Chinese name: Elvis Presley

English name: Elvis Aron Presley

Birthplace: Mississippi

Occupation: Pop singer, actor

Birthday: January 8, 1935

Memorial date: August 16, 1977

Spouse: Priscilla Presley

Daughter: Lisa Marie Presley

Who is the most important figure in world pop music in the 20th century? There is no doubt that the answer is Elvis Presley - "Elvis" (The Hillbilly Cat). This nickname was given to him by his fanatical fans in the southern United States.

In the 1950s, Elvis Presley’s music began to take the world by storm. His music transcended racial and cultural boundaries, integrating country music, blues music and mountain rock music to form a unique style with a distinctive personality. It strongly shocked the pop music scene at that time and allowed rock music to sweep across the world like a whirlwind. music scene. Although except for a few songs in movies, Elvis never recorded a song in a foreign language, and apart from five shows in three Canadian cities, he never performed a concert outside the United States. His extraordinary handsome appearance, gifted musical acumen, uninhibited nature and charismatic stage performance have become Elvis Presley's label, and have also made him a star that people around the world adore. Elvis Presley's home in Graceland is filled with prizes. Gold and platinum records, as well as various accolades from countries around the world, including Norway, Yugoslavia, Japan, Australia, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Germany, France, Canada, Belgium and the Netherlands. From the 1950s to the 1970s, his influence lasted for more than 20 years, and his songs were ever popular. After Elvis Presley's death in 1977, his classic old works are still widely popular, and any reissued records can maintain very stable sales. There is no doubt that Elvis Presley is the highest-selling artist in the history of pop music.

It is estimated that Elvis Presley has sold more than 1,000,000,000 albums worldwide and is the largest-selling singer in the history of the record industry. In the United States alone, Elvis Presley already has 131 gold and platinum records awarded by RCA Records and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It is estimated that 40% of Elvis' total sales were generated outside the United States.

Elvis Presley was born on January 8, 1935 in a poor farm worker family in the United States. He has been obsessed with gospel music since he was a child. At the same time, the strong rhythmic black music popular in the slums, as well as blues and folk songs, also deeply moved the young Elvis. The choir singing in the church gave Elvis Presley his musical enlightenment. The passionate singing and dancing of the church members had a profound impact on Elvis. His famous and controversial hip twisting action was born from this.

In 1948, Elvis Presley and his family moved to Memphis. Here, Elvis came into contact with professional musicians, and by chance he participated in a performance by the four-person gospel singing group "Blackwood Brothers". It can be said that this move started the path of Elvis Presley's music career. The black soul music and R&B of Memphis, combined with white country music, became the source of Elvis Presley's unique music and singing style.

A very accidental opportunity began Elvis Presley's brilliant music career. One day in 1953, when he was recording a song for his mother in a recording studio owned by Sam Phillips, the owner of Sun Records, he met Phillips' assistant Marion Keisker. And won the appreciation of Keske. In June 1954, Phillips asked Elvis to go to SUN to record a song from Nashville. Also invited were local musicians Scotty Moore (guitar) and Bill Black. , bass), who accompanied Elvis Presley. The combination didn't work out well until Elvis sang Arthur Crudupiz's rhythm and blues song "That's All Right" before they found their groove.

The song eventually became Elvis Presley's first single on Sun Records and conquered local fans. Elvis Presley then released several records and began touring. His music, which embodies the combination of country music and rhythm and blues, and his wild and uninhibited attitude set off an unprecedented storm in rock music. Elvis Presley embarked on the road to success, and a superstar began to rise.

