Elvis Presley
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Jerry Leiber And Mike Stoller: By Royal Appointment
Interview by Harvey Kubernik, MOJO, March 1995
Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, the greatest rock 'n' roll songwriting team of all time, have their songs celebrated in the musical Smokey Joe's Cafe ...
He Made Old Men's Blues Sound Young: Remembering Elvis
Comment by Michael Gray, Daily Telegraph, 10 August 2002
WE REMEMBER his ignominious end, and the cavalcade of white Cadillacs driving through Memphis for his funeral 25 years ago this month, but mostly the ...
List of articles in the library
Ed Sullivan Says Cliff Right To Avoid Oxford Accent
Interview by Alan Smith, New Musical Express, 3 August 1962
THE NEWS that Cliff Richard is being sought for American TV's world-famous Ed Sullivan Show this autumn couldn't be more appropriate than it is right ...
Interview by Alan Smith, New Musical Express, 12 October 1962
Presley's Follow That Dream co-star ANNE HELM talks to Alan Smith ...
John Lennon: El's Still The King — But He's Got To Watch It!
Interview by Jean Carol, Disc, 6 July 1963
That 'I don't like Presley' remark on Juke Box Jury has caused an uproar, but JOHN LENNON is sticking to what he said.... ...
Report and Interview by Peter Jones, Keith Matthews, Record Mirror, 30 May 1964
FROM JIMMY SAVILE ...
Interview by Keith Matthews, Record Mirror, 14 November 1964
ALTHOUGH the Beatles are continually quoted and misquoted, interpreted and misinterpreted, they don't really mind what is said about them. ...
David Griffiths recalls Elvis' days as the King of Western Bop
Retrospective by David Griffiths, Record Mirror, 5 June 1965
PARDON US while we do a little boasting but, after all, it IS the RM's birthday and we HAVE got something to celebrate. For we ...
Elvis Presley: More Old Songs: Tickle Me
Film/DVD/TV Review by Alan Smith, New Musical Express, 18 June 1965
Tickle Me isn't the GREATEST film Elvis has ever made, but it isn't the worst, either. ...
Herman's Hermits: The Day Herman Met Elvis
Interview by Nick Jones, Melody Maker, 28 August 1965
"He was so nice... just sort of walked in and said: Hello Herman" ...
"Recording Sessions I Have Known" by Charlie McCoy
Interview by Jim Delehant, Hit Parader, May 1966
When you hear a harmonica wailing in the background on currently popular blues, country, folk or pop recordings, it's probably being played by an ultra-talented guy ...
Elvis Presley: Paradise Hawaiian Style
Film/DVD/TV Review by Alan Smith, New Musical Express, 8 July 1966
Presley's usual (Hawaiian) style ...
Elvis Presley: Paradise Hawaiian Style – NME Readers Reply
Readers' Letters by uncredited writer, New Musical Express, 15 July 1966
B. UYDER, Sheffield: Why should Alan Smith (NME last week) have to apologise to Elvis fans for saying what he thinks of his new film ...
Elvis, Usually Surrounded By Girls, Is Now Encircled By Controversy
Report by Alan Smith, New Musical Express, 22 July 1966
SOME Of Elvis' staunchest British fans want to boil me in oil again. Another suggests I lower myself into a spin-dryer and turn it on. ...
Interview by Tracy Thomas, New Musical Express, 18 February 1967
His girl friend lives with his granny in here ► says next-door neighbour ...
Johnny Rivers Knows the Sporty Elvis
Interview by Keith Altham, New Musical Express, 18 February 1967
THE MAN called "the best handled myth in the world" is once more back in the NME Top Twenty with 'Indescribably Blue' — Elvis Aaron ...
Albums from Elvis Presley, Judy Collins, Eddie Floyd et al
Review by Peter Jones, Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 15 April 1967
Remarkable sincerity on El's How Great Thou Art album. ...
Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Them, Beach Boys, Kinks et al: Singles Reviews
Review by Peter Jones, Record Mirror, 6 May 1967
A multitude of newies this week including Presley, Dylan, & Beach Boys ...
Report by Tracy Thomas, New Musical Express, 13 May 1967
IT WAS 9.40 am on the morning of May 1 that Elvis Presley, the highest salaried male movie star in the world married Priscilla Ann ...
Elvis Presley: Easy Come, Easy Go (Dir. John Rich, Paramount Pictures)
Film/DVD/TV Review by Loraine Alterman, Detroit Free Press, 26 May 1967
Nothing But Plenty Of Elvis ...
Interview by Dawn James, Rave, June 1967
Fans make success for a pop star — more than money, more than influence, more than talent. But what are fans? Why do they remain ...
Nancy Sinatra: Nancy talks on the transatlantic phone to Alan Smith about... Little-Boy Elvis!
Interview by Alan Smith, New Musical Express, 26 August 1967
"ELVIS," SAID Nancy Sinatra, as she drew back the curtains and looked out at the sun shining down on Los Angeles, "is at once a ...
