American Country Singers

"Although most of the other boys wore white tuxedos, Elvis chose a relatively conservative dark blue suit. Shyly, he pinned a pink carnation corsage on Regis' dress and as they entered the Continental Ballroom at the Peabody, the band was playing, and couples were already out on the dance floor. But Elvis steered her to a seat and offered her a Coke. "I can't dance," Elvis apologized. She took it that he didn't dance because he was so religious and sweetly replied, "That's all right." And so they sat out the entire night, talking and sipping on soda pop while watching the other couples. Finally, they all lined up for the grand march, stepping through a mammoth heart as their names were called and their picture was taken. A few weeks after the prom, Elvis dropped by Regis' house to see her and found that she and her family had simply vanished. Regis's mother, financially strapped, had decided to move the family to Florida to live with her relatives. Regis said she was "embarrassed" to tell Elvis how bad their financial situation was, so she never said goodbye. In the family's move to Florida, she lost her photo but Elvis always kept his, and a few years later Gladys gave a copy to a fan magazine. By then, Elvis was a sensation, with very specific dance moves all his own."

"Well, Elvis of course! What an extraordinary question!"

"It just fired him up to be in front of people again. He had a charisma where he and the audience became one thing. Not just the little girls, but also women and everybody got caught up in it."

"I think he’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen since Elvis. I love him"

"i) At the time (circa 2016), I was just listening a LOT to Elvis Presley. It was my ring phone, and the ring tones and it was all about Elvis. ii) I was only able to get through the pandemia thanks to my two puppies, Elvis and Salsa. Their names tell you what I really like""

"That is really amazing"

"We had a really brilliant Elvis double. And he certainly moved like him. They even did a little CG work on his face to make him a little more like him. [laughs] Originally, his song played much longer through the scene, but Director Denis Villeneuve said that when they were cutting it they just had little echoes of the song and it was much eerier because of that. Isn't that interesting?"

"I say emotional because you don’t just drive a Corvette. It drives you—and not in a chauffeur kind of way, either. I’m talking about the nameplate and everything that it stands for. The impact it had on pop culture, car culture, and the entire American culture. I struggle to think of a car that has had more songs written about it, nor can I think of one that has shaped so many dreams. To say the Corvette is just a great car is like saying Elvis was just a great singer. They are far more than that. They are the original American Idols."

"Many say that the his passing was akin to the assassination of President Kennedy, Martin Luther King or Robert Kennedy, in that they remember precisely where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news. Like them, I, too, remember. I was on the air at WSRW, filling in for one of the guys on vacation and going to the AP teletype machine when I saw a bulletin in bold print, much as a national emergency bulletin would appear, announcing that earlier in the afternoon he had been found dead in Graceland. I also remember waiting to announce it to make certain it was real and not a hoax. Unfortunately, it wasn't...."

"After a day on set we were talking about how youngsters have to save every penny to buy a car after their graduation. In the US, most youngsters were given a car, not so in the UK.I was 17, but soon after Elvis took me outside and told me to close my eyes, at that moment I knew he had a surprise waiting for me, but never in my wildest dreams could I have thought of a sports car. It was a white 1967 Ford Mustang convertible. Elvis handed me the keys and said 'It's yours.' I couldn't believe it, but I think if he was able to help somebody, he liked to do that."

"After I'd seen through Christianity, I was still influenced by the elegance of the living world, what appeared to be intelligent design. And that was reinforced when I discovered that my great hero, Elvis Presley, had done a religious album, called Peace in the Valley. Elvis was kind of a minor God to me and my companions, so when I discovered that he was religious, it felt like a call from heaven. This is Elvis, personally calling me."

"I have a respect for Elvis and my friendship. It ain't my business what he did in private. The only thing I want to know is, 'Was he my friend?', 'Did I enjoy him as a performer?', 'Did he give the world of entertainment something?' – and the answer is YES on all accounts. The other jazz just don't matter'. 'Early on somebody told me that Elvis was black. And I said 'No, he's white but he's down-home'. And that is what it's all about. Not being black or white it's being 'down-home' and which part of down-home you come from. On a 1 to 10, I would rate him an 11"

"i) I think Elvis took a huge chance in doing "In the Ghetto". It was a big risk. ii) The first time I saw Elvis in person I knew he was special. Number one he was the prettiest man you ever saw in your life, he was really beyond handsome. There was something electric about him. Coming along when he did, moving the way he did, jumping around the way he did, plus the fact that every woman was totally mesmerized by him. Everything came to standstill when you saw Elvis. This was when he was 19 and again when he was 30. I saw him at both instances and there was the same reaction both times. You couldn't have wiped the smiles off their faces with a hand grenade. He knew what he could do and what he had and he played on it. He came along at a time in the Fifties, him and James Dean, it was the two of them. They were everything."

