Elvis Presley is known as the King of Rock and Roll; he was a musical icon for the rock and roll music genre. Elvis Aaron Presley was born on January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi. His parents are Vernon and Gladys Presley. He had a twin brother, Jesse Garon, who died at birth. Elvis’s middle name was originally changed to “Aron” to resemble his brother’s middle name. Presley and his family grew up poor in Tupelo, Mississippi. His family was very religious, and Elvis sang gospel music in church at a very young age. He won second place at a local fair singing a song called “Old Shep” when he was ten. In 1948, the Presley family moved to Memphis, Tennessee (Petersen 1/5). When Elvis was a young man, he had little interest in politics and rejected the embedded racism of fellow southerners in his affinity for blues music. “I’m just a poor boy from Tennessee,” Elvis told Nixon. “I’ve gotten a lot from my country, and I would like to do something to repay what I have gotten.” Elvis Presley, King of Rock and Roll, was a reluctant rebel who worried that he had started a fire that could never be contained (Jeansonne and Luhrssen 30) …show more content…
A few people say that he was making the recording as a gift for his mother; some others proclaim it was not a gift. Early 1956, Presley released “Heartbreak Hotel”, which sold 300,000 copies in the first week of release, and he eventually sold over one million copies making it his first gold album. His style of performing was the subject of much controversy in the late 1950s. Sometimes called “Elvis the Pelvis,” his gyrating hips and breathy vocals made teenage girls swoon and their fathers fume (Petersen