Roy Orbison's Own Rock History #1
Interview by Jim Delehant, Hit Parader, December 1967
As told to Jim Delehant ...
Flag-Waving Nancy Sinatra Admits Chemistry Between Elvis And Me Is Great!
Interview by Ann Moses, New Musical Express, 1 June 1968
NANCY SINATRA is a flag, waver and you know it the minute you walk into her brand new Boots Enterprises office above the Sunset Strip. ...
Report by Ann Moses, New Musical Express, 20 July 1968
On steps five feet from him ...
Elvis Takes Off Tiny Tim And Richard Harris
Report by Ann Moses, New Musical Express, 27 July 1968
The continuing story of ELVIS and ANN MOSES (Editor of Tiger Beat) ...
20 Revolutionary Singles, as requested
Letter by Geoffrey Cannon, unpublished, 28 October 1968
25 FLORENCE TERRACE, FALMOUTH, CORNWALL TELEPHONE: FALMOUTH 1840 23rd October 1968 ...
Elvis Presley to Make Personal Appearances
Report by Mike Jahn, The New York Times, 4 December 1968
ELVIS PRESLEY, with one eye to the increasing interest in old-style rock and the other to his decreasing income from movie roles, is making plans ...
Elvis Presley: Elvis (NBC, Dir. Steve Binder)
Film/DVD/TV Review by Robert Shelton, The New York Times, 4 December 1968
Rock Star's Explosive Blues Have Vintage Quality ...
A Comeback? Elvis Never Went Away!
Interview by Ivor Davis, Daily Express, 5 December 1968
HIS WELL-OILED black hair is combed into the perennial duck's tail, his sideburns are long, but vintage '50s rather than '68 style, his nasal sounds, ...
Elvis (NBC Television Special)
Film/DVD/TV Review by Miller Francis Jr., The Great Speckled Bird, 13 December 1968
If you're lookin' for trouble, you came to the right place If you're lookin' for trouble, just look right in my face... ...
Elvis Presley: Elvis (NBC Television Special)
Film/DVD/TV Review by June Harris, New Musical Express, 14 December 1968
Elvis television triumph ...
Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin et al: Album Reviews
Review by uncredited writer, Melody Maker, 26 April 1969
Both sides of the great Elvis Presley, orchestral pop from the Brothers Ryan ...
Sun Records: Country Meets Rock
Retrospective by Guy Stevens, International Times, 23 May 1969
An occasional series which looks into pop music and its antecedents is the latest plot to swell our readership figures, thereby making the fuzz look ...
Elvis Presley: From Elvis in Memphis (RCA LSP-4155)
Review by Pete Johnson, Los Angeles Times, 1 June 1969
Voice Saves Elvis in Memphis ...
Elvis Presley, the Sweet Inspirations: International Hotel, Las Vegas NV
Live Review by Ann Moses, New Musical Express, 9 August 1969
SENSATIONAL LIVE SHOW COMEBACK! ...
Elvis Presley's Comeback Gets Off To Exciting Start
Report by Mike Jahn, The New York Times, 18 August 1969
ELVIS PRESLEY, the "old groaner" of the rock 'n' roll generation, still has his snarl. The acknowledged king of early rock opened a month's engagement ...
Elvis Presley: International Hotel, Las Vegas NV
Live Review by Ann Moses, New Musical Express, 13 September 1969
SECOND LOOK AT ELVIS ...
Elvis Presley: From Memphis to Vegas/From Vegas to Memphis (RCA)
Review by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 6 December 1969
PRESLEY FANS WANT TO SPEED UP ISSUE OF THIS ...
Elvis Presley's Lead Guitarist, James Burton, Talks About Working With King
Interview by Ann Moses, New Musical Express, 3 January 1970
Special QUESTION-TIME conducted by ANN MOSES IN HOLLYWOOD ...
Elvis Presley: International Showroom, Las Vegas
Live Review by Ann Moses, New Musical Express, 7 February 1970
KING ELVIS RULES VEGAS AGAIN. New songs and old in his act after his first night including 'Proud Mary', 'Walk A Mile In My Shoes', ...
Elvis Presley: Wagging His Tail In Las Vegas
Live Review by David Dalton, Rolling Stone, 21 February 1970
ELVIS WAS SUPERNATURAL, his own resurrection, at the Showroom Internationale in Las Vegas last August. ...
One More Time with Feeling! Elvis Presley: Showroom Internationale, Las Vegas
Live Review by Ann Moses, New Musical Express, 22 August 1970
ANN MOSES GOES TO THE LATEST PRESLEY FIRST NIGHT, THIS TIME FILMED FOR THE WORLD TO SEE, AND REPORTS ...
Mac Davis: The man who put Elvis in the ghetto
Interview by uncredited writer, Melody Maker, 5 September 1970
IT'S ONLY a week or two since guitarist-singer-songwriter Jerry Reed hit London Town. And he starred on Lulu's TV show. ...