Sam Phillips foresaw that a white singer with a black style like Elvis Presley would definitely cause a sensation because he showed people a highly individual and innovative white music and black people. A fusion of musical styles. Therefore, Phillips was also original when producing records for Elvis Presley, using the company's original recording facilities and Phillips' continuous use of echo technology to create the so-called "Sun Company Sound", combined with a country music with obvious black rhythms. The basic instrumental part formed Elvis' unique style. In the works recorded by Sun Company, Elvis showed a deep understanding of the style of black musicians. He never simply copied other people's songs; he always approached them in a new way, with the help of radio disc jockey Fontana (drums) as well as Bill Black and Scotty Moore. These works do not dilute the original power in the treatment of songs like other white singers.

Some of Elvis Presley's single records released by HMV in the UK by Sun Company always collect a blues song on one side and a country song on the other side, and they adopt radical performances. , different ways. Those records included "That's All Right" and Bill Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky," "Good Rocking Tonight"/"I "I Don't Care If the Sun Don't Shine", "Milk Cow Blues Boogie"/"You're a Heartbreaker", "Honey "Baby Let's Play House"/"I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone" and "Mystery Train" / "I Forgot to Remember to Forget" (I Forgot to Remember to Forget). Those recorded by Sun but purchased by RCA before release include two versions of "I Love You Because" (the July 1954 version was not released until 1974). Included in the album "Elvis A Legendary Performer: Vol-1" (Elvis A Legendary Performer: Vol-1), as well as "Blue Moon" (Blue Moon), "I'll Never Tell You to Go, Baby" (I' ll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin'), "Just Because" and the brilliant "Trying to Get to You" are included on this album. The illegally released album "Swing Well Tonight"

In a November 1955 poll among radio disc jockeys, he was considered one of the most promising "country stars." and Western"-style singer. At this time, "Colonel" Parker became Elvis' manager, and Phillips transferred his contract with Elvis to someone with the ability to promote and distribute records nationwide for $35,000. of RCA's Victor. Coupled with Parker's success in arranging for Elvis to appear on select television, Elvis immediately became a national star, with every record he released topping the charts.

His first single with RCA, "Heartbreak Hotel/I Was The One, was Elvis Presley's first No. 1 song. In March of the same year, he released his first album with RCA, Elvis Presley, which topped the Billboard album chart for 10 consecutive weeks. Then After the release of the second album Elvis, the single Love Me Tender occupied the top four rankings in the United States. At the same time, more than 20 kinds of Elvis products including shirts, scarves, jeans, and lipsticks were released one after another. RCA made $20 million in his first year.

Elvis Presley's first recording session with RCA was in Nashville in January 1956, and his accompaniment lineup included Chet Art. Chet Atkins and the Jordanaires, etc., and some subsequent records were almost all recorded in the company's main recording studio in New York. Critics believe that Elvis Presley's joining of RCA heralded his work. The quality declined rapidly, and this trend has continued, although the records recorded during this period (before Elvis entered the army in 1958) show considerable changes in the style and content of Elvis' music. From a perspective, the genre formed by these works is actually the essence of mainstream rock music in the 1950s, which is reflected in songs such as "Don't Be Cruel" and "One Sided Love Affair". Elvis Presley's transition from the light and crazy Sun Company style to the later depressive, dark, and heavy style. The latter is more commercial, but still maintains the characteristics of excitement and sexiness. Moreover, it is this kind of song. , through its prime-time airing on television, and especially through Elvis's melancholic image, introduced countless white teenagers to rock music, such as "Heartbreak Hotel" and "Hound Dog", some of whose recordings were more popular. Early, but not released until Elvis was serving in the Army in Germany, also had this style: "One Night", "I Got Stung", "A Fool". Such As I) and "Big Hunk O' Love"

By the late 1950s, Elvis Presley had become extremely popular, and his songs were becoming more and more sophisticated. Exquisite and handy. In September 1956, RCA made an unprecedented attempt: to release 7 of Elvis Presley's singles at the same time. As a result, from August to December, Elvis Presley topped the charts every week.

