Gospel Singers

"I got to meet Elvis, an adorable, sweet Southern boy as charming as he could be. No wonder all the girls fell all over him.He was as wonderful in person as he was on the screen. He didn't want to make some of those films at all, but you know, you have to do what you have to do and now Elvis is gone, we're lucky we have what he did do."

"In the mid-60s, when Elvis was making those godawful movies and my friends and I were buying albums by the Stones and the Yardbirds, a mate and I would always go to see Elvis on the big screen; we knew the formula and always used to laugh about them afterwards, but what I also remember is what used to happen in the cinema: not long after the opening credits the audience would start talking and laughing through the dialogue – but the second Elvis sang everyone would stop and listen; Elvis' voice had that effect, even when he was considered as a joke by a generation grown up on tougher music and rock musicians who seemed much more rebellious, dangerous and innovative; so, for me, it has always been about the music and even when he was all but lost to us, in those final years, you can still hear that raw passion flare up; and I defy anyone, knowing that he had just separated from his wife and was heartbroken, to listen to "Always on my Mind" and "Fool", and not be moved; you can hear a man whose heart is breaking; listening to the best of his music, whether it be raw rock'n'roll or those genuinely heart aching ballads, confirms for me that Elvis has never left the building."

"Then, like Alice through the looking glass, I stepped through a door still bearing a desiccated Christmas wreath, and that's when everything got awesome. Graceland's formal rooms are all white carpet and gold trimmings and mirrors. With its hide-covered furniture and lamps hanging from chains and vines draping a stone wall, the Jungle Room did not disappoint, but downstairs was the real action: a room with three televisions embedded in the walls, a sectional sofa with sequin-bedecked pillows, a mirror-topped coffee table bearing a bizarre porcelain creature of indeterminate origin gazing toward the door, and a billiards room with walls and ceiling entirely upholstered in pleated floral fabric that might have been fashioned by a seamstress on mushrooms. Somehow it felt like more than checking off an item on a bucket list. Maybe it had something to do with a dawning sense that I was moving past the delayed gratifications of motherhood, past the time of putting off what I wanted to do. Or maybe it had something to do with coming full circle, of making a vow just as our marriage was beginning and finally seeing it through just as we were on the verge of being alone again. Mirror after mirror, there I was, right in the heart of Graceland: smiling and smiling and smiling. Unquote"

"Take a track like "One Sided Love Affair"(1956), and really examine every nuance of his voice, every caress, every tease and every growl that he lets loose for the song's duration, and you`ll you come to understand that the reason Presley's voice has been so often imitated is because it was unique and, furthermore, fuckin' great; no phony piano intro, not even a puerile lyric could have ever stopped him from turning this song into a real classic; imagine, then, how great it is when Elvis gets to sing material that is up to his standards — like on the Sun Records label song "Tryin' To Get You" (1955) - , probably the bluesiest song on this record, where Presley shows a sense of determination, not just a combination of nobleness and sex, but an expression of guts as well; quite simply, this is a guy who knows what he wants, and knows he's gonna get it, and his confidence – never arrogance –, is so contagious that by the end of the song, you believe it too."

"Elvis Presley was a legend, even in my homeland of Korea. When I received a phone call from a man who identified himself as Elvis Presley and told me that he was interested in continuing his studies in the martial arts under my direction, it occurred to me that this was most probably someone's idea of a joke; however, several hours later, I found myself seated behind my desk with him, seated across from me. Elvis then told me that it was at Master Ed Parker's suggestion that he contacted me. I was more than flattered, I was overwhelmed. He then insisted on training in regular classes with other students. He quickly realized that students were watching him rather than paying attention in the class so he asked me to arrange a demonstration which would allow the students to view his technique and see that he was attending class as a martial artist, not as an entertainer. I selected a day when a promotion (rank advancement) test was already scheduled and combined the two events. I selected this day because Elvis particularly enjoyed working with children and the student to be tested was a boy. Elvis was very humble. As a student of the martial arts, he was physically strong, his technique was excellent, one of the best. He was a master entertainer and a master showman, but he was also a Master human being. In many ways, Elvis taught me more than I taught him."

"He did have talent, that excitement. We knew the effect he had on future singers and players. I ran out and bought a guitar after I saw him."

"The first time I met him I was blown away, I just looked at him and said, 'damn, you about the best looking thing I ever did see, kinda wish I was a girl right now, Elvis."

"A decision to get vaccinated isn’t made by each of us, individually, looking at available information and making a choice for ourselves. In other words, it’s not necessarily about the evidence. It’s about something bigger. People tend to respond to community norms. If we think about it, it’s somewhat logical. We tend to look to people who we think are either similar to us or who share our beliefs. There have been previous public health campaigns, for instance, that provided information from breast cancer to polio. In fact, in a more unified era, giving Elvis Presley his polio vaccine during a staged photo op attempted the same feat."