Elvis Presley: Olympia Stadium, Detroit MI
Live Review by Mike Gormley, Detroit Free Press, 15 September 1970
CAPTURED 17,000 MINDS Legendary Elvis Frenzy Lives On ...
Review by Geoffrey Cannon, The Guardian, 30 October 1970
"'SINFUL MUSIC,' the townsfolk in Memphis said it was. Which never bothered me, I guess." Elvis Presley, interviewed in 1957. In the early 1950s, the ...
Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup: No Payment For My Elvis Songs Says Crudup
Interview by James Johnson, New Musical Express, 20 February 1971
SIXTY-FIVE year old blues-man Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, whose songs 'That's Alright Mama' and 'My Baby Left Me' were hits for Elvis Presley back in ...
Elvis Presley: Memorial Coliseum, Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Live Review by Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 4 November 1971
I WAS IN the eighth or ninth grade when I first heard Elvis Presley. A neighbor buddy and I had gone to the Saturday morning ...
Elvis Presley: Spectrum, Philadelphia
Live Review by Ian Dove, Billboard, 20 November 1971
ELVIS HAS now copped the music from 2001 as his opening theme (Grand Funk also use this) but from there on in, it's Presley material all the ...
Jerry Hopkins: Elvis – The Biography
Book Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, January 1972
THERE HAS never been an entertainer quite like Elvis Presley. His life and his contribution to rock 'n' roll have assumed such legendary proportions, which ...
Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup: Rock's Debt to Crudup
Report by Mike Jahn, Baltimore Sun, 20 February 1972
BLUES SINGER Arthur (Big Boy) Crudup has spent most of his 67 years staring at bad crops, worse bills, garbage trucks and empty promises. He ...
Elvis Presley: Madison Square Garden, New York NY
Live Review by Geoffrey Cannon, The Guardian, 17 June 1972
Author's note, 2018: Yes, it started for me with Elvis, when in 1956 I heard a demo of his first RCA record 'Don't be cruel'/ ...
Elvis Presley: The Cobo Hall, Detroit, Michigan
Live Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, December 1972
I'M GETTING pretty sick of all this talk about what a gross Tom Jones imitation Elvis has become. Baby fat and other people’s songs, indeed. ...
Scotty Moore: The Man Who Launched A Thousand Licks
Interview by Norman Jopling, New Musical Express, 27 January 1973
PEOPLE AROUND at the time Elvis first made it claim that guitarist Scotty Moore was the musician most responsible for "The Elvis Presley Sound". Moore ...
Elvis Presley: Nassau Coliseum, Long Island NY
Live Review by Ian Dove, The New York Times, 25 June 1973
Presley Mixes His Early Hits With More Recent 'Safe' Songs ...
Elvis Presley: Revolt Into Style
Essay by Michael Gray, Melody Maker, 9 March 1974
ELVIS PRESLEY. The giant among giants, and yet also that strange kind of comic-book hero, Mr Reverso Man. ...
Elvis Presley, the Sweet Inspirations: Inglewood Forum, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Steven Rosen, Sounds, 1 June 1974
PERHAPS AMERICA'S two most important musical artists took to the roads recently. Bob Dylan blazed a crosscountry tour which left followers and non-believers alike a ...
Elvis Presley: There Is No Truth In the Rumour that Elvis Is Losing His Marbles
Report by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 19 October 1974
ELVIS AARON PRESLEY, one time truck driver and supreme rock-and-roll superstar, has been taking some pains of late to allay a host of false rumours ...
Elvis Presley: The Promised Land
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 8 February 1975
IT HAS ALWAYS been accepted as an article of faith by ladies and gentlemen in the critical profession that Elvis Presley is not dead. ...
Obituary: Don D. Robey, R&B Pioneer, Dead at 71
Obituary by Joe Nick Patoski, Rolling Stone, 31 July 1975
HOUSTON — DON D. Robey, a leading figure in rhythm & blues and gospel recordings in the Fifties and Sixties, died early Monday, June 16th, ...
Elvis Presley: Pictures Of Elvis
Review by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 6 December 1975
THERE CAN BE little doubt that the Elvis Presley Sun collection was a compilation of some of his finest work. ...
Okay, Kids... Which Twin is the Real Elvis?
Report by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 24 January 1976
"I'm gonna go infiltrate the International ELVIS PRESLEY Fan Club Convention", said MICK FARREN. ...
Elvis Presley: Long Beach Arena, Los Angeles
Live Review by Harvey Kubernik, Melody Maker, 8 May 1976
DESPITE MEDICAL PROBLEMS Elvis Presley's show at the Long Beach Arena proved that he still has the voice and romantic quality that established him as ...
Elvis: Well, Bless-uh Muh Soul, What's-uh Wrong With Me?
Essay by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 22 May 1976
WHEN AN artist hasn't produced anything of note for something like 14 years, the world begins to judge him on just about anything but his ...
Retrospective by David Dalton, Lenny Kaye, Rock 100, 1977
"THAT'S FINE, MAN," CHORTLES SAM Phillips over the studio intercom at 760 Union Avenue, Memphis. "Hell, that's different. That's a pop song now." ...
