Elvis The Early Years

Born in Tupelo, Mississippi, Presley at the age of thirteen moved with his family to Memphis, Tennessee.    He began his career there in 1954 as one of the first performers of rockabilly, an uptempo fusion of country and rhythm and blues with a strong backbeat.   His novel versions of existing songs, mixing "black" and "white" sounds, made him popular—and controversial—as did his uninhibited performances.    With his commercial breakthrough in 1956, he was recognized as the leading figure of the newly popular sound of rock and roll.    Presley had a versatile voice and unusually wide success encompassing many genres, including country, pop ballads, gospel, and blues.    In November 1956, he made his film debut in Love Me Tender.

After two years of military service beginning in 1958, Presley returned to the studio and reinforced his popularity by recording some of his most commercially successful material.    He staged few concerts, however, and proceeded to devote most of the 1960s to making unmemorable Hollywood movies and soundtrack albums.    In 1968, after seven years away from the stage, he returned to live performance in a celebrated comeback television special which led to a string of successful tours and concert residencies, notably in Las Vegas.    In 1973, Presley staged the first global live concert via satellite, Aloha from Hawaii, seen by approximately 1.5 billion viewers. It remains the most watched broadcast by an individual entertainer in television history.    Prescription drug abuse severely compromised the singer's health, and he died suddenly in 1977 at the age of 42.

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.    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.

1935–53: Early years, Childhood in Tupelo

 
Presley's birthplace in Tupelo, MississippiElvis Presley was born on January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi, to Vernon Elvis and Gladys Love Presley.    In the two-room shotgun house built by his father in readiness for the birth, Jesse Garon Presley, his identical twin brother, was delivered 35 minutes before him, stillborn.    Growing up as an only child, Presley became close to both parents and formed an unusually tight bond with his mother.    The family lived just above the poverty line and attended an Assembly of God church where he found his initial musical inspiration.

Presley's ancestry was primarily a Western European mix—Scots-Irish, with some French Norman; one of Gladys's great-great-grandmothers was Cherokee and, according to family accounts, one of her great-grandmothers was Jewish.    Gladys was regarded as the dominant member of the small family by relatives and friends. Vernon moved from one odd job to the next, evidencing little ambition.    The family often relied on help from neighbors and government food assistance. In 1938, Vernon, along with one of Gladys's brothers and another friend, was jailed for altering a check written by the farmer on whose land he had built the family home and who retained ownership of the property until repayment of a loan.    During Vernon's eight-month incarceration, Gladys lost the house, and she and her son moved in with relatives.

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In September 1941, Presley entered the first grade at East Tupelo Consolidated, where his instructors regarded him as "average".    He was encouraged to enter a singing contest after impressing his schoolteacher with a rendition of Red Foley's country song "Old Shep" during morning prayers.    The contest, held at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show on October 3, 1945, saw the singer's first public performance: dressed as a cowboy, the ten-year-old Presley stood on a chair to reach the microphone and sang "Old Shep".    He recalled placing fifth. A few months later, for his eleventh birthday, Presley received his first guitar.    He had wanted a considerably more expensive bicycle. Over the following year, he received basic guitar lessons from two of his uncles and the new pastor at the family's church.    Presley recalled, "I took the guitar, and I watched people, and I learned to play a little bit. But I would never sing in public. I was very shy about it, you know."

Presley listened regularly to Mississippi Slim’s show on the Tupelo radio station WELO.    Slim's younger brother, a classmate of Presley's, described him as "crazy about music".    Entering a new school, Milam, for sixth grade in September 1946, Presley was regarded as shy and a loner; the following year, he began bringing his guitar in on a daily basis.    He would play and sing during lunchtime, and was often teased as a "trashy" kid who played hillbilly music.    The family was by then living in a largely African American neighborhood; they often had trouble keeping up with the rent, and changed residences frequently. Mississippi Slim supplemented Presley's guitar tuition by demonstrating chord techniques.    When his protégé was 12 years old, he scheduled two on-air performances by the young singer.    Overcome by stage fright the first time, Presley was unable to perform, but succeeded in doing so the following week.