Elvis Presley Research Paper

Elvis Presley

Elvis inspired and influenced rock musicians like Bob Dylan, John Lennon, and Bruce Springsteen. Elvis’ early life was mostly in Memphis, Tennessee with his cousins. His middle life was full of music. Presley’s late life had a downfall, but, he kept on going forward. To truly understand Elvis Presley, one must understand his early, middle, and late life.

To truly understand Elvis Presley one must first understand his early life. Elvis Presley was born on January 8, 1935 at 4:35am (Watson 4). Elvis had a twin brother, but, he died when he was born (Petersen). In 1937, Elvis’ dad, Vernon, was sent to jail because of forgery and served a three-year sentence (Watson 15). When Elvis’ dad was sent to jail, his mom couldn’t afford their

When Elvis came back from the army his career had a downfall (“Elvis”). On May 8, 1960 Elvis was paid $125,000 for a television special (Peterson). In 1961 he won the “It’s now or never” year award for vocal singer and “in 1969 he was named Las Vegas entertainer of the year” (“Elvis”). On May 1st, 1967 Priscilla Beaulieu and Elvis Presley got married at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada and on February 1st, 1968 Lisa Marie Presley was born (Peterson). The problem was that Elvis didn’t spend much time with his family because of his busy schedule (Peterson). Presley broke all the attendance records in Las Vegas with four weeks (Peterson). In 1970 he was honored by RCA for selling the most records in the company’s history and in 1971 he received the Bing Crosby Award (“Elvis”). In Memphis, Tennessee he got a street named after him, Elvis Presley Boulevard (“Elvis”). In 1971 Elvis and Priscilla broke up and got divorced in October, 1973 due to Elvis’ busy schedule (Peterson). Presley had long, late nights and sleep-filled days, and he took a lot of prescription medicine (Peterson). Later, two of Presley’s friends wrote a book that talked about Elvis’ extensive use of drugs (Peterson). Elvis began to have nightmares about waking up and all of his fans, friends, and wealth gone (Peterson). When Elvis was leaving for Maine, Portland he did not pack because of his depression (Peterson). On August 16, 1977 Elvis was found dead in his mansion in Memphis, Tennessee and at 3:30 he was announced dead at the age of 43 (Peterson, “Elvis”). Elvis had died from cardiac arrhythmia and later, the doctors found out that Elvis had taken ten drugs and four of them were toxic (Peterson). Elvis’ heart and liver were damaged from the years of the substances (Peterson). At Elvis Presley’s funeral there were 15,000 to 20,000 fans that were lined up from Graceland to the cemetery and later, there were about 50,000