Interview by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 5 February 1977
Otherwise known as an interview with FELTON JARVIS (Felton who???) ...
Elvis Presley: The King is Dead
Obituary by Philip Norman, The Times, August 1977
ELVIS PRESLEY will be remembered as the first and the greatest exponent of Rock and Roll music, whose recordings of 'Blue Suede Shoes', 'Hound Dog' ...
Obituary by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 27 August 1977
IT WAS ONE OF THE worst storms to hit London since God knows when. The thunder rolled, lightning flashed and the rain hammered into the ...
Elvis Presley: How Great Thou Art
Obituary by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 22 September 1977
ELVIS IN THE PROMISED LAND ...
Obituary by Martin Hawkins, Country Music Review, October 1977
WHILE NOT wishing to add to the enormous number of narratives, eulogies and gutter press 'exposes' which have appeared in print in recent weeks, it ...
Elvis Presley: Junk, junk food junk prose (pulpitations for all)
Book Review by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 15 October 1977
Red West, Sonny West, Dave Hebler, as told to Steve Dunleavy: Elvis – What Happened? ...
Report by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 12 January 1978
OH, GOD, where did they find this poor soul, and what desperate circumstances could have resulted in his presence on stage before us? ...
Death in Hi-Fi or First Tastes of Tombstone
Overview by Nick Tosches, Waxpaper, 3 March 1978
Music deaths are big news nowadays. It seems hardly an ish of Rolling Stone goes by when we aren't treated to a eulogy for a ...
Retrospective and Interview by Robert Palmer, Memphis, December 1978
BACK IN THE MID-'50s, the Sun Records studio at 706 Union Avenue was the epicenter of a sudden, wrenching shift in world consciousness. Tremors had ...
Report by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 22 September 1979
Drugs Probe — Doc Probe ...
Father-Figure Knows Best: Rock managers from Elvis to Elvis
Overview by Dave Marsh, Trouser Press, June 1980
EVER SINCE Col. Tom Parker, genius entrepreneur of Hadacol, dancing chickens and Eddy Arnold, signed Elvis Presley to an exclusive (on both parts) contract, managers ...
Essay by Dave Marsh, Musician, June 1981
WE USUALLY think of Elvis Presley simply stepping into Sun Studios in Memphis, in answer to Sam Phillips' call, and walking out a few days ...
Essay by Geoffrey Himes, Baltimore Sun, 14 June 1981
ON SATURDAY nights in 1956, transistor radios in the hands of eager teenagers all over America shuddered with the sensual sound of Elvis Presley's 'Hound ...
Comment by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 24 December 1981
THOUGH ELVIS Presley died in 1977, he made more headlines in 1981 than any living rock star. The initial tremors were felt on July 31st, ...
Goldman Ain't Nothin' But A Hound Dog!
Book Review by Bill Holdship, Creem, February 1982
Elvis by Albert Goldman (McGraw-Hill) ...
Elvis: The New Deal Origins of Rock 'n' Roll
Essay by Dave Marsh, Musician, December 1982
EACH YEAR, on August 16, the anniversary of Elvis Presley's death, Memphis State University hosts a memorial service and seminar in his honor. ...
Book Excerpt by Stuart Grundy, John Tobler, 'The Guitar Greats' (BBC Books), 1983
ONE OF THE GREAT rock'n'roll guitarists of the 1950s, but a man who remained virtually unknown to all but the cognoscenti until comparatively recently, is ...
Book Excerpt by Stuart Grundy, John Tobler, 'The Guitar Greats' (BBC Books), 1983
THERE CAN BE few more graphic illustrations of the fact that rock'n'roll music is no longer some here-today-gone-tomorrow speck of lint in the wind than ...
Review by Richard Williams, The Times, 2 June 1984
Green grass and parables of the badlands ...
Elvis: The Million Dollar Bonanza
Report by Mat Snow, Sounds, 15 August 1987
On the tenth anniversary of ELVIS PRESLEY's death, MAT SNOW makes a pilgrimage to Graceland and reports on the thriving industry at rock 'n' roll's ...
Perkins, Presley et al: The Complete Million Dollar Session
Review by Bill Holdship, Creem, June 1988
TOTALLY UNEXPECTED, totally out of the blue, and just when you'd almost given up on hearing anything this exciting again... ...
Essay by RJ Smith, L.A. Weekly, 4 October 1990
RJ Smith on Living Colour and pop's buried history ...
Elvis Presley: Rock first rolled here
Guide by Steve Turner, The Independent, 13 April 1991
Thousands of worshippers still flock to Memphis, birthplace of Elvis. They should bypass Graceland. Rock first rolled here. ...
Book Review by Andy Gill, Q, March 1992
AT THE CLOSE OF the Presliad, the most substantial part of his classic Mystery Train and still the most illuminating work on Elvis, Greil Marcus ...
