Biography of Elvis Presley

Elvis Aron Presley was born on January 8, 1935 to Vernon Elvis Presley and Gladys Love Smith. Vernon had worked as a sharecropper and a truck driver, while Gladys was a sewing machinist. The two met in Tupelo, Mississippi and promptly eloped to Pontotoc County, where they married on June 17, 1933.

Elvis' Early Life

Elvis' beginnings were the most humble. He was born in a two room house in East Tupelo, a house that was built by Vernon. He was an identical twin. His brother, Jesse Garon, however, was stillborn. Growing up as an only child, Elvis was extremely close to his mother. The small family lived just above the poverty level, and one of the highlights of their lives was attending the Assembly of God Church. Those close to Vernon have said that he had a distinct aversion to hard work. Gladys has been described as "lively, full of spunk," and unfortunately, a little too fond of alcohol. When Vernon was jailed for an eight dollar check forgery, Gladys and Elvis lost the small home Vernon had built and moved in with relatives.

At the Lawhorn School in Tupelo, Elvis was considered "well mannered and quiet," attributes that would remain with him throughout his life. However, his classmates considered him "different" because he was, in their opinion, a "mama's boy," and he had a tendency to stutter.

Elvis made his first public appearance on October 3, 1945, at the age of ten, when he sang at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show dressed as a cowboy. He sang Red Foley's "Old Shep," and came in fifth, winning five dollars and a free ticket to all the fair rides.

On his eleventh birthday, in 1946, Elvis received his first guitar. The man who was to become "The King of Rock 'n' Roll" didn't really want a guitar, though. He wanted either a bicycle or a rifle, but his parents, who still weren't doing well financially, could only afford a guitar. Despite his initial disappointment, Elvis began taking guitar lessons from his uncle Vester, Vernon Presley's brother. He soon became fascinated with music.

In September 1948, the Presley family moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where rockabilly pioneer, Johnny Burnette recalled, "Wherever Elvis went he'd have his guitar slung across his back." When he enrolled in L.C. Humes High School, most of his fellow students didn't look upon either Elvis, or his skill with the guitar, favorably. One former student recalls Elvis as a "sad, shy, not especially attractive boy," whose guitar playing was not going to win him any prizes. Other students, however, would beg him to play and sing, but he was, by all accounts, usually far too timid to perform.

In September 1950, Elvis got his very first job working evenings as an usher at Loew's State Theatre. He wanted to contribute to the family income, but Gladys made him quit so he could concentrate on his schoolwork. A year later, he got the same job but was quickly fired in an altercation over a flashlight. During this time period, Elvis let his sideburns grow, and when he had the money, he purchased and dressed in the flashy clothes sold at Lansky Brothers on Beale Street. This made him, especially in the Deep South, a very flamboyant person, something his classmates did not appreciate.

After graduation, Elvis got a job driving a truck for the Crown Electric Company. He also began wearing his hair long, with a ducktail, a popular style at the time for blue-collar workers.

Early Musical Influences

Rolling Stone wrote, "Gospel pervaded Elvis' character and was a defining and enduring influence all of his days." Elvis himself stated, "Since I was two years old, all I knew was gospel music. That music became such a part of my life. It was as natural as dancing. A way to escape from the problems. And my way of release." Elvis sang gospel music at the Assembly of God Church, and unknown to many, throughout his life—in the recording studio, in private, or before or after concerts. Elvis enjoyed getting together with his band or with others and singing gospel songs. He said it relaxed him and brought him peace. The legendary Southern Gospel singer, Jake Hess, was Elvis' favorite singer and the greatest influence on his own music.

Before Elvis even became a teenager, music became his all consuming passion. His sixth grade friend, James Ausborn said, "He was crazy about music…. That's all he talked about." Elvis soon learned all of Hank Snow's songs, even the most obscure. In Memphis, the teenaged Elvis would frequent record stores that had jukeboxes and listening booths where he would play old records and new releases for hours and hours. He could always be found in the audience of downtown "gospel sings," and the Memphis Symphony Orchestra at Overton Park was another of his favorites, along with, unbelievably to some, the Metropolitan Opera. Due to finances, Elvis had only a small record collection, but that collection was diverse and contained everything from Mario Lanza to Dean Martin. Elvis later remarked on this time, "I just loved music. Music, period."

