We already had some kings in their genre and also a queen. But one king is missing. Can you guess who?
This one actually was called "King" by his fans.
As you may have guessed it, I am talking about Elvis Aaron Presley … the "King of Rock and Roll"
Elivs was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, and relocated to Memphis, Tennessee, when he was 13 years old. His music career began there in 1954, with producer Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African-American music to a wider audience.
Presley's first RCA single, "Heartbreak Hotel", was released in January 1956 and became a number one hit in the United States.
In November 1956, Presley made his film debut in Love Me Tender. Drafted into military service in 1958, Presley relaunched his recording career two years later with some of his most commercially successful work.
Elivs is one of the most celebrated and influential musicians of the 20th century. Commercially successful in many genres, including pop, country, blues, and gospel, he is the best-selling solo Artist (with sales estimates ranging from 600 million to 1 billion Sales) in the history of recorded music. He won three competitive Grammys, received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at age 36, and has been inducted into multiple music halls of fame.
His final concert was held in Indianapolis at Market Square Arena, on June 26.
By this point, he suffered from multiple ailments: glaucoma, high blood pressure, liver damage, and an enlarged colon, each magnified and possibly caused by drug abuse.
On the evening of August 16, 1977, Presley was scheduled to fly out of Memphis to begin another tour. That afternoon, Ginger Alden discovered him in an unresponsive state on a bathroom floor. According to her eyewitness account, "Elvis looked as if his entire body had completely frozen in a seated position while using the commode and then had fallen forward, in that fixed position, directly in front of it. [...] It was clear that, from the time whatever hit him to the moment he had landed on the floor, Elvis hadn't moved." Attempts to revive him failed, and his death was officially pronounced at 3:30 p.m. at the Baptist Memorial Hospital.
President Jimmy Carter issued a statement that credited Presley with having "permanently changed the face of American popular culture". Thousands of people gathered outside Graceland to view the open casket.