Greil Marcus: Elvis for everybody
Interview by Andy Gill, The Independent, 7 March 1992
Andy Gill talks to the writer Greil Marcus, Serious Elvis Person, about his chronicle of a cultural obsession ...
Elvis Presley: The King Of Rock'n'Roll: The Complete '50s Masters
Review by Mat Snow, Q, August 1992
FROM US postage stamps to academic treatises like Greil Marcus's Dead Elvis which ponders how a rock singer ends up as apple-pie as Abe Lincoln, ...
Elvis Presley: Elvis - The 50s
Review by Mark Sinker, The Wire, September 1992
PERHAPS THE most unexpected thing about RCA/BMG's Presley-project is how unexpected so much of it is. ...
Elvis Presley: The god of rock, warts and all
Comment by Caitlin Moran, The Times, 13 February 1993
"Dead Elvis is the western world's new Christ figure" — discuss ...
Greil Marcus: A Surfer on the Zeitgeist
Profile and Interview by Andy Beckett, The Independent, 23 May 1993
This isn't exactly life on the edge: Greil Marcus is married, nearly 50, and lives in a nice big house in northern California. But he ...
Elvis Presley: From Nashville to Memphis: The Essential '60s Masters 1
Review by Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post, 1 October 1993
IT'S EASY TO DISMISS ELVIS PRESLEY'S post-army career – easy, that is, until one is forced to sit down and listen to a song like ...
Albert Goldman: Double Fantasy?
Obituary by Miles, MOJO, 1994
The late Albert Goldman wrote two vicious character profiles, of Elvis and Lennon, and was crucified for his pains. He claimed their fans simply couldn't ...
Essay by John Tobler, 'Aspects of Elvis', 1994
ELVIS PRESLEY WAS THE UNKNOWING centre of controversy in his quite short life: only being screened from the waist upwards on TV so that his ...
Memphis Blues Again: Elvis ’69
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, Aspects of Elvis (Sidgwick & Jackson), 1994
ELVIS PRESLEY must have sensed that his credibility was on the line when he made the decision, in early January 1969, to cancel a Nashville ...
Book Excerpt by Simon Frith, Aspects of Elvis, 1994
"I DON'T THINK EL WILL EVER RATE WITH the more serious students of popular song – his syrupy crooning with vibrato went out with Rudy ...
Are We Making Art Yet? Music in the age of interactive entertainment
Report by Alan di Perna, Musician, June 1994
MUSIC, OF course, has always been interactive. People dance to it, make love to it, sing along with the lyrics and figure out the chord ...
Elvis Presley: Love Him Tender, Love Him True
Book Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, December 1994
Peter Guralnick: Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley ...
Elvis: Father, Son & Hillbilly Cat
Essay by Mick Farren, MOJO, February 1995
Boy-King/Fertility God brings wonder and prosperity to the land, is cut down but manages to transcend death... The ballooning Cult of Elvis is turning into ...
Elvis Presley: Long Live The King!
Overview by Johnny Black, Q, June 1995
Most insist that Elvis Presley died on August 16 1977. Yet some say that not only is The Memphis Flash alive, but that they've seen ...
Elvis Presley: Walk a Mile in My Shoes: The Essential ‘70s Masters
Review by Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post, 13 December 1995
ELVIS PRESLEY'S music in the 1970s is often dismissed as the bombastic, half-hearted hack work of an overweight, pill-addicted, badly dressed has-been. In the liner ...
Sweet Movements Of A Hillbilly Hellion
Essay by Robert Gordon, Cleveland Ballet Company (official program), 1996
THERE ARE CINDER block joints you can still go to in Memphis, wooden shacks in Mississippi, places that are out of the way and not ...
That's Another Fine Messiah You've Got Me Into
Comment by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 6 April 1996
John Lennon thought The Beatles were bigger than IT, some people think Elvis is/was IT and Michael Jackson seems to think he is IT. So ...
Mummy's Little Rock'n'Roll Soldier
Report by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 16 December 1996
They're mad, bad and dangerous to know, and the apple of their mothers eyes. Caroline Sullivan examines the closest of all relationships... ...
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, Die Welt Woche, 1997
WHEN JERRY Leiber and Mike Stoller submitted the sickly ballad 'Love Me' to Elvis Presley in the late summer of 1956, they thought the boy ...
25% Of The King: Col. Tom Parker
Obituary by Michael Gray, The Guardian, 23 January 1997
COLONEL TOM PARKER, the flamboyant tent-show hustler who was Elvis Presley's Svengalian manager, has died in Las Vegas at the age of almost 90. He ...
Elvis's first love: The King and I
Interview by Peter Silverton, The Observer, 6 July 1997
THE NIGHT before I met June Juanico, the woman Elvis Presley nearly married in 1957, I got talking to a man named Bayard in a ...
Elvis, homoeroticism and 'Jailhouse Rock'
Essay by Peter Silverton, The Observer, 10 August 1997
'Oh yes,' said Stanley, a builder - though not a man known ever to have displayed his bum cleavage beyond the privacy of his own ...
