American Country Singers

"That September, Presley would make his legendary inaugural appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show," singing a sultry version of "Hound Dog" with his swinging hips in all their vulgar, gyrating splendor. During a later appearance in January 1957, the variety show would famously edit the King from the waist down in order to protect impressionable young television viewers from his brazen sexuality. But then, it was far too late. America had a full-on dose of Elvismania, and there was nary a cure in sight."

"In essence, because at that time the backward mental capability that many people had of judging a person because of their skin color, and it does still exist, but back then it was even worse, BUT because he actually was a Caucasian brother, Elvis was able to do away with all that thinking towards music."

"It was like an EARTHQUAKE!!! In my neighborhood the whole place was shakin' when he came on. And I said how can a person possess that kind of power that it even comes off the tv and grabs me in this ghetto neighborhood? Back in those days if it was a white artist doing some of our music many would say "Well, they don't like our blacks so we don't like their singers either. They're nothing but copy-cats anyway.' But with Elvis we ALL were going crazy over him. And I said 'Man, this cat's really got something!""

"That boy made his pull from the blues, and if he stopped, he stopped, but he made his pull from there.."

"When the question was asked, in March of 2018, “Who do you think is the greatest rock star of all time?” it yielded these results: Elvis Presley 36%, Michael Jackson 21%, John Lennon 9%, Jimi Hendrix 7%, Mick Jagger, 5% Bruce Springsteen 4%, Others 5%, Not sure 13%."

"Go into any Thai restaurant the world over and there will very likely be portraits and photos of King Bhumibol gazing down at diners with his benevolent smile, but one of the more common actually features him with Elvis Presley. The meeting came when lifelong music fan Bhumibol and his wife, Queen Sirikit, visited Hollywood’s Paramount Studios in 1960, while Elvis was filming G.I Blues. The king had been a fan of Presley for several years and was by then an accomplished saxophonist who later performed alongside jazz legend Lionel Hampton. In 1987, the late Hampton told the Thai magazine Sawasdee: “He is simply the coolest king in the land.”"

"They said no, and that I just couldn’t wear a disguise. So, I talked with my son and his girlfriend and got them to order me an Elvis costume to wear as I picked up my million million dolllar prize."

"Once when we'd been in the field for two months, the Company Commander asked us all to clean up. Elvis didn't quite make it into the barracks without being spotted by some cleaning women. They followed him upstairs right into the shower-room and a bunch of guys from privates all the way up to the Colonels joined the parade too. Right when he was taking a shower, people were shoving pieces of paper under the water for him to sign. He was laughing about it but he never could get away from people.."

"He really enjoyed doing the sessions and worked harder than he had done in years.."

"I've done everything for Elvis that I possibly can to keep the legend going. That operation -which provided me with pouty lips, a jaunty chin and a more Presleyesque nose was just the beginning..."

"In early 1957, I flew to Hollywood to finally meet him. It was late in the day, and he had already recorded quite a few songs so, during a break in the session, I noticed him sitting alone in the corner, adlibbing some blues on the guitar. I wandered over to the piano next to him, sat down and joined in. He didn't look up, kept on playing and even changed keys on me, but I followed along. Then he looked up with that smile he was famous for, and asked who I was and what I was doing in the studio? I told him I had composed one of the songs he was about to record called 'Got A Lot O' Livin' To Do'. He immediately called out to his musicians and they recorded it on the spot. I never imagined the impact he was about to make on the world. Anyways, a couple of months later, I went to see one of the two Elvis shows he gave in Philly and the place was mobbed, girls with their feet dangling down from the balconies, everybody going crazy. I sat there and said 'This is a phenomenon! As a matter of fact while I was sitting there, a tomato went hurling through the air -Elvis was already on stage, and it hit and broke the strap on his guitar-. He stopped the show and said 'Hey, wait a minute! If somebody's got a problem up there, why don't you just come down here and we'll work it out'. Whoever threw it, wouldn't come down from the balcony, but the person sure got bood...."

