Elvis Presley

"One male vocalist stands out above all others, and that is Elvis Presley. To understand why, I suggest listening to Elvis's 1954 Sun recording of "Blue Moon" and his 1960 version of "Fever." And be sure not to miss his rockabilly version of "Good Rockin' Tonight." Then check out his tender, sweet version of "Crying in the Chapel." Next, listen to the powerful high notes he hits on "American Trilogy," especially his version of "Battle Hymn of the Republic." Then listen to his undervalued masterpiece "What Now My Love" and "It's Now or Never." The latter is wonderfully sweet, until the power of Elvis's voice kicks in and takes the song to another dimension. Now listen to him growl out "One Night." Finish by listening to his enchanting country-flavored "That's Alright (Mama)" and gospel songs like "Peace in the Valley." Try as I may, I can't think of another male singer who can go from nearly infinite sweetness, to ferocity, to spirituality, to tremendous power the way Elvis does. With the right song in hand, he was untouchable. But was Elvis the greatest male falsetto singer of all time? It's hard to say if Elvis was really singing falsetto at times because his voice was so wonderfully high, pure, sweet and effortless. But does it really matter how he did what he did?"

"He had a love for God, his family, the congregation and a true reverence of Elvis Presley."

"In 1967, we were once performing two sets at DC's Cellar Door (a 163-seat music club) at 34th and M streets and as we were changing for the second set, the manager tapped on our door and said, ‘You have five minutes. By the way, 'The King' is in the house. I was the baby in the group and the others had seen queens and kings, they perform all over the world. I had never seen a king. I changed my clothes and cleaned up. I peeked and when I looked out, there was Elvis. He and Col. Parker were secluded from the audience. They had been there for the first set. When he stood up I was breathless. He asked me to sit down, but I had to go. I said, ‘I want you to know, I followed your career.’ And he said in his Elvis voice, ‘The Platters were very influential in my career. You did extremely well on ‘I Only Have Eyes for You.’ He said he liked the way I sang it in the first set. I went back and told the guys and they didn't believe me. I said, ‘Yes he is out there.’ We go on stage and I was looking for him. I had the microphone in my hands and he was gone....."

"I will release my tax returns if Donald Trump does too and yes, I will again wear my Elvis costume and even dance with Hillary in the streets of Omaha, as she wants, if she wins."

"He was the only man from Northern Mississippi who could shake his hips, and still be loved by rednecks, cops and hippies."

"Angel loved kittens, horses, shopping and Elvis Presley. Most of all she loved giving hugs. Her parents would often take her mushroom hunting, usually carrying her Bible with her ."

"And then of course, the same Phillips auction that saw the new Speedmaster record, also gave us the new overall record for an Omega wristwatch in the form of a watch was owned by Elvis Presley. It absolutely crushed its pre-sale estimates of CHF 50,000-100,000 on the way to $1.8 million, overtaking a record set by a rare observatory tourbillon sold at Phillips's in November of 2017 Geneva sale."

"I think it's a little harder to churn out interfaces with sociology. When I was a kid and Elvis broke through it was a sociological phenomenon that lasted through the Beatles and even a bit through Fleetwood. I grew up in Atherton, California, with my two older brothers, one of whom, Jeff turned me onto Elvis. Without Jeff, I probably wouldn't be here today, so damn you, Jeff!!!.""

