American Country Singers

"Any young man who calls his mother “baby” and speaks baby-talk with her must love her tenderly. But Elvis Presley didn't just love his mother – he worshiped her. In return, she inspired him to create a sound that would change popular music forever. It was Gladys who gave her son his first guitar for his 11th birthday, even though Elvis had preferred a bicycle. And it was his love for Gladys that prompted him to record his first song, My Happiness as a special birthday gift for her. The spiritual bond between mother and son had existed from the minute Elvis was born. On 8 January 1935 the then 22-year-old Gladys suffered a hemorrhage and barely survived giving birth to a set of twins. The first one, Jesse Garon, was stillborn, which led Gladys to believe that the surviving twin, Elvis Aaron, had inherited Jesse's soul. Elvis, she believed, was “the One”. Throughout his childhood she instilled in him how special he was. So when the studio receptionist at Sun Records asked Elvis what kind of singer he was, the 18-year-old answered, “I don’t sound like nobody.” The belief in her only son's special calling, whatever that would turn out to be, made Gladys very protective of Elvis. Over the objections of her husband, Vernon, she made sure he never spent a night away from home until he was 17. Once Elvis's musical career took off in a big way in 1956 things went south for his muse. Then, in 1958, when Elvis was drafted into the Army, she succumbed to a heart attack. After her death Elvis remained an incredibly successful artist. In 1977, at the age of 42, he died from an overdose of medications at Graceland. The date was 16 August – the very same day he had buried his beloved mother 19 years earlier and inconsolably wept, “Oh, God, everything I have is gone.”"

"Well, 'Viva Las Vegas,' Is was fun for Sergio and I to don special race suits for the Las Vegas Grand Prix, as we drew inspiration from Elvis, iconic gold belts and all."

"Arguably the finest recording found in all the Sun sessions, "Trying To Get To You"(1955), is a song that Presley made his own due to his hugely committed vocal, and the simple carefree abandon with which he performs it; at first, it feels like a classic country song with simple, elegant lyrics; but it is at the bridge – where Elvis really lets fly –, that the song is transformed from a lovely country lament, into deep blues; although the 1955 version is magnificent, Elvis manages to better it on his "1968 Comeback Special", in which he sings the song with so much intensity, it prompted critic Greil Marcus to exclaim "this is probably the finest rock and roll ever recorded."

"They wanted to kill rock ever since Elvis Presley went into the Army, but the rock chain kept on going, until today."

"As Elvis noted, 'A little less conversation, a little more action, please.'"

"The first thing he did when he came out in 1955 in Texas, it seemed like he was spitting on the stage. It all affected me like the first time I saw that David Lynch film. There was just no reference point in the culture to compare it too. In fact, he was the firstest with the mostest."

"I don’t like to seem like I’m bragging, but I’m going to ask you a question. Who owns Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Forever 21? and JC Penney? Me!!! My real business is I own 50 brands, So, when I was retiring, I’m looking around, I’m like ‘How does Michael Jackson and all these guys live forever?’ So, one of the chapters in the book, joint venture-ship. So, I called the three companies, seemingly Authentic Brand Group, Simon Property Group, and Brookfield Property Partners and they bought my brand for a lot of money. So, I took half that money, put it back in the company, now I’m the number two guy in the company. I put money back in the company, and now I own all those other brands, so if I ever go away, we still got Elvis."

"Of course, it was hard to get to Elvis because you had to go through Parker. But when I found myself in Las Vegas, in August of 1969 I had a way in and that was through my friend Tom Jones. Tom was friendly with Elvis so he fixed it with Parker that Tom and I could sit close enough to take some photos of him performing on stage. Afterwards I went backstage and met Elvis and he just struck as the best looking man I’d ever seen, even better than the pictures..."