"Boris Yeltsin was best known for his role as the President of Russia, but he also had another unique claim to fame: Moscow's biggest Elvis Presley fan. According to sources, Yeltsin was a huge fan of Presley and would often listen to his recording of “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” during times of stress, such as in August, 1991, when he prevented a coup by standing on top of a tank. But while Yeltsin loved Presley, he hated staples with an equal amount of passion, as reflected in a memo from a Yeltsin aide demanding that no one use staples on any papers given to their fearless leader, as "this practice holds up the President’s very decisions.”"

"I objected to 's casting, because it made the project "an Elvis film.""

"I knew him when he was quite young, in 1956, when he was dating Natalie Wood, and they would very inconspicuously wear white clothes and, if they went to the movies, everyone would be looking at them, and not the film. LOL. In my house, I have a couch where they would make up, and to this day, when I tell visitors about it, they can̪t believe it. It is the same couch."

"I was such a great fan of his, I saw all his movies, and always thought I would one day meet him. But I never did, so this is full circle for me."

"As many have observed, Palin’s rise was an important waypoint on the journey that brought America to the Trump era, and tribute acts like Greene and Cawthorn. By today’s standards, the “going rogue” brand pushed by the no-nonsense hockey mom from Walisa seems positively wholesome. And to revisit the outrage it generated feels a bit like watching those clips of Fifties prudes panicked about the damage Elvis Presley’s gyrating hips might be doing to teenage girls’ minds."

"Elvis Presley would jump to my mind first if I could bring home someone from the past, to have dinner with..."

"There was a time when in some circles, people may not have thought it cool to say they were an Elvis fan, but I am, I loved him.""

"It is probable that he will eventually settle into the mainstream of popular singers. When he does he may well build a reputation as one of the most remarkable of white blues singers, possibly the first to invade successfully the field of country blues."

"A lot of people have accused Elvis of stealing the black man’s music, when in fact, almost every black solo entertainer copied his stage mannerisms from Elvis.”"

"Elvis Presley jerked his torturous way across the stage of the Municipal Auditorium on Sunday, sang eight or ten songs, thumped on a guitar, fell to the floor, knocked over microphones and set off a din of teenage squealing. At the evening performance he contorted his body in such a manner as to cause whole platoons to rush to the edge of the stage. In fact, he flings his limbs about and quivers in such a way as to make one think he might have a trick knee or hip, possibly from an old war injury...but this is not the case. This is just Elvis Presley...."

"America loves a phoenix, and we sure got one when Elvis dusted off the ashes of his mid-‘60s movie career and put on black leather for the greatest of all network TV music specials. Thom Zimny has done a video re-edit on some of the performances and it’s more fun to watch all this material after reading the collection’s written oral history of how many ways the special could have gone wrong yet somehow, for once, went so beautifully right. And what joy it is to re-experience Elvis caught even fleetingly in hip-swiveling flight."

"I was with in the Paramount Studios Commissary (in early 1958), where we were going to have lunch and suddenly she was on her feet as he had spied Elvis walking through. I don't think she had ever met him, but Italian enthusiasm cannot be denied. In a minute she was sitting on his lap, tousling his hair. The skirmish was over as quickly as it begun as she was only saying how much she liked his music. He was also aware that I was taking their pictures, so what could he do? What could any man do? Surrender..."

"I met Elvis Presley at the "Dick Clark Show" at Circus Circus in Las Vegas, a place where a great musical extravaganza with some of the greatest artists of the day would always appear. So, we were sitting in the audience and Jackie Wilson had just finished his set and then Dick Clark came out, but before he introduced the next act he wanted to announce someone special had arrived, "Ladies and Gentlemen" The lights went down and all of a sudden spotlights went to the back of the room. I looked around and it was Elvis, He was looking cool and wearing shades, snatched them off as if saying, "Hello Everybody!, then came walking down the aisle to his table and when he saw Louise, he stopped and said "Hi Louise. Hi Nikki" and they started talking. I stood up and he said "Hi." I said "Hi, I'm Pepe. It's nice to meet you." I shook his hand. He said something else to Louise, and then said "See you later" and went to his table. By the time I was in Las Vegas, I had already met tons of celebrities, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Patti LaBelle and the Bluebells, Dionne Warwick and Wayne Newton. I also met Ike and Tina Turner. I drank champagne with Adam Clayton Powell and I met Redd Foxx. But, when I saw Elvis, I said, now that man's a star. It was a different kind of thing.""

