n' roll was here a long time before I came along. Nobody can sing that kind of music like colored people. Let's face it: I can't sing like Fats Domino can. I know that."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWilliams2012_393-0">[389]  Robinson found no evidence that the remark had ever been made, and on the contrary elicited testimony from many individuals indicating that Presley was anything but racist.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick2004_49-4">[47] <sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEPilgrim2006_394-0">[390]  Blues singer Ivory Joe Hunter, who had heard the rumor before he visited Graceland one evening, reported of Presley, "He showed me every courtesy, and I think he's one of the greatest."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1994426_395-0">[391]  Though the rumored remark was wholly discredited at the time, it was still being used against Presley decades later.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKolawole2002_396-0">[392]  The identification of Presley with racism—either personally or symbolically—was expressed in the lyrics of the 1989 rap hit "Fight the Power", by Public Enemy: "Elvis was a hero to most / But he never meant shit to me / Straight-up racist that sucker was / Simple and plain".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMyrie2009123–24_397-0">[393]

The persistence of such attitudes was fueled by resentment over the fact that Presley, whose musical and visual performance idiom owed much to African-American sources, achieved the cultural acknowledgement and commercial success largely denied his black peers.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEPilgrim2006_394-1">[390]  Into the 21st century, the notion that Presley had "stolen" black music still found adherents.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKolawole2002_396-1">[392] <sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMyrie2009123–24_397-1">[393]  Notable among African-American entertainers expressly rejecting this view was Jackie Wilson, who argued, "A lot of people have accused Elvis of stealing the black man's music, when in fact, almost every black solo entertainer copied his stage mannerisms from Elvis."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMasley2002_398-0">[394]  Moreover, Presley also plainly acknowledged his debt to African-American musicians throughout his career. Addressing his '68 Comeback Special audience, he said, "Rock 'n' roll music is basically gospel or rhythm and blues, or it sprang from that. People have been adding to it, adding instruments to it, experimenting with it, but it all boils down to [that]."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEOsborne2000207_399-0">[395]  Nine years earlier, he had said, "Rock 'n' roll has been around for many years. It used to be called rhythm and blues."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBertrand2000198_400-0">[396]

Sex symbol


Poster for the film ''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girls!_Girls!_Girls! Girls! Girls! Girls!]'' (1962), visualizing Presley's sex symbol image

Presley's physical attractiveness and sexual appeal were widely acknowledged. "He was once beautiful, astonishingly beautiful", according to critic Mark Feeney.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEFeeney2010_401-0">[397]  Television director Steve Binder, no fan of Presley's music before he oversaw the '68 Comeback Special, reported, "I'm straight as an arrow and I got to tell you, you stop, whether you're male or female, to look at him. He was that good looking. And if you never knew he was a superstar, it wouldn't make any difference; if he'd walked in the room, you'd know somebody special was in your presence."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEAshley200976_402-0">[398]  His performance style, as much as his physical beauty, was responsible for Presley's eroticized image. Writing in 1970, critic George Melly described him as "the master of the sexual simile, treating his guitar as both phallus and girl".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTERodman199658_403-0">[399]  In his Presley obituary, Lester Bangs credited him as "the man who brought overt blatant vulgar sexual frenzy to the popular arts in America".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTERodman199658–59_404-0">[400]  Ed Sullivan's declaration that he perceived a soda bottle in Presley's trousers was echoed by rumors involving a similarly positioned toilet roll tube or lead bar.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGarber1997366_405-0">[401]

While Presley was marketed as an icon of heterosexuality, some cultural critics have argued that his image was ambiguous. In 1959, Sight and Sound's Peter John Dyer described his onscreen persona as "aggressively bisexual in appeal".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDyer1959–196030_406-0">[402]  Brett Farmer places the "orgasmic gyrations" of the title dance sequence in Jailhouse Rock within a lineage of cinematic musical numbers that offer a "spectacular eroticization, if not homoeroticization, of the male image".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEFarmer200086_407-0">[403]  In the analysis of Yvonne Tasker, "Elvis was an ambivalent figure who articulated a peculiar feminised, objectifying version of white working-class masculinity as aggressive sexual display."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTETasker2007208_408-0">[404]

