UnderRated: Elvis

It was Elvis’s birthday on Sunday and this should have been posted then except for some dickhead who decided to use my name and send out emails which may or may not have been infected with something nasty. I really hope that no one clicked on his ridiculous link, although I suspect it was just an attempt to get someone to his real estate website.

But enough of this! Back to the wonderful Elvis Presley!

He was born on the 8th of January 1935 – you can do the maths to work out how old he would have been!

He cut his first record That’s All Right Mama, cut in July, 1954 in Memphis and released on the Sun Records label but it was Heartbreak Hotel which was his first hit.

The King of Rock and Roll is famous for his controversial performance of Hound Dog on the Milton Berle Show and three appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1956, the last one of which saw him censored so that he was only shown from the waist up.

He was also a major part of my childhood, appearing in many films like Love Me Tender, Jailhouse Rock, King Creole and, of course, Viva Las Vegas. They were all regular fixtures on television in the summer holidays.

My friend’s mother adored him and we were all very sad when we heard that he had died in August 1977 of heart disease through drug abuse.

The stories of deep fried food and hamburgers on the toilet could never really diminish that screen and stage presence which saw people winding their arm up like a windmill in true Elvis fashion. I recall that we even remembered one of the moves in a karate kata as ‘doing an Elvis’.

But it was his music that I remember most. It punctuated my teenage years. Tears to accompany ‘Are you lonesome tonight?’ and ‘Fool’, which remind me so much of my teenage broken heart. ‘The girl of my best friend’ takes me back to a time when a young man would look at me with besotted eyes whilst his mate had his arm around me. A few weeks when I couldn’t decide between two chaps and was in turmoil.

And then the orchestras building up the emotion, along with that commanding and yet mellow voice which can send shivers down your spine, for three tunes that I cannot help but sing along to if ever they come on the radio – ‘In the ghetto’ ‘Always on my mind’ and ‘Suspicious minds’

Then I watched the compilation below and there were a multitude more memories – the German part of Wooden Heart, Burning Love, Glory Glory Hallelujah. They’re all favourites in their own way.

Ah, Elvis! A beautiful man in a white rhinestone catsuit or a black leather shirt with a voice that could melt any woman’s heart.

Never forgotten.