Memphis has a strong blues tradition, and one of Elvis' favorites was B.B. King. King says the he "knew Elvis before he was popular. He used to come around and be around us a lot…on Beale Street."

Despite his guitar lessons with Uncle Vester, Elvis remained an untrained musician. He played both guitar and piano, but he played by ear. "I don't read music," he once said, "but I know what I like."

First Recordings and Performances

On July 18, 1953, Elvis went to the Memphis recording studio of Sun Records to record "My Happiness" and "That's When Your Heartache Begins" as a present for his mother. When assistant, Marion Keisker asked him who he sounded like, Elvis replied, "I don't sound like nobody."

In January of the next year, Sun Records boss, Sam Phillips was looking for someone who could deliver a blend of black blues and boogie-woogie. Marion Keisker reminded him of Elvis, and Elvis was asked to audition. It did not go well. Phillips recalled, "Elvis was probably as nervous as anybody, black or white, that I had seen in front of a microphone." Still, a recording session was planned. During a break in the session, Elvis began singing Arthur Crudup's "That's All Right Mama." Although he was just trying to be silly, Phillips got the group to restart, and he taped the song. This, he told them, was the sound he'd been looking for. Besides that song, the group also recorded Bill Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky."

"That's All Right Mama" was first aired on the radio on July 8, 1954. It was immensely popular. Listeners immediately began phoning the studio, wanting to know who the singer was. DJ Dewey Phillips mispronounced Elvis' name as "Elton Preston." In fact, interest was so high that Phillips had to play the demo fourteen times and, when interviewing Elvis on the show, he asked him what high school he attended. This was to clarify for listeners that Elvis was, indeed, white, as most listeners wrongly assumed he was black.

Elvis began playing in clubs all over the South with Moore and Black, and the trio billed themselves as "The Blue Moon Boys." They made their first paid appearance at the Overton Park Shell with Slim Whitman headlining. Elvis was so extremely nervous that his legs shook visibly and uncontrollably, causing the girls in the audience to go "crazy." Some people, however, have said that Elvis wasn't that nervous, and Elvis, himself, said, "I didn't realize that my, that I was movin', my body was movin'. It was a natural thing to me." Still, Elvis made a conscious effort to incorporate these moves into subsequent shows.

On October 2, 1954, Elvis debuted at Nashville's Grand Ole Opry. He was introduced by Hank Snow and sang "Blue Moon of Kentucky." Although the audience was polite, it was clear that they were not impressed. Afterwards, Elvis was told by the Grand Ole Opry's Jim Denny, "Boy, you'd better keep driving that truck."

One of the problems regarding Elvis' early music seems to have been the fact that audience had never before seen or heard music like Elvis sang it. Elvis, however, was gaining confidence and feeling more relaxed in front of an audience. People who saw him were often struck by both the ferocity of his performances and the audience's reaction to it. Roy Orbison saw Elvis for the first time in Odessa, Texas and remarked, "His energy was incredible, his instinct was just amazing…. I just didn't know what to make of it. There was just no reference point in the culture to compare it."

By August 1955, Sun Records had released ten sides credited to "Elvis Presley, Scotty and Bill." All of them were typical of Elvis' emerging style, a style that defied categorization. On August 15, 1955, Colonel Tom Parker became Elvis' manager and signed him to a one-year contract, plus renewals. By the end of October, three major record labels had made offers of up to $25,000. On November 21, 1955, Parker and Phillips negotiated a deal with RCA to acquire Elvis' Sun contract for $40,000, an unprecedented amount at the time. Elvis, who was then only twenty, was still legally a minor, so Vernon had to sign the contract for him. By December 1955, RCA had begun to heavily promote Elvis and had re-released all of his Sun recordings.

Breakthrough

On January 10, 1956, Elvis made his first recordings for RCA in Nashville, Tennessee. This is the session that produced "Heartbreak Hotel" and "I Was the One," which was released on January 27, 1956. "Heartbreak Hotel" became so popular that RCA released it as a single on February 11, 1956. By April, it was number one on all the US charts, selling more than one million copies.

