Rock ‘n’ Roll

Look at the label on an old copy of “Heartbreak Hotel.” There, in the songwriting credits, is the name Elvis Presley. Same on “Don’t Be Cruel.” Same on “All Shook Up.” Now here’s the thing that stops people dead: Elvis Presley never wrote a song in his life. Not one. Not “Hound Dog,” not “Jailhouse … Read more

Say the words “You ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog” and almost everybody on earth pictures the same thing: a young Elvis Presley in 1956, snarling into a microphone and shaking his legs.  It became his longest-running number one record. But Elvis didn’t write it, he wasn’t the first to sing it, and — here’s … Read more

Just after midnight on January 14, 1973, Elvis Presley walked onto a stage in Honolulu and did something no performer had ever done. His concert was beamed live by satellite around the planet — the first time in history a single performer had been broadcast live to the world.  Estimates of the audience run from … Read more

Out of the 31 films Elvis Presley made, most of them are cheerful, sunny things with a few songs and a pretty girl. When people asked Elvis which one was his favorite, he never picked those. He picked the darkest film he ever made — a black-and-white story about a poor boy pulled into a … Read more

People who lived near the Memphis fairgrounds in the 1970s got used to a very strange sound. The park would close for the night, the last visitors would go home, the gates would be locked — and then, hours later in the dark, they’d hear the rumble of the roller coaster starting up again.  The … Read more

In January 1969, Elvis Presley was standing in a small Memphis studio with a song in front of him that he was afraid to sing. His manager had spent years drilling one rule into him: never record a message song.  His own friends were telling him to leave this one alone. And then the producer … Read more

On March 29, 1972, Elvis Presley walked into a recording studio in Hollywood and sang a song about a man apologizing to a woman he had taken for granted. It’s a song full of regret, a man admitting he should have held her more, told her more, treated her better, and asking her to believe … Read more

Some of the biggest moments in history turn on the smallest decisions. In 1946, in a hardware shop in Tupelo, Mississippi, a poor woman said no to her eleven-year-old son — and in doing so, she accidentally invented rock and roll. The shop was Tupelo Hardware Company. The woman was Gladys Presley. The boy did … Read more

At 6:15 in the morning on August 28, 1970, the telephone rang at a hotel in Las Vegas. The wife of one of Elvis Presley’s closest friends picked it up. The anonymous voice on the other end said that Elvis was going to “get it” the following night.  Forty-five minutes later, the same caller rang … Read more

On December 10, 1957, a late-night radio DJ in Portland, Oregon named Al Priddy did something that got him sacked on the spot. He didn’t swear on air. He didn’t insult anyone.  He played a Christmas song. The station, KEX, had banned it — and the song was Elvis Presley singing “White Christmas.” Priddy played … Read more