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From the age of two Elvis was involved in church music—it was very big in poor areas where they needed something to lift their spirits. When he was older he said, “Those preachers cut up all over the place, moving every which way, sometimes jumping on the piano.” So it was from these sermons that Elvis developed his own performing style, very similar to these preachers, and as Elvis grew so did his musical ability.

Elvis Aron Presley was born on the 8th of January, 1935, to Gladys and Vernon Presley, a poverty-stricken couple who lived in a small house in East Tu-pelo, the poorest area in Mississippi. Soon after he was born, it was found out that he had a twin, but unfortunately the twin, named Jesse, was a stillborn.

We all know Elvis as the surly, swinging King of rock, but what was he like before he became a household name? Had he always been a temperamental but talented person? The

Annual Elvis investigates.

Baby ElvisBaby ElvisBaby ElvisBaby Elvis

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At school, Elvis wasn’t very popular—the fact that his Mum walked him to school until he was fifteen didn’t help—until he grew his hair and sideburns long and started wearing pink jackets and other weird clothes. He began to sing at school concerts and gained confidence, performing at hospitals and other town areas.

After leaving a part time job at Loews Stat movie-house, he started working full night-time shifts at Marl Metal Products Company, but found it hard to keep awake at school. In 1953 he finally made the de-cision to leave school for good. He found work at the Precision Tool Company, then started driving trucks for Crown Electric. Like his par-ents, he found himself trying to stave off poverty in any way he could, all the while practising his singing to anybody who would listen.

Elvis’s main influences were country artists like Roy Acuff and Jimmy Rodgers and blues singers such as B.B. Kng and John Lee Hooker. These helped him to create the mixture of soulful black music and sugar-coated white music that he is famous for today.

“Although we didn’t have much money, us Presleys were a happy family.” - Elvis.

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When Sun Records dis-covered Elvis, he was the answer to their prayers. Yet at the time they still didn’t realise that he would go on to be one of history's most famous rock and roll singers. Elvis first went to Sun Records at the age of 18. Back then anyone could record two songs for four dollars, and he wanted to record the popular songs ‘My Hap-piness’ and ‘That’s When Your Heartaches Begin’ to give to his

mother for her birthday. It was while listening to him sing that former ra-dio personality Marion Keisker realised that he was what Sun Records had been looking for; a white boy who could sing coloured-style, who could mix up the white and black musical gen-res. She took another recording of him and gave it to Sun Record’s owner, Sam Phillips, who realised Elvis’s po-tential straight away.

Sun Records helped Elvis find his own unique mu-sical style—a mixture of black and white, blues and country. In particular, guitarist Scotty Moore and Elvis’s manager Bob Neal helped him do this. Sam Phillips and Sun Records continued push-ing along Elvis’s fast de-veloping career, produc-ing minor hits such as ‘That’s All Right’, until a man known as ‘Colonel’ Tom Parker came along.

How Sun Records discovered the ‘The King’How Sun Records discovered the ‘The King’How Sun Records discovered the ‘The King’How Sun Records discovered the ‘The King’

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Tom Parker: The brains behind Elvis’s successful career. Tom Parker: The brains behind Elvis’s successful career. Tom Parker: The brains behind Elvis’s successful career. Tom Parker: The brains behind Elvis’s successful career. He made Elvis into a household name, but at what price?He made Elvis into a household name, but at what price?He made Elvis into a household name, but at what price?He made Elvis into a household name, but at what price?

Elvis first met Parker at the age of twenty, and soon after he and his parents signed a con-tract that entitled Parker to the negotiat-ing rights of Elvis’s other contracts, $2500, and the rights to 100 shows. Would they have done that if they knew he was really An-dreas Cornelis von Kuijk? Parker was born in 1909 in Breda, Holland and through the years had worked at a carni-val and as a dogcatcher, living above the pound

with his wife. He then went on to the music business in the 1930s. All the while he was keeping an eye out for a performer who could be nationally suc-cessful. Then he dis-covered Elvis. Parker broke off all other contracts Elvis was involved in, mak-ing himself Elvis’s man-ager and advisor. Throughout the years until Elvis died in 1977, Parker was involved in and organised every- thing Elvis did, from the

parties he went to, to the places he performed at. Even after Elvis was proclaimed dead, Parker continued to market his brand— selling souvenirs and miscellaneous items that sold by the mil-lions just because they had Elvis’s name on them. As bossy and control-ling as he came off to be, you can’t say that Colonel Tom Parker wasn’t enthusiastic about his work.

