Elvis Presley Biography

The King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Aron Presley was born on 8 January 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi to Vernon Presley (who shared Irish roots) and Gladys Presley. His twin brother Jesse, died at the time of birth and so, his parents brought up Elvis with an intensive care. As he was born in an average family, Elvis spent his childhood in poverty.

His talent in singing did not come up as a surprise, he had good voice right from his childhood, he even performed at the Church, local Assemblies, Camp Meetings and at the revivals. When Elvis was ten years old, he participated in a Talent Contest at Mississippi-Alabama fair and Dairy Show and won a prize for the song he sang. Pleased and floating in pride after seeing their child's performance at the contest, his parents gifted him an acoustic guitar on his eleventh birthday.

When Elvis was 13 years old, the Presley family moved to Memphis, Tennessee in 1948. Elvis completed his graduation from Memphis. To support himself and his father, Elvis took on a job as a truck driver for Crown Electric Company. He was looking ahead to get a job of electric repairman and for that he even had joined evening classes. But it was something else that destiny had in store for Elvis. A disc containing two ballads that Elvis had got recorded (at Sun studio for four dollars) to present his mother as a Birthday gift, was first heard by Sun Studio's president Sam Phillips. That time, Sam was in search of a white man who could match the singing style of a Negro singer (PLEASE DO NOT BRING IN ANY RACISM ISSUE HERE), and after listening to Elvis, he was sure that he had found the man he wanted. Sam made Elvis an offer and that was the birth of a new singing sensation, a new superstar was born. In 1954 his first record was released from Sun Studio. Elvis further toured south as 'The Hillbilly Cat' and produced four more records, which were also very successful, and for all this he took help from Andreas Van Kuijk, an illegal Dutch immigrant (and who also called himself Colonel Thomas A. Parker).

Further in 1955, Presley signed a $35,000 recording contract with RCA Victor (through Thomas Parker), who promised to help in projecting Elvis Presley (a Local Star) as a National Level Star. As promised, Elvis was shown in newspapers, Television appearances, photographs where he was claimed to be the next superstar of the music world. At first, all the appearances and photographs of Elvis were intentionally kept waist up by the RCA Victor, which was to make it sure that his impression on his fans should not be affected by uncommon hip-shaking style of Elvis Presley.

In year 1956, his first performance with 'Heartbreak Hotel' on The Milton Berle Show successfully put Elvis on the top list of the superstars and the nationwide 'Elvis Craze' was started. Elvis became the Prince who ruled hearts of his millions of friends. For next seven years from 1956 to 1963, Elvis was the only superstar who ruled the box office and pop-music charts. Elvis created a history, many of his records where on the top position for about a whole year. All of his albums were sold millions of records and were huge hits. Elvis paved the base of his new musical genre 'Rock-n-Roll', which helped him write his name in the history of music with golden ink. Every youth in the country was crazy after the Rock-n-Roll of Elvis Presley. In 1956, Elvis was offered a role in a movie 'Love Me Tender' which was his debut movie.

In the year 1958, Elvis responded to the call from US Army and served as a jeep and truck driver in the 3rd Armored Division of US Army in Germany. He served US Army for about two years. During the time of his service to US Army, Elvis met fourteen years old Priscilla Beaulieu, whom he married later in 1967.

Elvis was popular even when he was not in action for about two years; people were still crazy for him and were waiting for his new records and movies (as he had made his debut in 1956). When Elvis returned back from the service of US Army in 1960, he quit performing in concerts and concentrated in making movies. As his first movie 'Love Me Tender' was a big hit, he had no problem in marking his come back in movies.

After giving several very successful and hit movies, Elvis returned in the world of music after the birth of his daughter, Lisa Marie in 1968. Elvis once again started working with his old band and gave some more smashing hits to the world. In year 1972, he released his last top-ten single 'Burning Love'.

Further, after a couple of years, Elvis and Priscilla got divorced. Elvis had ongoing plan of building a Memphis estate for his mother at Graceland for which he made many trips to Graceland. His lifestyle was completely changed from what it was previously, he became a drug addict and he also became a paranoid and had developed a fear that he would be robbed, for which he had started practicing Karate.

On August 16 1977, the 'King of Rock-n-Roll' died at the age of 42 years when he was in toilet in Graceland. Later in the autopsy, it was found that his death was occurred due to the heart failure as a result of abuse of tens of drugs ('recreational pharmaceuticals').

It is next to impossible to measure the level of popularity he had reached in his career. Elvis Presley had more than 100 records on the billboard charts and out of which, about 18 records were on number one position on the charts. During his lifetime, he worked in about 31 movies; all of them were huge success.