"It's hard to pick one, because I love Celia Cruz’s depth, Elvis Presley’s vibrato, Ray Charles’ texture, and Amy Winehouse’ melancholy flow;"

"When political leaders present war as the only solution, it is up to artists to remind people that finding peace is still possible. That is the starting point for a Kosovo-based theatre company, Qendra Multimedia, whose new play returns to the last war in Europe before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and explores how it was stopped.The lesson it draws, and the genre it chooses to present its findings, is unexpected: the diplomacy of peace as a farce, albeit a necessary one. Dramatising roundtable talks between the fictional warring countries of Banovia and Unmikistan, the play is a frenzied comedy in which vain generals can only be lured to the negotiating table by promises of Hollywood films celebrating their actions. Opposing parties get drunk while negotiating demilitarised zones, mix up drafts of ceasefire agreements and sign on the wrong dotted line. Maps of disputed territories are partitioned with paper scissors until holy lands turn into showers of confetti. And yet, at the end of the 90-minute performance, former enemies lock arms to sing Elvis Presley’s Peace in the Valley""

"There is just too much difficulty for getting radio airplay for my new music. Most every song today is the same chords for maybe 300 bars. But I imagine they said the same thing about us when we were jumping around on Elvis Presley and Little Richard and Fats Domino and Sam Cooke and Otis Redding and James Brown. I guess it's all in what you call evolution..."

"O'Keefe was deeply depressed by Elvis Presley's death. He was his idol and O'Keefe would keep telling friends that he would be next. Six days after appearing on the Seven Network Show Sounds (which was a little over a year after Presley's death), O'Keefe passed away from a heart attack."

"(In fact), Elvis Presley was a fan. I was thrilled by that; I really was. We never know how we affect the people we come in contact with. We cannot decide how it is we affect anybody. It makes me feel wonderful when I feel that it is something I have done that makes them go on."

"He wasn't quite human, looked angelic. Jailhouse Rock is my favourite of his songs because he could turn a really shitty life, in a prison, into something happy"

"Pat, then 13 as I was, got the tickets through her mom’s boyfriend who was a captain or something with the St. Louis Police Department. After the show, he asked us if we wanted to go backstage and meet Elvis, Once there, I noticed everyone was trying to get his attention, wanting him to sign things and take his picture, and he would say ‘yes, ma’am’ and ‘yes, sir’ to everyone. No matter how crazy it got, he was unfailingly polite. I like that he didn't at all act like a big shot. The photo with us, once it hit the papers, obviously, was a big hit at my school. People would bring it up to me all the time. When the picture was taken, I happened to have my eyes closed, so all my friends would tease me. They'd say, "You’re in love with Elvis, your eyes are closed" LOL. After graduating from Roosevelt High in 1960, I got a bachelor's degree from Mizzou in 1964, the same year I competed in the Miss Missouri pageant. Though neither of us, Pat and I, were able to follow his entire career, it was all really sad what happened to him. But I just remember how nice he was to us."

"She has a taste in music that almost perfectly reflects her style, having been in politics for longer than a large portion of the electorate has been alive, and her musical tastes appear to be just mainstream, contemporary Top 40 radio music. Another large portion of her playlist features Jennifer Lopez, Marc Antony and Juanes. But like her opponent, Clinton also professes a love for the music of her youth, including her being a fan of Elvis Presley,"

"I think the best analogy for where we are right now is that America is Elvis Presley... the most beautiful, talented, rebellious nation in the history of Earth. And now, America is wheezing its way through ‘Love Me Tender". But America's still the King.”"

"As you know, I died in Chicago. I lost my life and I went to heaven because I was very good and sang very lyrical songs. And I got to talk to God and he said, 'Well, what do you want to do? You can go back and be anyone you want.' So I thought who do I want to be? And I thought, I wanted to be the guy who was the King of Pop, the king of show business, Elvis Presley If there's any hope for America, it lies in a revolution. If there's any hope for a revolution in America, it lies in getting Elvis Presley into becoming Che Guevera. If you don't do that, you're just beating your head against the wall, or the cop down the street will beat your head against the wall. We have to discover where he is, he's the ultimate American artist.""

