Elvis Presley: biography, creativity, photo

Elvis Aaron Presley - Elvis Aaron Presley is the king of rock'n'roll, the creator of rockabilly is the fusion of blues and country. He was not the first performer of rock'n'roll, but managed to become the most commercially successful of his popularizer. World popularity did not leave him even after his death, numerous of his collections are republished regularly and in our time. His biography and music, probably, will never cease to find a lot of followers, just fans and fans. Sold over a billion of his records, Presley - three times the winner of the Grammy Award. And if someone in this world is not given death and oblivion, then this is probably Elvis Presley.

Biography

The most famous musician was born in January 1935 in Mississippi. The town of Tupelo, where Elvis's parents lived - Vernon and Gladys Presley - was religious and musical, like most of the provincial towns of the American South. It is difficult to determine exactly which family roots fueled the talented boy: his family was from Germany, Scotland, Ireland, Normandy and even Cherokee Indians.

The family was not rich, and it is said softly. Gladys was leading, Vernon was of a gentle nature, and it was probably this inability to defend himself that influenced his fate, he even spent two years in prison on a strange charge of forging checks. There is an opinion that they even set him up.

Elvis Presley, whose biography is considered in the article, as a boy, literally grew up in the church, from the very early years began to sing in the choir and so moved his parents that on the eleventh birthday they gave him a guitar (for a bicycle, about which Elvis dreamed, there was not enough money) . Perhaps the parents chose the guitar also because by that time Elvis sang not only in the temple - he managed to get a prize at the annual fair after performing folk songs from the stage.

Memphis

In 1948, the family moved to Tennessee, in Memphis, where there were many more opportunities to find work for Elvis' parents. It was there that the famous singer first touched the music that made his life. It was this music from the black neighborhoods that helped make a star out of an ordinary boy, which became Elvis Presley. His biography as a musician was just beginning.

However, the first samples of immediate success did not bring. Even the singing teacher at school noticed that he can not sing. But Elvis stubbornly took lessons in playing the guitar, knocked down the yard musical team, with whom he played and sang right in front of the country house and gospel. And his neighbors in the house from time to time visited the brothers Burnett and Johnny Black. In the future, Burnett are rockabilly stars, and John is a bass player with Elvis Presley.

First recording

But this is in the future. And while Elvis has accumulated eight dollars and recorded two songs in the Memphis Recording Service: "My Happiness" and That's When Your Heartaches Begin. He said that as a gift to my mother. Phillips Elvis liked, he even told the secretary to take the kid to the note.

However, this did not go further than this. There were no offers, they did not accept the quartet, they failed in the Memphis club at the audition. All as one said that the singer from it will not work. And Elvis Presley, whose biography was so unpretentious in those days, continued to drive a truck.

Sun Records

Only in June 1954 Sam Phillips remembered about the singer he liked and invited him to try. As a performer of the song Without You Presley did not make any impression again, but a week later, rehearsing with guitarist Moore and bassist Black, during the break he began to play the familiar blues in a completely new manner, so exciting that his colleagues immediately joined, and already these sounds came And Phillips himself.

So That's All Right was recorded, which the disc jockey on the radio was forced to repeat several times per hour. The singer, who conquered listeners, was Elvis Presley. Biography Presley as a musician began exactly on this day. A few days later, without letting go of luck, Presley, Black and Moore recorded Blue Moon of Kentucky - the single was the fourth in the hit parade and was sold in a circulation of twenty thousand copies. Elvis Presley, whose work has only just begun to understand, has become on the path, predetermined by the stars.

Way to success

Elvis and his friends on luck began to perform on clubs, on the radio, recorded the second single - Good Rockin 'Tonight, then three more and gradually gained popularity. Within a year, Presley's plates became tight in the American South. About the singer began to write in the magazines "Billboard", "Cashbox" as a future country star. In January 1956 Elvis Presley was recorded - the first swallow named "Elvis Presley", whose albums after this success recorded the very inspiration. And the success was grand: the first place in the US hit parade, a million long-playing records with this album was sold almost instantly.

Quickly the singer found the glory of a truly national scale, and even more: his singles began to occupy the first places in England, and in Canada, and in Australia, as well as in Italy and South Africa. In the USSR, his records were not sold, but in 1957 he was like no other in Moscow. So, Presley acts on television, gives concerts and, of course, writes new material. And in October 1956 he was first named the king of rock'n'roll, it was the magazine Variety. Rock-roll Elvis Presley came up with not himself, it was done before him. But the best modern music in the world was rock'n'roll thanks to the talent that Elvis put into execution.

