Elvis Presley

4ºA
Daniela Gacitúa

Katerina Ramírez

Francisca Sepúlveda
 Index

Page

Biography ……………………………………………….3
Professional Career ……………………………………………….4
Achievements ……………………………………………….5
Impact ……………………………………………….7
Resource ……………………………………………….8

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 Biography

Elvis Aaron Presley was born to Vernon and Gladys Presley in a two-room
house in Tupelo Mississippi, on January 8, 1935. His twin brother, Jessie
Garon, was stillborn, leaving Elvis to grow up as an only child. He and his
parents moved to Memphis, Tennessee, in 1948, and Elvis graduated from
Humes High School there in 1953.

Elvis musical influences were the pop and country music of the time, the gospel
music he heard in church and at the all-night gospel sings he frequently
attended, and the black R&B he absorbed on historic Beale Street as a
Memphis Teenager.

I will be a country boy who knows girls and sing songs. The last time we depart
from this formula we lost money.

In 1964 began the decline in the hegemony holding in the world of rock, both in
terms of sales and popularity.

On May 1, 1967 Presley married Priscilla Ann-Beaulieau (known as Priscilla

Presley), with whom he had one year after her daughter, Lisa Marie Presley. In
1968, he returned to the top of the U.S. hits parades after his successful 1968
for TV Comeback Special. The following year reaffirmed his return to live
concerts in the International Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. That same year, her
only daughter: Lisa Marie Presley.

On December 21, 1970, Elvis visited President Richard Nixon in the White
House where, after an exchange of gifts, talked about the influence of drugs on
youth.

Elvis died on August 16, 1977 in the bathroom at Graceland. After being found
on the bathroom floor, Elvis was rushed to the hospital where he was officially
pronounced dead. The coroner recorded the cause of death as cardiac
arrhythmia. While true in the strictest sense (cardiac arrhythmia basically means
that the heart was beating irregularly and in this case, finally stopped), the
attending physicians deliberately omitted the fact that what had apparently
caused Elvis' heart to beat irregularly and then stop was an overdose of
prescription drugs. These drugs included codeine, Valium, morphine, and
Demorol, to name a few. After this information was revealed, Vernon Presley,
Elvis' father, had the complete autopsy report sealed. It will remain sealed until
2027, fifty years after The King's death. Elvis' body is buried at Graceland.

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 Professional Career

In 1954, when he was nineteen, he recorded an album with two songs to give to
your mother for her birthday. Sun Records In the studies recorded a single with
the track My Happiness and That's When Your Heartaches Begin. The
company owner, Sam Phillips, did not hear it until he returned two more times,
recording two songs at every opportunity, after which she was pleasantly
surprised. Three months later, hired him to record an album that reached great
success in Memphis.

Many believe that Presley was the creator of the musical style rockabilly, a
fusion of country and blues, but when it comes to finding the person responsible
for its largest expansion and development, the majority prefers Carl Perkins,
author of the hit Blue Suede Shoes. With the release of his first issue of this
kind, That's All Right, by Arthur Crudup, (a genre that certainly would in less
than 17 months to pounce on other rhythms increasingly sophisticated) created
one of the images most classic rock and roll. In 1955, having conquered
Memphis and some regional markets in the southern United States, Colonel
Tom Parker, who later that year, managed the transfer of small Sun Records,
the RCA, in exchange for $ 35,000 and Cadillac.

In the 1960's, began to act in films of medium to low quality, shooting an

average of three a year until a total of 31. Her favorite actors, he admired and
imitated, were James Dean and Marlon Brando.

On August 27, 1965, the Beatles visited him at his home in Bel-Air, (California),
during which John Lennon told him about their upcoming movie.

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 Achievements

The United States Junior Chamber of Commerce (the Jaycees) named Elvis
Presley One of the Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Nation for 1970 in a
ceremony on January 16, 1971, one of Elvis' proudest moments. This award
has been given since 1938 and has honored men of achievement in all areas of
endeavor - sports, government, science, medicine, entertainment, etc. It
recognizes outstanding personal achievement and the exemplification of the
opportunities available in the free enterprise system, along with patriotism,
humanitarianism, and community service. (In the 1980's,eligibility was opened
to women as well as men, and the award has since been presented to the
year's Ten Outstanding Young Americans.)

Record Sales
It is estimated that Elvis Presley has sold over one billion record units
worldwide, more than anyone in record industry history. In America alone, Elvis
has had 150 different albums and singles that have been certified gold, platinum
or multi-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), with
more certifications expected as research into his past record sales continues
and as current sales go on. Research is also underway to document his record
sales achievements in other countries. It is estimated that 40% of Elvis' total
record sales have been outside the United States.

