The King of Rock and Roll, which many still refer to him as, was born on January 8, 1935 in Memphis, Tennessee. While his rightly earned title suggests that he was mostly involved in rock and roll, other genres he performed in were blues, country, rockabilly and gospel. In fact, when he first began his musical career he focused more in the other genres first before he went to rock and roll. He was not only a vocalist, he was also a pianist and a guitarist. He was even an actor in a number of films, though many of them did not really do overly well.



Elvis Presley's childhood was far from easy. He was an only child of a relatively poor family. He did have a twin, but the child was still-born. When Elvis was still young, his father went to jail for fraud and his mother eventually lost the house that her husband had built. He was apparently quite close to his mother and was bullied at school for it. He was a quiet child who kept to himself most of the time and was different from the others, which resulted in harassment by the other children at school who would throw insults and objects at him.

Despite all this, Elvis had his first performance at the age of ten where he won second prize for the contest he had entered. The next year he got his first guitar, which he loved to play and take everywhere he went. He then went on to play in shops in order to make money to help his parents. It would be a few years and a few recordings later before he made his first breakthrough in 1956, when he was 21 years old. The year after Tom Parker became Elvis' manager, Elvis had a number one hit in the United States in April. His manager also tried to get him onto television in an effort to boost Elvis' exposure, but many of the films the singer was on did not receive very good reviews. Performances were apparently more for Elvis because music was where his talent was.

Elvis Presley brought in an entirely new wave of music and while it was music that was not very well accepted by the older crowd, the younger crowd absolutely loved it. Despite a few minor setbacks in his career and a few televisions show hosts who weren't fans of his, Elvis' popularity grew. It was a change in the world of music that was going to happen and nothing was going to change that. His performance on stage was also ridiculed, as the older crowd saw his actions on stage as vulgar, but this was later set aside. His music and his performances were controversial, but that didn't matter to the audience that loved him. His music was so different and influential that even the Beatles claim they were inspired by him. Many other bands that would later surface would also admit they were greatly influenced by the King of Rock and Roll.