Elvis Presley

"You cut the hair of the greatest singer and now you can say you cut the moustache of the greatest artist. Incidentally he came to my place in 1972, in NYC, we had a great time and as we bid our goodbyes, I told him how I loved the shirt he was wearing. So he took it off, slowly, and handed it to me. When he left the building he was naked from the waist up. LOL. Anyways I then used it to paint that week, and for sentimental reasons, I never failed to put it on again, whenever I painted""

"Growing up with the Beatles, then Bowie, I used to think Elvis Presley was an old-fashioned crooner, someone your auntie liked, a hillbilly rocker with greasy hair who starred in cheesy films. I had no idea that before Elvis, blues music was played by black people, country [music] by their white neighbours, and gospel by both, but never together. I was blind to the fact that, before Elvis, radio stations and record labels, like everything in the south, were divided by colour. It was Elvis who, guided by the effervescent record producer Sam Phillips, as if by magic, merged the blues, country and gospel and created the soundtrack to the modern world. He didn't "steal" black music. He absorbed it from an early age, growing up in poor neighbourhoods in Tupelo, MS, then Memphis TN. He lived and breathed rhythm and blues. He had soul."

"From a shy young boy to global superstar, the icon of the 20th century that was Elvis Presley is still as enigmatic today as when he was alive. One of the most celebrated and influential popular musicians of all time, his gift and talent, flaws and failings are as enchanting now as they were when he first snarled his lips"

"Millennials, those born in between 1980 and 2000, get blamed for ruining all kinds of things, from iconic brands, to the economy. That generation is portrayed by the media as being stubborn, lazy, entitled, whiny, and oh yeah, capable of wiping out entire industries with just the flick of a mason jar. But what the baby boomers seem to forget is that every older generation casts aspersions on the young folks, shaking their heads at how things change and reminiscing over the “good old days.” There was a time when Elvis Presley's gyrations were considered the height of vulgarity. Now we have HBO."

"Elvis Presley's incendiary vocal performance of "Baby, let's play house"(1955), hails from rockabilly's formative era, when the rules hadn't yet been cast in stone, and Elvis was still experimenting in overdrive, searching for the compelling sound that would catapult him to icon status in little over a year. Presley's slapback, echo laden hiccuping – briefly rendered "a cappella" before the snarling low end guitar of Scotty Moore enters –, segues into an irresistibly lascivious declaration of lust, and a not-so-subtle hint of violence. Both of Scotty Moore's immaculately conceived, and executed solos were monstrously influential to the rockabilly idiom, copied by countless Southern axe-wielding teens. And Bill Black slaps his thundering upright bass so percussively, that no drummer was necessary."

"My fans always remember and recognise me for "Disco Dancer", making the song and me inseparable. This song is also special because its various movements and dance steps are inspired by the great singer and performer Elvis Presley. I feel my pelvic thrust "Disco Dancer" was just a bad copy of Presley's signature move and for me, he will always be the King of dance.”"

""Younger Now", my new album, was inspired by my love of Elvis Presley and the fantasies I had about him. I used to rewind one of his movies, Blue Hawaii, just to hear him say my name. I would do this over and over and over again because he would say 'I love you, Miley' and I would fantasize HIM telling ME that he loved ME."

"When I was asked to direct Elvis and after a few conversations with him, I began to sit up and take notice. This is a lovely boy, and he's going to be a wonderful actor. When I told him that he would sing three ballads without one single movement, I didn't get the answer you'd expect. Instead, he merely nodded and said simply, 'You're the boss, Mr. Curtiz.'I found him an amazingly restless, ever-searching young man, pliable, absorbing with a bounce like a rubber ball. In my manner of thinking, he possesses much the same qualities which Gary Cooper and John Wayne showed when they first started in pictures --with one notable exception, namely that they capitalized and still capitalize on an element of awkwardness, while Elvis is agile and resilient with a smoothness that you'd expect in a veteran. I guarantee that he'll amaze everyone. He shows a formidable talent. What's more, he'll get the respect he so dearly desires."

"I was making 'The Rat Race' at Paramount and he was also on the lot, shooting "G.I. Blues". So I happened to be walking by a trailer when its door opens, I look up, and there he was, so he grabs me, pulls me in and he says, 'Mr Curtis, I want you to know what a fan I am. I used to watch your movies in Tennessee'. And I said, 'Please, don't call me Mr Curtis'. And this handsome kid looks at me and says, 'So what do you want me to call you?' And I said, 'Just call me Tony'. And I said, 'So what do I call you?' And he said, 'Mr Presley'. Bam, was he funny. We had a great time together."