International Acclaim

Elvis Presley’s trophy room at Graceland is filled with gold and platinum records
and awards of all kinds from around the world. Some of the countries
represented are: Norway, Yugoslavia, Japan, Australia, South Africa, England,
Sweden, Germany, France, Canada, Belgium, and The Netherlands.

It is interesting to note that, except for a handful of movie soundtrack songs,

Elvis did not record in other languages, and, except for five shows in three
Canadian cities in 1957, he did not perform in concert outside the United States.
Still, his recordings and films enjoyed, and continue to enjoy, popularity all over
the globe, and he is known throughout the world by his first name.

Record Chart Statistics

Elvis has had no less than 149 songs to appear on Billboard’s Hot 100 Pop
Chart in America. Of these, 114 were in the top forty, 40 were in the top ten,
and 18 went to number one. His number one singles spent a total of 80 weeks
at number one. He has also had over 90 charted albums with ten of them
reaching number one. These figures are only for the pop charts and only in
America. He was also a leading artist in the American country, R&B, and gospel
fields, and his chart success in other countries was substantial.

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Grammy Awards

Elvis received 14 Grammy nominations from the National Academy of

Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS). His three wins were for gospel
recordings - the album "How Great Thou Art" (1967), the album "He Touched
Me" (1972) and his live Memphis concert recording of the song "How Great
Thou Art" (1974). In 1971, NARAS also recognized him with their Lifetime
Achievement Award (known then as the Bing Crosby Award in honor of its first
recipient). Elvis was 36 years old at the time.

Six of Elvis' recordings, all of them his original studio masters, have been
inducted into the NARAS Hall of Fame: "Hound Dog" (1956 recording, inducted
1988); "Heartbreak Hotel" (1956 recording, inducted 1995); "That's All Right"
(1954 recording, inducted 1998); "Suspicious Minds" (1969 recording, inducted
1999); "Don't Be Cruel" (1956 recording, inducted 2002); and "Are You
Lonesome Tonight" (1960 recording, inducted 2007). The Recording Academy's
national trustees established the Grammy Hall Of Fame in 1973 to honor
recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance that are at least 25
years old. Many inductees are recordings that were created and released
before the 1958 inception of NARAS and the Grammy Awards.

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 Impact

Since the beginning of his career, Elvis Presley has had an extensive cultural
impact. According to Rolling Stone Magazine, "it was Elvis who made rock 'n'
roll the international language of pop." Rolling Stone encyclopedia of Rock and
Roll describes Presley as "an American music giant of the 20th century who
single-handedly changed the course of music and culture in the mid-1950s." His
recordings, dance moves, attitude and clothing came to be seen as
embodiments of rock and roll. His music was heavily influenced by African-
American blues, Christian gospel, and Southern country

Presley sang both hard driving rockabilly, rock and roll dance songs and
ballads, laying a commercial foundation upon which other rock musicians would
build their careers. African-American performers like Big Joe Turner, Wynonie
Harris and Fats Domino came to national prominence after Presley's
acceptance among mass audiences of White American teenagers. Singers like
Jerry Lee Lewis, the Everly Brothers, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Little Richard,
Buddy Holly, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison and others immediately followed in his
wake. John Lennon later observed, "Before Elvis, there was nothing."

During the post economic boom of the 1950s, many parents were able to give
their teenage children much higher weekly allowances, signaling a shift in the
buying power and purchasing habits of American teens. During the 1940s
bobby soxers had idolized Frank Sinatra, but the buyers of his records were
mostly between the ages of eighteen and twenty-two. Presley triggered a
juggernaut of demand for his records by near-teens and early teens aged ten
and up. Along with Presley's "ducktail" haircut, the demand for black slacks and
loose, open-necked shirts resulted in new lines of clothing for teenage boys
whereas a girl might get a pink portable 45 rpm record player for her bedroom.
Meanwhile American teenagers began buying newly available portable
transistor radios and listened to rock 'n' roll on them (helping to propel that
fledgling industry from an estimated 100,000 units sold in 1955 to 5,000,000
units by the end of 1958). Teens were asserting more independence and
Presley became a national symbol of their parents' consternation.

Presley's impact on the American youth consumer market was noted on the
front page of The Wall Street Journal on December 31, 1956 when business
journalist Louis M. Kohlmeier wrote, "Elvis Presley today is a business," and
reported on the singer's record and merchandise sales. Half a century later,
historian Ian Brailsford (University of Auckland, New Zealand) commented, "The
phenomenal success of Elvis Presley in 1956 convinced many doubters of the
financial opportunities existing in the youth market." Elvis even became very
popular to British audiences as well.

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 Resources

Wikipedia: The free encyclopedia: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Portada

Elvis.com: http://www.elvis.com/