Elvis Presley

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Elvis Presley was born in 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi, and grew up in Memphis. He did not invent rock 'n' roll. The blues, the gospel, the rhythm and blues and the country from which that music was made already existed. But from 1956 Presley brought it to a large white audience, and through radio, records and television to the whole world. In doing so he became the model for the teen idol.

Music and breakthrough

On 5 July 1954 he recorded That's All Right at Sam Phillips's Sun Studio in Memphis, a blues by Arthur Crudup from 1946. Guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black played along. On the B-side was Blue Moon of Kentucky, a bluegrass song by Bill Monroe: Black blues and white country on a single record. At the end of 1955 RCA bought his contract, with Colonel Tom Parker as his manager. Heartbreak Hotel became his first number 1 hit in 1956. That same year he turned Hound Dog, previously a hit for Big Mama Thornton, into a fast rock song.

Influence

From 1958 to 1960 Presley was in military service, stationed in West Germany. Afterwards he became a singer for the whole family and starred in a string of Hollywood films. A television special in 1968 brought him back as a rock singer and led to regular concert residencies in Las Vegas. He died in 1977 at Graceland, his home in Memphis. His influence reached far: the British rockers of the 1950s took him as their example, and in 1979 The Clash borrowed the lettering of his first album for the sleeve of London Calling.

Listening

• 
  That's All Right · Elvis Presley, 1954
  Apple Music ↗

Discography

Studio albums

• 1956Elvis
• 1956Elvis
• 1957Elvis
• 1960Elvis
• 1960His Hand in Mine
• 1961Something for Everybody
• 1962Pot Luck
• 1965Elvis
• 1967How Great Thou Art
• 1969Back in Memphis
• 1969From Elvis in Memphis
• 1970That’s the Way It Is
• 1971Elvis
• 1971Elvis
• 1971Love Letters From Elvis
• 1972Elvis
• 1972He Touched Me
• 1973Elvis
• 1973Raised on Rock / For Ol’ Times Sake
• 1974Good Times
• 1975Promised Land
• 1975Today
• 1976From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee
• 1977Moody Blue
• 2008Christmas With Elvis Presley

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

• Mixtape 1: The Origins of Pop Music^NL Reader
• Mixtape 2: Youth Cultures 1950-1980^NL Reader
• Mixtape 3: The Beatles^NL Reader
• Mixtape 4: When Rock Was Still Pop^NL Reader
• Mixtape 10: Women in Pop Music^NL Reader
• Mixtape 13: From Cassette to Cloud^NL Reader
• The Dream Factory: Film Reel 4^NL Reader
• Magazine: Stuck in the Middle with You^NL Magazine
• Magazine: De jukebox gaat de film in^NL Magazine

Mentioned in other articles

• Rockabilly GenreElvis Presley, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran were the idols of the rockers in England and the nozems in the Netherlands.
• Plate reverb (EMT 140) TechnologyAt RCA Studio B in Nashville, the engineer Bill Porter used such a plate to give the voices of Roy Orbison, the Everly Brothers and Elvis Presley a clear sheen.
• Slapback echo TechnologyIt became the sound of Elvis Presley's early records and of rockabilly.

See also

• His Hand in Mine
• Something for Everybody
• Pot Luck
• That’s the Way It Is
• Rockabilly
• Plate reverb (EMT 140)
• Slapback echo

Sources

1. Wikipedia (en): Elvis Presley
2. Wikipedia (en): That's All Right
3. Wikipedia (en): Hound Dog (song
4. german-way.com
5. Wikipedia (en): Rockers
6. loudersound.com