"So go ahead Bruce, and give me the Elvis take on cultural appropriation right now. I don’t want to get waylaid I should say, but I am a big Elvis fan. And I’m not a believer of narrowingly defining who gets to do what. I think we steal from everybody, from everywhere and that’s the nature of humanity, of culture, that is how ideas migrate. That’s how music gets created. That is how food gets created. I don’t want us to be thinking that there’s this way for that person and that way for the other person. I think what’s always been relevant about cultural appropriation is if the black person who writes the song and who performs it better can’t also perform it and can’t get the record deal. I’ve got no problem with white artists doing black music cause I don’t think there’s such a thing as simply, exclusively black music or white music, or Hispanic music. It’s the economics and the power dynamics underneath it which Elvis obviously was part of, but he didn’t create it."

"In Michelle Obama's Netflix documentary "Becoming" her stylist, Meredith Koop, fingers a suit that awaits the first lady turned bestselling author backstage on her book tour. It's pale pink and pimped with diamanté. “She is not a minimalist,” Koop deadpans. “When I look at this suit I do see Elvis and I don’t have a problem with that.” That's nothing. It's followed up in short order in the TV show by Obama's now-infamous turn in gold-sequined Balenciaga thigh boots, and a dress slashed so high that you are left in no doubt that thigh boots are precisely what they are. This isn't mere Elvis style. This is Lady Gaga too."

"Never has there been a more obsessed-over American pop icon than Elvis Presley"

"Nowadays, with the cult of celebrity so firmly ingrained in western society, it seems obvious that having a leading star flash their wrist at a large audience would see a brand's sales go through the roof. But when Elvis Presley wore the Hamilton Ventura in the 1961 film Blue Hawaii, the then American brand couldn't have imagined the enduring effect of Presley's contribution."

"That was the one thing that they knew that could conquer the world. They had the greatest dancers. They had the greatest choreographers and teachers in the world. And so at the time of Nureyev's defection, they were going to the West, and it was just two months after Yuri Gagarin went into space, and it was an enormous embarrassment to them, as he was also one of those enormous stars that you probably won't get again. He and people like him, like Elvis, they were sort of larger than life, and they stood out more. ..."

""One good turn deserves another/Be my love, I'll be your lover/It's all part of nature's laws/If you'll scratch my back, then I'll scratch yours" That's not a poem; it's actually the first stanza of an Elvis Presley song, titled ‘Scratch my back". The phrase, ‘scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours’ was not coined by the writers of Presley's song, having been in existence way before Presley was even born but what it basically means is that a favour done will be returned, and that nothing goes for nothing."

"The entourage was assembled, and the caravan headed out so Puffy, Biggie and I got into my Ford Explorer. I had a six-disc player, and it automatically went to Elvis 'Suspicious Minds' and Puffy was like, ‘What’s wrong with you? Biggie was in the back and he said, ‘Hey, man, chill out. Elvis was cool,’ I thought it was so awesome that Biggie was sticking up for me for listening to Elvis.” ~"

"Before any of my debates, I listen to Elvis Presley's version of “My Way.”, just to get myself psyched up..."

"He is arguably one of the most iconic figures in American culture, the boy from East Tupelo who wanted a gun for his 11th birthday, got a guitar instead and went on to change the world introducing a unique musical style that combined pop, country, gospel and rhythm and blues. Although he moved to Memphis at a young age, Presley's home was, and will always be Tupelo..."

"Like myself, Elvis was introduced to the world of self defense while in the military. He would study many styles under many different ethnic instructors throughout his life. In 1959 he started as a student under German , (a Shokotan sensei), then was mentored under Japanese Teugio Murakami (a Shokotan master), Korean Kang Rhee (Sa-Ryu TaeKwon Do Grandmaster), Americans Hank Slemansky (a Chito Ryu stylist) and Ed Parker (the founder of American Kenpo – who would remain his lifelong teacher), and Filipino Dan Inosanto (later Bruce Lee’s student). Elvis’ love for martial arts permeated his career in music and movies, where he'd often demonstrate his self-defense moves. I'll never forget seeing him perform, sitting in the front booth with Bob Wall as the special guests of his wife Priscilla at a dinner show at the Las Vegas Hilton and being captivated by his charisma and showmanship. That was the day Bob and I first met him, when, after the show Elvis invited all of us up to his suite, where we talked until 4:00 in the morning. At first I thought, “What are we going to talk about?” I knew nothing about music, but I knew I could talk about martial arts all night long! And we did! I was impressed with his self defense insight and devotion. Even after two shows earlier that evening, Elvis stayed to the early morning hours shooting the breeze with us. That was a special night for all of us, which I'll never forget. Elvis was a real nice, down-to-earth guy, who made you feel in a few hours like you had known him forever. I still enjoy his music and films."