"Presley brought an excitement to singing, in part because rock and roll was greeted as his invention, but for other reasons not so widely reflected on: Elvis Presley had the most beautiful singing voice of any human being on earth. Presley, for some fans, was primarily a balladeer. "Don't Leave Me Now" (1957), is a love song given distinctiveness by Presley's twangy enunciation, and sustained by the guitar and rhythm sections designed perfectly to complement the balladeer, filled out towards the song's end – as with so much of Presley- ,with what one conveniently calls the heavenly choir, which wafts him home but never overwhelms the country lilt Presley gives his music. said:"

"Just the other day, I was interviewed for a story, and sure enough, the interviewer brought up my night with Elvis in Paris and couldn't believe I had been in that close a relationship with him. People don't want to hear about President de Gaulle, President Kennedy or Frank Sinatra. They weren't that important, compared with him. A picture was taken of the two of us, but I can't find it. People just have to take my word for it. This is how it all happened. Elvis, in his Army uniform and on leave from Germany was staying at the Hotel Prince de Galles, so the moment I got the tip I went there to interview him and at one point I said, "What are you doing tonight?" He said, "Nothing, sir."I said, "Come out with me and I'll show you Paris." He said: "That would be very nice, sir. No one has offered to take me out in Paris." "That's because they don't know you're here. We'll just go out, the two of us, so we won't be bothered by a lot of fans." I came home for dinner and told my wife, "I'm going out with Elvis Presley tonight." She didn't believe it. I said: He's in Paris all alone and I'd be doing our country a service by showing him around." My wife didn't like the idea of the two of us going out on the town. She said, "I'd like to come along." I told her, "I promised Elvis it would only be the two of us." She said, "Why didn't you bring him here for dinner?" I said, "That wouldn't be Paris." I recall now her saying to my children, "Do you know who Daddy's going out with tonight?" They asked, "Who?" My wife said, "I can't tell you, but you have his records in your room." I picked Elvis up at his hotel and told him the Lido had the best show in town and I could get him the best table. After the show, we went backstage and that's when all the fun began. Everyone who has interviewed me wants a complete description of how he performed that night. I have been living off Elvis Presley ever since. To this day, when people ask me what was my greatest night in Paris, I tell them it was at the Lido with him. If only I could find that damn photo..."

"At first his Vegas career didn't go quite as planned. In fact, Elvis's first appearance in the gambling capital was in 1956 at the New Frontier Hotel. However, he didn't receive the support from local publications, with many believing that his rough sound wasn't what the middle-aged audience in Vegas at the time wanted. Therefore his two-week residency was cut short after just a week. Nevertheless, he made the perfect comeback with hundreds upon hundreds of consecutive sell-outs from 1969 until December 1976. He opened the then-International Hotel Casino, with more than 2,000 fans turned out for opening night in July 1969 which saw the line that lead into the city's largest showroom stretch to the hotel's front lobby. No one has quite made as much of an impact since."

"I think that soul has little to do with the colour of your skin or where were you born. It's the same with acting, if the actor believes in the story, so does the public, so I thank Elvis, who is one of my favourite singers in both the R&R and R&B fields, for doing the music I love the most."

"I hold no brief for Presley and I’ve never seen him, but when police are allowed to set up cameras and be judge, that’s an invasion of an artist’s rights and should be looked into, mighty carefully, by every artist and actors’ agency in our business."

"My first-grade music teacher played a video of an Elvis performance for the class and that was it for me. My mom dyed my hair black and I got a leather jacket, and she made me a gold lamé jacket, and I started writing ‘Elvis’ on all my papers because I believed, in first grade, that I was Elvis.”"

"His death is like that of Elvis Presley."

"What's amazing is that when we were walking up the stairs to come up, I was like ‘Gosh, a lot of cool people have come up these stairs.' That’s when Stephen Colbert pointed out to me that Elvis Presley performed right where our interview was taking place. He’s your dream collaboration,” Dierks Bentley, who was co-hosting then asked me: “Living or dead? I choose Elvis, which is a weird thing to ask somebody. People are like, ‘Living or dead? Who would you like to perform with?’ I'm like, ‘That’s kind of weird, but I always say Elvis. In fact, try to perform my shows like Elvis is watching and try to do the best I can night in and night out and have a big ol’ performance.""

