7 January 2010

If rock & roll has an address, it is 706 Union Street, Memphis, Tennessee - the home of Sun Studios. It was there, in July 1954, that a teenage truck driver took black rhythm & blues in one hand and white country & western in the other, fused them together, and made rock & roll.

The teenager was, of course, Elvis Aron Presley; the song, ‘That’s Alright Mama’; and the moment was a genuine watershed. It is an eerie experience to stand in that same tiny room in Memphis where rock & roll was born. An “X” on the floor really does mark the spot where Elvis sang all those years ago and, despite the passage of time, the reverberations from that room can still be heard and felt all around the world.

It was during the dull, grey, postwar years of the 1950s, at a time when Britain and America were bound together by cautious conservatism - when children all looked like their parents and the teenager had yet to be discovered - that Elvis came along. And once he did, with every song and curling lip, he seethed rebellion... and after Elvis, nothing was ever quite the same again.

Today, more than 30 years after his death, and - incredibly - over half a century since Elvis first brought rock & roll music to the world, that seismic shock still resonates. And all those who followed - John, Paul, George and Ringo, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Madonna - owed their inspiration to the man who was, and will always be, the King.

“Before Elvis there was nothing!” admitted John Lennon. But it is still extraordinary to think that Elvis was making hit records three years before John even met Paul McCartney. The rock & roll music Elvis created in the 1950s may have started out as a homegrown novelty, barely registering outside of Memphis, Tennessee. But it has since grown into a multi-billion dollar, pan-global industry, which nowadays ricochets around the world and out into cyberspace.

Without Elvis there would be no Beatles; no Rolling Stones; no REM; no Oasis, U2, The Strokes, Metallica, Muse or Robbie Williams... No other single artist has made such an impact or left such an indelible impression on the culture of our age. It is impossible now to imagine a world without Elvis - his voice comes out of radios, computers and telephones; the melodies of those songs are heard in lifts and door chimes; the face stares at us from postage stamps and tea-towels. From spaceships circling the further reaches of the galaxy, his voice echoes back. It is almost inconceivable that a single individual could have made such a mark. But one man did...

Born on 8th January 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi, his twin brother Jesse was stillborn, so all the love of Vernon and Gladys was heaped on their only son, Elvis. But the Presleys were dirt poor and when Elvis was 13 they moved to Memphis so Vernon could find work. They lived in housing projects (the US equivalent of social housing) and Elvis took jobs as a movie usher and truck driver. But the story really starts in 1953, at 706 Union Street, Memphis - the site of Sam Phillips’ now legendary Sun Studios. Keen to hear how his voice would sound on disc, Elvis decided to cut an acetate. As he handed over his $4, the receptionist asked him who he sounded like, and in a voice that would soon be heard around the world, the shy teenager replied: “I don’t sound like nobody!”

The rest really is history. From Sun Records, Elvis became a regional phenomenon around Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas. Then he moved to RCA and became an international sensation. His early hits - ‘Heartbreak Hotel’, ‘Jailhouse Rock’, ‘All Shook Up’, ‘Don’t Be Cruel’ - are the very foundations of rock & roll; but his impact went way beyond music. In the dreary, stultifying 1950s, Elvis’s music rocked a world still recovering from the aftermath of war - and heralded a revolution.

Nobody had ever seen anyone who looked or sounded like Elvis. And certainly no one who moved like Elvis. Those first hip-swiveling appearances on American TV in 1956 caused uproar and outrage, with Elvis vilified as living proof of moral decline and, quite possibly, the end of civilisation as we knew it!

In fact, offstage Elvis was shy and unbelievably well mannered - every gentleman was “sir” and every lady “ma’am”. But it was what Elvis represented that posed the problem. The threat was tempered a little when, in 1958, Elvis received his call-up papers. He went off to serve two years in the US Army - and it was in 1960, while returning from service in Germany that he made his only contact with UK soil. When his plane landed at Prestwick airport in Scotland to refuel, Elvis took the opportunity to stretch his legs, sign a few autographs and drink a cup of tea!

On his return to the States, Elvis settled down behind the walls of his Memphis mansion, Graceland, venturing out only to begin his new career as a Hollywood movie idol and box-office sensation. But in 1968, tired of the movies, a leather-clad Elvis snaked his way out of Hollywood to make the most remarkable comeback in the history of rock & roll. During the 1970s the King captivated audiences throughout America, but his triumphant return to the concert stage came to an abrupt end in August 1977 when Elvis died in Memphis. He was just 42 years old. On being informed of his client’s demise, manager Colonel Parker replied: “This changes nothing.” And how right he was. Since his death, Elvis has simply moved up into a whole new galaxy of fame.

Half a century on from his debut, and more than three decades since his death, Elvis remains one of the most written-about people in history - with everything from his star-sign to his extraordinary diet being endlessly analysed. Graceland, his Memphis home, was opened to the public in 1982 and now receives half a million visitors a year - second only to the White House, it is the most visited building in America! The Elvis stamp first appeared in 1993; Elvis artefacts fill auction rooms across the world; and everyone from President Clinton to Bono has testified to the impact Elvis made on their lives.