Meanwhile, "Colonel" Parker was busy further establishing Elvis' image - filming Elvis' first movie, Love Me Tender, and agreeing with manufacturers to make everything from key rings to pillowcases. Various Elvis memorabilia. Likewise, a commercial savvy was reflected in the recording of Elvis's 1957 album Elvis' Christmas Album, a collection of folk songs. A clever mixture of rock and roll songs, including some religious, choral and popular program songs. Ten days before Christmas in 1957, the U.S. armed forces tried their best to get Elvis to enlist in the army as a singer. Elvis declined the offer and accepted the call as a civilian. After singing two performances for his hometown elders, on March 24, 1958, wearing his military uniform, he reported to the 2nd Armored Division camp in the suburbs of Killeen, Texas, and officially began his military career. In November 1959, Air Force Captain Joseph Beaulieu's 14-year-old daughter Priscilla opened Elvis' love heart. In 1960, Elvis Presley began filming "G.I. Blues," his first movie after his discharge from the military. After its release in October, the soundtrack quickly climbed to the top of the charts again, staying on the charts for 111 weeks, which is more weeks than any album in Elvis Presley's life. At this time, Priscilla moved into Graceland to live with Elvis.

In March 1960, Elvis Presley returned from military service in Germany. The wild, rough and "going his own way" style of 1958 remained unchanged.

But the album "Elvis is Back" seems hesitant between revisiting rhythm and blues and country music and embarking on a new, gentle approach to singing. There is nothing new in this gentle voice and singing style, but it has lost its previous enthusiasm and unrestrainedness. This style continued in most of Elvis' subsequent works.

On February 25, 1961, the governor of Tennessee proclaimed this day as "Elvis Day". From then on, Elvis Presley would perform a charity concert in his hometown every Christmas. Between the release of the album "Stick to You" and the beginning of Beatlemania in the United States, Elvis Presley still maintained his status as the most outstanding singer who mainly published singles, although only a few records were produced: For example, "A Mess Of Blues" and "It is Latest Flame"/"Little Sister"-the glory is no less than that of his 1950s. However, from this time on, Elvis shifted his career focus to Hollywood and acted in 25 movies including "Blue Hawaii". Although Elvis Presley was at the peak of his career in terms of sales, in fact his image was far less radiant than it was in the 1950s. Most of the songs being praised are tender and soothing compositions such as "It's Now Or Never", "Are You Lonesome Tonight" and "Surrender" ( Surrender), or vignettes from movies such as "Wooden Heart" and "Wild in the Country." In addition, he released a number of albums, much of which consisted of outtakes from a long list of Hollywood musicals in which he began to appear.

In the early 1960s, Elvis Presley began to make three movies a year. Although these typical Hollywood films were more disappointing than the last, Elvis Presley sang all the songs himself. These songs, which were meant to fill empty movie plots, tended to be third-rate and inconsistent with his earlier films: "Love Me Tender" (1956), "Loving You" (1957), "Jailhouse Rock" The standards of songs and songwriters used in (Jailhouse Rock) (1958) are simply different. Thereafter, the films specially shot for Elvis, such as "Flaming Star" (1960) and "The Wild Country" (1961), attracted little interest. There were more than 20 of these films. Records from this period included a series of singles starting with "Good Luck Charm", "She's Not for You", "Return to Sender" and "One Broken Heart for Sale".

The relationship between Elvis Presley and Priscilla ended in 1966. He formally proposed to Priscilla, and the following year they got married at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas. In 1968, the daughter of their love, Lisa Marie Presley, was born, and Elvis began to enjoy a relaxed and happy home life. However, the good times did not last long. In 1972, Elvis Presley and Priscilla broke up. Priscilla left with her daughter Lisa Marie and chose to file for divorce on Elvis Presley's birthday the following year. The court ruled that Priscilla had custody of her daughter. Although Elvis Presley was passionate and romantic and had constant scandals, Priscilla was the only love of Elvis' life and the only legally married wife in his life.