Reinforcing Presley's image as a sex symbol were the reports of his dalliances with various Hollywood stars and starlets, from Natalie Wood in the 1950s to Connie Stevens and Ann-Margret in the 1960s to Candice Bergen and Cybill Shepherd in the 1970s. June Juanico of Memphis, one of Presley's early girlfriends, later blamed Parker for encouraging him to choose his dating partners with publicity in mind.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStein1997_225-1">[221]  Presley never grew comfortable with the Hollywood scene, and most of these relationships were insubstantial.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKirchbergHendrickx1999109_409-0">[405]

Colonel Parker and the Aberbachs
Further information: Colonel Tom Parker



Presley and Colonel Tom Parker, 1969

Once he became Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker insisted on exceptionally tight control over his client's career. Early on, he and his Hill and Range allies, the brothers Jean and Julian Aberbach, perceived the close relationship that developed between Presley and songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller as a serious threat to that control.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1994415–17,_448–49_410-0">[406]  Parker effectively ended the relationship, deliberately or not, with the new contract he sent Leiber in early 1958. Leiber thought there was a mistake—the sheet of paper was blank except for Parker's signature and a line on which to enter his. "There's no mistake, boy, just sign it and return it", Parker directed. "Don't worry, we'll fill it in later." Leiber declined, and Presley's fruitful collaboration with the writing team was over.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1994452–53_411-0">[407]  Other respected songwriters lost interest in or simply avoided writing for Presley because of the requirement that they surrender a third of their usual royalties.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEJorgensen1998198_412-0">[408]

By 1967, Parker's contracts gave him 50 percent of most of Presley's earnings from recordings, films, and merchandise.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1999248_413-0">[409]  Beginning in February 1972, he took a third of the profit from live appearances;<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnickJorgensen1999304,_365_414-0">[410]  a January 1976 agreement entitled him to half of that as well.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnickJorgensen1999358,_375_415-0">[411]  Priscilla Presley noted that "Elvis detested the business side of his career. He would sign a contract without even reading it."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEPresley1985188_416-0">[412]  Presley's friend Marty Lacker regarded Parker as a "hustler and a con artist. He was only interested in 'now money'—get the buck and get gone."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTENash2005290_417-0">[413]

Lacker was instrumental in convincing Presley to record with Memphis producer Chips Moman and his handpicked musicians at American Sound Studio in early 1969. The American Sound sessions represented a significant departure from the control customarily exerted by Hill and Range. Moman still had to deal with the publisher's staff on site, whose song suggestions he regarded as unacceptable. He was on the verge of quitting, until Presley ordered the Hill and Range personnel out of the studio.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEClaytonHeard2003262–65_418-0">[414]  Although RCA executive Joan Deary was later full of praise for the producer's song choices and the quality of the recordings,<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEClaytonHeard2003267_419-0">[415]  Moman, to his fury, received neither credit on the records nor royalties for his work.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEJorgensen1998281_420-0">[416]

Throughout his entire career, Presley performed in only three venues outside the United States—all of them in Canada, during brief tours there in 1957.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTENash2003186_421-0">[417]  In 1968, he remarked, "Before too long I'm going to make some personal appearance tours. I'll probably start out here in this country and after that, play some concerts abroad, probably starting in Europe. I want to see some places I've never seen before."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHopkins2007215_210-1">[206]  Rumors that he would play overseas for the first time were fueled in 1974 by a million-dollar bid for an Australian tour. Parker was uncharacteristically reluctant, prompting those close to Presley to speculate about the manager's past and the reasons for his evident unwillingness to apply for a passport.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTENash2003187_422-0">[418]  After Presley's death, it was revealed that Parker was born Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk in the Netherlands; having immigrated illegally to the U.S., he had reason to fear that if he left the country, he would not be allowed back in again.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTENash200564,_478_423-0">[419]  Parker ultimately squelched any notions Presley had of working abroad, claiming that foreign security was poor and the venues unsuitable for a star of his magnitude.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStanleyCoffey1998123_424-0">[420]

