About The King

Elvis Aaron Presley was born on January 8th 1935, the surviving baby of a twin pregnancy, sadly his brother Jesse was stillborn. As a young child Elvis was raised in various neighbourhoods in the Mississippi area. His parents, Gladys and Vernon, were poor hardworking people who simply moved on when things got tough. In 1948 the family moved to Memphis near Beale Street, the legendary home of the 'Blues'. The irony of Elvis' poor upbringing was that he was exposed to a wealth of music everything in fact from Soul to the Gospel music favoured by his mother. Elvis had a very close bond with his mother and she too was very protective towards her only child, his fame and fortune worried Gladys and towards the end of her life she was drinking heavily and gaining weight, all of which contributed to her early death, of a heart-attack, at the age of 46 in August 1958. Elvis was distraught at the death of his mother which happened during his national service with the American army where he attained the rank of seargent before being de-mobbed in March 1960.

Elvis met his wife to be, Priscilla Beaulieu, in November 1959, she was only 14, they stayed in touch by letter and in March 1962 Elvis persuaded Prescilla's parents to allow her to finish her schooling in the USA, they reluctantly agreed and at the tender age of 17 Prescilla was living at Graceland with Vernon and his new wife Dee. Elvis was away filming a lot so although the couple were together when he was home, the courtship was slow, Elvis was always aware, and respectful of her age, and of their age gap. In 1964 The Beatles were storming through the American charts, Elvis who had not had a hit since 1962 was becoming increasingly restless with his life. Christmas 1966 saw the long awaited engagement of Elvis and Prescilla, their wedding was set for May 1st 1967, in Las Vegas. Within a few weeks of being married Prescilla found out that she was pregnant, Elvis was delighted at the thought of becoming a father and on 1st February 1968 the beautiful Lisa-Marie was born.

Elvis was to make his renowned comeback just before Christmas 1968 in a one off TV special, clad in black leather looking, happy, relaxed and probably at his best ever, Elvis was well and truly back. He belted out all of his rock 'n' roll hits and closed the show with his new song 'If I Can Dream'. Determined now to return to touring Elvis embarked on a hectic schedule of live performances, recording and yet more filming. At home Prescilla and Elvis' relationship was deteriorating, sadly during the early part of 1972 Elvis and Prescilla separated.

Elvis continued with his life on the road, concerts, tv appearances, recording studios and biographical 'movies', with the ledgendary live showing of his concert 'Aloha From Hawaii' being the first of it's kind in world history. This gruelling nomadic lifestyle fuelled Elvis' dependancy on prescription drugs which coupled with his medical history led to his premature death on August 16th 1977, a very sad end to the life of a warm, sincere and hugely talented man.