"I am not a part of that. To Louisville, I am f-ing Elvis Presley. So why would I pay anybody for anything?"

"I'll be back in an hour"

"Eminem is regarded as one of the most important artists in the history of the hip hop genre even though his albums haven't been as genre-defining as so many of his peers, and his music is only tangentially influential when compared to a Rakim, 2Pac, Jay-Z or Kanye. He's mostly important for providing white fans a credible entry point into the genre. And we're supposed to be okay with that. We're not supposed to view Eminem and Elvis Presley as comparable. We're supposed to see Em as authentic and Elvis as a vulture. But Elvis raved about Black artists from Jackie Wilson to Mahalia Jackson, topped the R&B charts (and country charts) regularly, made headlines for facing Black audiences in Memphis when festivals were still racially segregated, chummed around with Ike Turner and B.B. King, and James Brown called him his “brother.” You don't really see a divide between Elvis and Black audiences until the “shine my shoes” rumor starts circulating in 1957. But that quote was always just a rumor. I also found it interesting that Elvis was vilified for a bullshit quote while people like Eric Clapton got zero flak for a very real one. B.B. King talked about this repeatedly, but the lie is louder,"

"I sold it as *the fantanyl that killed Elvis".."

"He inspired me to become a performer, he is a legend. And what do I before I enter a stage? Everytime? Well, I take an Espresso and I pray to Elvis.""

"One evening Elvis Presley came backstage to see my show at Caesars Palace. I was in my dressing room with a few friends and well-wishers when Elvis arrived with his entourage. It was the first time I'd met him, and we got on very well; he was very gracious and polite, We talked about music and a few other things. After a while Elvis asked me to come over to his hotel, where he had some music he wanted to play for me. It was about 2:30 in the morning when we got back to Elvis's hotel, but as he opened the door of his suite, a wall of noise hit us. There must have been a hundred people in there. Elvis ignored them and led me through to a quieter room and started playing some of his favorite music: gospel About four in the morning I got up to go, but Elvis said, "Wait, I want to give you something." He went into the bedroom and came back with six or eight Navaho Indian belts with silver and turquoise buckles. "Pick one," he said. "I want you to have one." So I chose one, thanked him, and then headed back to my hotel. I still have the Navaho belt he gave me. I felt about it the way I did about those things my kids sometimes give me: You keep and proudly display them not because of what they are but because of who has given them to you."

"I was in a large parking lot, on one side hosting a telethon I was involved in and the Monroe Civic Center, where Elvis was playing, on the other. He knew there was going to be a child in a wheelchair waiting for him, so he stopped on his way to his limo, totally tired, after the concert, but got oh his knees and placed a scarf around his neck. I felt like crying. Then he looked at me, I was 24, hugged me and told me a few stories one of them about how a co worker had encouraged him to record."

"That there is a seat in the front in the concert of and Elvis Presley."

"I was 17, so I go to Hollywood for a few days, staying with , whose husband was then choreographer for Elvis in "King Creole". So I watched the shooting one day, then Elvis came over and started talking to me, invited me to dinner, at his hotel, the Beverly Wilshire. So after dinner we end up in his bedroom. And when he found out I was a virgin, he just picked up his guitar and sat on his bed and sang to me for about two hours. He was gorgeous in those days. I couldn't wait to tell all my girlfriends."

"Overnight, or over a bite, you might say, the hand that's been punching out copy for the unconcerned becomes celebrated as the hand that was bitten by Elvis Presley. As a newspaper woman gnawed by the nation's top hound dog singer, I've been advised variously to sue for assault, take a rabies shot, inquire whether he brushes after every meal, or offer my paw to the museum. Yep, folks have really showed concern."