Eyewitness: The day I met Elvis
Retrospective by Johnny Black, Q, September 1997
He didn't get out much (of America, anyway), yet Elvis Presley touched millions of lives. Twenty years after his death, some of those who actually ...
Overview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 15 June 1998
They maybe rock icons, mad, bad and dangerous to know. But somewhere, some long-suffering woman remembers them in nappies. Caroline Sullivan on that great institution, ...
Consuming Passions: Howard Marks
Interview by Terry Staunton, Uncut, September 1998
Skinning up from Lennon's stash box, securing dentures with a luxury adhesive, and watching lizards drown in brandy — a typical evening at home with ...
What Killed Albert Goldman? A literary X-file
Retrospective by Victor Bockris, Gadfly, July 1999
In the 1980s, Albert Goldman became the most famous and despised biographer in the world because of his biographies of Elvis Presley (Elvis, McGraw Hill, ...
Guide by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 30 July 1999
It's 22 years since the King was found dead at Gracelands, but some people still refuse to believe he has gone. Tom Cox sifts through ...
Comment by Gary Pig Gold, purrmag.com, Spring 1999
IT WAS ELVIS' BIRTHDAY a few weeks ago. While this fact usually only piques the interest of a few misguided Teddy Boys overseas at this ...
I Was A Pop Star's Arse-wiper!
Report by Martin Aston, Q, January 2000
For as long as there have been rock stars, there have been rock star "support systems", from the Memphis Mafia to "Spanish" Tony Sanchez to ...
Scotty Moore's Classic Axe Goes Under The Hammer
Report by Mark Pringle, Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, April 2000
Former Elvis Presley producer weeps after auctioning off "the most important guitar in rock and roll history" ...
Presley/Clinton: Bill Has Left The Building
Book Review by Charles Shaar Murray, The Independent, 4 November 2000
Double Trouble: Bill Clinton and Elvis Presley in the land of no alternatives by Greil Marcus (Faber & Faber, £9.99, 248pp) ...
Elvis Presley and the Impulse Towards Transculturation
Essay by Rob Bowman, Crawdaddy!, Spring 2000
ELVIS WAS A hero to most but he never meant shit to me/You see straight out racist the sucker was simple and plain/Motherfuck him and ...
Hey Conductor You Must: Rock'n'Roll Iconoclasm In America
Essay by Richard Riegel, Loose Palace, Spring 2000
2006 Author's note: I wrote the following piece in the summer of 1993 on assignment for Rob O'Connor's Throat Culture magazine, after I had suggested ...
Elvis Presley: The Once And Future King
Film/DVD/TV Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, March 2001
WE ALL KNOW the way it was in the Seventies, Elvis Presley's last eight years on earth. He spent them as a bloated, drug-glazed fraud, ...
Elvis Presley: From Elvis In Memphis
Review by James Hunter, Rolling Stone, 10 July 2001
IN THE Elvis Presley mythology, 1968 marks the year of the TV Renaissance, when Presley delivered a mesmerizing, passionate performance on NBC, which regenerated his ...
Retrospective by Daryl Easlea, Record Collector, August 2001
"I've had intellectuals tell me that I've got to progress as an actor, explore new horizons, take on new challenges, all that routine. I'd like ...
Elvis Presley: Live In Las Vegas
Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, August 2001
ELVIS PRESLEY wasn't always the Clown Prince of Las Vegas. Back in 1956, he secured a two-week booking at the Venus Room in the city's ...
The King and I: A Visit to Graceland
Report by Michael Gray, Daily Telegraph, 15 August 2001
KREATURE COMFORTS – "the Lowlife Guide to Memphis" – claims that Memphis can offer visitors "the best or worst of vacations: you could hit a ...
The Great Late Elvis: Taking Vegas-era Elvis seriously
Comment by Marc Weingarten, Slate, 16 August 2001
WHEN IT COMES TO the late-period Elvis — you know, the one that played the best rooms in Las Vegas and ate far too many ...
Elvis Presley: Enter The Dragon
Retrospective by Bill DeMain, MOJO, April 2002
In the early '70s, Elvis took on the beast of Las Vegas with a mean-assed backing group and a neat line in ludicrous stage-wear. But ...
Obituary by Tony Russell, The Guardian, May 2002
Prolific writer behind some of Elvis’s greatest hits ...
Junkie XL: The King is dead cool
Interview by Lisa Verrico, The Times, 17 June 2002
Elvis is back at No 1 with a soccer song. Lisa Verrico meets the DJ responsible ...
Elvis Presley: Today Tomorrow & Forever
Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, July 2002
LET'S BE honest: this, once again, is Elvis Presley '56-'77 squeezed into five exhilarating, and at times exasperating hours. There are two major differences this ...
Memphis: Visions of a Bluff City
Special Feature by Joss Hutton, Rock's Backpages, August 2002
Click here to see Joss Hutton's evocative images of Memphis, 25 years after Elvis's death ...