"i) While writing a song in 1977, I learnt that Elvis had died, which influenced its lyric. Staying in New York at the time, I looked out my window late at night, saw a single light on in one of the buildings, then imagined that light being the apartment of an ardent Elvis fan, which became the character Dan the Fan in the song. In fact, the line, "The King is dead, rock is done," is a reference to Elvis. ii) In fact, Elvis turned up one night during our 1969 gig at the Whiskey a GoGo. He sat in the corner with his wife. I didn't know until after. I wouldn't have been able to cope..."

"He loved all of the well-known performers, but the one that really brought him out of his shell was Elvis Presley."

"The first time I heard Elvis he was singing a song that my brother, Mack, wrote, called "I Don't Care if the Sun Don't Shine" and he blew me away. Elvis was no accident, a great singer. He was very distinctive in the way that he interpreted lyrics. His rhythmic patterns and the way that he pronounced words was so distinctive that it was not like anybody else It probably came naturally for him. He did any kind of song an could be real and believable with any kind of song. He didn't restrict himself to any one style, never did."

"One night at about 1 in the morning I got a call for me to get the aircraft ready to fly from Memphis to Denver, a 2 and a half hour flight. En route, I asked one of the people in his staff, what was the reason we were flying there. He told me it was to get some peanut butter sandwiches. Right, I said. But when we landed, a limo pulled next to the plane, and a man got out with silver trays and there they were, peanut butter sandwiches for all of us. It was the best I have ever had..."

"When I photographed him in 1960, right after he got back from the Army, I had direct access to him, rode with him in the train all the way from Fort Dix in New Jersey to Graceland. It was so interesting to see all the girls running by and screaming and crying at every stop. And I was right there with him, eating sandwiches and laughing. At that time, there was no wall between the photographer and the star. But then, after I finished that shoot, it was as if a kind of curtain came down. This was the start of publicists getting involved. You didn't have direct access to celebrities anymore."

"If the worst thing (any one) can say about me is that I am like Mick Jagger and Elvis, I must be doing something right"

"’s partnership with has earned him more than $1.5 billion – not for his jumpshot, but for his ‘Airness’ and persona. The Elvis Presley estate still generates millions each year from merchandise, themed events, and image licensing. Elvis’s music is indeed protected by copyright, but his ‘brand’ – the hairstyle, the sideburns, the glittering jumpsuits – may be protected by publicity rights."

"One day I was nervous and struggling with one scene that stretched into about 30 takes, and I could see the director was getting frustrated,so I started stuttering. Then Elvis said, 'That's it, it's a wrap, the little lady and I are going to have something to eat", so he took me to dinner and the next day I nailed the scene immediately. At that early age, I didn't understand the magnitude of his fame and popularity, but he was a true gentleman..."

"I was very moved by your letter. I’m sure your dad would have been very happy with his Elvis-themed funeral. Thinking about it, I would be very happy with one too — to be ushered into the next world by the voice of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll singer of them all. Kentucky Rain, that’s what I’d like, Kentucky Rain and How Great Thou Art — Elvis singing gospel, with heaven and all its angels listening. It was a lovely thing to do for your dad. Sounds like you did a great job.'"

"You can't be both Elvis Presley and Miles Davis", I once said to him. But then when someone recently asked me what his dreams were when he was young he answer to me was that he wanted to be Elvis"."

"Elvis had a center of gravity that was low, but also set back and deep; his sexiest moves – legs lolling back and forth, smooth like jelly, hips rolling and tossing everywhere – were performed as if there were a paperweight on a string tied around his waist, and hung from his lower back; with his own weight adjusted to the back, he could free one leg to twist, pop, and jerk while maintaining perfect balance; Elvis' glory was in the shifting of his weight; when he gets going fast, the force of the shifts make his shoulders jerk so hard he looks like he is being electrocuted."

"Many of our vagabonds, the sons of the burgoise, can be seen gallivanting around with their tight trousers, some of them with a guitar heralding Elvis Presley attitudes which lead them to erroneously believe they will be able to freely attend rallies where they can lobby their gay and effeminate ways. But we will not allow such degenerate feelings."

"At 4225 Beach Drive SW, stands the Chambliss House, a bright blue home on the Puget Sound with a plaque above the doorway that states "Elvis Presley Slept Here, May 18, 1962." The plaque speaks the truth, according to Alan Chambliss, building owner and 30-year resident. He wasn't around to witness Elvis, but tells the story like it happened yesterday. About 15 years ago, Chambliss noticed a man and woman filming his house. Wondering what the fuss was about, he asked them what they were doing. Their father, dying of cancer lived in the upstairs apartment years before and loved it so much the family wanted to document it as part of a remembrance video. While making their keepsake, the family mentioned that the dying man was Elvis Presley's army buddy and that Elvis once spent the night in the upstairs apartment. As proof of their story, they showed Chambliss pictures of their father with the music legend. Elvis and his chum kept in touch throughout the years. In 1962, Elvis came to Seattle to film "It Happened at the World's Fair" and the friend picked him up from Sea-Tac and drove him to the house on Beach Drive. "He didn’t expect to stay the night at first," Chambliss says. Perhaps the Rock-and-Roll Legend was a sucker for water views Chambliss let the dying man's family film the upstairs apartment. About three weeks later he received the plaque, now mounted above the doorway, along with a thank you note for being so welcoming."