On January 30, 1956, Presley and his band recorded eight songs at RCA's New York studios. Of these eight songs, only "Blue Suede Shoes" became a hit single, but this recording session marked the point at which Elvis began to move away from the raw, pure sound of the early Sun Records and into a more commercial, mainstream sound, a sound that RCA had envisioned for him.

On March 23, 1956, RCA released Elvis Presley, Elvis' first album. The majority of the tracks were country songs, but nevertheless, the album rose to the top of the pop chart and stayed there for ten weeks.

On April 1, 1956, Elvis did a screen test for Paramount Pictures, and his first motion picture, Love Me Tender was released on November 21, 1956.

On April 23, 1956, Elvis was scheduled to perform on the Las Vegas strip at the New Frontier Hotel and Casino, billed as "The Atomic Powered Singer." He was very badly received by the mostly conservative, middle-aged men and women, and Colonel Parker cut the engagement from four weeks down to two. D.J. Fontana remarked, "I don't think the people there were ready for Elvis. We tried everything we knew. Usually Elvis could get them on his side. It didn't work that time." However, while in Vegas, Elvis went to see Freddie Bell and the Bellboys. He loved their version of "Hound Dog," and by May 16th, he'd added the song to his own act.

Elvis made his second appearance on The Milton Berle Show on June 5, 1956. He performed both an up tempo version of "Hound Dog" as well as a slower one, and his "gyrations" during the performance created a furor, with the press calling them "vulgar" and "obscene." Later, Elvis, himself, was called upon to explain things. He said, "Rock and roll music, if you like it, and you feel it, you can't help but move to it. That's what happens to me. I have to move around. I can't stand still. I've tried it, and I can't do it." The press immediately dubbed him "Elvis the Pelvis," a nickname Elvis hated, calling it "one of the most childish expressions I ever heard."

On July 1, Steve Allen, who was not a fan of rock 'n' roll, booked Elvis on his show. Wanting to work him into the comedic fabric of the show, Allen had Elvis dress in a white bow tie and black tales and sing "Hound Dog" to a Basset Hound in a top hat. It was a performance that Elvis would often cite as the most ridiculous performance of his entire career. And a few days later, during a triumphant outdoor concert in Memphis, Elvis told his fans, "You know, those people in New York are not gonna change me none. I'm gonna show you what the real Elvis is like tonight." And he did. And they loved him.

People might not have liked Elvis' appearance on The Steve Allen Show, but people certainly watched it, and for the first time, it garnered more viewers than The Ed Sullivan Show. Sullivan was a shrewd businessman, and he immediately booked Elvis for three appearances for an unprecedented $50,000. If Sullivan had any misgivings about Elvis, they were apparently laid to rest with his performances on the show. At the end of the third show, Sullivan remarked quite sincerely that Elvis was "a real decent, fine boy," and that they had never had "a pleasanter experience" on the show.

On December 29, 1956, Billboard revealed that Elvis Presley had placed more songs in the Top 100 than any other artist since the charts began. At the same time, the Wall Street Journal reported that "Elvis merchandise" had grossed more than $22 million in sales.

Controversy

When the early Sun records were released, many listeners were convinced Elvis was a black man. Because of this, DJs ignored his Sun singles. However, black DJs, who knew Elvis was white, also wanted nothing to do with his recordings. Jackie Wilson, however, defended Elvis by saying, "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."

By the spring of 1956, Elvis was becoming a household name, and teenagers all over the country flocked to his concerts. With the first note Elvis uttered, girls swooned, and teenage boys became jealous. Other performers, knowing Elvis' unmatched onstage hustle would eclipse them, became resentful or resigned. Elvis soon found himself enjoying top billing. At the two concerts he performed at the 1956 Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show, one hundred National Guardsmen had to be on hand for crowd control.