"Big romance betwen Elvis and Mimi Roman"

"He was so ahead of his time, and that's why he brought so many people together, with his music without it having it any racial barriers."

"Those who would wall off cultures from “outsiders” are would-be wardens."

"The first line of the record is sung without accompaniment, punctuated at the end by two beats, two chords on the piano. Exquisite. And this pattern is repeated through the verse, a Capella singing, piano crash, more a Capella singing; and then Elvis sings the chorus backed only by the beautiful, lonesome sound of a walking electric bass. The risk —only a great voice can hang out there that naked — is impressive and the payoff is phenomenal. None of which would matter, I suppose, if it weren't that the voice that this perfect and daring bit of accompaniment supports is nothing short of awesome; spirit is walking throughout this recording, just put it on the phonograph, and the room fills with ozone. Darkness and gloom drip joyfully from every rafter. This "Heartbreak Hotel" voice is an instant old friend; it intimately and unforgettably announces the arrival of something big."

"I was frightened by Elvis, I think because I was 10, but my sister Nancy loved him.."

"The quote, “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes,” comes from a 1968 brochure for an Andy Warhol art exhibit in Sweden. In today’s social-media-obsessed culture, 15 minutes has been shaved to 15 seconds, the posting time for a TikTok video. Elvis Presley earned every minute of the fame and adulation showered upon him. He began his music career in the epicenter of the creative cauldron for indigenous American music: Memphis and his genius rested with his capacity to absorb and synthesize the blues, gospel, country and bluegrass music he heard growing up in nearby Tupelo, Mississippi. One way to evaluate the power of fame is to consider how long it lasts. Elvis has been dead for 45 years but it’s like he never died. After Santa Claus, I can’t think of another individual who has as many imitators. Graceland, Elvis’s cherished home in Memphis (3764 Elvis Presley Boulevard), is modest by today’s McMansion standards. Here on an almost 14-acre estate visited by 650,000 tourists annually rests Elvis’ vast collection of clothing, cars, motorcycles and airplanes. The property was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006, the first site related to rock music to ever be given that honor.I saw it as an example of the American dream writ large, a classic Horacio Alger story, a stunning symbol of what it’s like to be born dirt poor and end up filthy rich. Elvis was a man blessed with dazzling gifts and cursed with debilitating addictions. Unlike unbelievably wealthy men of today such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos playing with their rocket ship boy toys, Elvis provided so much pleasure to so many, for so long that he earned the right to enjoy his baubles, bangles and beads."

"We were booked to fly home the next day, but that night after the last show we got a telephone call from Colonel Tom Parker saying that Elvis would like to meet us on a film set at 2pm the next day. When we arrived Col. Parker met us and told us that Elvis had just gone out for a ride. Just then we heard what at first sounded like thunder coming from down the beach a long way off. As the sound got louder, we could see about 13 motorbikes side-by-side coming towards us. Elvis was in the centre of the riders as they roared onto the film set. What an entrance! I was spellbound! All together we had about two hours with Elvis. I told him that when I saw the first clip of him in "Jailhouse Rock", that's what got me into rock ‘n’ roll. We also talked about our tour of America. What a guy. A real gent. It was wonderful. A brilliant day."

"Elvis was the ideal in 'Orpheus Descending', and we were optimistic up to a point that he might make his first appearance on the stage, and then we hoped he would appear in a film. That was a madly delirious episode, because time, for the most famous people, simply has no meaning. People and things arrive at the slightest expression of desire or interest, and they disappear just as quickly. All questions are answered; every need fulfilled. He was elaborately polite with me: I think he saw me as some elder Southern gentleman who might give his father a loan at the bank downtown, but we soon saw that the discipline of a stage performance was beyond him. It was--and it is--frightfully boring for most people to show up and replicate and expand within a refined role. Still, I met him. I was in the presence. Diamonds and lard. There's your title."