After 1968, Elvis Presley was seen as the epitome of cynicism, weakness and regression in the pop music world. In addition, the profits of his films continued to decline, and the quality became increasingly poor, and even Elvis himself made it obvious that he was as disgusted and angry with these films as he was with the audience.

He then tried to expand his career on television for the first time since 1960. This time he had his own TV special, donning a black leather suit and performing in front of an audience. Performing on a small stage. He gave off the feeling of a reborn Elvis: charismatic, effortless and with an ominous undertone that thrilled fans around the world.

The success of this show forced Elvis to a fork in the road that gave him a headache: either use this as a starting point to start a new, but very risky musical attempt, or else return to his In the past, the old production program only needed to slightly change the details. At first, his records seemed to maintain a balance between the two. The single "If I Can Dream," taken from his TV show, was powerful and powerful, as if trying to shake off his 1960s softness, and he returned to Memphis in early 1969 to record the album. "Elvis in Memphis" (Elvis in Memphis), he used Chips Moman's "American Recording Studio" and composed his backing group with some outstanding local musicians. The album once again thrilled his fans and became his most inspiring work in some time.

Elvis then performed live in Las Vegas for the first time since 1961. Despite the strength of his band and the excellence of his work, people did not see the Elvis they expected, expectations that had been sparked by Elvis' television specials. Elvis soon returned his music to the style of the past, as safe as his movies, as evidenced by his series of "live recording" albums from New York, Hawaii and Las Vegas. These works only include some random covers of old songs, and none of the songs can compare with its original version. Still, when the Hawaiian live album topped the U.S. charts in 1973, it - and other 1970s hits - proved what was almost doubtful: Elvis Presley was still the biggest-selling music artist At home, his artistic career is not over. Although it is no longer what it used to be, Elvis' influence and supporters can still make him proud.

The irony of Elvis's downward trend from 1960 onwards is that he tended to favor less commercial music in his compositions rather than his older songs. His early practice of recording black music continued into the 1970s. He recorded songs by Ivory Joe Hunter in 1958 and 1973, and his post-service recordings included selections from such artists as Chuck Jackson, Little -Little Walter, O-C-Smith, Coasters, Jerry Butler, Ketty Lester, Chuck Berry (Chuck Berry), "Clovers" (Clovers), "Drifters" (Drifters), Rufus - Thomas (Rufus Thomas), Willie - Dixon (Willie Dixon) and other musicians' works, in addition, Cat Wang also sang works by a new generation of Southern writers, such as Jerry Reed's "Guitar Man" and Mac Davis's "In the Ghetto." ), Tony Joe White's "Polk Salad Annie" and Dennis Linde's "Burning Love."

This series of efforts and risks in selecting songs makes it even more inexplicable that Elvis Presley's records have not been successful. In fact, there are very few of his works since 1960 that are as prominent as those in the 1950s.

The 1960 religious album "His Hand in Mine" was very refined and pure in its vocal treatment, while the B-side of "Kissin' Cousins" was "It Hurts". Hurts Me) (1965), people suddenly saw the exciting and adventurous spirit of Elvis Presley in the 1950s flashing. Worth mentioning are the albums "From Elvis in Memphis" and "Elvis Country" (1971) and the "American Trilogy" album of live recordings "Elvis: Aloha" from Hawaii via Satellite" (1973).

By the mid-1970s, Elvis once again seemed to have despairingly given up on any attempt to gain respectability as an artist and to dwell entirely in his last ruts. His voice is more loose, lazy and careless than ever. It seems rough and harsh when the volume is high, and wavering when the volume is low, and has completely lost its original vitality and delicacy. His mind seemed to become confused. To make matters worse, heavy drug use, overeating, and a debauched private life also broke down his body.

