Elvis+Presley

media type="youtube" key="tpzV_0l5ILI" height="344" width="425" ** Elvis Aaron Presley ** Elvis Presley was born on January 6, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi, to Vernon and Gladys Presley. He was one of a set of identical twins, but his brother was a still-born (which means born dead). So Elvis grew up as an only child. His family lived in the poorest part of town, by the railroad tracks in a “shotgun shack”. It is called that because someone could shoot bullets through the front door and they would go right through the back without touching anything. So before Elvis Presley had become an international rock star, his family had to struggle to get the easiest things in life. When he was nine he entered a county fair singing contest and won first place. Since then he was in love with singing. When he was 10 he desperately wanted a bicycle for his birthday. But considering his family’s extremely tight budget they bought him a cheep guitar because the bicycle was too expensive. With the guitar it was luckily love at first sight for Elvis. When Elvis was a teenager, his family moved from the small town of Tupelo, Mississippi to, the big fields and busy towns of Memphis, Tennessee. They made this daring move to find more money and better jobs. Sadly though, it wasn’t the best choice that the Presley family had made, because they got much worse and the only job that Vernon could find was a truck driver. That isn’t the best job either so he didn’t make much money but he made enough. Even though a truck driver is the last job you would want, that is the job Elvis wanted to have. When Vernon got sick, Elvis was forced to work at Loew Palace, a movie theater but he failed at that job because he watched the movies more than he showed people their seats as the usher. When he was 18 he got a job as a truck driver for Crown Electric Company at $45 a week. Being that his mother and father were too ill to work, he scraped together enough money to record two songs, as a present for his mom, they were very close and Elvis loved his mother dearly. Sam Phillips the boss of Sun Records liked his voice and had 19 year old truck driver Elvis Presley sign a contract. Elvis wanted to sing since he was nine, and he loved playing the guitar since the age of ten. Now Elvis could sing and play the guitar and people madly loved him. His first hit was “That’s All Right” at Sun Studios. This was played on WHBQ by Dewey Phillips, but before the hit, the station was called Red, Hot, and Blue. After “That’s All Right”, the next hits were “Heartbreak Hotel”. Then at the end of 1956 his hits were “I Want You”, “I Need Love”, “I Love You”, “Don’t Be Cruel”, “Hound Dog”, and “Love Me Tender”. Elvis had most of his hits in 1956, because by then he already had scored 7 songs. His first one though (“That’s All Right”) was big in March. Elvis had come to fit the well-earned nickname “The King”, but people called his music “black sound inside a white boy”. The fans recognized his voice because it was baritone. They also recognized him from the genre of his music, which was rockabilly, rock and roll, and pop. Another reason how they recognized him is from the instruments that he used, which were guitar, vocals, and piano. The reason that they loved him so much was because of the way he swung his hips and curled his lips. It captured the hearts of teenage girls but outraged their parents. People also loved him because of his hair. He grew it long because that is the way truck drivers wear it. Elvis Presley was a very popular, famous person so they wanted him to be as advertised as possible. They put him in tons and tons of movies. To be exact, 33, and he loved it. His first one, which he was very excited about, was “Love Me Tender”. January 20, 1958 Elvis went to war. He lost all of his hair to the Army barber. He was transferred to West Germany and would spend the rest of the 50’s doing work for Uncle Sam. When he came back though he started to do live concerts again, but he was older and bigger. His fans loved him anyway though. Elvis Presley had a very long career. Selling over 500,000,000 records takes a long time. With Elvis Presley it was from 1955 to 1977 (when he died). Elvis Presley was a very handsome man, so a lot of woman would have loved to marry him. The one that he chose out of all of them was a beautiful woman named Priscilla Ann Wagner. Her birthday was May 24, 1945, and after she married she legally changed her name to Priscilla Beaulieu Presley. She is an actress and a business woman. In fact, she is founder of Elvis Presley Enterprises. That is where she served as chairman of the board. Sadly though, they got divorced. Before Elvis and Priscilla were divorced, they had one child with the name of Lisa Marie Presley. She was born February 1, 1968. She is an American singer and songwriter. She, like her father, has a handful of nicknames, one of them is “princess of rock and roll”, and Lisa is an only child. Her label is Capitol Records. Her voice type is Deep Contralto. Sadly, every person needs to say goodbye eventually, and when Elvis did that he was 42 years of age. At age 42 the overworked and overweight drug abuser was found dead in the bathroom of his Memphis mansion, Graceland (which is now a tourist attraction). It was August 16, 1977 when everyone’s heads were looking down. That was the day the world seemed to have come to an end.
 * Catherine **

Elvis Aaron Presley has made an enormous mark on the world that hopefully will never go away. He has shown us many things and taught us countless lessons. He has rightfully earned his title as a rock legend.

Quote from Elvis Presley “Thank you, thank you, thank you very much!”

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