"It made me feel great to be with him. He fit in so easy. Driver, loader, gunner, and tank commander you had to learn all four positions. Seeing him operate a tank was normal. His parents, visited often and especially his mother was a great source of comfort to us young draftees, always telling us to take care of each other, like we were her children. When she passed away, he said he'd give everything he had to get her back, but he knew he couldn't do that. He showed me all the telegrams he got from celebrities, three books filled with them. Once in Germany we served in the 1st Battalion, 32nd Armor Regiment, 3rd Armored Division. Despite his fame, Elvis was always just one of the guys. In fact, he inspired the other men to be better, stronger soldiers. When things got tough you could be out at night, it's cold and raining and you're on guard duty, and he was out there, too. If he could do it, that made me feel like, OK, I can do this!" After serving two years, we both came home and I went to work for a flooring company, drove a dump truck and eventually became a building engineer for Memphis City Schools. With my wife we raised two daughters and they knew how proud I was to have serve alongside Elvis. One of my daughters laminated the famous photos of Elvis being inducted, with me right there behind him. I carry them everywhere, showing them even to strangers because I want everyone to know how good a person Elvis was. And I do smile when telling the story of the time I was drafted into the military with the most famous person on the planet. The years I spent with Elvis clearly had a lasting impact with me. He stuck with it, did his job as well as I did mine, and I appreciated that. It was great..."

"What drew me to him was that his music was subversive. When the Beatles came around, grown-ups saw them as four mop tops, and didn’t take it very seriously. But when he came on the scene, it was different, the adults really didn’t like his stage performances and dancing. I soon asked for a guitar and got one for Christmas. It wasn’t an expensive guitar. A few years later my mom, who was a single mother, got me a nicer guitar when she saw I was very serious about it. It was a Harmony."

"Around the world the only three words that need no translation to convey their meaning are ̊"Jesus, Coke and Elvis""

"I was amazed by how sexy, totally alert he was and by his playfulness. And as he sang “In the Ghetto", I saw it as representing a white Southern boy’s feeling for black music, with all that that implied. He knew better than to try to be nineteen again, because he knew he had quite enough to offer at thirty-three."

"He defined American culture to billions of adoring fans around the world. Elvis fused gospel, country, and rhythm and blues to create a sound all his own, selling more than a billion records. Elvis also served nearly 2 years in the United States Army, humbly accepting the call to serve despite his fame. He later starred in 31 films, drew record-breaking audiences to his shows, sent television ratings soaring, and earned 14 GRAMMY Award nominations. He ultimately won 3 GRAMMY Awards for his gospel music. Elvis Presley remains an enduring American icon 4 decades after his death."

"As he concluded one of his dynamic and frenzied concerts an attempt was made to honor him by giving him an ornate crown. Uncharacteristically and courteously, Elvis stopped and said, “ I am not the King. There’s only one King, and that’s Jesus Christ."

"I was recording with at RCA Victor Records in 1975, so we were working on the song "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?" when suddenly Terry said, “Hey, Elvis is in the next studio recording.” That was a big surprise to hear he was in the studio next to me. So I walked into the studio and said, “Hi, I’m Brian Wilson” and he goes, “Hello Duke.” I don't know why he called me Duke. I said, “Would you like to hear what I’m doing in the studio?” and he said yes. So we walked over to my studio and listened to what I was doing and then said he had to leave. It was a thrill to meet him. I liked Elvis Presley's songs, but never saw him live. I thought he was a very underrated singer, more of a star. He was really known more for his fame than his voice. I think he deserved more credit for his voice."

"Go ahead, moan all you like about Elvis. (But) this is still the single greatest rock & roll Christmas record ever made. Elvis' slurred, dirty, wailing delivery and Scotty Moore, Bill Black and DJ Fontana's walloping primitivo accompaniment put this over with a licentious zeal that never wears out its welcome. Although he favored gospel above all else, Elvis genuinely excelled as a blues singer (there simply ain't another white cat who can pull ‘em off as convincingly) and this wildly unlikely collision of atmosphere and theme rates as a minor, and altogether irresistible, masterpiece —"