Parents, priests, and others still were very critical of Elvis' seemingly sexual gyrations. Even Frank Sinatra got into the fray when he stated, "His kind of music is deplorable, a rancid smelling aphrodisiac. It fosters almost totally negative and destructive reactions in young people." Elvis responded with characteristic politeness, "I admire the man. He has a right to say what he wants to say. He is a great success and a fine actor, but I think he shouldn't have said it…:. This…is a trend, just the same as he faced when he started years ago." Elvis also defended his stage act, saying there was nothing vulgar about it. "Some people tap their feet, some people snap their fingers, and some people sway back and forth. I just sorta do 'em all together, I guess."

In 1957, with increasing concerns for privacy and security, Elvis bought his Graceland mansion and had it renovated. He loved it, and it remained his primary residence until his untimely death in 1977.

Military Service and Mother's Death

On December 20, 1957, Elvis Presley received his draft notice. Because Hal Wallis and Paramount Pictures had already spent $350,000 on the film King Creole, they did not want to suspend or cancel the project, and the Memphis Draft Board granted Elvis a deferment. However, on March 24, 1958, Elvis Presley was inducted into the United States Army as Private #53310761 at Fort Chaffee, near Fort Smith, Arkansas. Elvis completed his basic training at Fort Hood, Texas on September 17, 1958, and was then posted to Friedberg, Germany, with the 3rd Armored Division, where his service took place from October 1, 1958 to March 2, 1960.

While in the Army, Elvis took great pains to be seen as an able, ordinary soldier despite his fame. However, a few things about his service were extraordinary. He bought an extra set of fatigues for everyone in his outfit. He purchased all of the TV sets for personnel on the base at the time. And, he donated his Army pay to charity. In addition, he chose not to join "Special Services," something that would have allowed him to avoid certain duties and maintain his public image.

As Elvis' fame grew, and it continued to grow even while he was in the Army, Gladys Presley continued to drink and to gain weight. She was a mother who desperately wanted her son to succeed and be happy, but she was frightened of the hysteria he induced. In early August 1958, Gladys was diagnosed with hepatitis, and she became very ill. Elvis was granted emergency leave to visit her and arrived in Memphis on August 12th. On August 14th, Gladys died of heart failure at the age of forty-six. Elvis was heartbroken, and for some time, inconsolable.

A few months later, back in Germany, a sergeant introduced Elvis to amphetamines. Somehow, Elvis was blind to the dangers of the drugs, only seeing the benefits of increased energy and alertness. It was in the Army that he also began to study karate, a martial art he took quite seriously.

On March 5, 1960, Elvis was honorably discharged from the US Army, with the rank of sergeant and returned to the US. The train carrying him from New Jersey back home to Memphis was mobbed all along the way, and Elvis was called upon to appear at impromptu "whistle stops" to placate his adoring fans.

Post-Army Recordings

Elvis' first post-Army recording session took place on March 20, 1960 and was attended by all the businessmen with whom he was involved. There was much concern about him being able to recapture his previous wild success. This concern, however, was unfounded since during this time, Elvis recorded some of his best selling songs including "It's Now or Never" and "Are You Lonesome Tonight." None of the tracks, however, could be called rock 'n' roll. Elvis had found a new musical direction.

Most of the first post-Army tracks were included in an album titled Elvis is Back! The album was described as "a triumph on every level." It included "Reconsider Baby," a song described as "a refutation of those who do not recognize what a phenomenal artist Presley was."

Acting Career

After signing a seven-year contract with Paramount, Elvis made his big-screen debut with the musical western, Love Me Tender. It was a critical flop, but it did well at the box office simply because it starred Elvis Presley. The majority of Elvis' films were musical comedies designed to "sell records and produce high revenues," and that's exactly what they did. Elvis, himself, choreographed the dance sequence to the song "Jailhouse Rock," and it's considered by many to be his greatest performance on film.

While still in the Army, Elvis had expressed the desire that more than anything, he wanted to become a serious dramatic actor. Colonel Parker, however, had negotiated Elvis' seven-year contract with Hal Wallis to yield long-term earnings, not enhance Elvis' acting abilities. And, though many directors, including Michael Curtiz, praised Elvis as being polite and hardworking and possessing an exceptional memory, most said "the truth was, he was definitely not the most talented actor in Hollywood." The New York Times critic, Bosley Crowther, however, said, "This boy can act" when writing of Elvis' portrayal in King Creole. Joe Pasternak believed "Elvis should be given more meaty parts. He would be a good actor. He should do more important pictures."

