The Life Of Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley was born on January 8, 1935. He charted more songs on the Billboard’s Hot 100 than any other artist. His songs spent more weeks at the top of the charts than any other artist. He also had the greatest number of consecutive #1 hits.

In 1953 Elvis was a young worker from the Parker Machinists Shop and he wandered into Sun Records on his lunch hour to record two songs as a belated birthday present to his mother. The owner, Sam Philips, was not impressed with Elvis, and when he tried again was still not in January 1954. Although later in 1954 he was finally recognized with his song “That’s Alright Mama”. Philips had felt he found a white man that had the sound and soul of R&B artists. By 1955 he had recorded 5 songs for Sun Records. He also gained a new manager in that time. Col Tom Parker. Parker new how to market and launched a campaign aimed at garnishing national exposure for Elvis.

Elvis first appeared on CBS’ Dorsey Brothers Stage Show. Then on the Steve Allen show, where he sang “Hound Dog” to a real dog. From his performance on Berle’s Texaco Star, he got the nickname “Elivs the Pelvis”. This nick name worried Ed Sullivan and when Elvis appeared on his show, he was only shown from the waist up. This performance was viewed by 52 million Americans, that is one out of every three Americans

Elvis also took part in movies. Such movies would be “Love Me Tender”, “Jailhouse Rock”, and “King Creole”. During the time of “King Creole”, he was drafted on December of 1957. On March of 1958 Presley is inducted into the U.S. Army at the Memphis Draft Board. He goes to Fort Hood, Texas for basic training and is stationed there for six months. During this time, his mother Gladys Presley dies of acute hepatitis. Elvis was very devoted to his mother. He was able to get back to her before she passed away. In September of 1958, Elvis boarded the USS Randall and sails to Germany, arriving on October 1. He was stationed there in Friedberg for 18 months, maintaining off-base residence in Bad Nauheim.

Elvis first met Priscilla Beaulieu in November of 1959. She is an only child of a Navy pilot, Jack Wagner, who was killed in a plane crash when Priscilla was an infant. Her mother Ann then remarried to Captain Joesph Beaulieu.