1. Elvis Aaron Presley was an American singer and actor.
119 Facts About Elvis Presley
1. 2.
Elvis Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi; his family relocated to Memphis, Tennessee, when he was 13.
3.
Elvis Presley began his music career in 1954 at Sun Records with producer Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African-American music to a wider audience.
4.
Elvis Presley, on guitar and accompanied by lead guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, was a pioneer of rockabilly, an uptempo, backbeat-driven fusion of country music and rhythm and blues.
5.
In November 1956, Elvis Presley made his film debut in Love Me Tender.
6.
Elvis Presley held few concerts, and guided by Parker, devoted much of the 1960s to making Hollywood films and soundtrack albums, most of them critically derided.
7.
In 1968, he returned to the stage in the acclaimed NBC television comeback special Elvis Presley, which led to an extended Las Vegas concert residency and several highly profitable tours.
8.
In 1973, Elvis Presley gave the first concert by a solo artist to be broadcast around the world, Aloha from Hawaii.
9.
Years of prescription drug abuse and unhealthy eating severely compromised his health, and Elvis Presley died in August 1977 at his Graceland estate at the age of 42.
10.
Elvis Presley is one of the best-selling music artists in history, having sold a estimated 500 million records worldwide.
11.
Elvis Presley was commercially successful in many genres, including pop, country, rock and roll, rockabilly, rhythm and blues, adult contemporary, and gospel.
12.
Elvis Presley won three Grammy Awards, received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at age 36, and has been inducted into multiple music halls of fame.
13.
Elvis Presley holds several records, including the most RIAA-certified gold and platinum albums, the most albums charted on the Billboard 200, the most number-one albums by a solo artist on the UK Albums Chart, and the most number-one singles by any act on the UK Singles Chart.
14.
In 2018, Elvis Presley was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
15.
Elvis Aaron Presley was born on January 8,1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi, to Gladys Love and Vernon Presley.
16.
In September 1941, Elvis Presley entered first grade at East Tupelo Consolidated, where his teachers regarded him as "average".
17.
In September 1946, Elvis Presley entered a new school, Milam, for sixth grade.
18.
Elvis Presley was often teased as a "trashy" kid who played hillbilly music.
19.
Elvis Presley was described as "crazy about music" by Slim's younger brother, one of Presley's classmates.
20.
Elvis Presley was overcome by stage fright the first time but performed the following week.
21.
Elvis Presley was usually too shy to perform openly and was occasionally bullied by classmates for being a "mama's boy".
22.
In 1950, Elvis Presley began practicing guitar under the tutelage of Lee Denson, a neighbor.
23.
Elvis Presley competed in Humes' Annual "Minstrel" Show in 1953, singing and playing "Till I Waltz Again with You", a recent hit for Teresa Brewer.
24.
Elvis Presley recalled that the performance did much for his reputation:.
25.
Elvis Presley knew all of Hank Snow's songs, and he loved records by other country singers such as Roy Acuff, Ernest Tubb, Ted Daffan, Jimmie Rodgers, Jimmie Davis, and Bob Wills.
26.
Elvis Presley was a regular audience member at the monthly, all-night singings downtown, where many of the white gospel groups that performed reflected the influence of African American spirituals.
27.
Elvis Presley listened to regional radio stations, such as WDIA, that played what were then called "race records": spirituals, blues, and the modern, backbeat-heavy rhythm and blues.
28.
Elvis Presley aimed to pay for studio time to record a two-sided acetate disc: "My Happiness" and "That's When Your Heartaches Begin".
29.
Elvis Presley later claimed that he intended the record as a birthday gift for his mother, or that he was merely interested in what he "sounded like".
30.
Biographer Peter Guralnick argued that Elvis Presley chose Sun in the hope of being discovered.
31.
When Elvis Presley played, teenagers rushed from the pool to fill the club, then left again as the house western swing band resumed.
32.
Elvis Presley made his first television appearance on the KSLA-TV broadcast of Louisiana Hayride.
33.
Elvis Presley renewed Neal's management contract in August 1955, simultaneously appointing Parker as his special adviser.
34.
Haley observed that Elvis Presley had a natural feel for rhythm, and advised him to sing fewer ballads.
35.
Songwriters were obliged to forgo one-third of their customary royalties in exchange for having Elvis Presley perform their compositions.
36.
On January 10,1956, Elvis Presley made his first recordings for RCA Victor in Nashville.
37.
Amid his Vegas tenure, Elvis Presley, who had acting ambitions, signed a seven-year contract with Paramount Pictures.
38.
Elvis Presley had attended several shows by Freddie Bell and the Bellboys in Vegas and was struck by their cover of "Hound Dog", a hit in 1953 for blues singer Big Mama Thornton by songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.
39.
