Albert Goldman (1981) FREE POST WITH ANYWHERE IN
AUSTRALIA $22
"His voice of electric honey embodied the
dreams of a whole generation and his strange potent magic reached the whole
world round. Now, in Albert Goldman's compulsive biography, the real Elvis is
revealed, and so too is the role played by Colonel Parker, his manager, in
organizing the greatest show-business phenomenon ever known."
FACT FILE: Elvis Aaron Presley[a](January 8, 1935 – August
16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of
Rock and Roll", he is widely regarded as one of the most culturally
significant figures. Presley's energetic and sexually provocative performance
style, combined with a mix of influences across colour lines during a
transformation era in race relations, brought both great success and initial
controversy.
Presley
was born in Tupelo, Mississippi; his family moved to Memphisl Tennessee, when
he was 13. He began his music career in 1954 at Sun Records with producer
Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African-American music to a wider audience. Presley, on 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 managed him for the rest of his career. Presley's first RCA
Victor single, "Heartbreak Hotel", was released in January
1956 and became a number-one hit in the US. Within a year, RCA Victor sold ten
million Presley singles. With a series of successful television appearances and
chart-topping records, Presley became the leading figure of the newly popular
rock and roll; though his performing style and promotion of the
then-marginalized sound of African Americans[6] led to him being
widely considered a threat to the moral well-being of white America youth.
In
November 1956, Presley made his film debut in Love Me Tender. Drafted
into military service, he relaunched his recording career two years later with
some of his most commercially successful work. Presley held few concerts, and,
guided by Parker, devoted much of the 1960s to making Hollywood films and
soundtrack albums, most of them critically derided. Some of Presley's most
famous films included Jailhouse Rock (1957), Blue Hawaii (1961),
and Viva Las Vegas (1964). In 1968, he returned to the stage in the
acclaimed NBC television comeback special Elvis, which led to an
extended Las Vegas concert residency and several 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 substance abuse and
unhealthy eating severely compromised his health, and Presley died in August
1977 at his Graceland estate at the age of 42.
Presley
is one of the best-selling music artists in history having sold an
estimated 500 million records worldwide.
PUBLISHER: Allen Lane, London. Hardcover 240mm x
160mm. 222 pages. Black and white
photographs. ISBN: 07139147422. Weight: 995g.