"Vocally is where I see him as this great synthesiser of American traditions; his voice is something of a shape shifter, it can sound high and mournful and soulful, and he can also sound like a preacher, or be quite gruff, or be a sweet crooner; it's not the tone, it's the technique, like he had to adopt all these other techniques and put them together to make something extraordinary; the reason there are so many Elvis impersonators is because the voice is undoable – it's a mystery."

"I'd been quilting for 40 years, lost all of my teaching gigs and seminars for the rest of 2020. They sell for about $9,500 each and I do four-day retreats that can cost $1,400 but after making more than 100 masks, I realized I was going to have to restructure my business. I did a lecture and studio tour on Zoom, and then hosted my first online class. I was skeptical as to how many people would pay $35 for it, but was thrilled that 268 people signed up for the webinar. It's not like I'm Elvis Presley, but that's a cheap workshop with me.”"

"I think we're living in a very diverse country now, and if you look at the nativity, traditionally, it was Mary and Joseph, whereas every time I go to a Nativity play it's a loose story. I think it is time to modernise it a little bit and bring a bit of diversity. Why would people not want Elvis and Lobsters instead of Jesus? Come to think of it, when you go to watch the nativity you go and watch them perform."

"Actor Ed Asner and I quickly became friends. We would sit outside our dressing rooms and talk about politics and the civil rights movement. Ed described himself as a liberal and he didn't agree with what was going on in the country. One day as we were talking Elvis came over to join the conversation. So there the three of us were Elvis, Ed Asner and myself – kicking it around. Elvis played the doctor running a medical clinic in the ghetto. I played a black militant and Ed was the local police officer that played peacekeeper.I was impressed to be working with Elvis but you must remember these were turbulent times for our country and nobody knew what sudden provocation might shape or change our interactions on a daily basis. One evening after we finished shooting Elvis invited me to his dressing room. He was about to release a new album and wanted to get my opinion on one particular song; "In the Ghetto". I really enjoyed the song. I was impressed and I told him so. He was pleased that I liked it and he shared his satisfaction with me we had a drink or two. During a certain part of the evening I took it upon myself to ask him a question that had been on my mind for some time I was rather reluctant to ask given our conversation thus far has been so pleasant. but I felt like I had to pose this question to him. I said you know "Elvis, there is word going around our community that you said 'the only thing black people could do for you what shine your shoes and buy your records." Silence. More silence. Uncomfortable silence. I began to think that he was going to kick me out of his room. Suddenly he surprised me,got slightly emotional and look me dead in my eyes. "I've heard that rumor" he said "It's a vicious lie, and if I knew who started it I would flat kick their asses" He went on to say that he had a special place in his heart for black people declaring that he learned to sing by listening to black people sing gospel and the blues. He claimed he learned how to dance by watching black dudes do their thing. Some of the people closest to him, he said, were black. I could tell immediately that the rumor I had brought up deeply hurt his feelings. I could also tell that he was speaking to me from his heart. That conversation really opened my eyes to the person that Elvis Presley really was -- not the media portrayal ,not the stage persona, not the roles he played in movies, but the real Elvis Presley, the man. He truly earned my respect and we parted ways as friends.Years later I was on location in Knoxville Tennessee co-starring in a television series [Roots] when I got word of Elvis's passing. It shocked me and I was tremendously distressed by his death, as was the whole country."

"There's also the Elvis connexion, the idea that he faked his death in 1977, but wanted to carry on being on screen, so he made a cameo appearance in "Home Alone". Remember the rocker at the airport?"

"I wasn't thinking and thought I must press the suit and since it was a gold lamé, it wrinkled like the face of a modern Keith Richards!!!"

"Yes, my dad killed JFK, he is secretly Elvis, and Jimmy Hoffa is buried in his backyard"

"We should do it right now. You want a little bit of Elvis? "One for the money, two for the show..."

