Rock ‘n’ Roll

In 1956, one of the most famous young actresses in America flew to Memphis to spend a week with the hottest star on the planet. She lasted two days. Then she picked up a telephone, called her sister in a panic, and begged her to invent a fake family emergency so she could get on … Read more

Here’s something almost nobody realizes about the King of Rock and Roll: Elvis Presley very nearly lost Graceland after he died. Within a few years of his death in 1977, the estate was bleeding money so badly that financial advisors were telling the family there was only one sensible option left — sell the house. … Read more

In 1968, Elvis Presley’s career was in trouble, and everybody knew it. NBC had agreed to a television special, and his manager Colonel Tom Parker had already decided exactly how it would end: Elvis, smiling in a sweater, singing “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” Safe. Cheerful. Sellable. What actually happened instead became the greatest performance … Read more

It gets played at more first dances than almost any song ever recorded. Couples all over the world sway to it under fairy lights, convinced they’re listening to the most romantic thing Elvis Presley ever sang. “Can’t Help Falling in Love.” And nearly every single one of them has no idea that the melody they’re … Read more

When Elvis Presley entered the U.S. Army in 1958 and shipped out to Germany, many wondered whether the teenage idol would fade from view. Live performances and free television appearances were off the table. Colonel Tom Parker had already limited Elvis’s TV exposure by the time American Bandstand went national in 1957, believing fans who … Read more

Seven years after Elvis Presley died, the King’s legacy risked being remembered more for his troubled final years than the music that changed America. Then January 1985 arrived. What would have been his 50th birthday became more than a memorial. It gave critics, collectors and the public a reason to look beyond the tragedy and … Read more

Colonel Tom Parker could make powerful executives follow his orders, hand over enormous checks and even pay for jokes played against them. Seattle radio legend Pat O’Day witnessed that strange power firsthand after his concert company began promoting Elvis Presley’s tours. Some of Parker’s moves were hilarious. Others left O’Day convinced that Elvis was surrounded … Read more

The National Archives in Washington holds the Constitution. It holds the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. Every year, people write in asking for copies of the country’s most treasured documents. And out of every single item in that building, do you know which one gets requested the most? Not one of those.  … Read more

For more than a decade, every time Ann-Margret opened a new show in Las Vegas, the same gift was waiting for her—a floral arrangement, always shaped like a guitar, always from the same man. There was never any confusion about who sent it. Then on the night of August 15, 1977, she walked in for … Read more

Everyone on earth can picture Elvis Presley’s hair. The glossy black pompadour, the sideburns, the curl falling over his forehead. It’s one of the most famous heads of hair in history. And here’s the part that stuns people: it was never real. Elvis was born a natural blond. He dyed it black for nearly his … Read more