Elvis Presley is a definite danger to the security of the United States.
40.
Elvis Presley sang "Hound Dog" for less than a minute to a basset hound wearing a top hat and bowtie.
41.
I'm gonna show you what the real Elvis Presley is like tonight.
42.
Allen's show with Elvis Presley had, for the first time, beaten The Ed Sullivan Show in the ratings.
43.
The historian Marty Jezer wrote that Elvis Presley began the "biggest pop craze" since Glenn Miller and Frank Sinatra and brought rock and roll to mainstream culture:.
44.
Elvis Presley received top billing on every subsequent film he made.
45.
Two days later, the Memphis draft board announced that Elvis Presley would be classified 1-A and would probably be drafted sometime that year.
46.
Elvis Presley purchased his 18-room mansion, Graceland, on March 19,1957.
47.
The songwriting team effectively produced the Jailhouse sessions and developed a close working relationship with Elvis Presley, who came to regard them as his "good-luck charm".
48.
Elvis Presley undertook three brief tours during the year, continuing to generate a crazed audience response.
49.
Elvis Presley has a right to say what he wants to say.
50.
Elvis Presley is a great success and a fine actor, but I think he shouldn't have said it.
51.
On March 24,1958, Elvis Presley was drafted into the United States Army at Fort Chaffee in Arkansas.
52.
Elvis Presley announced that he was looking forward to his military service, saying that he did not want to be treated any differently from anyone else.
53.
Between March 28 and September 17,1958, Elvis Presley completed basic and advanced training at Fort Hood, Texas, where he was temporarily assigned to Company A, 2d Medium Tank Battalion, 37th Armor.
54.
On October 1,1958, Elvis Presley was assigned to the 1st Medium Tank Battalion, 32d Armor, 3d Armored Division, at Ray Barracks, West Germany, where he served as an armor intelligence specialist.
55.
Elvis Presley donated his Army pay to charity, purchased television sets for the base, and bought an extra set of fatigues for everyone in his outfit.
56.
Elvis Presley returned to the US on March 2,1960, and was honorably discharged three days later.
57.
The train that carried him from New Jersey to Tennessee was mobbed all the way, and Elvis Presley was called upon to appear at scheduled stops to please his fans.
58.
In February 1961, Elvis Presley performed two shows in Memphis, for a benefit for 24 local charities.
59.
Elvis Presley's films were almost universally panned; critic Andrew Caine dismissed them as a "pantheon of bad taste".
60.
Julie Parrish, who appeared in Paradise, Hawaiian Style, says that Elvis Presley disliked many of the songs.
61.
From 1964 to 1968, Elvis Presley had only one top-ten hit: "Crying in the Chapel", a gospel number recorded in 1960.
62.
Shortly before Christmas 1966, more than seven years since they first met, Elvis Presley proposed to Priscilla Beaulieu.
63.
Elvis Presley's only child, Lisa Marie, was born on February 1,1968, during a period when he had grown deeply unhappy with his career.
64.
Elvis Presley's forthcoming soundtrack album, Speedway, would rank at number 82.
65.
The live segments saw Elvis Presley dressed in tight black leather, singing and playing guitar in an uninhibited style reminiscent of his early rock and roll days.
66.
Elvis Presley sang with the kind of power people no longer expect of rock 'n' roll singers.
67.
Elvis Presley moved his body with a lack of pretension and effort that must have made Jim Morrison green with envy.
68.
Elvis Presley assembled new, top-notch accompaniment, led by guitarist James Burton and including two gospel groups, The Imperials and Sweet Inspirations.
69.
Costume designer Bill Belew, responsible for the intense leather styling of the Comeback Special, created a new stage look for Elvis Presley, inspired by his passion for karate.
70.
Nonetheless, Elvis Presley was nervous: his only previous Las Vegas engagement, in 1956, had been dismal.
71.
At a press conference after the show, when a journalist referred to him as "The King", Elvis Presley gestured toward Fats Domino, who was taking in the scene.
72.
Elvis Presley returned to the International early in 1970 for the first of the year's two-month-long engagements, performing two shows a night.
73.
Elvis Presley was performing in a jumpsuit, which would become a trademark of his live act.
74.
Elvis Presley had been the target of many threats since the 1950s, often without his knowledge.
75.
The authority of Elvis 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.
76.
On December 21,1970, Elvis Presley engineered a meeting with US President Richard Nixon at the White House, where he explained how he believed he could reach out to the hippies to help combat the drug culture he and the president abhorred.
77.
Elvis Presley asked Nixon for a Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs badge, to signify official sanction of his efforts.
78.
Nixon, who apparently found the encounter awkward, expressed a belief that Elvis Presley could send a positive message to young people and that it was, therefore, important that he "retain his credibility".