"I still really don't know to this day what the fuck that was all about. All I know is, I arrived in LA, got to my hotel, as I'd done umpteen times before, started unpacking, and there was a knock at the door and a team of FBI guys wanted to sit down and discuss something with me. And then, for nearly two years, they were always around. I remember going to the Golden Globes and having, like, 16 security guys with me. I don't even know why...and of course, people were like: 'Look at him, he thinks he's fucking Elvis'"

"Titley uses the memoirs of mostly former nuns very adroitly to give us a sense of what life was like during this period for those who felt or were persuaded that they had a vocation. Despite the church's toxic fear of sexuality, the “Brides of Christ” designation for nuns had a very unhealthy aura of sexual desire built into it, channelling feelings that would otherwise have found outlets in human sexual partnerships. One nun recounts how her teacher (a nun) was thrilled when Dolores Hart, an actress who was the first to kiss Elvis Presley on screen, became a Benedictine sister: even Elvis could not compete with Jesus."

"Yeah, I think I do. Aside from the performing, we were up in his suite at the Sahara in Lake Tahoe and the guys were all just sitting around. We were having just a general conversation. He liked to do that. He would have that just about every night after work. The guys would all come up to his suite and they'd sit around and chat. And I remember him just getting so involved in the conversation and listening so carefully to what everybody else had to say. He never once dominated. He never once tried to say, 'Hey, I'm the boss'. You know, this is what I got to say. He really cared about what the other people contributed to the conversation and he listened. And I respected that so much because unfortunately as I said earlier, we have so many people in our business who are ego controlled who don't understand that maybe somebody else does know something. So I was very profoundly affected by that and respectful of him"

"He helped to kill off the influence of me and my contemporaries, but I respect him for that because music always has to progress, and no-one could have opened the door to the future like he did."

"I never went through the Elvis period."

"It was a question that would occupy biographers, novelists and the public to the end of the century and beyond. It would spawn theories of conspiracies and cover-ups that would range from Hollywood to Washington. The imagery of Marilyn Monroe would survive to be reinvented and recycled in ways none of us could have imagined in 1962. Yet after 15 years, we might have learned something about that process when the news of Elvis Presley arrived in August 16 1977. I was on vacation that month. If the death of Marilyn seemed sensational, it was sedate compared to Presley's passing, which became a story of crowd control. Now, a good obituary invokes nostalgia in some, curiosity in others and no one could manage both better than my colleague Charles Kuralt, but he couldn't peer into the future and see all the peculiar ways in which Presley mania would persist. Almost two months later to that day, the top story on the CBS Evening News was the death of Bing Crosby. Now, he, Sinatra, Reagan, Churchill and others whose obituaries have been written all lived long enough to see their debts to fame settled.Monroe and Presley did not. They were given the riches, but they were cut off before their time. I don't know if they were unhappy, but for their public, it was easy to imagine their youth and self-destruction as a kind of romantic, self-inflicted martyrdom. To many, that aura is at least as fascinating as the person, or the work, but it only materializes after the obituaries have been filed, as life goes on, even in death."

"It’s difficult to imagine the feeling in this city that has existed in the last few months since he’s actually been here. The impact he has had has gone beyond football, beyond that of Manchester and the Premier League – it’s absolutely incredible. What he did on Wednesday night is exactly what he’s here to do which is to bring magic to the stadium. It’s almost like Elvis Presley is in Manchester, he’s like a god."

"I met Elvis only once and I figure him for a pretty nice guy. And as to music, I really dig his stuff."

"But let's not be to harsh on Mr.Presley. Doubtless he is doing the best he can. But when the american public shell more than a million dollars in one year to see him, well, let us leave it at that, but maybe this is the Elvis Presley Century.,"

"Of course everyone is influenced by hearing or seeing the music of the era being performed by the people that made it famous. Take for example Elvis Presley — I think at first glance you see this rock ‘n’ roll god who gets every girl, and then you hear such a beautiful melody and vocal and it completely changes the way you view music. It broadens your mind. Growing up listening to him, I think everything right from the phrasing, the presence on stage has influenced me in some way."

"He was was very funny and had charisma that was bigger than life. I enjoyed our friendship."

"With all the Led Zeppelin comparisons and stuff – it was very much a hybrid of 1957's 'Jailhouse Rock' by Elvis Presley and the middle piece was inspired by a Jeff Beck Group song called 'Rice Pudding.'"