"I‘m a music man and like to DJ on the decks in my kitchen, where I often listen to tunes while rustling up food, a bit like . I love Ray Charles, Sting, Dire Straits and sometimes I‘ll even drop some Elvis and all that has got me into a bit of bother with neighbours"

"Elvis Presley, at age 13"

"In 1969 I was playing piano for the Stamps and we got invited to go to the Elvis suite at the International, after his first show there on July 31, 1969. J.D. Sumner, who was Elvis' idol from way back and the leader of the Stamps, said that we would have to flip a coin to see who would go with him to the suite and meet Elvis. And I won, and then when I entered the room, and saw him, I thought "Man if I could look like this dude, I could get every chick in the world. He was the coolest person I have ever seen in my life. Playing piano for him, even if it was only fir the last two years of his life, defines my own life, in spite of all the success I've had as a producer since."

"As a vocalist, Elvis Presley possessed the rare ability to give the melodramatic a genuine authenticity; it's easy to take Elvis Presley for granted and yes, we all know that Elvis had a huge role in defining rock in the beginning, but few of us really know what that means; but then there's that voice, which Elvis uses to cut through to the most complex meaning of the song — the meaning that the song's writers might not even know exists — and lay it bare. On "From Elvis In Memphis", he takes the longing sentiment in "Any Day Now" (1969), his voice lending it a certain buoyancy that most artists would never even think belongs, and in doing so he embeds a deceptively simple pop song with depth and mystery, all through inflection; a craftsman at heart, his experimentation didn't manifest itself in innovation, but in refinement of his already incomparable technique; as a result, "From Elvis In Memphis" documents what happens when an artist who instinctively personalizes the songs he sings decides to get even more personal; the outcome is raw, stripped of all pretense, and dedicated to the idea of the song, his voice bringing with it a grave amount of weight; if you want an indication of why Elvis deserves a place in current pop culture, pick up "From Elvis In Memphis"; the music speaks for itself; authenticity never goes out of style."

"Elvis was just his own thing, man. My grandmother was a huge fan of Elvis; I remember she used to have this amazing Elvis bag that she would take everywhere, it was just her face unwrapped in a handbag. As I got older, I started listening to his music, and if you really listened to him, he wouldn’t be afraid to do anything. I find myself trying to look like him all the time, in “Blue Christmas” or “Hound Dog.” No matter how long this world lasts, he will still be talked about."

"He was one of a kind, nobody like him. And they all respected him. The unique thing about talking football to another celebrity is that it never comes as real, but with Elvis you could because he understood it at that level and that made it good for me to exchange because I could talk to him as I couldn't talk to an actual novice. He was the biggest personality, was truly big and I'm happy he was a friend of mine"

"He said I was good and I said he was good, we never argued about that. I wasn't just a fan, I was his brother; Elvis was a hard worker, dedicated, and God loved him. Last time I saw him was at Graceland, We sang 'Old Blind Barnabus' together, a gospel song. I love him and hope to see him in heaven. There'll never be another like that soul brother."

"Imagine Elvis with a master's degree performing a whole set about mandatory staff meetings."

"He always felt like somebody I should do and I think the Luhrmann film bounced the idea back into my head. So when I came to paint, he just sort of made sense. Elvis is one of these big characters that end up populating your life even if they’re in the background, even if you don’t listen to them or watch them a lot. Years ago I had this quite clear thought that at some point, shortly before death, we’ll each have this sense of ‘Oh those were all the people, not just celebrities but anybody who populated my life"

"Well, they were , , , , and ...."

"I named it Planet Elvis (17059) because I had discovered a similar one, just two days before and which I called Rock and Roll (17058). It just seemed befitting..."

"I like what he's doing. He’s rocking the blues, that's all he's doing. Rock and roll is here to stay because it comes from natural people. Rock and roll is a natural steal from the blues, and the blues will never die and the blues can't die because it's a natural steal from the spirituals."

