Poor boy from Tupelo changed the world.
The legendary rock and roll artist nicknamed "The King" was born in Tupelo on January 8th 1935.His family moved to Memphis where he was at highschool.After school he was doing work as driver.
In 1953 young Elvis was recording two ballads at the Memphis Recording Service as present for his mother.The following year the owner of the recording studio, Sam Philips, was looking for a good blues singer for his recordings. Elvis Presley was invited.The next years Elvis has a string of hits in the U.S. and Europe including rock and roll classics as "Hound dog", "Don't be cruel", "Love me tender", "Teddy bear", "Jailhouse rock" and "One night". At the end of 1960 Elvis has registered 14 number 1 hits in the U.S. and a lot of top-10 hitsSome of his hits were written by his popular songwriters like Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Otis Blackwell.
In 1957 he made his first movie "Love me tender". During his career he will made 33 movies, in most of them he played a singer. The last two were documents showing Elvis on stage. In 1958 he went into the army. His marriage in 1967 with Priscilla was disbanded in 1973. In the seventies he has increasing problems with his health and drugs abuse. On August 16th 1977 he died by heart failure due to drugs abuse.

Critics
No single figure in American popular culture has meant so many different things to so many people as Elvis Presley did, and in not a few instances continues to do so. To some, Presley is the ultimate Horatio Alger story, the embodiment of a dirt-poor youth who pulled himself up by his bootstraps to achieve monumental success. To others, he is rock music's chameleon genius, the creator of convincing recordings of everything from raucous rockabilly to fervent gospel to faux­Italian opera like ''It's Now or Never.''
It's rare now to hear Elvis music except on oldies stations. And his movies are rarely watched for anything other than laughs. Why the lingering presence? ''Atmosphere.'' Like Marilyn Monroe, his female equivalent in iconographic terms, Elvis summoned up more than music, more than stardom. He contained paradoxical attitudes peculiar to America: part rebel, part nostalgist; part sex-crazy, part aw-shucks innocent; part sneer and wiggle, part yearning and pleading. So though he burst onto the scene entirely new, transforming attitudes and behavior, he was blank enough to become a screen, someone to project our own desires upon. That he died young made this all the easier.

The 20th anniversary
Tens of thousands of Elvis Presley fans swarmed outside Graceland overnight for a candlelight vigil to mark the 20th anniversary of his death and celebrate the growing legacy of the "king of rock 'n' roll."
After a brief silent prayer, the crowd locked hands and swayed in unison as they sang "Can't Help Falling in Love." A sea of candles lit up the Memphis boulevard named after the singing legend. Impersonators dressed in glittering jumpsuits with slick-backed hair wept, as did countless others.
At times, it was as if the crowd of about 30,000 wanted to chant Elvis's favorite line, "Thank ya', momma. Thank ya'."

There is no doubt that when the King of Rock n Roll died; music and the world would never be the same again.



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