Parker arguably exercised tightest control over Presley's film career. Hal Wallis said, "I'd rather try and close a deal with the devil" than with Parker. Fellow film producer Sam Katzman described him as "the biggest con artist in the world".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHopkins2007192_425-0">[421]  In 1957, Robert Mitchum asked Presley to costar with him in Thunder Road, which Mitchum was producing and writing.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBrownBroeske1997125_426-0">[422]  According to George Klein, one of his oldest friends, Presley was also offered starring roles in West Side Story and Midnight Cowboy.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEClaytonHeard2003226_427-0">[423]  In 1974, Barbra Streisand approached Presley to star with her in the remake of A Star is Born.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1999563–65_428-0">[424]  In each case, any ambitions Presley may have had to play such parts were thwarted by his manager's negotiating demands or flat refusals. In Lacker's description, "The only thing that kept Elvis going after the early years was a new challenge. But Parker kept running everything into the ground."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTENash2005290_417-1">[413]  The prevailing attitude may have been summed up best by the response Leiber and Stoller received when they brought a serious film project for Presley to Parker and the Hill and Range owners for their consideration. In Leiber's telling, Jean Aberbach warned them to never again "try to interfere with the business or artistic workings of the process known as Elvis Presley".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1994449_194-1">[190]

Memphis Mafia
Main article: Memphis Mafia

In the early 1960s, the circle of friends with whom Presley constantly surrounded himself until his death came to be known as the "Memphis Mafia".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEPonce_de_Leon2007139–40_429-0">[425]  "Surrounded by the[ir] parasitic presence", as journalist John Harris puts it, "it was no wonder that as he slid into addiction and torpor, no-one raised the alarm: to them, Elvis was the bank, and it had to remain open."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHarris2006_430-0">[426]  Tony Brown, who played piano for Presley regularly in the last two years of Presley's life, observed his rapidly declining health and the urgent need to address it: "But we all knew it was hopeless because Elvis was surrounded by that little circle of people ... all those so-called friends".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEClaytonHeard2003339_431-0">[427]  In the Memphis Mafia's defense, Marty Lacker has said, "[Presley] was his own man. ... If we hadn't been around, he would have been dead a lot earlier."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEConnelly2008148_432-0">[428]

Larry Geller became Presley's hairdresser in 1964. Unlike others in the Memphis Mafia, he was interested in spiritual questions and recalls how, from their first conversation, Presley revealed his secret thoughts and anxieties: "I mean there has to be a purpose ... there's got to be a reason ... why I was chosen to be Elvis Presley. ... I swear to God, no one knows how lonely I get. And how empty I really feel."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1999174_433-0">[429]  Thereafter, Geller supplied him with books on religion and mysticism, which Presley read voraciously.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGuralnick1999175_434-0">[430]  Presley would be preoccupied by such matters for much of his life, taking trunkloads of books on tour.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHigginbotham2002_265-4">[261]

Legacy
Further information: Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, Cultural depictions of Elvis Presley, Elvis has left the building, and List of songs about or referencing Elvis Presley

I know he invented rock and roll, in a manner of speaking, but ... that's not why he's worshiped as a god today. He's worshiped as a god today because in addition to inventing rock and roll he was the greatest ballad singer this side of Frank Sinatra—because the spiritual translucence and reined-in gut sexuality of his slow weeper and torchy pop blues still activate the hormones and slavish devotion of millions of female human beings worldwide.

—Robert Christgau December 24, 1985<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEChristgau1985_435-0">[431]

Presley's rise to national attention in 1956 transformed the field of popular music and had a huge effect on the broader scope of popular culture.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTECollins2002_436-0">[432]  As the catalyst for the cultural revolution that was rock and roll, he was central not only to defining it as a musical genre but in making it a touchstone of youth culture and rebellious attitude.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESadie1994638_437-0">[433]  With its racially mixed origins—repeatedly affirmed by Presley—rock and roll's occupation of a central position in mainstream American culture facilitated a new acceptance and appreciation of black culture.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBertrand200094_438-0">[434]  In this regard, Little Richard said of Presley, "He was an integrator. Elvis was a blessing. They wouldn't let black music through. He opened the door for black music."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTERodman1996193_439-0">[435]  Al Green agreed: "He broke the ice for all of us."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEVictor2008356_440-0">[436]  President Jimmy Carter remarked on his legacy in 1977: "His music and his personality, fusing the styles of white country and black rhythm and blues, permanently changed the face of American popular culture. His following was immense, and he was a symbol to people the world over of the vitality, rebelliousness, and good humor of his country."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWoolleyPeters1977_299-1">[295]  Presley also heralded the vastly expanded reach of celebrity in the era of mass communication: at the age of 21, within a year of his first appearance on American network television, he was regarded as one of the most famous people in the world.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEArnett2006400_441-0">[437]

