The Legendary Elvis Presley Throughout the years of rock there have been many major influences on the music genre, one of them being Elvis Presley. Elvis Presley is one of the most iconic figures of rock culture—from his signature hairstyle to his flashy costumes he is well known all over the world. Aside from making major physical contributions to the world his music contributions are still celebrated until this day. According to Ruhlmann, “Presley defined rock & roll in the 1950’s”. Throughout this essay “The King of Rock & Roll’s” personal and musical life will be discussed. Elvis Aron Presley was born on January 8, 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi to a poor family. What most people do not know is that Elvis was actually born a twin, but
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Following his highs school graduation Elvis went to Sun Records to make his first recordings, which were his two songs: “My Happiness” and “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin”. While those two songs were good songs and Sam Phillips did approve of them they did not launch Presley’s career. Within a year span Sun released ten of his songs. “Elvis’ five Sun singles are the best rock & roll have ever recorded,” McCully stated. The owner of Sun Records new Presley had talent but he wasn’t getting much fame because Sun Records wasn’t that big of a label and if Presley wanted to get more famous a larger label would need to back him. While Elvis was at Sun Records a man named Colonel Tom Parker heard of him and wanted to be his manager. Colonel Tom Parker was a personal manager and considered to be a master promoter and Elvis hired him to be his manager. At the time Parker was considered to be a great manager and took Elvis international. Many believe that if it were not for Parker Elvis would have not reached such great heights. But having a great manager came with a big price. The agreement Parker and Presley was that Parker would get fifty percent of all Presley’s earnings. Which at the time was unprecedented since on average managers would receive anywhere from ten to fifteen percent. But it was Parker who came up with the career changing idea to move Elvis to a larger …show more content…
In the beginning there RCA re-released some of his songs that her had already recorded at Sun Records, only to find out they did not do very well. One reason that his songs did not do very well in the beginning was that Elvis did not fit into any category of music that RCA already had—he was a different kind of artist. It was not until January 1956 that Presley would release his first song with RCA, ultimately being one of his most well-known songs until this day that song is “Heartbreak Hotel”. What made that song so special was that it-charted number one on all three charts: Pop, Country and Western, and R&B. At the time to have a song chart all three charts was rare and very impressive. A critic from the website HowStuffWorks described Presly’s song as, “despondent, perfectly capturing the alienation of the disaffected youth”. His breakout in 1956 helped him became a well-known star in such a short amount of time, in about less than one year. What came with his image was parents looked him at as kind of a sex symbol, because of his dance moves that included thrusting of his hips, which earned him the nickname “Elvis the Pelvis”. This dance move was in fact so offensive that shows he would perform on such as the Ed Sullivan show would only video tape him from the waste up to make it seem appropriate to the outraged parents who threatened to not watch the shows
Following his highs school graduation Elvis went to Sun Records to make his first recordings, which were his two songs: “My Happiness” and “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin”. While those two songs were good songs and Sam Phillips did approve of them they did not launch Presley’s career. Within a year span Sun released ten of his songs. “Elvis’ five Sun singles are the best rock & roll have ever recorded,” McCully stated. The owner of Sun Records new Presley had talent but he wasn’t getting much fame because Sun Records wasn’t that big of a label and if Presley wanted to get more famous a larger label would need to back him. While Elvis was at Sun Records a man named Colonel Tom Parker heard of him and wanted to be his manager. Colonel Tom Parker was a personal manager and considered to be a master promoter and Elvis hired him to be his manager. At the time Parker was considered to be a great manager and took Elvis international. Many believe that if it were not for Parker Elvis would have not reached such great heights. But having a great manager came with a big price. The agreement Parker and Presley was that Parker would get fifty percent of all Presley’s earnings. Which at the time was unprecedented since on average managers would receive anywhere from ten to fifteen percent. But it was Parker who came up with the career changing idea to move Elvis to a larger …show more content…
In the beginning there RCA re-released some of his songs that her had already recorded at Sun Records, only to find out they did not do very well. One reason that his songs did not do very well in the beginning was that Elvis did not fit into any category of music that RCA already had—he was a different kind of artist. It was not until January 1956 that Presley would release his first song with RCA, ultimately being one of his most well-known songs until this day that song is “Heartbreak Hotel”. What made that song so special was that it-charted number one on all three charts: Pop, Country and Western, and R&B. At the time to have a song chart all three charts was rare and very impressive. A critic from the website HowStuffWorks described Presly’s song as, “despondent, perfectly capturing the alienation of the disaffected youth”. His breakout in 1956 helped him became a well-known star in such a short amount of time, in about less than one year. What came with his image was parents looked him at as kind of a sex symbol, because of his dance moves that included thrusting of his hips, which earned him the nickname “Elvis the Pelvis”. This dance move was in fact so offensive that shows he would perform on such as the Ed Sullivan show would only video tape him from the waste up to make it seem appropriate to the outraged parents who threatened to not watch the shows