Student: Kênia Braga Moura.

Biography
"Elvis" and "King of Rock and Roll" redirect here. For other uses, see Elvis
(disambiguation) and King of Rock and Roll (disambiguation).

Elvis Presley

Presley in a publicity photograph for the 1957

film Jailhouse Rock

Born Elvis Aron Presley[a]

January 8, 1935

Tupelo, Mississippi, U.S.

Died August 16, 1977 (aged 42)

Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.

Cause of Cardiac arrest
death

Resting place Graceland, Memphis

35°2′46″N 90°1′23″W

 Singer
Occupations
 Actor

Works  Albums
 singles
 songs recorded
o Sun label
 film and television

Spouse Priscilla Beaulieu

(m. 1967; div. 1973)

Children Lisa Marie

Relatives Riley Keough (granddaughter)

Brandon Presley (second cousin)

Awards  Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1986)

 Presidential Medal of
Freedom (2018)

Musical career

Genres  Rock and roll

 pop
 rockabilly
 country
 gospel
 R&B
 blues

Instruments Vocals
 guitar
 piano

Years active 1953–1977

Labels  Sun
  RCA Victor
 HMV
 Allied Artists Music Group

Military service[1]

Branch United States Army

Years of 1958–1960
service

Rank Sergeant

Unit Headquarters Company, 1st Medium

Tank Battalion, 32d Armor, 3d
Armored Division

Awards Good Conduct Medal

Elvis Aaron Presley[a] (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), often referred
to mononymously as Elvis, was an American singer, actor and sergeant in the United
States Army. Dubbed the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as one of the most
significant cultural figures of the 20th century. His energized interpretations of songs and
sexually provocative performance style, combined with a singularly potent mix of
influences across color lines during a transformative era in race relations, led him to both
great success and initial controversy.
Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, and relocated to Memphis, Tennessee, with his
family when he was 13 years old. His music career began there in 1954, recording at Sun
Records with producer Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African-American
music to a wider audience. Presley, on rhythm acoustic guitar, and accompanied by lead
guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, was a pioneer of rockabilly, an
uptempo, backbeat-driven fusion of country music and rhythm and blues. In 1955,
drummer D. J. Fontana joined to complete the lineup of Presley's classic quartet and RCA
Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel Tom Parker, who would
manage him for more than two decades. Presley's first RCA Victor single, "Heartbreak
Hotel", was released in January 1956 and became a number-one hit in the United States.
Within a year, RCA would sell ten million Presley singles. With a series of successful
network television appearances and chart-topping records, Presley became the leading
figure of the newly popular sound of rock and roll; though his performative style and
promotion of the then-marginalized sound of African Americans led to him being widely
considered a threat to the moral well-being of the White American youth.
In November 1956, Presley made his film debut in Love Me Tender. Drafted into military
service in 1958, Presley relaunched his recording career two years later with some of his
most commercially successful work. He held few concerts, however, and guided by
Parker, proceeded to devote much of the 1960s to making Hollywood films and
soundtrack albums, most of them critically derided. Some of his most famous films
included Jailhouse Rock (1957), Blue Hawaii (1961), and Viva Las Vegas (1964). In
1968, following a seven-year break from live performances, he returned to the stage in
the acclaimed television comeback special Elvis, which led to an extended Las
Vegas concert residency and a string of highly profitable tours. In 1973, Presley gave the
first concert by a solo artist to be broadcast around the world, Aloha from Hawaii. Years
of prescription drug abuse and unhealthy eating habits severely compromised his health,
and he died suddenly in 1977 at his Graceland estate at the age of 42.
Having sold about 500 million records worldwide, Presley is one of the best-selling music
artists of all time. He was commercially successful in many genres,
including pop, country, rhythm & blues, adult contemporary, and gospel. Presley won
three Grammy Awards, received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at age 36,
and has been inducted into multiple music halls of fame. He holds several records,
including the most RIAA-certified gold and platinum albums, the most albums charted
on the Billboard 200, the most number-one albums by a solo artist on the UK Albums
Chart, and the most number-one singles by any act on the UK Singles Chart.
Life and career
1935–1953: Early years
Childhood in Tupelo

Presley's birthplace in Tupelo, Mississippi

Elvis Aaron Presley was born on January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi, to Vernon Elvis
and Gladys Love (née Smith) Presley in a two-room shotgun house that his father built
for the occasion. Elvis's identical twin brother, Jesse Garon Presley, was delivered 35
minutes before him, stillborn. Presley became close to both parents and formed an
especially close bond with his mother. The family attended an Assembly of God church,
where he found his initial musical inspiration.

A photo of Elvis's parents at the Historic Blue Moon Museum in Verona, Mississippi

Presley's father Vernon was of German, Scottish, and English origins. Vernon was a
descendant of the Harrison family of Virginia, through his mother Minnie Mae Presley,
née Hood. Presley's mother Gladys was Scots-Irish with some French Norman
ancestry. His mother and the rest of the family believed that her great-great-grandmother,
Morning Dove White, was Cherokee. This belief was restated by Elvis's
granddaughter Riley Keough in 2017. Elaine Dundy, in her biography, supports the belief.
Vernon moved from one odd job to the next, showing little ambition.[19][20] The family
often relied on help from neighbors and government food assistance. In 1938, they lost
their home after Vernon was found guilty of altering a check written by his landowner
and sometime-employer. He was jailed for eight months, while Gladys and Elvis moved
in with relatives.
In September 1941, Presley entered first grade at East Tupelo Consolidated, where his
teachers regarded him as "average". He was encouraged to enter a singing contest after
impressing his schoolteacher with a rendition of Red Foley's country song "Old Shep"
during morning prayers. The contest, held at the Mississippi–Alabama Fair and Dairy
Show on October 3, 1945, was his first public performance. The ten-year-old Presley
stood on a chair to reach the microphone and sang "Old Shep". He recalled placing fifth.A
few months later, Presley received his first guitar for his birthday; he had hoped for
something else—by different accounts, either a bicycle or a rifle. Over the following year,
he received basic guitar lessons from two of his uncles and the new pastor at the family's
church. Presley recalled, "I took the guitar, and I watched people, and I learned to play a
little bit. But I would never sing in public. I was very shy about it."
In September 1946, Presley entered a new school, Milam, for sixth grade; he was regarded
as a loner. The following year, he began bringing his guitar to school on a daily basis. He
played and sang during lunchtime and was often teased as a "trashy" kid who
played hillbilly music. By then, the family was living in a largely black neighborhood.
Presley was a devotee of Mississippi Slim's show on the Tupelo radio station WELO. He
was described as "crazy about music" by Slim's younger brother, who was one of Presley's
classmates and often took him into the station. Slim supplemented Presley's guitar
instruction by demonstrating chord techniques. When his protégé was 12 years old, Slim
scheduled him for two on-air performances. Presley was overcome by stage fright the
first time, but succeeded in performing the following week.