American Country Singers

"I've kind of been infatuated with Elvis since I was a kid, just always watching documentaries and stuff on him. It had a little bit to do with that and, honestly, I just wanted him to have something that wasn't very common."

"In an era when radio stations refused to play Chuck Berry songs, calling it “race music”, Elvis broke down barriers."

"He was an extraordinary figure of his and our time, his legacy tremendous in terms of the music he created, his films, and as an entertainment personality. The generosity that he showed toward others is simply remarkable and I think it's these aspects of his character, his persona, that make him such a special person."

"I was there taking in the show when it happened. Out of the crowd, I can still see it, an orange, medium sized frisbee comes floating up. I'm like ' Oh, that's going to make the stage. It did. It sailed right into Elvis, smacking him just above his right eyebrow. Bam!! I watched closely as Elvis, just a few feet away from me, absorbed the blow, then imagined the worst. He dropped to one knee, looked me right in the eye — I think he thought I was a bodyguard and not the curtain raiser I was that night — and said. 'I've been shot'. "No, Elvis, it's just a frisbee" I said. Not an attempted assassination, just one more painful byproduct of fame, I thought. "Oh," responded Elvis, then got back to his feet and started singing again. Like he always did. For that night, at least, the show wasn't over...."

"Black culture has historically pioneered music, dance, fashion, and it’s then been emarketed as Elvis (Presley) or whatever....."

"I hate that I missed Elvis and I wish I would have had a chance to see him"

"I am reminded of a comment made shortly after the death of Elvis Presley by a musician he had worked with. He pointed out that despite an impressive vocal range of two and a half octaves and something approaching perfect pitch, Elvis was totally willing to sing off-key when he thought the song required it. Those off-key notes were art."

"I loved Elvis since i was a kid, as my dad was a huge Elvis fan. His range was incredible high, or low and he could croon. His impact on me was his love of African American music."

"Songwriter Earl Brown was tapped to create a special finale song that reflected Elvis' emotions about the social upheaval of the time. According to the show's director , the resulting song, “If I Can Dream,” was recorded with Elvis in the dark, almost in a fetal position, writhing on top of the studio's cement floor. And when he got done, Elvis came in the control room and asked for the song to be played more than a dozen times. Later, Binder also crafted a gospel segment populated with racially diverse singers and dancers, which he knew would spotlight the Southern-born Presley's disdain for prejudice. Fittingly, it was the highest-rated TV special of 1968 and signalled the rebirth of Elvis's career."

"In 2004,at age 13, I became such an Elvis fan that I wanted to either marry him or be him, then I made my parents listen. He is my mentor..."

"By honoring Presley with the Medal of Freedom, the President paid tribute to someone who arguably did as much to bridge the cultural and racial divide as anyone who ever lived, an impressive and unifying act from someone usually considered the most divisive of presidents."

"It's probably asking too much that “Ruben Brandt, Collector” sustain its pop-art ebullience across its entire running time. But the dips are hardly depressions, and there's nearly always a frisky detail to enjoy or virtuosic tableau to bathe in, all of it augmented wonderfully by Tibor Cári's appealing score. Mostly, though, Krstić, whose background encompasses set design and sculpture, painting and photography, has shown everybody how to throw down the first-feature gauntlet at the age of 66: with Warhol's holstered “Elvis I & II” facing down our hero and declaring, “Draw!”"

"That is why we can waste no time promoting legitimate role models. This is where N.B.A. players come in. In 1956, Elvis Presley received his polio vaccine before one of his appearances on television, launching a highly effective vaccination campaign that by 1960 had reduced annual occurrences of polio by 90 percent. Health policy professionals suggest that public health campaigns using celebrities should focus on celebrities who are influential in particular communities in order to build trust. N.B.A. players, 81.1 percent of whom are Black, appeal to the under-35 and African-American demographics"

"When I was about five years old, they again showed "Aloha from Hawaii" here in my country, Norway. I had my parents wrapped around my finger, so they would let me stay up and watch it, because it was on after midnight. I was so amazed by the performance........."

"The only thing black people can do for me is shine my shoes and buy my music."

"Love me tender, love me sweet, Never let me go."

"Sweetheart we're alone And you are mine. Let's make this night a night to remember. Don't make our love a cold dying ember, For with the dawn, you'll be gone."

"The way she held your hand, The little things you planned. Her memory is with you yet, That's someone you'll never forget."

"A well I bless my soul What's wrong with me? I'm itching like a man on a fuzzy tree. My friends say I'm actin' wild as a bug. I'm in love, I'm all shook up. Mm mm oh, oh, yeah, yeah!"

"When you looked into my eyes, I stood there like I was hyp-notized. You sent a feeling to my spine, A feeling warm and smooth and fine. But all I could do were stand there paralyzed. When we kissed, ooh what a thrill, You took my hand and, ooh baby, what a chill. I felt like grabbin' you real tight, Squeeze and squeeze with all my might. But all I could do were stand there paralyzed."

"Baby, if I made you mad For something I might have said, Please, let's forget the past, The future looks bright ahead. Don't be cruel to a heart that's true. I don't want no other love, Baby it's just you I'm thinking of."

"I'm strictly for [Adlai] Stevenson. I don't dig the intellectual bit, but I'm telling you man, he knows the most."

