“My Way” is a song about a man at the end of his life, looking back and deciding he has no regrets. Frank Sinatra made it his signature. But there’s a version that is far harder to listen to. Elvis Presley recorded it on June 21, 1977 — reading the words off a piece of … Read more
Everybody knows the song. Almost everybody assumes Elvis Presley wrote it. He didn’t. “Blue Suede Shoes” was written by a poor farm boy from Tennessee named Carl Perkins, and in early 1956 it was about to make him one of the biggest stars in America. Then, in the dark on a highway in Delaware, everything … Read more
Most famous people who give to charity make sure somebody’s watching. Elvis Presley did the opposite. Starting in 1961 and continuing for the rest of his life, he sat down every Christmas and wrote cheques to more than 50 charities in Memphis — often totaling over $100,000 a year. He didn’t do it for a … Read more
Watch any Elvis Presley concert from the 1970s, and you’ll notice a small man on stage who never leaves his side. He plays a bit of guitar and sings some harmonies, but mostly he hands Elvis things. A glass of water. A microphone. And, over and over again, scarves. His name was Charlie Hodge, and … Read more
The white jumpsuit is the single most recognizable outfit in the history of popular music—high collar, plunging neckline, enormous belt, flared trousers, rhinestones everywhere. Every Elvis impersonator on earth wears a version of it. But almost nobody knows where any of it actually came from — and the honest answers are Napoleon Bonaparte, a factory … Read more
Every year, hundreds of thousands of people walk into the Meditation Garden behind Graceland and stand at Elvis Presley’s grave. Almost none of them know that he wasn’t originally buried there — or that the reason he ended up in that garden is one of the strangest crime stories in American history. Twelve days after … Read more
Millions knew Michael Jackson for moves that seemed impossible on a concert stage, but dancing was not the only physical skill he practiced. During his later years in Las Vegas, former bodyguards Bill Whitfield and Javon Beard said Michael had another favorite way to unwind. He would head outside alone, pick up a basketball and … Read more
Michael Jackson’s former bodyguards spent more than two years seeing parts of his life almost nobody else witnessed. Bill Whitfield and Javon Beard drove him, protected his children and remained close during his secluded final years. Yet among all the unusual routines they later described, one discovery inside his home was almost comically ordinary: an … Read more
Michael Jackson spent decades creating some of the most recognizable pop music ever recorded, but the soundtrack to his private life could be surprisingly different. Former bodyguards Bill Whitfield and Javon Beard said that when Michael rode in the car, he almost always chose classical music instead of listening to the radio or filling the … Read more
Russell Crowe was already one of Hollywood’s most recognizable actors when something bizarre started happening in his hotel rooms. His phone would ring and a stranger would sometimes use a serious voice to warn him about an emergency. Then the caller would drop the act. According to Crowe, the man repeatedly doing this was none … Read more
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