Elvis Presley: His Music & Movies: Elvis: The King of Rock 'n' Roll, #2

By Raymond C. Wilson

More than four decades after the death of Elvis Presley, the man with the voice and style that changed popular music forever, remains the 'King of Rock and Roll'. Elvis is so deeply ingrained in our hearts, minds, and culture, so many years after his passing because his art is so true. His staying power serves as a huge testament to his depth as an artist. Elvis was so unique his influence can still be felt years later in music, culture, dress, hairstyles, and pop stardom.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Raymond C. Wilson
• Release date: Jun 29, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005388355

Raymond C. Wilson

Raymond C. Wilson is a military historian, filmmaker, and amateur genealogist. During his military career as an enlisted soldier, warrant officer, and commissioned officer in the U.S. Army for twenty-one years, Wilson served in a number of interesting assignments both stateside and overseas. He had the honor of serving as Administrative Assistant to Brigadier General George S. Patton (son of famed WWII general) at the Armor School; Administrative Assistant to General of the Army Omar Nelson Bradley at the Pentagon; and Military Assistant to the Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army at the Pentagon. In 1984, Wilson was nominated by the U.S. Army Adjutant General Branch to serve as a White House Fellow in Washington, D.C. While on active duty, Wilson authored numerous Army regulations as well as articles for professional journals including 1775 (Adjutant General Corps Regimental Association magazine), Program Manager (Journal of the Defense Systems Management College), and Army Trainer magazine. He also wrote, directed, and produced three training films for Army-wide distribution. He is an associate member of the Military Writers Society of America. Following his retirement from the U.S. Army in 1992, Wilson made a career change to the education field. He served as Vice President of Admissions and Development at Florida Air Academy; Vice President of Admissions and Community Relations at Oak Ridge Military Academy; Adjunct Professor of Corresponding Studies at U.S. Army Command and General Staff College; and Senior Academic Advisor at Eastern Florida State College. While working at Florida Air Academy, Wilson wrote articles for several popular publications including the Vincent Curtis Educational Register and the South Florida Parenting Magazine. At Oak Ridge Military Academy, Wilson co-wrote and co-directed two teen reality shows that appeared on national television (Nickelodeon & ABC Family Channel). As an Adjunct Professor at U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Wilson taught effective communications and military history for eighteen years. At Eastern Florida State College, Wilson wrote, directed, and produced a documentary entitled "Wounded Warriors - Their Struggle for Independence" for the Chi Nu chapter of Phi Theta Kappa. Since retiring from Eastern Florida State College, Wilson has devoted countless hours working on book manuscripts.

Book preview

ELVIS PRESLEY

HIS MUSIC & MOVIES

Written by

RAYMOND C. WILSON

ELVIS PRESLEY

HIS MUSIC & MOVIES

Published by Raymond C. Wilson at Smashwords

Copyright 2022 Raymond C. Wilson

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Wounded Warriors - Their Struggle for Independence

European Royal Bloodlines of the American Presidents

Pass in Review - Military School Celebrities (Volume One)

Pass in Review - Military School Celebrities (Volume Two)

Pass in Review - Military School Celebrities (Volume Three)

Pass in Review - Military School Celebrities (Volume Four)

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If These Walls Could Talk: Huling Hotel and Pack Horse Inn

Beyond the Bighorn: The Afterlife of George Armstrong Custer

Pass in Review - Military School Celebrities (Presidential Edition)

Custer’s Luck Has Run Out: George Armstrong Custer’s Changing Image

Out of Necessity: George Washington’s Surrender of Fort Necessity to the French

Table of Contents

Introduction

His Music

His Movies

Actors Who Have Played Elvis Presley On-Screen

Afterword

Appendix A: Presley Albums Ranked -- Worst to Best

Appendix B: Top Ten Elvis Movies

Bibliography

About Raymond C. Wilson

Introduction

Whether you think of Elvis Presley as the young, energetic singer with the good looks and gyrating hips that made the music world ‘all shook up’ in the 1950’s, or the more mature Elvis with the long sideburns and sequined jumpsuits who performed in Las Vegas, his active career spanned more than two decades. On 16 August 1977, music fans around the world were devastated by the news of Elvis’ sudden death. The day after the ‘King of Rock and Roll’ died; a new record was set for most flowers sold in the United States on a single day.