"Eminem is a King in his own right, a genius. He's our Elvis and I think we should claim that.""

"I got a letter from Elvis in 1961, I was 16, and the letter said, “I just want you to know I put "Halfway to Paradise" in my jukebox.” When I finally met him in the ‘70s, I was headlining the Hilton in Las Vegas and was actually following him a week later. I sat with him in his dressing room and then I said, “Let me ask you a question. Do you remember writing a letter to me, saying that you liked "Halfway to Paradise?” And he calls Priscilla into the room, and he said, “Tell Tony what my favourite song is.” And sure enough, it was "Halfway to Paradise","

"When I was at Harvard, and it's the 80s, and I had sort-of come of age with 60s and 70s music, so Elvis wasn't a big interest of mine. And, then in 1983, I listened for the first time to The Sun Sessions, Elvis' earliest work that he did with Sam Phillips. It blew my mind. It was like a drug. I couldn't get enough. It made me go out and buy a guitar. It made me try and play that music. And, in a sense, I've never gotten past that music. I can't get past early Elvis. I appreciate other music, but I'm always drawn back. It's just this energy. What I've always noticed about Elvis is there's nobody more talented, or better looking. He's a rare example of the complete package and he is at the right time. He's got it all. I listen to Elvis nearly every night on Sirius. I love it. Yet, there's always part of me that's very sad that Elvis couldn't have lived to see how great his work was. He was someone who was revered. To see that whole generation come out and play with him and support. And let him know that his work meant something in the American tapestry, but he never got that chance."

"I came to Hollywood as a teen because I was in love with Elvis Presley and I wanted to meet him. And one day, on a movie set, I did, and he gave me the opportunity to work as a hair specialist in a film he was then making. I want to thank all those who have made this possible and last but not least, Elvis Presley without whose kind help I wouldn't be here today. And you should see what it was to see him..."

"It didn't take Americans and the rest of the world long to discover Elvis and it is abundantly clear that they will never forget him. His popularity continues to thrive years after his passing, with each new generation connecting with him in a significant way. Elvis, known throughout the world by his first name, is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures of 20th century music and popular culture, and his status as a cultural icon appears ever stronger as time goes by. His extraordinary talents produced achievements that remain unparalleled in American and world history. The international superstar was an accomplished and influential artist in several genres of music - rock, pop, country, R&B and gospel - and he triumphed on television, the concert stage and the silver screen. American culture and music changed irreversibly because of Elvis. It would be difficult to tell the story of the 20th century without discussing the many contributions made by this legendary, iconic artist."

"Elvis Presley is my spiritual father and, as you may know, Maria Callas is my spiritual mother."

"While vastly different individuals, Abraham Lincoln, Elvis Presley and Martin Luther King Jr. were all brave Americans who firmly stood for what they believed."

"We were first called the Grim Reapers and we recorded at this place in Janesville (Wisconsin). It was in a barn and this guy [had] a four-track machine. We recorded a song called ‘Cruisin’ for Burgers' and we did Elvis' ‘Hound Dog, When the people at Epic Records heard it, and they decided they liked us well enough where they gave us a record deal, they asked us to change our name to Fuse which eventually became Cheap Trick in 1973. Ad then we lived through a series of highs and lows before encountering a particularly difficult era in the mid-‘80s. That changed with the release of our 1988 comeback album Lap of Luxury, which contained another Elvis track, in fact it was the only version of an Elvis song that went to the Top 5 – ‘Don’t Be Cruel. So there’s two references to Elvis Presley in our career.”"

"A toss-up between seeing Elvis live in Las Vegas in the 1970s and taking a dip in the thermal waters of Iceland’s Blue Lagoon ..."