"I'm sitting in the drive-through and I've got my three girls in the back and this station comes on and it's playing "Jailhouse Rock," the original version, and my girls are jumping up and down, going nuts. I'm looking around at them and they've heard Dad's music all the time and I don't see that out of them.""

"In the live music business, it doesn’t get any bigger than stadium concerts. Thanks to the large seating capacity of most stadiums, artists playing at the top echelon of touring can earn $4 million to $5 million per show — double and triple what they can earn at arenas.But the model for stadium touring business wasn’t drafted by a major concert promotion company or a professional sports executive, but by a 16-year-old girl named Kay Wheeler who found herself swept off her feet by a Mississippi singer named Elvis Presley. According to the new book "Rock Concert" by Wall Street Journal music and arts contributor Marc Meyers, Wheeler convinced the Cotton Bowl to host a concert headlined by the “Blue Suede Shoes” crooner, convinced a local radio station to be her partner, and drew in a capacity crowd thanks a letter writing campaign promoting the concer"

"We at Fox were the only people who could put John Wayne, Elvis Presley, and Marilyn Monroe in movies and not have them do any business,"

"That's when the price of art really started going up...."

"i) The late writer Norman Mailer, used to tell me that, in history, only a few names get known. So, you know, Andy Warhol would paint Mao Tse Tung or Elvis Presley. I think Trump always wanted to be in that class of a known name.ii) I see Elvis as someone who was a pioneer in smashing up some of the conformity of the Eisenhower fifties. There was something about him, an aura, that he created which made him one of the revolutionarfigures of Cold War America."

"I'd have Sir David Attenborough though I think everyone would have him. Then Emma Thompson was one that I think would be really nice to have dinner with as she's always seemed like a really interesting lady, so she would be on my alive list of guests. In terms of deceased people, I would have a young Elvis I think, or before he was at his peak anyway. Then JFK. They would be four interesting people, with different backgrounds. You could go right back and say Julius Caesar but I am NOT sure he would totally get what David Attenborough's been doing..."

"In early 1969, at American Studios in Memphis, I had a secret entrance made from an underground garage, a trap door coming from underneath the basement, so Elvis could drive in and the people wouldn't chase him. Girls would pull his hair, as well as his clothes off and all that stuff, which was fun, but eventually it got to be a pain. So I told him how he wouldn't have that problem, he could just go in, come up the steps, and we would record.."

"I didn’t really know what it was, but they were interested in me reading the script. I wasn’t an actor and wasn’t pursuing being an actor. It was just an avenue, to be honest, of making some money because I’d just left school. They flew me to New York, and I had an audition, and I got the thing."

"When you walk into a New Zealander's home there's occasionally a portrait of the Queen or the Pope, but more often than not, hanging on a lounge wall, is a piece of Elvis Presley memorabilia. You'd see a hell of a lot of Elvis. As far as we kiwis are concerned, Elvis never left the building."

"Like most black people in the South, and to whom God has pressed down the harp of a thousand strings, that harp only needed tuning. Elvis' voice was that type of voice that agreed with the thought of Calvary. He had that type of bent and that type of inclination, AND ATTITUDE, that suggested that God could use him. I gave the music a different approach, a new beat, one beat, two beats, high or low, it didn't matter. So, I said come on in here and put your things together. And it was a glorious experience and Elvis was in that group. And when Elvis passed away it was a saddening thing. It was as if the clouds themselves started crying."

"A supplicant asks priest and television star Father Gavlin "Who is more pupular, the Pope or Elvis Presley?" The question is rhetorical..."

"Heartbreak, jealousy, loneliness-, Elvis Presley gave luxuriant voice to these less than cheerful emotions, but did you ever think of him as a balladeer of the unbearable bleakness of being, of the horror of existing without purpose in a godless universe? In the improbably vivacious London-born production of "Woyzeck", vintage Elvis recordings provide much of the background music for Daniel Kramer's adaptation of Georg Büchner's great, prophetic drama of existential emptiness from the 1830's. Dolly Parton and, more predictably, Beethoven, make aural guest appearances but it's the voice of the Pelvis that sets the rhythm of life. And if the "wedding" of Presley and Büchner is more shotgun marriage than natural love match, at least you leave the theater feeling less suicidal than you normally do, after two hours with one of the grimmest heroes in Western literature."