"He stood for rock 'n' roll at a time when rock 'n' roll was rebellion, but I think he stood for so many more things than that. He was a southern kid, came from very humble roots, became very popular and very rich and very famous. In this country, that's the American Dream. And that's the Elvis story. What was interesting is that at the outset, Elvis came in through the Country and Western world, signed by RCA in Nashville, not in New York, then went to Pop and soon started to have hits on all three charts, including the R&B chart, and was landing hits everywhere, a fact that totally surprised the music industry. But they were surely delighted to make the money.."

"Max is pretty assertive, isn't he, when it comes to pointing out any deficiencies, not only in himself, but in the team; that is part of his make-up. (In fact), this is like the greatest comeback since Elvis' 1968 TV special, just unbelievable. He's come out swinging, and he's actually changed the perceptions of a lot of people who weren't his fans and now have to acknowledge just how strong and consistent he's been."

"i) When my pop music pals were singing in the mirror pretending to be Elvis Presley, I was pretending to conduct his band. ii) I was once sitting in my youth in a terrace house listening to him singing "Hound Dog" so did I ever think in a million years that The King would one day sing something I had written? No. Sometimes I have to pinch myself about that. I still get tingles when some DJ with excellent taste plays Elvis singing "My Boy" and I remember when I sat down and wrote those lyrics"

"Such was his star power, that I would compare him with Elvis Presley"

"Now Ali is in ring center, dancing around in that robe Elvis Presley gave him at his last fight in Las Vegas, some 6 weeks ago prior to his fight against British Champion Joe Bugner."

"Well, I mention this in very close proximity to because they are completely worlds apart. But if you listen to "Elv1s 30 # 1 hits" you realise what an amazing setup he had. The songs are all absolutely genius. That record is completely on another planet to what Captain Beefheart was then doing, but I prize these two equally, and they’ve both influenced me. The thing is with Elvis, he was there, and he’d been established, so the whole time through my teen years, until when he died in 1977, he had been a constant feature. The wallpaper in my life, so he was always there, but I didn’t really see it until now. Same with {{w|Groucho Marx} } and he died in the same week. Suddenly, the two were gone. It was like someone had come in and had started stripping the walls. So, that rocked me… and then I wrote "No More Heroes’ the following week"

"The Danish gave birth to not only Lego. Legends are also top billing in that part of Europe and most deal with Vikings and Norsemen pillaging and plundering — visiting neighbours not in a nice way —. But this boutique nation also houses a big tribute to Elvis Presley. Now, one probably knows about the mermaid statue in Copenhagen harbour and may be surprised to discover how small it is. And yet another may likewise be aware of Hans Christian Andersen, a Dane whose fairy stories, including , have delighted young readers and listeners all over the world. Presley's life was another sort of fairytale, all the more so for being cut short. And the legend came in tangible form to a Danish town, thanks to a fan who, as an eight-year-old boy, had heard "Burning love". On that day in 1973 Henrik Knudsen could not, as the song went, have been lifted any higher so by the time Elvis died in 1977, he was absolutely hooked. In school, his English teacher, who was from East Germany, told him his music was banned in her country. Forbidden? Music? Very interesting. So he got books from the library and found out all he could. For Henrik, the flame of love lasted into adulthood. In 1990 he founded The Official Elvis Presley Fan Club of Denmark and within three years he had gathered truck-fulls of Presleyana to open an exhibition. From there the only way was over the top and into a sizeable building in the town of Randers, about an hour's drive north of Aarhus, Denmark's second city. And then Graceland Randers was born..."

"We are startled, on the amazing "Blue Moon,"(1954), by his trick of shifting, in a heartbeat, from saloon baritone to pants-too-tight wailing and by his near Hawaiian avoiding of consonants ("Ya-hoo A-know Ah can be fou'/ Sittin' home all alo'"), from "Don't Be Cruel" (1956), a song that comes close to redefining the art of the pop vocal; So, what's left? A terrific crooner who was closer, in intonation, vocal virtuosity and care for a song's mood, to Bing Crosby, than to any top singer of the rock era. Toward the end, he still had it as a Gospel balladeer, the choir-soloist power of the hymn "He Touched Me" (1971) — his voice breaking poignantly at the end of the hymn, as if he had just seen Jesus — still thrills and haunts. So does his desire to please an audience of kids and grandmas, instead of comfortably occupying a niche, as almost every pop star has done since."