"Recently, someone asked the question of who had been the one individual who'd helped save the most money in the US healthcare industry in the last century. The answer – surprisingly – is Elvis Presley. On October 28, 1956, Elvis got a polio vaccination before his appearance on national TV. That event was responsible for raising immunization levels in the US from 0.6% to over 80% in just 6 months. No other single individual has had that kind of impact on healthcare in the US."

"These last three years he's been so used to people tearing at him wherever he goes that he's drawn-into as hell. He's so used to being alone with a few close friends and going for drives and playing records that you can't get him out"

"A group of teenage girls stood at the driveway eager to see a glimpse of him. Then, as someone inside ruffled a curtain, the girls all screamed, totally convinced that they had seen Elvis. Was that Elvis at the window? we would all scream. And, of course, it never was but just another exciting Saturday night at Audubon Drive..."

"From the first quavering notes of the song, it was obvious that there was something different about him -- you could detect his influences, but he didn't sound like anyone else. There is a quality of unutterable plaintiveness as Elvis, in 1953, sings "My Happiness", a pop hit, in 1948, for Jon and Sandra Steele, and a sentimental ballad that couldn't have been further from anyone's imaginings of rock-and-roll. It is just a pure, yearning, almost desperately pleading solo voice reaching for effect. The guitar, Elvis said, "sounded like somebody beating on a bucket lid," with an added factor of nervousness that Elvis must surely have felt. But even that is not particularly detectable -- there is a strange sense of calm, an almost unsettling stillness in the midst of great drama. When he finished, the boy looked up expectantly at the man in the control booth. Mr. Phillips nodded and said politely that he was an "interesting" singer. "We might give you a call sometime.""

"Dressed in a chic black tunic and bell bottoms, Elvis Presley stepped onstage last week at the International Hotel in Las Vegas and launched into the driving beat of "Blue Suede Shoes." The audience of 2,200, most of them over 30, roared and squealed in nostalgic appreciation. In spite of his updated look, Elvis hadn't changed at all in the nearly nine years since his last personal appearance. Oozing the sullen sexuality that threw the America into a state of shock in the 50's, he groaned and swiveled through a medley of "Jailhouse Rock," "Don't Be Cruel," "Heartbreak Hotel," "All Shook Up" and "Hound Dog". It was hard to believe he was 34 and no longer 19 years old. In fact, there are several unbelievable things about Elvis, but the most incredible is his staying power in a world where meteoric careers fade like shooting stars, Presley shot to the top in 1956 with "Heartbreak Hotel" and has stayed in the uppermost tax bracket ever since. When, during a news conference after the opening, a British entrepreneur offered Elvis a million pounds sterling for one appearance in London, it was Parker who answered: "Bring me a deposit tomorrow. Elvis arrived in Las Vegas a week before the show and immediately began rehearsing five hours a day-losing 10 pounds in the process. Only celebrities and big spenders were there opening night to hear Presley sing a lot of oldies and one new song, with a new message aimed at the black rock market. "In The Ghetto" chronicles the evils of poverty in a Chicago slum and could signal the birth of a social conscience for Presley. Another recent record release, "If I Can Dream," proclaims brotherhood according to the gospel of Martin Luther King, but did not appear on the Vegas program. When asked if these songs marked a new direction he might take, Elvis answered, "I go by the material. When I got 'In The Ghetto,' I couldn't turn it down."

"I have seen spectacular performers, Buffalo Bill, Enrico Caruso, John Philip Souza, Billy Sunday, Al Jolson, the Marx Brothers, Frank Sinatra, Lena Horne and Liberace but I have never witnessed a storm of excitement like the one generated by Elvis Presley."