"I had too much praise, too much flattery and fawning over and I needed to remember who I was, where I came from. One time I called a relative in Tupelo. It was Christmas and they were havin' dinner. I asked, 'What?' and she was kind of quiet, then said, 'Meat loaf.' I was shocked as we'd had the best, you know, turkey, ham, steak, everything. She said that it was near the first and they'd run out of money so they just had meat loaf. It hurt me. and so, I ate meat loaf for about eight months, every night, so I'd remember where I came from and to remind me of how many people were unable to have what I did. It was kind of a penance..."

"What honey? What is that? It's a sign, I can't see it, wait a minute. Oh, thank you darlin', thank you very much. Oh, thank you. The thought is beautiful dear, and I love you for it, but I, I haven't been caught up in this thing and I can't accept this kingship thing because to me there's only one, which is Christ."

"'Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't going away.'"

"'There is a season for everything, patience will reward you and reveal all answers to your questions.'"

"'To judge a man by his weakest link or deed is like judging the power of the ocean by one wave.'"

"A live concert to me is exciting because of all the electricity that is generated in the crowd and on stage. It's my favorite part of the business — live concerts."

"Man, I was tame compared to what they do now. Are you kidding? I didn't do anything but just jiggle."

"The image is one thing and the human being is another...it's very hard to live up to an image."

"The first time that I appeared on stage, it scared me to death. I really didn't know what all the yelling was about. I didn't realize that my body was moving. It's a natural thing to me. So to the manager backstage I said, "What'd I do? What'd I do?" And he said, "Whatever it is, go back and do it again.""

"I'd like to thank the Jaycees for electing me as one of their outstanding young men. When I was a child, ladies and gentlemen, I was a dreamer. I read comic books, and I was the hero of the comic book. I saw movies, and I was the hero in the movie. So every dream I ever dreamed, has come true a hundred times... And these gentlemen over here, these are the type of people who care, they're dedicated, and they realize that it is possible that they might be building the kingdom of heaven, it's not just too far fetched, from reality. I'd like to say that I learned very early in life that "Without a song, the day would never end; without a song, a man ain't got a friend; without a song, the road would never bend — without a song." So I keep singing a song. Goodnight. Thank you."

"It just happened. I like to sing, and well, I just started singing and folks just started listening. I can't tell folks that I worked and learned and studied, and overcame disappointments, because I didn't."

"I'm never going to sing another song I don't believe in. I'm never going to make another picture I don't believe in."

"... I just know that, right now, ... the biggest record selling business there is is rock and roll."

"Rock and roll is a music, and why should a music contribute to ... juvenile delinquency? If people are going to be juvenile delinquents, they're going to be delinquents if they hear ... Mother Goose rhymes."

"(For) Mississippi: Elvis Presley. He served as perhaps the most important figure in the mainstream popularization of early rock, his Billboard chart legacy being equally astounding. He's scored 109 Hot 100 hits between the chart's start in 1958 and 2020 (!) and boasts the most charted albums in the archives of the Billboard 200 albums chart. Simply, he's still the King of Rock & Roll."

"In late 1959, Ibn Saud, the then King of Saudi Arabia. was spending time in Germany for medical reasons. One of his sons was a huge Elvis admirer, giving him a precious garment with golden applications, a waterpipe and a tea set with the royal crest on it, as a thank you gesture for his having left the Grunwald Hotel so that his father and his entire entourage could make total use of it. Soon after posing with the garment for the King's son at his newly rented house on #14 Goethestrasse, his friend and fellow GI Charlie Hodge had a zany idea: why couldn't he go out and walk in front of the German people, or anyone, for that matter, using the garment so as not to be recognized. This was finally done on February 1960, as he took a cab to the "Mainzer Karneval", a big public party, staying there for 3 days in the nearby town of Mainz which was not far from Bad Nauheim. And nobody noticed the by then Sgt Elvis Presley, in spite of him being accompanied by Hodge, plus two bodyguards all dressed as sailors as well as by a mysterious girl from Bad Nauheim, who did the translations. Elvis joined the whole programme, the clubs, the pubs, the bars, parades but stayed sober. The others did not, LOL. but they all returned safe, late at night."

"Intensity of communication, emotion, how the fusion of poetry is related to me as a listener. I'm disappointed by the bland and perfect vocal accomplishment, which I hear on so many recordings. Which is not to say that classical singers shouldn't try to become vocally masterful. I take my cue more and more from good pop singers. The other day I was looking at an early concert of Elvis Presley. It was fascinating to watch, the body language, the vocal suppleness"

"Elvis Was A Democrat"

"Elvis Presley is the pivotal figure in our story about a spectacular house where everything is questioned to subvert the traditional view of private space, which becomes a stage.'"

"This is a case produced by the Thai Nakorn company, the best silversmiths in my country and as you can see, it reads “To Elvis Presley Hollywood 1960” with my special dedication to you, Sir, reading " “King Bhumibol Adulyadej to the King of Rock ดnด Roll”--"

"When they asked me where I would want them to place my statue, I said I wanted it to stand between the figures of Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson,"

"Elvis Presley movies – I'm a big Elvis fan – although I don't think you should feel guilty about pleasures."

""Cant's help falling in love" it shall be"

"i) When you think of Vegas, of show business, of flash, of those performances, you think of Elvis. He is iconic; a lot of performers today look to that for inspiration ii) You have to have soul to sing like Elvis, and Elvis had soul" ""

"Welcome to the "Veranda Suite", Elvis Presley used to stay here..."

"We all had similar tastes in the band it seemed. I don't remember the first album I bought but the first record I got was Hound Dog by Elvis.And of course, everybody listens to Elvis now and then."