Elvis' movies are generally considered critical flops. One critic called them "a pantheon of bad taste," while another said, "No major star suffered through more bad movies than Elvis Presley." Despite their lack of critical appeal, they were extremely popular and Elvis' fans couldn't seem to get enough of them. Or him. Hal Wallis once remarked, "An Elvis Presley picture is the only sure thing in Hollywood." In the 1960s, Elvis' films and soundtracks grossed more than $280 million. On December 1, 1968, the New York Times wrote, "Three times a year Elvis Presley makes multimillion dollar feature length films with holiday titles…. For each film, Elvis receives a million dollars in wages and fifty percent of the profits…. Every film yields an LP soundtrack which may sell as many as two million copies."

In 1964, Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole starred in Hal Wallis' critically acclaimed Becket. Wallis was open when he admitted to the press that the financing of the project was only possible by making a series of very profitable B-movies starring Elvis Presley. Elvis, understandably, felt betrayed by Wallis and by Tom Parker as well, as he had come to understand that Parker never intended on letting him become a serious actor.

Even though Elvis was one of the highest paid actors of the 1960s, times were changing, and his films were dropping out of favor. Priscilla Presley said, "He blamed his fading popularity on his humdrum movies and loathed their stock plots and short shooting schedule. He could have demanded better, more substantial scripts, but he didn't." There were times, many times, when Elvis was too nice and too polite for his own good, and these times, and Elvis' desire to please others, would eventually be his undoing.

Marriage and Romantic Relationships

The man who was, perhaps, the greatest sex symbol ever was married only once. Elvis met Priscilla Beaulieu in 1959 at a party in Bad Nauheim, Germany, while he was in the army. She was only fourteen, while he was twenty-four. They were attracted to each other and were often together until Elvis left Germany in 1960. They stayed in contact by phone, though they did not see each other again until the summer of 1962 when Priscilla's mother and step-father agreed to let her visit Elvis for two weeks. After a subsequent Christmas visit, they let her move to Memphis with three stipulations: that she would be privately educated and complete her senior year of high school, that she would live with Vernon and his second wife, Dee, in their home on the Graceland estate rather than with Elvis, himself, and finally, that Elvis would promise to marry her. Elvis agreed to all three stipulations and shortly before Christmas 1966, he proposed to Priscilla. The married on May 1, 1967 at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas. In typical Colonel Parker fashion, he arranged a photo session and press conference to be conducted shortly after the ceremony.

Elvis and Priscilla had only one child, Lisa Marie. She was born on February 1, 1968. Were he still alive today, Elvis would be the seventy-four year old grandfather of three granddaughters, including twins, and one grandson.

Elvis and Priscilla separated on February 23, 1972, and Elvis filed for legal separation in August of the same year, then for divorce in January 1973. The two were divorced on October 9, 1973. They remained friends, however, and had no problem agreeing to share custody of Lisa Marie, the daughter they both adored.

Elvis, of course, was known to have had romantic relationships both before and after his marriage to Priscilla. Only Elvis and the women involved, however, know how serious these relationships were, and we don't care to speculate. It is fair to say, though, that Elvis was the ultimate sex symbol. Even director Steve Binder, who was definitely not a fan of Elvis' music said, "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."

Almost all of Elvis' girlfriends, including Priscilla, have described him as "the perfect gentleman," and this seems to fit with what we know to be true of his character.

At the time of his death, Elvis was dating Ginger Alden. She claims he was planning to marry her, but others close to Elvis say that while he liked her quite a lot, he was also interested in other girls and had no plans to marry Alden. The truth will never be known, and really, it matters little. Romantic relationships of superstars such as Elvis are interesting, but they are, like the romantic relationships of everyone else, ultimately, private matters.

The Negative Influence of Colonel Parker

By 1967, Tom Parker had negotiated a contract with Elvis that gave him fifty percent of the star's earnings. Many feel Elvis would have had a far different career—and perhaps a longer life—had he not been under the influence of Colonel Tom Parker. Parker's excessive gambling and his need to sign Elvis to commercially lucrative contracts certainly adversely affected the course of Elvis' career. Parker, who was a Dutch immigrant, was also concerned about his own US citizenship, and probably for this reason he never exploited Elvis any where but in the US. Some close to Elvis have even said that the singer's original band was fired in order to isolate the star as Parker wanted no one close to Elvis but himself.