Follow-up albums

Elvis in 1956 acted in the movie "Love me tenderly," was very enthusiastic and busy, but the second album - Elvis - was made by him first-class. As a result - the first place of the charts. At the same time, a completely unplanned album was especially loud when Elvis came to Memphis to visit Sam Phillips. There happened to be Karl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis, the musicians staged a jam session, as journalists put it, "Quartet for a million dollars." Million Dollar Quartet was not released immediately, in 1980, when I could not add anything to Elvis's exceptional glory, but the fans were crying.

And Presley continued to act in films. He liked it. As a result, we have nine films - a real witness of the singer's charm. It was then that he (for the film) dyed his hair black and never returned to natural color ever. Unless in 1958, when he had to serve in the US Army. Yes, and in the army was Elvis Presley, his biography is roomy.

Army

During the service, Elvis did not give a single concert. He served in the tank division in West Germany. During this time, he lost his mother and found a wife. He served merrily: he rented a house where his friends had gathered, his father and other relatives moved in, and Elvis Presley spent time there. Rock and then was in his life.

Priscilla Bewley he first saw a fourteen-year-old in 1959. They started dating and later married. Very soon - in 1967. Service in the army, Elvis skillfully combined with the recordings of his new music, constantly released singles and for a year! Four LPs with albums. And in 1960 Presley nevertheless tightened the film career, and he moved to Hollywood.

Hollywood

Films, in which Elvis played, for the most part, the audience had no success, except for the "Blue Hawaii". In principle, all the films where Presley participated, were conceived only for the sake of his music. Meanwhile, new stars came to rock and roll, and they were no less than the same size. Trends in the music industry have changed under the "British invasion": in 1965 Presley secretly became acquainted with The Beatles.

Only the Beatles and Elvis Presley - photos, press releases, etc. were missing. After this meeting, Presley recorded another album with a religious component - How Great Thou Art. For this work, he received the second Grammy award. The main task set for the sound engineers Elvis was: to revise the role of instruments and bring the sound to the level of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

Las Vegas and Memphis

By 1969, Elvis from rock'n'roll practically left. His recordings in Memphis studio American connect country, rhythm and blues and variety. Here were released two albums with session musicians of the studio: From Elvis in Memphis and Back in Memphis, which are considered to be his best works.

In Las Vegas, Elvis Presley, whose work was like a second wind, created the musicians who accompanied him to the end of his life: a rock band with guitarist Burton, Negro vocalists The Sweet Inspirations, a gospel quartet The Imperials is the only band with which Elvis subsequently had to part, replacing it with The Stamps, and a group of variety and symphony orchestra of thirty-five people. Within a month this composition gave out fifty-eight concerts to the mountain.

Step back

Back in 1958, it seemed that the road ahead was absolutely straight, without any obstacles. But Elvis happened to be completely unforeseen. So, in 1962, he suddenly disappeared after a concert in Memphis. What kind of assumptions did the press not express? A singer with a lush coca on his forehead, meanwhile, was sitting in his mansion and reading the Bible. True, in the intervals he fired from pistols on purpose - on expensive knickknacks. Not alien to him were neither boredom, nor apathy, nor whiskey, nor drugs.

When Priscilla and Elvis Presley reunited in 1967 (the photos of this time are magnificent!), Melancholy seemed to come to an end: as soon as Lisa Maria was born, Elvis began touring and already in 1971 again entered the top ten most popular personalities in the US . Five years passed serenely, and, given the rhythm of the life of a creative person, it is very, very much. Then the wife took her daughter and left the singer, tired of fighting the harmful habits of her husband.

Philosophy

Presley was one of a hundred and fifty Americans with a black belt, but neither training, nor a close acquaintance with Bruce Lee saved the singer from alcohol, depression and gluttony. He tried to fight: he was treated by doctors, he starved himself, but by the middle of the seventies it was clear that Elvis was seriously ill. And then in 1977, August 16, Presley was found dead. Fourteen types of drugs were found in his blood .

Priscilla grieved like no one, but she had enough strength to turn Graceland, where Alvis almost always lived, to a museum house. After the White House, this is the most visited place in America so far. Many idols knew the world. The same Sinatra, from which the ladies fell into ecstatic faints. But Elvis is different. There were no such passions on earth yet.