Presley's name, image, and voice are recognized around the globe.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDoss19992_442-0">[438]  He has inspired a legion of impersonators.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTELott1997192_443-0">[439]  In polls and surveys, he is recognized as one of the most important popular music artists and influential Americans.<sup id="cite_ref-ranking_451-0">[e]  "Elvis Presley is the greatest cultural force in the twentieth century", said composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein. "He introduced the beat to everything and he changed everything—music, language, clothes. It's a whole new social revolution—the sixties came from it."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKeogh20042_452-0">[447]  John Lennon said that "Nothing really affected me until Elvis."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDavies199619_453-0">[448]  Bob Dylan described the sensation of first hearing Presley as "like busting out of jail".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEVictor2008356_440-1">[436]



Presley's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6777 Hollywood Blvd

On the 25th anniversary of Presley's death, The New York Times asserted, "All the talentless impersonators and appalling black velvet paintings on display can make him seem little more than a perverse and distant memory. But before Elvis was camp, he was its opposite: a genuine cultural force. ... Elvis' breakthroughs are underappreciated because in this rock-and-roll age, his hard-rocking music and sultry style have triumphed so completely."<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTENew_York_Times2002_454-0">[449]  Not only Presley's achievements, but his failings as well, are seen by some cultural observers as adding to the power of his legacy, as in this description by Greil Marcus: Elvis Presley is a supreme figure in American life, one whose presence, no matter how banal or predictable, brooks no real comparisons. ... The cultural range of his music has expanded to the point where it includes not only the hits of the day, but also patriotic recitals, pure country gospel, and really dirty blues. ... Elvis has emerged as a great artist, a great rocker, a great purveyor of schlock, a great heart throb, a great bore, a great symbol of potency, a great ham, a great nice person, and, yes, a great American.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMarcus1982141–42_455-0">[450]

Achievements
To this day, Presley remains the best selling solo artist,<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKennedyGadpaille2017188_456-0">[451]  with sales estimates ranging from 600 million to 1 billion sales.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBennet2017_457-0">[452] <sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTECNN2017_458-0">[453]

Presley holds the records for most songs charting in Billboards top 40—115<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWhitburn2010875_459-0">[454] <sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEVictor2008438_460-0">[455] <sup id="cite_ref-billboard.com_461-0">[456] —and top 100: 152, according to chart statistician Joel Whitburn,<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHilburn2007_462-0">[457] <sup id="cite_ref-billboard.com_461-1">[456]  139 according to Presley historian Adam Victor.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEVictor2008438_460-1">[455] <sup id="cite_ref-billboard.com_461-2">[456]  Presley's rankings for top ten and number-one hits vary depending on how the double-sided "Hound Dog/Don't Be Cruel" and "Don't/I Beg of You" singles, which precede the inception of Billboards unified Hot 100 chart, are analyzed.<sup id="cite_ref-billboard_463-0">[f]  According to Whitburn's analysis, Presley holds the record with 38, tying with Madonna;<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWhitburn2010875_459-1">[454]  per Billboard's current assessment, he ranks second with 36.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHasty2008_464-0">[458]  Whitburn and Billboard concur that the Beatles hold the record for most number-one hits with 20, and that Mariah Carey is second with 18. Whitburn has Presley also with 18, and thus tied for second;<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWhitburn2010875_459-2">[454]  Billboard has him third with 17.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMoody2008_465-0">[459]  Presley retains the record for cumulative weeks at number one: alone at 80, according to Whitburn and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame;<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWhitburn2010876_466-0">[460] <sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTERRHF2010_467-0">[461]  tied with Carey at 79, according to Billboard.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBronson1998_468-0">[462] <sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTETrust2010_469-0">[463]  He holds the records for most British number-one hits with 21, and top ten hits with 76.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEeveryHit.com2010a_470-0">[464] <sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEeveryHit.com2010b_471-0">[465]

As an album artist, Presley is credited by Billboard with the record for the most albums charting in the Billboard 200: 129, far ahead of second-place Frank Sinatra's 82. He also holds the record for most time spent at number one on the Billboard 200: 67 weeks.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTETrust2015_472-0">[466]  In 2015 and 2016, two albums setting Presley's vocals against music by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, If I Can Dream and The Wonder of You, both reached number one in the United Kingdom. This gave him a new record for number-one U.K. albums by a solo artist with 13, and extended his record for longest span between number-one albums by anybody—Presley had first topped the British chart in 19