"We are seeing disruption, and it is freaking out the news media and the old establishment in Washington, Its like watching Elvis Presley on the Ed Sullivan Show."

"Hey Elvis, how's Vegas?"

"That night at the "Eagle's Nest", I remember, he was playing a (1942) D-18 Martin acoustic guitar and he was dressed in the latest teen fashion, but the thing I really noticed though, was his guitar playing. Elvis was a fabulous rhythm player. He'd start into "That’s All Right", with his own guitar, alone, and you didn't want to hear anything else."

"I don't know if I'd be in any hurry to do another research-intensive project. I found that out the hard way when I tried jumping into another one — during the final stages of production on ̊"Jesusfreak" — that dealt with the last few weeks of Elvis Presley's life. It seemed quite fitting to go from Jesus to Elvis..."

"He had a thing like sort of a quiet charisma because certain people have this confidence. And I am not saying he was Elvis Presley, but he ended up doing a sketch where he's kind of doing an Elvis type singer and did it so well."

"Elvis Presley's death deprives our country of a part of itself. He was unique, irreplaceable. More than twenty years ago, he burst upon the scene with an impact that was unprecedented and will probably never be equaled. His music and his personality, fusing the styles of white country and black rhythm and blues, permanently changed the face of American popular culture. His following was immense. And he was a symbol to people the world over of the vitality, rebelliousness and good humor of this country.”"

"I listen to a lot of Elvis Presley. He is one of my favorite musicians of all time."

"i) Guess who celebrated their 40th birthday today?” Elvis Presley. He is now wearing orthopedic blue suede shoes He looks very young, though, but I hear he got an orthopedic, I mean he got a surgical hip lift...he is only allowed to swivel now in the presence of a registered nurse. That's what the nurse told me and ii) If life was fair, Elvis would be alive and all the impersonators would be dead"

"Not yet, your Holiness, but I soon will,"

"As the "The Times" correspondent reminds him of Elvis Presley, he pauses, then reconsiders, "Oh yes, I think he was a fantastic artist and the best in his field. Absolutely."

"As explained by his wife and stylist Almudena Navalón, his fantastic "look" at concerts is inspired by the outfits used by music megastars as Elvis, Freddy Mercury or Mick Jagger."

"I was 34 when I met him. You had to realize that my father, being Mexican American, was very, very strict. He never allowed us to hear rock 'n roll or anything on the radio. Anything that had to do with music was the Big Band era with the records they had and/or the ranchera Mexican American music and the Mexican artists. So, when I would hear about Elvis, Elvis, Elvis, I could not relate to the hysteria. Okay, so I was in Vegas and I was engaged to this doctor who took care of Elvis when he was there. One day he said, "Elvis wants to meet you." so I said, "Oh, yeah. Right!" He said, "No. Really. So, we went to his show, but my attitude was like "Show me!" I was looking at the show, obviously as a fellow performer the overall look of the show, the staging, the lighting and I was so impressed. Then his singers came out, The Sweet Inspirations. They were incredible. So, then he came out in his white suit. I noticed his stance and I'm thinking to myself, he is standing up there very sure of himself. Plant yourself well and the way his fingers would kind of bend. Of course now everybody's going crazy and I'm looking around and going, "Wow!" Then towards the end of the show he says, "Now I'd like to introduce one of the greatest singers because she sings from her gut" and I'm looking around because the people are all screaming and I said, "Oh, my God, who the heck is here?" (Laughs). He says, Miss. Vikki Carr!" My fiance said, "Vikki, stand up!" I said, "I'm trying to. My brain is saying stand, but my legs won't work. So, I finally stood up and then Elvis has his hand out. So, I went up and he gave me a kiss on the cheek. And then he dedicated It's now or never to me.He was wonderful to me."