"The recent news about robocalls takes me back to last November. I was coming in the back door loaded down with stuff for Thanksgiving. The phone was ringing, but I told myself, “Let it ring, don’t answer it. Don’t do it — you are going to drop something, you know it." “Ignore the phone call,” I said aloud to no one, yet I knew I wouldn't ignore the call. So I put down the bags — really dropped the bags — and rushed to the phone. As I put away bags of squashed lettuce and more — thank goodness, no eggs that day. “Return to Sender.” an old Elvis Presley song came to my head. In my mind's eye I saw a tall, handsome man standing in front of me singing that song. I picked up the phone to look at it — and like a light bulb, an idea came to me. A button. That's what we need: a button, I said in my head. When the calls come in and you know it's not for you — it's not for anyone human — you could press the "star" button twice, maybe, and the call goes back. Every single time. So here's my question for the technicians and scientists out there: Why can't we return robocalls to the people who send them? We should be able to. In fact, we would all be so thankful to the technicians and scientists of the world for developing such a technology. And they don't even need a new name for it. “Return to Sender” would do. I'm sure Elvis wouldn't mind."

"At first I would see a kid who used to come over to the Plantation Inn Club when we were over there. That kid was Elvis Presley. He would show up every Wednesday and Friday night to see me do Calvin's Boogie and Junior's Jive. I feel that Elvis' later success actually broke the ice for civil rights, because that was the issue during that time, the fact he sent the black idiom all over the world in his music."

"I wasn't even born when Elvis passed away, but I am hugely grateful for the musical doors knocked down by him. It was good to have people like that who weren't scared to take chances back then. You don't take chances to do it in vain; you take chances musically because you care, or you want to be different, or you want to see what would happen if you mix this with that. It takes an open mind, but Elvis was one of those people that whatever he did, it was right. I love the fact that Elvis was a country boy."

"i) I played a rock and roll star in the fifties... Who was that big guy then, Elvis, yeah, Elvis, well we did a movie in England at that same time ii) I knew I could never sing like him, but just did my best."

"It was huge. I was terrified, I remember that I had my little white lace dress. It was very scary, invited as I was to see Elvis's show and to meet him afterwards and even more intimidating, if incredibly flattering, as he was covering one of my early country hits – If You Love Me, Let Me Know. I went with Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber backstage and Elvis was supposed to come and meet us. But something happened, he had an emergency and he had to leave. It was one of those 'Almost!' moments..."

"About 125 persons were lined up at the showroom reservation counter early Monday, normally a slow day. Last Saturday some 500 persons were there at 10 am in hopes of getting reservations during the busy weekend. Many were turned away. Officials at the International Hotel said weekends were sold out and that bookings during the week were "tight" for Presley's first appearance before a live audience in eight years. Some Presley fans came all the way from Europe to see the show. The hotel received a letter from a woman in France with a 100 franc note enclosed as a deposit for 10 shows. The woman wanted reservations for both the dinner and midnight shows for five straight days. So far we have yet to have an empty seat in the house. He is the hottest thing that has hit Las Vegas," said Bruce Banke, an executive of the hotel. It was his first stage appearance in eight years and his only return engagement to Las Vegas in 13 years. Presley in the flesh has lost nothing. It was still all there. Gyrating legs, wide stance, a bobbing head with tossed black hair, rotating guitar, knee bends and the pounding rhythm of such tunes as "Blue Suede Shoes", "Hound Dog", "Jailhouse Rock," "Heartbreak Hotel" and one of his newest recordings "In The Ghetto" He was contracted to appear here for an undisclosed salary. Reportedly, Presley is being paid as much as Barbra Streisand who opened the resort in early July for a reported $1 million during a three-year period. Actor George Hamilton was among the first nighters along with businessmen of the Howard Hughes organization. A plane load of admirers flew in from Atlanta, and members of the news media converged here from the East Coast and Europe. Temperatures outside the International Hotel neared 110 degrees the night Presley opened inside the 2,200 seat showroom – after viewing an hour of Presley's gyrations – blood pressure were on the rise. Presley received a long standing ovation. It was one of the the rare occasions when a Las Vegas standing salute was sincere rather than rigged with a few cronies of an entertainer planted down front to stamp and scream approval."

"Elvis came out when I was a disc jockey, and I was playing country music. He came out and he was doing rock and roll, or blues, or whatever they called it back then so I played Presley’s tracks on my station all the time.SpI got a little criticism for it, from some of the old dye in the wool puritan country fans, but I thought he was great. Presley recorded one of my songs, “Funny How Time Slips Away and he even used to send me a Christmas card every year. But I never met him"