It doesn’t seem quite right not to point out that today (January 8) is the birthday of Elvis Presley, who would have been 74.
So much still written and so much still said about Elvis, and that’s as it should be – he was the first true superstar of modern rock pop music, and for the very best of reasons: the man possessed huge, undeniable talent. According to Billboard magazine, he had more songs in the Top 100 than any other artist since chart records began.
His life was fascinating, indelible in its imagery – his mother, the initial Sun recording sessions, Colonel Parker, Graceland, giving away Cadillacs, inducted in the U.S. Army during his initial bout of fame, marrying a teenager (Priscilla), the mostly lousy movies, the comebacks, the fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches, the weight problems, the drug problems, Vegas…
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And that’s just off the top of my head.
My favorite anecdote has to be “When Elvis Met Nixon”. In 1970, Presley requested and was granted a meeting with President Richard Nixon.
Elvis arrived at the White House with a handgun as a gift, expressed his contempt for the hippie drug culture, offered to “infiltrate hippie groups,” railed about The Beatles, and asked to be appointed a “Federal Agent at Large”. Nixon was reported to be somewhat “bemused” by their encounter…
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Wikipedia offers a decent history of Elvis, including more details of the “Nixon” anecdote.
I also ran across an interesting look at the Memphis Recording Studio/Sun Record Company where Elvis made his early legendary recordings. Hosted on Scotty Moore’s website, it contains a lot of fun studio and gear photos.