In October 1973, Elvis Presley was hospitalized due to recurrence of pneumonia and pleurisy, colon dilation, and hepatitis. Agent Parker exploited his own squeeze brokerage strategy to push Elvis Presley, who was in poor health, into financial crisis. There are accusations that Parker deliberately failed to pay royalties to Elvis Presley before 1973. In order to relieve the economic misfortune, Elvis Presley had no choice but to tour all the time. Physically and mentally exhausted, he could only rely on sedatives and other drugs. His health problems increasingly serious.

Even so, the whole year of 1976 was a tight tour schedule. At the end of November, Elvis Presley met his new girlfriend Ginger Alden, who became his last girlfriend during his lifetime. In early April 1977, Elvis Presley fell ill again and was admitted to the hospital. After being discharged from the hospital, he managed to continue his singing schedule until June. The concert in Indianapolis, Indiana, on June 26 turned out to be Elvis Presley's last concert before his death. Elvis Presley, who was originally recuperating at his home in Graceland and preparing for another concert, was discovered by his tour manager (some say it was his girlfriend) lying in the bathroom. After being rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment, the doctor announced that Elvis Presley had suffered a serious cardiac arrhythmia (some say he was found by his girlfriend). Said to be a drug overdose) and died of a heart attack at the age of only 42. The news was released in the afternoon, shocking the world, and thousands of music fans came to Graceland to express their condolences. Elvis Presley's body was finally buried with his mother in the 'Garden of Silence' behind Graceland.

After Elvis Presley’s father passed away in 1979, Elvis Presley’s huge estate was inherited by his only daughter Lisa Marie, who was only 11 years old at the time. After four lawsuits in the past two years, it was finally determined that the agent Parker was forced to sell Cat All of Wang's videos and recordings were returned to RCA and the Elvis family. In the fall of 1982, Graceland became a tourist attraction, attracting an average of nearly 600,000 people every year. The value of Elvis Presley's legacy has already exceeded 100 million. In 1986, Elvis Presley became the top ten singers in the music industry to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. As of August 1999, RCA Records and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) have awarded 131 gold and platinum records to Elvis Presley's daughter Lisa Marie. This is the most gold and platinum records in history. With a platinum record, Elvis Presley is undoubtedly the greatest singing artist of all time. At the same time, RCA also awarded the 'Arts of the Century' special commemorative award to commemorate this generation of superstars.

Elvis Presley in the 1950s influenced at least an entire generation. After the 1960s, they have been holding on to a fantasy: the Elvis Presley in their hearts was only defeated by himself, as long as he gets older and becomes When fat Elvis changes his Las Vegas/Hollywood lifestyle and listens to his own music in a closed house full of jukeboxes full of his early records, he discovers a man who once The great Elvis Presley was once so dazzling. So he will fight on his own and eventually win and regain his former genius. Although this fantasy did not come true until the day of Elvis Presley's death on August 16, 1977, his status in modern music is still irreplaceable.

The rare and astonishing talents he occasionally displayed in the 1950s and later did not suffer in any way from his later activities. As a white man, he introduced black rhythm and blues music with racial undertones to white people. The pressure he endured and the success he achieved were extraordinary; he sacrificed his youth for eternal legend, and burned his life to mark the 20th century pop culture. Totem still thrills audiences around the world. His works transcended any factor that influenced the history of rock music. He also determined the form that rock music would take. For the first time, he enabled young people to value and develop their own musical personality. .Although his songs are too simple and superficial, lacking strength and social responsibility, these songs that have been sung for a long time truly reflect the image of the first generation of teenagers influenced by rock and roll ideas. He not only has a beautiful appearance and a trademark twist. His hip movements and outstanding stage performances have become a distinctive symbol of this era and this generation. The entire young generation, which contains great potential, found in him a homosexual with a rebellious spirit. Since Elvis Presley, rock music with distinctive ideological nature and strong criticism of reality has spread rapidly. Because of his charm, rock music has become a national movement in the United States. Elvis Presley blazed a difficult path forward for rock music.

Elvis Presley, the eternal King of Rock and Roll.