And yet, more than four decades later, the man with the voice and style that changed popular music forever, remains the ‘King of Rock and Roll’. Millions around the world still buy his music and hundreds of thousands visit Graceland every year to see where Elvis lived, died, and was buried.

Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee

Elvis is so popular he ranked No. 2 (behind Michael Jackson) on Forbes’s list of Highest Paid Celebrities for 2018. The list, released every October, showed Elvis pulling in $40 million last year. Coincidently, the future King of Pop (Michael Jackson) met the King of Rock and Roll (Elvis Presley) and his daughter (Lisa Marie Presley) in late 1974 while performing with the Jackson Five in Las Vegas. Michael, age 16, was on his way up; Elvis, pushing 40, was on his way down.

Twenty years later, Michael Jackson married Elvis’ daughter in May 1994. Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley really made headlines with the announcement of their union because it occurred only twenty days after Lisa Marie’s divorce from her first husband (musician Danny Keough). However, had it not been for the future President of the United States (Donald Trump), Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley may never have gotten together.

Donald Trump was good friend of Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley

According to Donald Trump, Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley spent some time with him on a holiday before their marriage. In 1994, People magazine reported comments from Donald Trump about a time when the couple stayed at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, near the end of 1993. Michael proposed to Lisa Marie in late 1993, meaning that Donald Trump may have been the matchmaker. Unfortunately, their marriage lasted less than two years.

Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley

How has Elvis Presley remained so deeply ingrained in our hearts, minds, and culture, so many years after his passing? He’s probably the most important star of all time, notes acclaimed journalist and author, Alanna Nash. And I’m not the first person to say that. You can’t argue with the fact that he not only changed, but directed the course of both popular music and popular culture of the ‘50’s.

The young man from Tupelo, Mississippi burst onto the national scene in 1956 with a style all his own. He moved and danced like no one else before him. And he looked like nobody else, says Nash. "He was an incredibly beautiful human being. And when he started moving or singing you really couldn’t take your eyes off of him.

Elvis through his peak years

Nash notes that unlike the stars of today who have managers and choreographers and dressers and people who are assigned for every aspect of what they do, he largely made himself. It was his ideas for what he wore in Vegas, it was his ideas for the music. All of that creativity came from Elvis.

That creativity carried him through the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s, allowing him to reinvent himself in each decade. Nash believes that staying power serves as a huge testament to his depth as an artist. It was the loss of that ability to create that led to him, eventually, losing himself.

Colonel Tom Parker with Elvis

Nash thinks that Elvis’ decline came partly because he didn’t have many creative challenges. Part of that is because of decisions the Colonel (his manager Colonel Tom Parker) made, and part of it is that he couldn’t stand to see what he had become. In some ways becoming kind of a caricature of his former self so that he just had to numb himself out.

Alanna Nash’s journey into trying to understand Elvis began with his death in 1977. She was working as the pop music writer for the Louisville, Kentucky Courier-Journal when word broke that Elvis died. She was sent to Graceland to cover his funeral and became one of the first journalists to view his remains. Nash would go on to write a series of books on Elvis covering just about every aspect of his life. Two of them serve as book ends of sorts with Elvis and the Memphis Mafia (2005) covering some of the men closest to him, and Baby, Let’s Play House: Elvis Presley and the Women Who Loved Him (2010), covering the women.

Nash also wrote The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley (2003), a deeply-researched book that looked at the mysterious and often controversial figure who managed and controlled Elvis’ career. Billboard called Nash’s book a classic of music industry reporting. Other positive reviews came from The Washington Post, The New York Review of Books, Variety, and Publishers Weekly, among others. The reviewer for The Observer lauded the book as perhaps the most thoroughly researched music book ever written. For her reporting on Colonel Parker, Nash was voted one of the Heavy 100 of Country Music by Esquire magazine and