A little less conversation - and a lot of dancing - aa whole lotta shakin' - for Elvis Presley's 86th birthday.
It's now or never (It's now or never), because the King does not wait, put on your suede shoes (suede shoes) and dance!
It's been more than 40 years since the king of rock and roll, Elvis Presley, died of a heart attack at his Graceland estate in Memphis, Tennessee.
He was only 42 years old.
But his musical legacy is as strong today as it was that August 1977.
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The boy from Tupelo, Mississippi was, although it didn't seem like it, almost penniless at the time of his death, and during his lifetime he had to tour constantly to pay his huge bills.
Music journalist Carl Dallas, who wrote for Melody Maker for most of Elvis' career, told BBC News he was not surprised by the King's enduring appeal.
"Elvis had something that was both very unique and very ordinary."
"A real person who wiggles her hips and sweats"
"He wasn't an artificial product like all pop stars - even the best ones - tend to be today."
"His reality, his authenticity came to the surface - he was just like himself, he did what he wanted to do, and he wasn't designed in advance by a big record company."
Elvis first stumbled upon the winning formula, his unique blend of country, blues and rock 'n' roll, while playing around with different versions of the song in the San Records studio in 1954. That's All Right Mama.
But unlike many of his generation, he could convincingly sing ballads, songs from musicals and gospel.
And like all great singers, when he sang a song, it would become his.
"It had an authenticity to it, you felt like this was a real experience being brought to you by a real person moving their hips on stage and sweating," recalls Carl Dallas.
"There was nothing fake about Elvis and even when he was at his lowest point, when he was making lousy music and making some pretty awful movies, his brilliance still came through."
For music journalist Charles Shar Murray, the golden voice was part of an unforgettable package.
"The kind of iconic status that Elvis achieved is almost independent of his actual work and cultural achievements," he told BBC News.
"Icon status has a lot to do with what you look like, and he was the prototypical rock star."
Elvis was also "an incredibly dynamic singer, with an instinctive ear for finding common ground between very different styles of music," says Murray.
"The fact that he looked a certain way, dressed a certain way and moved a certain way, just made it all perfect."
Another wind at your back
Elvis got a second wind at the end of the sixties of the 20th century.
After the fame of his hits for Sun Records and his early recordings for RCA, Presley went full force into the mainstream in the XNUMXs, making a dozen films for MGM and recording many lesser works.
But Charlie Shar Murray believes Presley still recorded some great tracks in his later years.
"He made great records in two or three phases of his career - especially in the late fifties and late sixties."
"Unfortunately, he didn't have the strength of personality to follow a musical muse beyond what his management imposed on him."
The songs for Elvis in the second half of his career were written by the British writing team of Guy Fletcher and Doug Flett.
"Extremely Handsome"
The initial contact with Elvis was a matter of pure luck, Doug Flett told BBC News.
"Gaj and I had a song in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest in 1967 Wonderful World - our publisher heard that song, was impressed and sent it to Elvis Presley."
"She appeared in one of those horrible MGM films the poor man was forced to make."
But the Fletcher-Flett team soon received a new call from Presley's management.
"They called us on the phone a few months later and asked us if we'd like to contribute a song to his next album - so we sat down to work hard and wrote five or six songs, and he recorded one of them, The Fair's Moving On."
"At that time we already felt like old hooks and when we received the directive to contribute another song, we wrote a romantic ballad Just pretend."
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Las Vegas
Although the two never met Elvis live, Flett, a songwriter, said he will never forget the moment he heard the King sing his lyrics.
"It was exciting and when we heard the recordings on acetate - this was in the days before cassettes - we were amazed."
"The song fit him like a glove - at that time he was breaking up with Priscilla, so the music also had that background."
And Flett has no doubts that Elvis' voice continued to touch listeners' hearts long after his death.
"He was extremely handsome, but he also had this amazing voice - which was sexy to women but would touch men too."
"And he invented rock and roll."
Key dates in the life of Elvis Presley
- 1935
- 1947
- 1955
- 1956
- 1957
- 1958
- 1959
- 1961
- 1964
- 1967
- 1968
- 1970
- 1975
- 1977
- 1979
- 1982
- 1998
- 2002
Elvis: What he was like
Elvis: -131 gold, platinum or multi-platinum releases in the United States only
Since his death in 1977, his image as a rock legend has come under attack from those who remember him as an overweight glutton.
The theatrical film premiered in 2001 tried to answer the critics and cement his status as the ultimate rock and roll icon.
"Elvis - That's the Way It Is" is a refreshed version of the concert documentary from 1970.
In it, you can see Elvis as a performer, singer and person at his powerful and charismatic peak.
Directed by Denis Sanders, the film follows Elvis from rehearsals to the stage, as he makes his triumphant return to performing live in Las Vegas.
Information about Elvis
- He has sold more than one billion records worldwide
- He has had 131 albums and singles go gold, platinum or multi-platinum in the US alone
- He had 149 songs on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart
- He played in 30 feature films
- He was one of Hollywood's biggest guarantors of success at the box office and the highest paid actors for many years
Sanders made the film from edited footage of just six of his 1970 performances, taken from Elvis' two four-week seasons over five years at the Las Vegas International Hotel.
But, explains Tod Slaughter - the secretary of the official British Elvis Presley fan club - those six concerts were more than enough.
"Elvis showed not only this Las Vegas audience, but, through this film, the whole world, what a perfect entertainer he had become.
"Lively, handsome, witty and has a soft, rich voice with incredible vocal range."
Sanders interspersed his original film with interviews with hotel staff and enthusiastic fans.
Thirty years later, the film has been refined and improved.
The pasted-in sections with staff and fans were removed, and 40 percent of previously unreleased material was added.
The result is a film about Elvis the musician rather than Elvis the star.
Slaughter, who was among the fans featured in the original, approves of this new edit.
"Sanders initially chose to focus on the bizarre aspects of our gathering, which both devalued our people and portrayed Elvis as enjoying the support of fans who weren't exactly 'all sheep in a number,'" he says.
"Luckily, all European and American fans have been kicked out of the special edition. What's left is a fantastic film that looks like it was made yesterday."
The film is divided into three parts. The first shows Elvis rehearsing with his musicians.
Then it switches to his work with backing vocals The Sweet Inspirations i The Imperials.
The final, third part is dedicated to performances.
In each segment, the songs outline Elvis' mood and his varied musical influences.
At rehearsal, Elvis transitions from a heartbreaking performance Bridge Over Troubled Water Simon and Garfunkel on Get Back The Beatles. Later, he suddenly launches into a spontaneous version Happy Yodler.
The concerts are a treasure trove of some of his biggest and most memorable hits, such as The Wonder of You, Blue suede shoes, Love Me Tender, In the Ghetto i Suspicious Minds.
Despite the obvious fact that Elvis is aware of the presence of the camera, the film is an intimate portrait of an extremely charming man both on and off stage.
With musicians, he is relaxed and joking, even childish at times.
There is an unstoppable force on stage that drives the audience into a frenzy with a single movement.
But in the film he also shows his human side, going down into the audience and walking among them, hugging and kissing fans.
Elvis performed more than 1.000 concerts from the time he started performing again in 1969 until his death - but he never toured outside the US.
Sanders' film was originally made for his fans around the world who have not and will never see him perform live.
Slaughter, who met Elvis on three occasions, believes that this new version of the film presents Elvis in the right light and shows future generations why Elvis is known as the King.
"Nothing prepared me for meeting Elvis. He had a special aura.
"And yet he was also such a human being. This movie serves as a great opportunity to show people who Elvis really was."
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