Although Parker had signed Elvis to RCA, he also cut a deal with Hill and Range Publishing Company to create a separate entity called "Elvis Presley Music Incorporated." This entity would handle all of Elvis' songs and their accrued royalties. Parker later manipulated this set up to make songwriters relinquish some of their royalties, with the ultimate result that most of the better songwriters would not write for Elvis, even if they did like him personally, and most of them did. This caused a marked decline in the quality of Elvis' music over the years, and Elvis, himself, is said to have hated some of his later songs. His friend, Jerry Schilling said that one way to annoy The King was to play "All Shook Up" on a jukebox at one of Elvis' private parties. "Get that crap off!" according to Schilling, would be Elvis' typical reply.

According to Elvis' good friend and "Memphis Mafia" member, George Klein, over the years, Elvis was offered lead roles in films such as Midnight Cowboy, West Side Story, and A Streetcar Named Desire. Reportedly, Robert Mitchum personally offered him the lead in Thunder Road, and Barbra Streisand asked him to star with her in A Star is Born, a role that eventually went to Kris Kristofferson. These are exactly the kind of serious roles Elvis wanted and dreamed of playing. In each case, however, his dreams were thwarted by Tom Parker's excessive demands or his flat refusal.

Marty Lacker said Tom Parker was a "hustler and scam artist," who consistently abused Elvis' trust, though Lacker has acknowledged that Parker was a master promoter. Priscilla Presley noted that "Elvis detested the business side of his career. He would sign a contract without even reading it."

Vernon Presley, in turn, did not trust Lacker and the other members of the "Memphis Mafia," who were Elvis' small circle of trusted friends. He thought they were exerting a very bad influence over his son. Vernon said, "It was no wonder," that as Elvis "slid into addiction and torpor, no one raised the alarm: to them, Elvis was the bank, and it had to remain open." Musician Tony Brown seemed to agree with Vernon. Brown noticed Elvis' declining health in the mid-1970s, and realized the need to turn the singer around but said, "But we all knew it was hopeless because Elvis was surrounded by that little circle of people…all those so-called friends and…bodyguards."

Larry Geller, who became Elvis' private hairdresser in 1964, was, like Elvis, interested in spiritual matters. He contends that Elvis revealed all his secret thoughts and anxieties to him, and that Elvis was obsessed with the question of why he became who he was. According to Geller, Elvis would say, "…there's got to be a reason…why I was chosen to be Elvis Presley." He told Geller that he was upset by his mother's death and by the hollowness and superficiality of Hollywood life. Geller supplied Elvis with many books on spiritual subjects and mysticism, which Elvis read voraciously, telling Geller, "I swear to God, no one knows how lonely I get and how empty I really feel." For most of his life, Elvis would take trunkloads of books on spiritual subjects with him on tour. Some say that he was never without a copy of Khalil Gibran's The Prophet.

Disillusionment and a Return to Live Performances

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Elvis was profoundly disappointed with the turn his career had taken. He hated the movies he'd made, hated some of the songs he'd sung, and he was anxious to return to live performances. In 1969, following the success of Elvis, offers came in from around the world. The London Palladium offered Colonel Parker $28,000 for a one week engagement. Colonel Parker responded, "That's fine for me, now how much can you get for Elvis?" In May 1968, the new International Hotel in Las Vegas announced that it had booked Elvis. He was scheduled to perform from July 31, 1968, right after Barbra Streisand opened the new venue.

Elvis delivered fifty-seven shows over a four-week period at the hotel, which, at the time, had the largest showroom in the city. For the booking, Elvis had assembled some of the finest musicians and some of the very best soul and gospel back-up singers available. Still, Elvis was nervous. His only other Las Vegas engagement, in 1956, had been a disaster.

