On 8 January 1935, in a two-room wooden house in Tupelo, Mississippi, twin boys were born to a poor young couple named Vernon and Gladys Presley. One of the babies did not survive. The other, Elvis Aaron Presley, grew up small, shy, and crazy about music. His family was so broke that for his eleventh birthday his mum bought him a cheap guitar instead of the bicycle he had begged for. He sulked, then started strumming.
When the Presleys moved to Memphis, Elvis fell in love with the gospel choirs at church, the country songs on the radio, and the rhythm and blues drifting out of the city's Black neighbourhoods. At eighteen he walked into Sun Records and paid four dollars to record a song for his mother. The owner called him back. By 1956 Elvis was on national television, shaking his hips, slicking back his hair, and driving teenagers wild. Older folks were horrified. The cameras only filmed him from the waist up.
Elvis went on to record around 700 songs, star in 31 films, and sell over a billion records worldwide. Hits like Hound Dog, Jailhouse Rock, and Heartbreak Hotel pretty much built rock and roll into the giant it became. His Memphis mansion, Graceland, is now visited by half a million fans every year. Every modern pop star with a stage costume, a famous hairstyle, and screaming fans owes a little something to the Tupelo kid with the unwanted guitar.
