Mr. Vernon Presley did not know that his new son, Elvis, would be such a big deal; Perhaps he considered him good news after the death of his second twin during their birth on a cold morning on the eighth of January 1935 AD.
But certainly the death of one of his two children made him surround the other who lived with the care and attention that he could provide despite his simple condition in a society still suffering from the effects of the Great Depression. Thus, Elvis Presley, the child who will become the king of “rock and roll”, grows up in a loving family, despite its modest and poor conditions.
Poor family moves a lot
Elvis was raised as an only child in a poor family. His father, Vernon, had a series of simple jobs, and in 1938, when Elvis was three years old, the father was sentenced to 3 years in prison for forging a check, and spent less than a year behind bars.
Because of poverty, the family was always on the move, and yet Elvis was surrounded by love from all those around him in his small community in both Tupelo and Memphis.
From a young age, Elvis was passionate about music, and in his middle school he was nominated for a number of competitions and received his first guitar as a prize in a competition in 1946.
In 1948, the Presley family moved from Tupelo to Memphis in search of better opportunities. There, Elvis attended Humes High School. He graduated in 1953, becoming the first member of his family to receive a high school diploma. After graduation, he worked as a mechanic and truck driver before launching his music career with his first recording of “That’s All Right” in July 1954 at the age of 19.
His gift to his mother is returned to him
When he was 19 years old, Elvis Presley entered the Memphis studio and paid his mother $4 to record some songs. When studio owner Sam Phillips heard Elvis’ voice, he was impressed by the quality of his voice, so he invited him to rehearse with some local musicians.
After hearing Elvis Presley’s voice singing “That’s All Right,” which gave Presley a rustic feel to the American West, Phillips agreed to release it as a single for his Sun Records label. The recording spread widely to begin Presley’s career.
The first steps to success
Over the next year, Elvis attracted a growing number of fans in the American South, and in 1955, Sun Records sold his contract to the Radio Corporation of America. For recording, for a record amount of $ 40,000, the Foundation recorded for him his second song, “Heartbreak Hotel”, which gained widespread popularity at the American level in early 1956. Then he recorded a full double-sided disc with two songs “Hound Dog” ) and Don’t Be Cruel.
peak fame
In September 1956, Elvis appeared on the popular The Ed Sullivan Show, a national variety television show, in which he won the admiration of a large number of teenagers who went into hysteria for his presence on stage with his simple looks and songs.
From 1956 to 1958, Elvis Presley helped usher in the era of rock and roll, opening doors for both rock artists. During this period, he starred in 4 successful films, all of which included his music tracks Love Me Tender (1956), Jailhouse Rock (1957), and Loving You (1957). ), and “King Creole” (1958)).
In 1957, Elvis was a young and energetic 22-year-old; But despite his young age, he managed to pay $102,500 for Graceland Mansion in Memphis, where it became his home for two decades until his death.
King recruited
In 1958, Elvis Presley was drafted into the US Army and served for 18 months in West Germany as a military jeep driver. During his enlistment, he was allowed to rent a separate house so that he could work and produce during his draft vacation periods, and he was able to keep American youth saturated with the recordings Presley made before he left. All five songs he released during this period eventually sold over one million copies.
After completing his enlistment in 1960, Elvis changed his style of singing, coinciding with his falling in love with the young woman who would become his first wife, Priscilla Beaulieu, focusing on romantic dramas such as “Are You Alone Tonight?” Are You Lonesome Tonight? He retired from concerts to focus on his musicals, and made 27 films during a period in the 1960s, including Blue Hawaii (1961) and Viva Las Vegas 1964) and Frankie and Johnny (1966). In 1967, he married Priscilla Beaulieu, and the couple had a daughter, Lisa Marie, in 1968.
The king loses his throne
By the end of the 1960s, coinciding with the political and social changes in the wake of the political demonstrations and the social movement against the American War in Vietnam, rock and roll music underwent drastic changes, and Elvis Presley was no longer in touch with the American youth and its new ideas.
He tried to win back his fans through a television show in 1968 and succeeded in attracting many of his fans, but it was difficult to impress them fully again as before, especially with the rise of rock stars and powerful bands at the end of the sixties.
This was reflected in the sales of his last 10 tracks, Burning Love, in 1972. Nevertheless, the king of rock and roll maintained his vast fortune through lucrative concerts and extensive television appearances.
Depression, weight gain and addiction
By the mid-1970s, Elvis was experiencing a deterioration in his physical and mental health. He divorced his wife in 1973, relied dangerously on prescription drugs, and became addicted to fast food, which caused him to gain noticeably large amounts of weight.
On August 16, 1977, he was found unconscious in his mansion in Graceland, and was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead in Memphis, Tennessee at the age of 42 of a heart attack, most likely due to his addiction, and the death of the “King of Rock and Roll” brought legions of fans to Graceland, where he was buried.
Five years after Elvis was found dead at Graceland Mansion, his ex-wife Priscilla Presley opened the property for the public to visit. And now some 600,000 fans flock to tour the palace, where the king of rock and roll lived for 20 years, and this home has become the most visited home after the White House in America. Run by a multimillionaire called the Elvis Presley Group of Companies, it’s no surprise that Elvis has secured a place on Forbes’ annual list of the world’s highest-paid celebrities so far.
Wealth is growing despite the death of its owner
Despite his death some 45 years ago, Elvis Presley’s legacy still generates annual income. In 2019, Elvis earned $39 million, and in 2020, he was chosen as one of the highest-earning celebrities, as he made about $ 10 million, through the profits of his real estate wealth and rights. Exploitation of his songs, as well as visits to the home in which he lived and died one of the most important influencers in contemporary American culture.