To combat the negativity of 1956, Tom Parker promoted Elvis heavily, renting billboards and taking out full-page ads in local and trade papers. The lobby of the International displayed Elvis souvenirs, records, tee shirts, straw boaters, and stuffed animals. Tom Parker fully intended to make Elvis' Las Vegas return the entertainment event of the year, and some say he succeeded.

Elvis took the stage with no introduction, and the audience, which included Pat Boone, Fats Domino, Wayne Newton, Dick Clark, Ann-Margaret, George Hamilton, Angie Dickinson, and Henry Mancini, gave him a standing ovation before he sang even one note. His performance was extremely well received, and he gave an encore of "Can't Help Falling in Love," after which he received his third standing ovation. Backstage, many well wishers, including Cary Grant, congratulated Elvis on his triumphant return which, in the showroom alone, had generated more than $1,500,000. All the magazines and newspapers gave him glowing reviews.

The next day, Tom Parker negotiated a five-year contract with the hotel for Elvis to play each February and August, at a salary of $1,000,000 per year.

In August 1970, when Presley returned to the International Hotel, he wore a jumpsuit — something that would become a trademark of his live performances until his death. After closing his Las Vegas engagement on September 7th, Elvis left on his first concert tour since 1958. It was exhausting for him, but he would tour extensively in the US up until his death. Many of the 1,145 concerts set attendance records. The King was still on top.

On January 16, 1971, Elvis was named "One of the Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Nation" by the US Junior Chamber of Commerce. That summer, the city of Memphis named part of Highway 51 South "Elvis Presley Boulevard."

In April 1972, MGM filmed Elvis on Tour, which won a 1972 Golden Globe for "Best Documentary." A fourteen-day tour then began with an unprecedented four consecutive sold out shows at Madison Square Garden in New York City. RCA taped the shows for a live album. After the tour, Elvis released the 1972 single, "Burning Love," the song that would become his last top ten hit on the US charts.

In January 1973, Elvis performed two charity concerts in Hawaii for the Kui Lee Cancer Foundation. The first, which was held on January 12th, was primarily a practice run for the main show, which was broadcast live on January 14th. Elvis' Aloha from Hawaii concert was the world's first live concert satellite broadcast, reaching at least a billion viewers live and a further 500 million on delay. The show's album went to number one and spent a year on the charts. It was Elvis' last US number one album during his lifetime.

Declining Health

After his divorce from Priscilla in 1973, Elvis' health began to decline. His diet had never been good, and now, in the mid-1970s, he was developing weight problems. He also had problems with prescription drugs, drugs that many say were forced on him by those dependent on him for their own income. They wanted to make sure he was wide awake, then sound asleep, then wide awake again. Elvis, who'd always been a trusting person, and who genuinely cared about the welfare of others, didn't question the "necessity" for these prescription drugs, though he never took a drug that was not prescribed by a doctor.

Despite his health problems, Elvis' "thundering" live version of "How Great Thou Art" won him a Grammy in 1974, bringing to three the number of Grammys he won for his gospel music.

In April 1974, Elvis was offered $1,000,000 to tour in Australia, but Tom Parker turned the offer down. Parker cited Elvis' declining health, as well as poor security in other countries, as the reason for not accepting overseas work, though those close to Elvis began once again to speculate on the reasons why Parker was reluctant to apply for a US passport so he could travel abroad.

In the meantime, Elvis continued to play to sell-out crowds in the US. Even though he was self-conscious about his excess weight, and he feared disappointing his fans, he seemed to have no motivation to lose the extra pounds. Instead, he became even heavier, and when he next appeared in Las Vegas, in addition to the jumpsuit, he wore an elaborately jeweled belt and cape.

On July 13, 1976, Vernon Presley fired the "Memphis Mafia" bodyguards Red West, Sonny West, and David Hebler. All three were surprised at this move, especially the Wests, who had been close to Elvis since the very beginning of his career. Vernon cited the need to "cut back on expenses" when dismissing the three, but David Stanley has suggested they were fired because they were "too outspoken" about Elvis' prescription drug dependency. A trusted associate of Elvis has also said that the three were fired because they were "too rough with the fans…resulting in a lot of unnecessary lawsuits" and legal fees.