Report by Michael Gray, Daily Telegraph, 10 August 2002
MEMPHIS IS ONLY technically in Tennessee. In psychic reality, it's the capital of Mississippi. Everyone who lives there knows it. What this 50 per cent ...
Elvis Presley: Elvis 30 # 1 Hits (RCA)
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Blender, Fall 2002
The King is gone, but he's not forgotten: Thirty classics from the best singer who ever lived. Period. ...
Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup: Rock Me Mama: 22 Original Hits By The Godfather Of Rock & Roll
Sleeve notes by Colin Escott, Bluebird/RCA, 2003
"DOWN IN TUPELO," Elvis Presley famously remarked in June 1956, "I used to hear old Arthur Crudup bang his box the way I do now, ...
Sam Phillips: Rock'n'Roll Evangelist
Obituary by Andria Lisle, MOJO, September 2003
For Sam Phillips rock'n'roll was a religion And, boy, did he spread the gospel. ...
Elvis Presley: Elvis: 2nd To None
Review by Dan Gennoe, dotmusic.co.uk, October 2003
WHEN IS IT time to say no more, enough's enough? When does the careful reordering, repackaging and re-releasing of an icon's back catalogue become merciless ...
Retrospective and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, January 2004
IT WAS A QUIET WEEK in Memphis. Monday, January 4, 1954. Everyone easing into the new year. Nobody paid any attention when, around lunchtime, a ...
Review by Gillian G. Gaar, Goldmine, 9 January 2004
THE UNDERLYING theme of 2nd To None, the 'sequel' to 2002's wildly successful 30 #1 Hits, is a bit hard to pin down. #1 Hits ...
Elvis Presley: How 1968 Bought Elvis a King Sized Comeback
Retrospective and Interview by Gillian G. Gaar, Goldmine, 9 January 2004
AS 1968 BEGAN, Elvis Presley's career was in trouble, the result of too many formulaic films and equally uninspired soundtracks. But by the year's end, ...
Essay by Adam Blake, Cosmik Debris, 4 April 2004
IN THE LIBRARY today I put on the Sun Sessions to cheer me up while I was working. When it came around to the bridge ...
What if Elvis had never been born?
Retrospective by Max Bell, The Independent, 4 July 2004
Rock'n'roll exploded into new life 50 years ago tomorrow, says Max Bell, when some hick recorded 'That's All Right' in Memphis, thereby detonating the Big ...
Guide by Nicholas Jennings, Inside Entertainment, September 2004
1. The Last Waltz THE BAND'S elegant swansong is the ultimate rock concert movie. Director Martin Scorsese's discreet camerawork and superb sound captures inspired performances from ...
Elvis: 50 Years Of Rock'n'Roll
Retrospective by Wayne Robins, Billboard, 18 September 2004
IN THE HEAT of the Memphis summer, every year, they come. Legions of Elvis Presley fans arrive in this city for Elvis Week every August ...
Talkin 'Bout My Generations: The defining artists of pop's five decades
Comment by Gavin Martin, Daily Mirror, 12 November 2004
As voting closes on the UK Music Hall of Fame, Gavin Martin chooses his top artists from each of the past five decades. ...
Come On, Let's Go!: Elvis on the Hayride
Retrospective by Colin Escott, MOJO, December 2004
When Elvis joined the Louisiana Hayride in 1954, he changed music history forever. Colin Escott tells the wild, wild story. ...
Elvis Slept Here ... and here and here
Report and Interview by Andria Lisle, Memphis Flyer, 12 August 2005
Keeping house for the King ...
Elvis Presley: He Touched Me – The Gospel Music Of Elvis Presley
Review by Terry Staunton, Record Collector, October 2005
THE ONLY Grammys Presley won in his lifetime were for gospel records, and for a long spell in the '60s his songs of praise were ...
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, Uncut Legends, Spring 2005
CLYDE OTIS and Ivory Joe Hunter had just returned from a day's duck-hunting when the phone rang. It was the song publishers Hill and Range ...
Rediscovering the joy in the sad story of Elvis
Retrospective by Philip Norman, Daily Telegraph, 13 May 2006
NO POP ICON ever came to a sadder or less regal end than the once gorgeous, gaudy "King" of rock 'n' roll, Elvis Presley. When ...
Retrospective and Interview by Andria Lisle, Memphis Flyer, 3 May 2007
Stax artists weren't the only ones who wanted to record at Soulsville: Tales of the ones who got away and one who didn't. ...
Comment by Jonh Ingham, mog.com, 17 August 2007
EVERY YEAR a bunch of new noisy kids will tell you rock and roll is a young man's game. At 72 and still The King, ...
The Return of the King: Elvis and the Making Of The '68 Comeback Special
Retrospective by Harvey Kubernik, Rock's Backpages, August 2008
When Elvis Presley donned a black leather suit and stepped in front of NBC's cameras for his 1968 TV special, he changed the historical perception ...
Sympathy for the Devil – A Kind Word for Albert Goldman
Essay by Tom Graves, Rock's Backpages, April 2009
ALBERT HARRY GOLDMAN is inarguably the most controversial music biographer of the last generation. His biographies of first Elvis, then John Lennon, have been spit ...