"In 1958 at the age of 17 Otis started his professional singing career, briefly touring with the “Pat Tea Cake” band before forming his own band, “The Pinetoppers” in 1959, with well known Macon guitarist Johnny Jenkins. The Pinetoppers performed Elvis songs and country music songs in the Macon area. They also toured on the “Chitlin’ circuit," a network of black nightclubs throughout the Southeast and the white frat house circuit across the Deep South."

"i) Hanging out with the British Royal Family didn't faze me —I called them all by their first names. In fact the only time I ever got that way was when I met Elvis. He checked out the pre-movie stage version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, where I played the motorcycle-riding Eddie. I felt like, Oh my god, I can't believe where I am!So Elvis comes up to me and tells me "Well, I hear everyone wants to do an Elvis impersonation [for Eddie] but you didn’t", so the one thing I managed to say to him was, 'No, because there's only one you and only one me..."

"In 1968, he moved into Las Vegas quickly. He bought a piece of land across from the Flamingo Hotel. It was 80 acreHe was originally the landlord for that property, and he made millions on that deal. He then shortly thereafter bought an off-strip property, the first one that had ever been done.That’s where the International Hotel was built. It was a very, very expensive property at the time, it was off-strip. The first two people to appear in the show room there were Barbara Streisand and Elvis Presley and that was the beginning of Kirk Kerkorian’s ascension as the largest power broker in Las Vegas."

"I am a big fan of Elvis music. He shaped the future of rock and roll and I would take my daughter and my mum who is 85 and lots more family and friends to Graceland. It would be a great trip"

"The 146.5 million cumulative RIAA Album Awards, spanning 101 separate Gold (or higher) albums, makes Elvis the earner of the most Gold and Platinum Album Awards of any artist in the history of the RIAA"

"In 2023, I was singing Elvis Presley songs at a Bury Market pub. Now, two years later, I’m on one of the biggest stages in the world singing my own songs'"

"Because in a team full of rock stars, he is Elvis Presley."

"I'd already discovered black music with Big Jay McNeely at the Blue Sax in North Hollywood and made the blues-jazz connections, so I wanted to experience this Elvis thing. He was a support act to Freddy Martin at the Frontier, a fancy supper club that we couldn't afford. So I persuaded the guys to pool cash and we came up with $10, then charmed a waitress to let us dine on rolls while we watched the show. From the moment Presley started with “Hound Dog”, I was a convert. It was electrifying, a validation, to see these stuffed-shirt socialites who'd come to see Freddy Martin clamp up in reverence. I thought, Hey, a kid with nothing, from nowheresville, can do this!”"

"He epitomized America and for that we shall eternally be grateful. There will never be anyone else like him, so lets just rejoice with his music."

"Historically famous as the birthplace of Elvis, the small northeastern Mississippi city of Tupelo is now also known as an amazing place to live. Forming a triangle with Memphis and Nashville, Tupelo shares a lot of similarities with the two booming cities – including an incredible musical scene, culinary hot spots, and rich history – but unlike its two unchecked growth neighbors to the north, Tupelo has retained all of its character, charm, and, happily, low prices."

"One Friday night, Tapp and the "Hee Haw" honchos were flying to Hollywood, with the flight stopping in Memphis. So they were sitting in first class, taking up almost all the seats and on came Elvis Presley with his entourage including Col. Parker, with Tapp now sitting beside Presley. He sat across from them, kept looking and finally said, ‘Why do I know you? Is it from on a show?” Presley told Tapp. Yes, Tapp said, It is ""Hee Haw". “You hear that?? They’re from Hee Haw!!!!” the King told his court. “We stop our show everyday until Hee Haw’s over, then we proceed,” Presley said. “It was quite a compliment,” Tapp said, smiling."

"Channeling our inner Elvis with some help from the best in the business. What a night ."

"When I think about my family, I listen to André Rieu, a violinist and conductor who is very popular in Europe ( but), when I think about living like it’s my last day on earth, I listen to Elvis Presley"

"We don’t mail Elvis a Social Security check, no matter how many people think he is alive."

"I’m inclined to sympathize with Presley in the controversy he’s stirred up. He’s accused of inciting juvenile delinquents. That’s ridiculous. You can’t tie a delinquent kid to a hit record by Presley. Charges against him are unfounded, unfair, and bigoted. People resent his success. He’ll be around a lot longer than most of them think. And his records have stimulated a controversy that’s helped the whole record industry—we have Elvis to thank.”"