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It was in late 1956 that Elvis fans across the world received the disastrous news; their idol had been drafted into the US army. Not only fans, but his

manager, Colonel Tom Parker, were all in despair. Two years

was a very long time to be gone—it could be the remaining length of Elvis’s career—and it wasn’t known if Elvis would

become as famous as he used to be ever again.

Elvis was originally meant to join the army on the 20th of January, 1958, but as he was in the middle of filming the movie ‘King Cre-ole’, he was given a sixty day deferment, causing much controversy.

On the day he did join, Elvis was the only recruit on parade, as the army had anticipated the humongous media interest.

During his service, Elvis tried his best to just be a normal soldier. After many requests he refused to leave his position and sing for the special services as he wanted to be accepted by his fellow sol-diers and didn’t want to be known as ‘soft’ or ‘publicity-hungry’, which was what many of them thought of him at first.

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As Elvis served in Europe with the rest of his Bat-talion, Colonel Tom Parker continued releas-ing songs that Elvis had previously recorded, most of which reached number one on the charts and soon went gold.

When Elvis returned to the USA after he had completed his two years of service, he continued to be the cause of fainting girls and went on with his successful career—so nothing much had changed at all. Except that while in Europe he had met his future wife: Priscilla Beaulieu, an officer’s daughter.

After returning from ser-vice, Elvis starred in the

movie ‘G.I. Blues’. It was about a man in the army, and used by Colonel Tom

Parker to get the most pub-licity out of Elvis’s two year

experience.

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When Elvis, 23, met Priscilla Beaulieu while on his tour of duty in Germany, he probably didn’t realise that nine years later they would become husband

and wife.

On the 1st of May, 1967, Elvis married Priscilla in a surprisingly small cere-mony , with only a few guests. There was much talk about the significant age difference, but it didn’t seem to bother the young couple.

The following year they had their only child, Lisa-Marie. Everything was looking good until Elvis’s constant touring, insisted on by Colonel Tom Parker, started putting a strain on their re-lationship and in October 1973, af-ter only six years of a mostly un-happy marriage, they divorced.

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‘King Creole’

‘Viva Las Vegas’

‘G.I. Blues’

‘Harum Scarum’

‘Girls! Girls! Girls!’

‘Love me Tender’

‘Hound Dog’

‘Heartbreak Hotel’

‘Suspicious Minds’

‘American Trilogy’

Unlike the movie of the same title, ‘Love Me Tender’

is a really enjoyable song. If a bit lovey-dovey for my

taste, it is still really pretty.

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The death of ‘the King’ put the whole of the USA into mourning.

From around 1974, Elvis had been experiencing serious health problems, most of which had to do with his extremely unhealthy diet, binge eating and crash dieting before a concert. This was made worse by the amount of prescription drugs he took. Exces-sive amounts of sleeping pills, stimulants to cope with stress and appetite suppressants to try and avert is unhealthy diet all con-tributed to his death. Elvis had to cancel many concerts and TV appearances while he was on one of his many trips to hospital, but the public did not know anything about it.

It is said that on the night he died, Elvis played on his famous gold-plated piano for a couple of hours, picked up a religious book, then was later found slumped across his bathroom floor. At 3:30pm the following day , 16th August 1977, he was pro-nounced dead.

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Amy Winehouse Tells: Elvis stayed at my house over the weekend!

Last week Amy Wine-house made a public claim that Elvis had stayed at her house last Saturday and Sunday. “He really needed someplace to stay, so I let him use the spare room.” she says. But when asked of what he looked like,

where he came from, or where he is now, Amy did not know anything. May her drug fuelled lifestyle have made her hallucinate this event? “Definitely”, says Psy-chiatrist Mary Donovon. “There is no other ex-planation for it.”

Or is there? How many witnesses were there to the death of Elvis? Was it all just an elabo-rate hoax from a man wanting privacy? We will probably never find out. As for Amy Wine-house, she has since been checked into the London Mental Institu-tion.

On his death certificate, it was written that Elvis died of heart failure. The death of America’s iconic rock singer and entertainer had a huge impact on the world and sent upset fans into a frenzy. Mil-lions of dollars of records and Elvis souvenirs created by Colonel Tom Parker, in a attempt to make more money, were sold. Rumours went around; some claiming Elvis was murdered, others that he committed suicide. However, the most substantial one was that Elvis, the subject of the tears of girls across the world, was not in fact dead. It seems that we’ll never really know the truth.

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Graceland

Elvis Aron Presley

January 8, 1935—August 16, 1977