"Winston Churchill would add wisdom, war stories and outrageous comments. As a dyslexic, and I love to learn from people with very different minds to my own, English mathematician and early computer developer, Ada Lovelace would be my second of six guests. Elvis Presley, one of the greatest entertainers of all time and an example of people with great talent, along with Nelson Mandela, would bring magic to the evening. Finally, the only person on my list whom I have already met is Princess Diana, the most delightful company, her presence at my dinner party spreading joy, laughter, and kindness around the room."

"Elvis Presley bloated, over the hill, adolescent entertainer, suddenly drawing people into Las Vegas, had nothing to do with excellence, just myth. It’s convenient for people to believe that something is wonderful, therefore they’re wonderful."

"Elvis defined the concept of celebrity before it became ubiquitous. His evolution from prodigy to recording artist to actor to movie star and ultimately to myth are all depicted in the collage. AI was used to create his final transformation into a resurrected larger-than-life idol"

"I was in Las Vegas giving a corporate presentation, because that's how I made money in the off season. Elvis called and I was skeptical at first. But then there is that specific way he spoke, and it was definitely him. He told me he liked the way I played and invited me to see him. It showed how much of a fan he was, that he wanted an NFL player to come and play with him and his buddies. But I had to catch a flight in an hour and man, it would have been the story of a lifetime, playing backyard football with Elvis. And I still think about it now."

"Some of the girls were telling me about him, this new kid on the block and I was thinking, who is this upstart? Anyways, I was playing a concert with Johnny Horton in Odessa, TX,and when the curtain opened there was only six people in the audience. Elvis was playing nearby and that's where everybody was. So we gave the people their money back and all headed over to the high school field house to see Elvis. We went backstage but he was swarmed by girls. He couldn't even get out. We tried to get his attention but there were too many people. And then I met him. I'd never seen anybody like him. He had a cute half-grin and these sleepy eyes, and he laughed a lot. I was so struck by his looks, that I probably didn't hear the first fifteen things he said to me. Mom didn't care for him in the beginning, but when he snarfed up two of her biscuits in a matter of seconds and whispered to me, 'Does she have any more?' she began to warm to him. She saw him then, I think, as more like one of her own sons. After that, she'd even smile a little when I'd mention him. When we'd travel to shows in Texas or Arkansas, Elvis and I would sit in the backseat and sing gospel songs at the top of our lungs. The guys in the front would plug their ears and we'd just die laughing. We never officially broke up or said goodbyee. That's the last time I ever saw him, until he appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show..."

"He was such a nice guy to work with, a quick study. He'd go over and play the demo acetate and listen to a bunch of them. When he finally found one he liked, by the time he walked from there back over to the mic, he knew the song."

"When I was in high school, playing for Crystal City High at an away game in Memphis, I climbed up the wall that surrounded Graceland, reached over to a limb that was from a tree inside the wall, snapped the leaf off the tree and kept that leaf in my wallet for about six years."

"To have Elvis come home, so to speak during this bicentennial year for the state he was born into is very exciting,"

"My celebrity crush was Elvis Presley. I got to first meet him with George at Madison Square Garden in 1972."

"He loved Elvis. He once said to me, ‘Elvis is real pretty. People love him because all the women love him – he’s so pretty. I’m not as pretty as Elvis and he draws all the women out of nowhere’. Now, whenever Muhammad and I were in Elvis’s company he was always down to earth, similar to Muhammad, loving to give and help others. Sometimes when people are that great or popular they have arrogance and an ego, but Elvis and Muhammad did not. He used to play his records all the time..."