"I used to do Elvis at my shows at the Sands, in 1968, before he returned to the stage in 1969, so this guy tells me in a little piece of paper that "He is here" , so when the lights were put on him, it took me about a half hour to catch up with my audience. Later, he would walk in my shows, and the next day, there were lines to see me, because they thought Elvis could do it again, and he did, every night."

"I decided if I was going to China, I was going to go to Shanghai, I just love that word. What Madrid was for Hemingway and Paris was for Dorothy Parker, I want Shanghai to be my Paris. Next thing I know, I'm in China and the people there are so sweet and they'll do anything for you. At one school, in preparing the students who would be attending Columbia University and due to my association with “The Catcher in the Rye,” I assigned it as reading for students and said the idioms in the story would cause confusion. Another assignment to write about a famous person led to a humorous exchange with a student who asked me to write about “Cat King, King of Cats.” Following some research together, I finally learned who was being referenced. He was talking about Elvis Presley. In China they know him as the Cat King, King of Cats.”"

"i) In the early 1950's I DJ'ed in a radio program called "Hillbilly Bandwagon". This was before country music was called country music. So, one day, a guy walks in by the name of Elvis Presley. This was before he was really famous, age 19, I guess. He had come to plug his records at our station, so I had a brief conversation with him. Of course, I was always very proud to have met him, but my wife when I told the story too often, she finally looked at me, smiled as only a wife can smile, and said "I can beat that, HOG...."", That is how she calls me when she is going to tell me something awesome, and that was when I found out my wife had dated Elvis when she was 16 years old. And now she never ceases to remind me, you know, that if things had gone differently, Elvis Presley would be alive today and anchoring the CBS News ii) Fidel Castro could have been Cuba's Elvis."

"My mom ans her sisters sang in churches and in 1956 there was an Elvis tour in Arkansas and he asked them to sing back-up for him. Unreal....."

"There's something a little unsettling, a little frightening, about the best and earliest music recorded by Elvis Presley. I'm thinking about the magical and mystical Sun Records recordings from 1954 and 1955, about the obviously haunting "Blue Moon" and about the lonely, lonely "Tomorrow Night", but I'm also thinking about the more upbeat "Mystery Train" whose haunted history reaches back to Junior Parker, the Carter Family, and deep into the haunted places of American music, both black and white. The music is spare, almost hollow. Elvis's voice is at once both youthful and ancient, exuberant and lost, its echo like a shadow cast upon the ages."

"When I was a child of 5 or 6, I loved my little record player, but, other than children's storytelling albums, I owned only two albums — both gospel: Johnny Cash's “The Holy Land" and Elvis Presley's Gospel."

"I had done some soundtrack things earlier in the sixties with him. I never felt Elvis was a man out of time. What you have to understand is that his music never died. You know, at the time, a lot of people were saying he didn’t have a hit record for a couple of years; his career is over. I never thought that at all. It never would enter my mind. Because I know, from the first time I saw him on Ed Sullivan to the days I got to work with him, that this guy could go on forever. The only guy who will stop this guy from going on is himself. That night in 1968 I got the Elvis call. I remember one thing, it was on a Saturday and we all were making a fortune. Double scale. Golden time. Big time. I know this was a little different for Elvis working with us. Sometimes he sang live with us and sometimes he overdubbed. As a matter of fact he sat down at the piano with me a few times for me to straighten out the part he had to sing on ‘Jailhouse Rock.’ We were on the incidental and interstitial music that was all over the soundtrack. What’s more important than hearing Elvis in headphones is that I got to hear him as a human being, having chats, going back and forth. He had a musicality to him. Look, Elvis has innate musical skills. I guess we were all taking Elvis into a different world. It was a completely different thing for him from the A band, or the Memphis band. Just having the Blossoms on the sessions. Elvis loved the Blossoms. He knew Darlene Love and he was now playing with the Wrecking Crew. Hal Blaine, Tommy Tedesco, Mike Deasy, Tommy Morgan, Chuck Berghoffer, Frank De Vito, vocal contractor BJ Baker and yoursutruly."

"Even as a child, I studied him. I watched videos, I read books, I found every song I could possibly find. One of my favorites was a collection of early Sun Records recordings that included outtakes, and I would just listen over and over to the sound of this young, uncertain, shy Elvis continually and frustratingly f*** up the same song over and over again. And Sam Phillips saying ‘don’t get so damn close to the mic, Elvis.’ Just getting to hear that, and getting to hear his voice crack, and something about the nervous laughter of the King himself — I don’t know, it just made me feel like it was OK for me to not be perfect. I loved Elvis so much that I convinced myself that I had a spiritual connection to him. I really thought that when leaned over to buckle my…second daughter into her car seat and I sang ‘Blue Moon’ …and she smiled at me for the very first time. Then I knew I did have a spiritual connection. Even a couple weeks before that, even being invited to this, my oldest daughter, completely unprompted, said ‘I think I have a spiritual connection to Elvis.’ I had never told her — or anyone — that I felt the same for much of my life. So, something about the Ramseys and the Presleys, we got a direct line!”"