Elvis Presley: Elvis' Christmas Album Vinyl Icon
Retrospective by Johnny Black, Hi-Fi News & Record Review, December 2009
IN 2007, the Recording Industry Association of America revealed that, having notched up 12m sales, Elvis Presley's Christmas Album had become the top-selling holiday release ...
Elvis Presley: The Return of the King
Retrospective by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 4 March 2010
Elvis Presley left the army 50 years ago this week, to suggestions that the music he pioneered had died in his absence. The truth turned ...
Bob Stanley's guide to writing the perfect Christmas hit
Guide by Bob Stanley, The Guardian, 16 December 2010
From Elvis to Shakey, from Cliff Richard to Mark E. Smith, every pop star worth their salt has sung a song of Santa at some ...
Retrospective by Gary Pig Gold, Rock's Backpages, 11 August 2012
FIRST, THERE WAS you-know-who. Or at least up until thirty-five years ago there was. ...
Memoir by Ann Moses, Rock's Backpages, 23 November 2012
THE FIRST QUESTION whenever I tell someone I was in an Elvis movie is "Which one?" And my answer is usually "Not one of his ...
Book Review by Ian Penman, London Review of Books, 25 September 2014
IN THE SPRING of 1965, on the road between Memphis and Hollywood, desert plains all around, his bloodstream torqued by a tinnital static of prescription ...
Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock, October 2015
SO THE STORY goes that Elvis stole black music, exploited the influences he absorbed while growing up on the blurred edges of the coloured line ...
Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock, 1 October 2015
LEGENDARY AMERICAN producer Bob Johnston once suggested of Bob Dylan that he was "filled with the holy spirit". The same could have been said of ...
Next Train to Memphis: Peter Guralnick's Sam Phillips
Profile and Interview by Chris Campion, Rock's Backpages, 17 November 2015
AS THE PRE-EMINENT and passionate chronicler of music history, Peter Guralnick is in a league of his own, with a bibliography that not only — ...
Peter Guralnick: New Bio Finally Gives Rock and Roll Architect Sam Phillips His Due
Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 29 December 2015
WELL, AS Guralnick clarifies shortly into his foreword, if Sam Phillips didn't exactly "invent" rock and roll, he at least discovered it. Or so it ...
Book Review by Peter Stone Brown, CounterPunch, 26 February 2016
SAM PHILLIPS, the man behind Sun Records was easily one of the most important figures in the history of American popular music. ...
Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 15 June 2016
Guitarist, record producer and songwriter who co-wrote 'The Dark End of the Street' and worked with Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin and Tammy Wynette. ...
Elvis & the Hustler: Colonel Tom Parker
Retrospective by David Burke, 'Vintage Rock – Elvis: A Celebration', 2017
NONE OF US will ever know if Elvis Presley would have become the king of rock'n'roll without the involvement of Colonel Tom Parker at the ...
Caught in a Trap: The Kidnapping of Elvis – Two Excerpts
Book Excerpt by Chris Charlesworth, (Red Planet Books), August 2017
The first extract from Caught in a Trap features Elvis in hospital (which is true) accepting a phone call from Richard Nixon (which probably isn't). ...
Obituary by Tony Burke, Record Collector, August 2018
DOMINIC JOSEPH "D.J." Fontana died in Nashville on 13th June. He was aged 87 and was suffering from complications of a broken hip. From 1954 ...
Take The Music Seriously: An Interview with Peter Guralnick, 20th August, 2009
Book Excerpt by Maud Berthomier, 'Encore Plus De Bruit' (Éditions Tristram), 2019
"Because in the end to me, even today, it's never entirely clear exactly what any interview is about. Sometimes, the most important thing in an ...
Retrospective by Mitchell Cohen, Music Aficionado, June 2019
THE ANNOUNCEMENT of Elvis Presley's shows at Madison Square Garden was startling. It was as though the media were reporting that aliens were about to ...
Live 1969: How Elvis Presley redefined Las Vegas
Review by Bob Stanley, The Times, 21 August 2019
A new 11-disc box set marks the 50th anniversary of Elvis Presley's shows at the Las Vegas International Hotel. ...
Rock'n'Roll and Race: One Nation Under a Beat
Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock, December 2019
America was riven by racial conflict when rock'n'roll breached the colour line, uniting black and white youth in a precursor to the hard-won equalities of ...
Elvis — The Movie (dir. Baz Luhrmann)
Film/DVD/TV Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, July 2022
ABOUT 45 minutes into this extravagant, fast-paced, acclamatory biopic of Elvis, the camera focuses in on its hero sat on a folding chair at an ...
Peter Guralnick: Here Comes The Sun
Interview by Tony Burke, Record Collector, February 2023
Peter Guralnick, co-author of the history of Sun Records, tells Tony Burke about the book. ...
see also Jordanaires, The
see also Leiber and Stoller
see also Scotty Moore
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