The late Elvis Presley turned 75. He was born on January 8, 1935 and died very prematurely August 16, 1977 at age 42. Elvis probably has done more for ushering in rock n roll than any other person. He brought gospel music, country and blues into a genre called rockabilly and from there into actual rock n roll. He was controversial and frowned upon by the ‘parent’ generation. When he first appeared on Ed Sullivan, his hips were not allowed to be filmed. Shock and awe.
Elvis was drafted, married a teenager named Pricilla, and returned to not only make recordings but also films and perform at concerts. His home, Gracelands, is now a museum to the King. Even though divorced before his death, Pricilla Presley keeps the memory of Elvis alive. Millions of fans tour Graceland each year.
According to Wikipedia:
Presley is regarded as one of the most important figures of twentieth-century popular culture. He is the best-selling solo artist in the history of popular music, with sales of approximately 1 billion units worldwide.[2][3][4] Among many honors, he was nominated for 14 competitive Grammys (winning 3 times) and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at age 36. He has been inducted into four music halls of fame.
It is very hard to believe that Elvis would be 75 had he lived and that he has been gone for 32 years. Prescriptions drug abuse and poor health habits caused Presley’s untimely death. How much American talent has ended prematurely because of sustance abuse and alcohol? Janice Joplin, Kurt Cobain, Heath Ledger, Jimi Hendrix, John Belushi, Jim Morrison, Chris Farley, Marilyn Monroe, Jerry Garcia, Judy Garland…the list seems endless. Our supposed war on drugs has not been particularly successful.
I saw Elvis in concert in 1977, when I was just a junior-high schooler. I got dragged along with my mother and some friends, but it turned out to be a great night. I’ve been a fan ever since.
So, Elvis would have been 75. I remember that Ed Sullivan appearance. Even with the guy’s hips not showing, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. That was truly a shocker after all the mellow crooners of the early 1950’s. Hmmm — just wondering if, had Elvis lived, he might have needed a hip replacement by now.
NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooo! He LIVES!!!!!!!! He’s ALIVE I TELL YOU! ALIVE!
Snicker…that’s what I hear.
He really seems to be timeless.
Too many of our rising stars bump themselves off over stupid drugs.
I was 7 when he died, I remember the day. I was riding in the back seat of my dad’s 1969 plymouth fury (back when they made cars) when the announcement was made on the radio. I can watch Aloha from Hawaii and still marvel at the guy. Everytime I watch that I think to myself “he really was the king”!! I can still get into his backup group, JD Sumner and the Stamps Quartet, too.
I have learned to like him.
Were you sad as a 7 year old to learn he had died?
@Moon-howler
I wasn’t “sad” because I was a fan….it wasn’t until many years later that I really had the capacity to understand what I was seeing/hearing with Elvis. Being 7 at the time, Elvis was in rough shape during the few cognitive years I had to that point. But I distinctly remember feeling that something “big” happened when he died, I guess because of the reaction of my parents. I can’t tell you why I remember so vividly. We lived in New Windsor, MD, and were coming home from Westminster when it came on the radio about his death. I sure remember that ’69 Fury III! I could stretch out on that bench back seat and snooze for hours! I’d give anything to take a family vacation in a car like that today! That baby was smooth on the road.
How in God’s name did that go into moderation???
There used to be a bad boy with a similar name. It is not your fault Slowpoke. It is the bad boy’s fault. Just a bad boy who lives in Woodbridge. Sorry for the inconvenience.
I was a lot older than that when he died but I still didn’t realize the real significance of his death or his talent either.
I do remember when he died, I was a teenager. I wasn’t really aware at that time who he was, oddly enough – but I remember it being a big deal on the news, and about how “the King” had died, etc. etc. Since then, he’s only become more famous it seems, and of course as I grew older I heard more and more of his music and realized how great he and his music was. It was unfortunate in later years how he looked when he was performing, and of course what happened to him that led to his death. Hard to believe though he’d be 75 now!
Slowpoke: My parents had a ’69 Plymouth too. In fact that’s the car I drove to my summer job while I was in college – the summers of 1977 – 1980. I remember that car well! It was kind of getting pretty old when I drove it obviously.
They hung on to that bad boy for a long time, didn’t they, GR? I can’t even think of what a plymouth fury looked like. My husband drove a plymouth something or other when I met him. It was not a cool car at all. It was a company car. I was the ankle express in those days so I didn’t complain.
My granddaughter is a true-blue Elvis fan; knows all his songs; had an oversized poster of him on her wall. When she graduated from hi school in 2001, I treated her and a cousin to a trip to Memphis. I like Elvis’ music but wasn’t exactly a fan. We had a great time visiting the Sun Studio where Elvis supposedly made his first recording and, of course, toured Graceland. Everything in town was Elvis.
I love “Christmas with Elvis”.
Actually, my parents’ car was a Plymouth Valiant, I think a bit smaller than the Fury. Still, looks huge as I dug up an old picture of the thing in front of my parents’ old house. The car finally got the final nail in the coffin when at my father’s workplace, a truck backed into the side of it and punched a hole in the driver’s side door! That was maybe in 1982 or something! I shudder to think how long my father would have held onto that car otherwise. It was pretty much an old beater car when I drove it summers in between college on my 15 mile commute each way to work.