His first releases came out on clunky 78 rpm shellac discs, but Elvis carried on through the days of the 45 rpm single and 8-track cartridge, and into the era of CD, DVD and download. His total sales are impossible to calculate, but certainly now stand somewhere in excess of one billion records. In 2002 the astonishing success of ‘A Little Less Conversation’ gave Elvis his 18th British No.1, finally nudging The Beatles - with whom he had tied for 25 years - into second place. It also brought his total tally of British chart hits to an unbelievable 133. To put that in perspective, even if you added together all the hits by Madonna, the Spice Girls, Boyzone, Westlife, Steps and Robbie Williams, they still wouldn’t get close to Elvis!

The list of artists who have covered his music is another testimony to his enduring popularity - Rod Stewart, Billy Joel, Bryan Ferry, Johnny Cash, Pet Shop Boys, Andy Williams, Meat Loaf… the list is almost as long as the list of Elvis’s gold records. And as if that wasn’t enough, in 2005 all Elvis’s UK No.1 singles were re-released chronologically, giving him a further three chart-toppers - including his 1959 hit ‘One Night’ which became the 1000th single to top the UK charts, and ‘Jailhouse Rock’, which in 1958 was the first single ever to enter the UK charts at No.1, and now became the first record to enter the chart for the second time at No.1... Surely proof positive, if any were needed, that even in the 21st century the undisputed King of Rock & Roll remains Elvis Presley.

In the end, the last word should lie with one who followed in the footsteps of the King. Bruce Springsteen, who himself helped redefine rock & roll for a new generation, never stopped being a fan of the man who started it all. One time, following a concert in Memphis, he even scaled the walls of Graceland in an effort to meet his hero. When asked to explain the enduring appeal of his idol, Bruce Springsteen reflected: “I couldn’t imagine anyone not wanting to be Elvis Presley!”

Elvis 75 is the 3 disc collection that celebrates his career from the beginning, whey they first started called him The Memphis Flash; then the King of Rock & Roll; but now he’s in that rare pantheon of stars who are known simply by one name… Elvis!

Win An Elvis 75 Box Set

The teenager was, of course, Elvis Aron Presley; the song, ‘That’s Alright Mama’; and the moment was a genuine watershed. It is an eerie experience to stand in that same tiny room in Memphis where rock & roll was born. An “X” on the floor really does mark the spot where Elvis sang all those years ago and, despite the passage of time, the reverberations from that room can still be heard and felt all around the world.

It was during the dull, grey, postwar years of the 1950s, at a time when Britain and America were bound together by cautious conservatism - when children all looked like their parents and the teenager had yet to be discovered - that Elvis came along. And once he did, with every song and curling lip, he seethed rebellion... and after Elvis, nothing was ever quite the same again.

Today, more than 30 years after his death, and - incredibly - over half a century since Elvis first brought rock & roll music to the world, that seismic shock still resonates. And all those who followed - John, Paul, George and Ringo, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Madonna - owed their inspiration to the man who was, and will always be, the King.

“Before Elvis there was nothing!” admitted John Lennon. But it is still extraordinary to think that Elvis was making hit records three years before John even met Paul McCartney. The rock & roll music Elvis created in the 1950s may have started out as a homegrown novelty, barely registering outside of Memphis, Tennessee. But it has since grown into a multi-billion dollar, pan-global industry, which nowadays ricochets around the world and out into cyberspace.

Without Elvis there would be no Beatles; no Rolling Stones; no REM; no Oasis, U2, The Strokes, Metallica, Muse or Robbie Williams... No other single artist has made such an impact or left such an indelible impression on the culture of our age. It is impossible now to imagine a world without Elvis - his voice comes out of radios, computers and telephones; the melodies of those songs are heard in lifts and door chimes; the face stares at us from postage stamps and tea-towels. From spaceships circling the further reaches of the galaxy, his voice echoes back. It is almost inconceivable that a single individual could have made such a mark. But one man did...

Born on 8th January 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi, his twin brother Jesse was stillborn, so all the love of Vernon and Gladys was heaped on their only son, Elvis. But the Presleys were dirt poor and when Elvis was 13 they moved to Memphis so Vernon could find work. They lived in housing projects (the US equivalent of social housing) and Elvis took jobs as a movie usher and truck driver. But the story really starts in 1953, at 706 Union Street, Memphis - the site of Sam Phillips’ now legendary Sun Studios. Keen to hear how his voice would sound on disc, Elvis decided to cut an acetate. As he handed over his $4, the receptionist asked him who he sounded like, and in a voice that would soon be heard around the world, the shy teenager replied: “I don’t sound like nobody!”

The rest really is history. From Sun Records, Elvis became a regional phenomenon around Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas. Then he moved to RCA and became an international sensation. His early hits - ‘Heartbreak Hotel’, ‘Jailhouse Rock’, ‘All Shook Up’, ‘Don’t Be Cruel’ - are the very foundations of rock & roll; but his impact went way beyond music. In the dreary, stultifying 1950s, Elvis’s music rocked a world still recovering from the aftermath of war - and heralded a revolution.