Whatever the reason, Vernon Presley's dismissal of the three bodyguards would have disastrous repercussions. The Wests and Hebler would later write a devastating book about Elvis, emphasizing his drug dependency. Entitled Elvis: What Happened?, the book was published on August 1, 1977.

While there can be no doubt that Elvis' health declined dramatically during the 1970s, reports about his prescription drug use are at odds with one another though there can be no doubt that Elvis was relying far too heavily on medication. Priscilla Presley said that she "saw problems in Elvis' life that were magnified through prescription drugs." Elvis' private physician, Dr. Nichopoulos, said that Elvis "thought that as far as medications and drugs went, there was something for everything."

Though Elvis was totally devastated by the book, Elvis: What Happened?, and though its authors were certainly out for some revenge at being dismissed, close friends said the book was also a plea for Elvis to recognize the extent of his problems and regain control over his life. But Elvis, who had no inclination to control others, found it difficult to gain control of himself as well, especially after so many years of manipulation by Tom Parker.

Elvis Presley gave his final performance in Indianapolis, Indiana at the Market Square Arena on June 26, 1977. According to many in his entourage, it was the "best show he had given in a long time," and contained "some strong singing." To his fans, and even to those who weren't especially fond of his music, Elvis was clearly still "The King."

Another tour was scheduled to begin on August 17, 1977. On the night of August 15-16th, Elvis, after an evening visit to his dentist, played handball at Graceland most of the night, then told his girlfriend, Ginger Alden that he was going to read for a while before getting some sleep.

When she awoke on August 16th, Ginger, who had her own room, found Elvis on his bathroom floor. Paramedics were summoned, but Elvis was pronounced dead at 3:30 that afternoon at Baptist Memorial Hospital.

Immediately after his death was announced, hundreds of thousands of fans, the press, and celebrities lined the streets, most of them hoping to see the open casket in Graceland, and all of them wanting to pay their last respects to The King.

On Thursday, August 18th, following a funeral service at Graceland, Elvis was buried at Forest Hill Cemetery in Memphis, next to his mother, Gladys. After an unsuccessful attempt to steal his body on August 28th, his remains, as well as Gladys' were eventually re-interred at Graceland in the Meditation Garden. It's been said that Elvis was in the process of changing his middle name legally from "Aron" to "Aaron," wanting to comply with the biblical and more common spelling. Curiously, although Gladys and Vernon had named Elvis "Aron," Elvis would later find that some official records listed the spelling of his middle name as "Aaron." In deference to Elvis' wishes, Vernon Presley had his marker inscribed with the name "Elvis Aaron Presley."

In 1994, the autopsy into Elvis' death was re-opened. Coroner Dr. Joseph Davis said, "There is nothing in any of the data that supports a death from drugs. In fact, everything points to a sudden, violent heart attack." There is little doubt, however, that polypharmacy played a major role in Elvis' declining health and premature death. And, sadly, there is also little doubt that it was Elvis' desire to protect and please others that led to his use of multiple prescription drugs.

Throughout his life, Elvis was known for his kindness and generosity. However, unknown to many, Elvis would pay the bills of others, buy them houses or cars, or give them money to start a business or complete their education. Elvis didn't want anything in return for these acts of kindness. Often he gave the money anonymously and to total strangers. Elvis simply couldn't stand to see another human being suffer.

Elvis Presley was such a lasting phenomenon, such a gracious and approachable human being, that his mortality seems to have been sadly forgotten by some. It was, perhaps, President Jimmy Carter, who, on August 18, 1977, summed up the impact of Elvis Presley best of all: "Elvis Presley's death deprives our country of a part of itself. He was unique and irreplaceable. More than twenty years ago, he burst upon the scene with an impact that was unprecedented and will probably never be equaled. 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."

Today, thirty-two years after his untimely death, Elvis Presley is as loved as he was at the height of his popularity. Graceland, his beloved mansion in Memphis, Tennessee receives more than 600,000 visitors each year, making it the second most visited house in the US, after the White House. There are, at the present time, more than 650 active Elvis Presley fan clubs around the world.

It is clear that Elvis Presley is, and always will be, "The King of Rock 'n' Roll," perhaps the "King of Music," itself.