"I wanted to meet him so a few friends from Jackson and I traveled to Memphis on Jan. 18, 1971, to the Jaycees' 10 Outstanding Young Men of America ceremony. Elvis was the final recipient that evening at the old Ellis Auditorium. Of course, every one was trying to get to Elvis,but security would stop them and send them back. It looked like I wasn't going to meet him, after all. But my friends kept urging me, ‘Go on, Martha. Go see him.’ We were only about 40 feet from him. So I finally walked over toward him.” I was stopped by security, only to have Elvis step in: “Let her come on,” he said. I had my program for him to sign, and he did. Then Elvis said, ‘Would you like my water glass?’ I said, ‘Yes, please.’ He said, ‘Would you like my nametag?’ ‘Of course,’ I told him. That water glass has never been cleaned. It's in a shadow box with the nametag in the glass and the autographed program displayed. His DNA has never been washed out of that glass — and never will be.And the man who presented Elvis his award, George H. W. Bush, became America's 41st president 18 years later."

"i) In dealing with "Elvis", I am bringing a lot of my own feelings, because I really love Elvis, loved his music, in some sense, I feel lucky to direct a movie about a man who was bigger than life, a human being, yes, but who became mythical.ii) The biggest problem with Kurt Russell playing Elvis were his ears. They're like cab doors sticking out LOL, so we had to tape [them] down against him. It was unbelievable.It was an incredible effort on his part. He became Elvis up there. And he has a tin ear. He can't sing. He can't do anything. Lip syncing away, lip-syncing his heart out. And literally he was that performer. He became Elvis."

"The success of posthumous duets is often indirectly correlated to the respect with which the dearly departed is treated: the higher the pedestal, the less convincing the result. Wisely, the female country stars on “Christmas Duets” try to match Elvis Presley's mood, whether it's Carrie Underwood's tenderness on “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” (1957), or Wynonna Judd's brawn on “Santa Claus Is Back in Town.” (1957), On a wild eight-minute “Merry Christmas Baby,”(1971), Gretchen Wilson saunters up to the song, full of attitude, before giving in; it sounds as if she's flirting with Mr. Presley just across the bar."

"In 1957, I traveled for the Toronto Telegram to Buffalo for Elvis' first concert there. I observed that he was a quiet, soft-spoken fellow, not so much affected by his new-found stardom as bewildered by it. He was savvy enough to hoist himself onto a backstage sawhorse so that, in a photo of the two, he appeared much taller than me, though the difference was actually only an inch. That photo became my treasured family memento."

"Both came from humble backgrounds and meteorically captured their respective fields in a way that seemed to break entirely with the past and they both went into film as a means of exploring the mythic dimensions of their celebrity."

"Elvis? He was a bogus white guy with sex appeal and good looks who ripped off a lot of great black music, watered it down and made it safe for lame whites who couldnt handle the experience of raw emotional black music. Never grew as an artist, remained an entertainer. Fuck Elvis""

"The first thing I think of when I think about coming to Las Vegas and playing is always Elvis, it's always the first thing on my mind. When we were working on 'The Joke, my producer Dave Cobb wanted me to understand the emotion and intensity in a song, so suggested my listening to 'American Trilogy'"

"In New Haven, they put me on the stage to help whip up some interest in "Bayou". They hollered when I did the dance. It out-Elvises Elvis. Years later, during the filming of Change of Habit, he came up to me and said, ‘Aren’t you Timothy Carey? Didn’t you do The World's greatest sinner?" I said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘I always wanted to see that movie- Do you have a 16 mm version?’ I only had a 35 mm, but we proceeded to talk about it. He knew all about it. I only had four prints. That was one of the reasons that I didn't send it. All hail the King! Oh, and Elvis too."

"I almost died when I was told I would be his co-star. He was an extraordinary handsome person with a very down to earth personality and a velvet voice. When he sang in the film I would melt. "Why is this happening to me?" I would say. I just couldn't believe it..."

"In Memphis, they had built a football stadium, so we televised it for a two weeks to test the market. One Monday I am in the hotel, and so I get a phone call and this guy identifies himself as one of my fans, and he says he's Elvis Presley. I thought he was kidding, so he said "You don't believe me, go down to the front of the hotel in 10 minutes, and I ll prove it to you" So I went down there and he walks out of a Rolls Royce, we shake hands and takes me to Graceland. So after 15 minutes, I went to do the basket ball game then I came beck to his house. We sang, spoke, and suddenly he asked me if I had dinner, and if I liked barbecue ribs, so I stayed until 6 am eating a barrel of BBQ Ribs from The Rendevous, a restaurant which he called to make the order himself. That is how sensitive that guy was."

"Elvis Presley gave me the only dinner party I've ever heard of his giving in Las Vegas. He lived very near me in Palm Springs, CA, and just as he was going to open at the International Hotel in Las Vegas, he invited me for dinner at the hotel. I had never seen him before, but he was nice and I sort of liked him."

"The opening strains of "Heartbreak Hotel", which catapulted Presley's regional popularity into national hysteria, opened a fissure in the massive mile-thick wall of post-war regimentation, standardization, bureaucratization, and commercialization in American society and let come rushing through the rift a cataract from the immense waters of sheer, human pain and frustration that have been building up for ten decades behind it."