He wrote, “Don’t Be Cruel.” He wrote, “All Shook Up.” He wrote, “Return to Sender.” He wrote “Great Balls of Fire” for Jerry Lee Lewis and co-wrote “Fever.” If you have ever sung along to fifties rock and roll, you have sung his words. His name was Otis Blackwell — and in his entire life, … Read more
In January 1964, Elvis Presley became the owner of a piece of American history. It was the USS Potomac, the presidential yacht of Franklin D. Roosevelt — the boat FDR had used to escape Washington, conduct government business in private, and, during the Second World War, to reach a top-secret meeting with Winston Churchill. Elvis … Read more
In 1992, the United States government did something it had never done before. It printed millions of ballot papers, sent them to post offices across the country, and asked the American people to settle a question of enormous national importance. Not a law. Not a candidate. Which picture of Elvis Presley should go on a … Read more
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