79.
Elvis Presley told Nixon that the Beatles, whose songs he regularly performed in concert during the era, exemplified what he saw as a trend of anti-Americanism.
80.
Elvis Presley often raised the possibility of Joyce moving into Graceland.
81.
Priscilla related that when she told him, Elvis Presley "forcefully made love to" her, declaring, "This is how a real man makes love to his woman".
82.
Elvis Presley later stated in an interview that she regretted her choice of words in describing the incident, and said it had been an overstatement.
83.
In January 1973, Elvis Presley performed two benefit concerts for the Kui Lee Cancer Fund in connection with a groundbreaking television special, Aloha from Hawaii, which would be the first concert by a solo artist to be aired globally.
84.
Elvis Presley was in Palm Springs at the time, and some suggest the singer was too cowardly to face the three himself.
85.
Parker delivered RCA another concert record, Elvis Presley Recorded Live on Stage in Memphis.
86.
Elvis Presley returned to the recording studio in March 1975, but Parker's attempts to arrange another session toward the end of the year were unsuccessful.
87.
Elvis Presley was devastated by the book and tried unsuccessfully to halt its release by offering money to the publishers.
88.
President Jimmy Carter issued a statement that credited Elvis Presley with having "permanently changed the face of American popular culture".
89.
About 80,000 people lined the processional route to Forest Hill Cemetery, where Elvis Presley was buried next to his mother.
90.
Between 1977 and 1981, six of Elvis Presley's posthumously released singles were top-ten country hits.
91.
Elvis Presley has been inducted into five music halls of fame: the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, and the Memphis Music Hall of Fame.
92.
Elvis Presley was placed second in 2006, returned to the top spot the next two years, and ranked fourth in 2009.
93.
Elvis Presley is portrayed by Austin Butler and Parker by Tom Hanks.
94.
Elvis Presley played guitar, bass, and piano; he received his first guitar when he was 11 years old.
95.
Elvis Presley often played an instrument on his recordings and produced his own music.
96.
Elvis Presley played rhythm acoustic guitar on most of his Sun recordings and his 1950s RCA Victor albums.
97.
Elvis Presley is credited with playing piano on later albums such as From Elvis in Memphis and "Moody Blue", and on "Unchained Melody", which was one of the last songs that he recorded.
98.
Elvis Presley played lead guitar on one of his successful singles called "Are You Lonesome Tonight".
99.
At one point during the '68 Comeback Special, Elvis Presley took over on lead electric guitar, the first time he had ever been seen with the instrument in public, playing it on songs such as "Baby What You Want Me to Do" and "One Night".
100.
Elvis Presley was a central figure in the development of rockabilly, according to music historians.
101.
Elvis Presley recorded few new straight rock and roll songs thereafter; as he explained, they had become "hard to find".
102.
Such statements and actions led Elvis Presley to be generally hailed in the black community during his early stardom.
103.
Robinson found no evidence that the remark had ever been made, and elicited testimony from many individuals indicating that Elvis Presley was anything but racist.
104.
Into the twenty-first century, the notion that Elvis Presley had "stolen" black music still found adherents.
105.
Ed Sullivan's declaration that he perceived a soda bottle in Elvis Presley's trousers was echoed by rumors involving a similarly positioned toilet roll tube or lead bar.
106.
Elvis Presley never grew comfortable with the Hollywood scene, and most of these relationships were insubstantial.
107.
Elvis 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.
108.
In particular, his love of fried peanut butter, banana, and bacon sandwiches, now known as "Elvis Presley sandwiches", came to symbolize this characteristic.
109.
Since 1977, a false and discredited conspiracy theory has circulated claiming that Elvis Presley may have faked his own death.
110.
Elvis Presley' breakthroughs are underappreciated because in this rock-and-roll age, his hard-rocking music and sultry style have triumphed so completely.
111.
Elvis Presley was ranked third on Rolling Stone's list of greatest artists.
112.
Elvis Presley is a supreme figure in American life, one whose presence, no matter how banal or predictable, brooks no real comparisons.
113.
Elvis Presley 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.
114.
Elvis Presley is one of the best-selling music artists in history, with estimated sales of over 500 million records worldwide.
115.
Elvis Presley holds the records for most number-one singles on the UK chart with 21 and singles reaching the top ten with 76.
116.
Elvis Presley holds the record for most cumulative weeks at number one on the Billboard 200 for a male solo artists: 67 weeks 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 UK.
117.
Elvis Presley holds the records for most gold albums, and most platinum albums.
118.
Elvis Presley has the 9th-most gold singles, and the 16th-most platinum singles.
119.
In 1966, Elvis Presley expressed the desire to his father that the more traditional biblical rendering, Aaron, be used henceforth, "especially on legal documents".