"Elvis is the SUN, the progenitor of rock. So it's Elvis, Dylan and Cobain.."

"One day at the MGM lot a round Italian looking guy came into the set. He said something like “I’m one of Elvis’ guys, we are shooting at stage 16 and since Elvis saw “Synanon” and loved it he would like to invite you to lunch.” What did I say? Hell yes! Before I knew it I was in Elvis’ dressing room eating a catered lunch."

"SUN Records founder Sam Phillips was surprised that the then 19 year old Elvis Presley knew bluesmen like Arthur Crudup -- but he had spent his last 6 years immersing himself in the blues and Beale Street, where the music and culture of the black Mississippi Delta had settled. Presley was so "blue" -- and his speech so Deep Southern -- that radio announcers took pains to assure listeners in the still-segregated South that the young singer was white. If you go to Sun Studio today is like to travel in time. At 706 Union Ave., it's still 1954. "You are walking on holy ground," the guide tells visitors..."

"Often I err on the side of being too collaborative. I re-edited "The Outsiders" because Warner Brothers felt it was long, and that was a mistake. My father had also written a soaring, romantic score for it. I wondered if it was the right choice, but I couldn’t say that to him. By the time I recut the movie in 2005 he had passed away, and I balanced the schmaltzy music with more of what the Greasers would have listened to: early Elvis Presley...."

"Since 1962, and the first appearance of Elvis, as silkscreened by Warhol, the face of America changed. The most insistent question posed by the ElvisWarhol series concerns the nature of their specifically charged content, and the viewing of Warhol's imagery not as signs, but as icons dealing with a larger content of culture in America. To a large group of Americans, Presley has long been a folk hero, yet his musical impact has overshadowed his sociological significance. Presley's importance is not simply as a popular entertainer but as a bearer of new verities."

"Music has been very much democratized and that's good news and bad news. The threshold has gone down. Anyone can make music at home with a laptop. All you need is something to say. In older times you had to practice on an instrument and be good on an instrument to be able to make music, and then you had to go to the man to get a recording budget and etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Now, it's completely democratic. Every darn fool can make music and I like that. It's like campfire music. Its purpose for humanity is not that it's specialists like me who get to sit on my throne on high and make the music and you just got to sit there and take it. The real purpose of music is for all of us to do it ourselves. The problem is being as big as Elvis Presley or The Beatles. I'm happy though because I like all that new competition. It's good that it is democratized, but not so great for being a rockstar...."

"After the success of "Crazy Heart", I was offered several musical projects, including a film about Elvis, but chose not to pursue it at the time because I didn't want to be confined to just one genre. A modern approach to a musical biopic, which I might have applied to a project like an Elvis film, would likely move away from a traditional linear timeline and instead focus on specific eras or psychological conflicts to explore his internal struggles...."

"She was involved in everything we did at the Junior Shop, our ladies' wear store. I remember her working very hard, but one thing that always really stood out for me was when someone would come in needing a dress for a family member who had passed away. She would always say, ‘just take it. Even when some of those people insisted on paying anyway, she would tear up the check right after they walked out the door. She used to have us call the radio station to request Elvis Presley singing ‘How Great Thou Art’ all the time. As her health increasingly declined, I knew there was one last thing I could do for her, so I had it playing when she died."

"Elvis Presley all the way. He was my hero when I was seven and remains so to this day"

"On his live versions of songs like "How Great Thou Art"(1975),"Unchained Melody"(1976) and "Hurt" (1977), you will be able to hear how high he can go; but, it is essentially on "What Now My Love" (sang live at his "Aloha from Hawaii" global telecast, which reached 1 billion viewers when first aired in 1973), where he goes up three octaves at the end of the song, that you can really hear his true vocal power."

"i) He was wearing giraffe skin pants and Aladdin shoes and a pair of socks that Elvis gave him ii) Rock has always had religion. After all, it started as gospel music. Elvis Presley knew every gospel song ever made. I'm not an alarmist or nihilist, but the world gets more dangerous every day. I think our natural survival instinct makes us question where we stand with God even if some claim atheism.”"

"Well, I love Elvis Presley."

"The first thing you think of is his cool charisma, his electric personality, the larger than life thing that all those figures embody. But there’s also that little wide-eyed, innocent, naive country boy that is as much a part of it as anything. Elvis embodied both of those."