"A singer, at work, is usually thinking only about making it through the song without flubbing it. Look what's involved: breathing plausibly, remembering the lyrics, nailing the high notes, staying with your band or chorus, maintaining a soulful facial expression and looking good. You might also be whacking a guitar. And -- because Presley did -- you also have to move, oscillate, arm-wrestle with the microphone, throttle it, skid across the stage on your knees, fling your head back and spread your arms; and then you want to salt it with what you possess of art...he flings his voice up beyond the grip of gravity, and then surrenders, like a skater in a leap."

"I grew up playing sports and listening to Elvis Presley, whose music I favored; in fact, when an opera singer came on the "Ed Sullivan Show", I'd think 'Turn this off,'""

"The 2018 Pohottuwa Party victory is a Mahinda Rajapaksa victory. At all election rallies, the former President was cheered like mad when he arrived on the platform. It reminded me of Elvis Presley, who was virulently hated and deeply loved in equal proportions throughout his career. But Elvis did not care, he continued singing."

"My favourite artists have always been Elvis and The Beatles and they still are!"

"Musicians like Elvis Presley and Whitney Houston were strongly rooted in gospel music and in the same vein, many musicians of Christian faith begin their musical journey young. In fact, lessons and performances take place in and around the church."

"When I was riding the bus to school every morning, I would usually see Elvis sitting at the corner of Alabama and Poplar, listening to a black man in a chair playing a guitar. He wanted to play and sing like that man. He was a country boy with big dreams. After he became famous he did something to thank every person who ever helped him in any way."

"Based on our company's recent growth, his items have resonated with shoppers, with overall sales in the previous 52-week period ending January 22, 2017 advancing 26% as a result of sale of products bearing his name alone. His is one of the fastest-growing segments in the beauty industry."

"At age 25, Lennon wrote “Run For You Life,” a jealous, immature rant inspired by Elvis Presley's recording of Arthur Gunter's “Baby, Let’s Play House,” a song written from the perspective of a spurned lover who wants his former girlfriend with college aspirations to return to him. Elvis performed it live with hips a-thrusting, leaving little doubt as to what he had in mind by “house play.” In the last verse Elvis delivers this dire warning: “Now listen to me, baby, try to understand, I’d rather see you dead little girl than to be with another man.” Lennon's song picks up where “Baby, Let’s Play House” finishes, Most disturbingly, at the end of the song Lennon emphasizes his seriousness: “Let this be a sermon, I mean everything I’ve said; baby, I’m determined and I’d rather see you dead."

"The greatest voice of all time."

"Was that the guitar hick?"

"My own musical ambitions were born when I was five, watching the Ed Sullivan Show on TV. When Elvis Presley burst on to the screen, singing 'Don't Be Cruel,' I felt my first sexual thrill, though I didn't know what it was at the time."

"I was a kid of my own generation, so I loved Fats Domino, Chuck Berry and Elvis before I was a teen..."

"I would have loved to sing a duet with my childhood idols, Elvis and Piaf. And I will soon, thanks to new technology"

"He was in Miss Scriverner's home room with me. She was always bragging about how he would make it big one day. When he won the talent show singing “Old Shep”, she went on and on about it for days. Little did we all know that what she predicted for Elvis would come true in such a huge way."

"Based on Pro-Ject's T2 record player, it boasts a dimmable LED Elvis log. This edition continues that T-2 philosophy perfectly, combining authentic performance with a design that celebrates one of music's greatest icons."

"I dont think as far a screen image is concerned, there is no one like him"

"He was good. I mean, all the girls liked him, and there is a film of that performance, somewhere."

"My Fellowship took me to the USA and UK looking at local history – my research problem was to ask where will the next generation of volunteers come from to manage our historical societies – what programs have been successfulin “firing up” a passion for local history? From there, it took me to historical societies scattered amongst the “knee high by the 4th of July” corn fields of Indiana, to Nashville where the American headquarters of local history sits between the Civil War and Elvis Presley, to Illinois, to Washington, to Troy in New York State, New York City, London and finally Norfolk. It was a brilliant mix of the “grass roots” to the more established; from country societies to more urban;from entirely volunteer run, to historical societies with eighty staff; from the “can do”culture in the USA, to well funded from the Heritage Lotter and , policy driven programs in the UK."

"My biggest influence because of his charisma and sheer, pure talent was Elvis Presley. He still influences me today, actually, and with the help of the internet I can watch videos of him performing live anytime I want."