subject: Origins of Rock n' Roll by Elvis Presley [print this page] Elvis Presley has always held the title of King of Rock 'n Roll. But Elvis went beyond rock and roll, his musical artistry and his phenomenal voice mastering gospel, rhythm and blues, country, rockabilly and even pop. Incredibly, he also became the highest-paid actor in Hollywood, starring in 33 movies. Yet Elvis was reluctant to accept the name given him by the world: his followers and the world press.
One evening at Graceland, as I was styling Elvis' hair, we were talking about certain factors of his singing career and numerous types and styles of music which he's famous for. Without warning, Elvis leaned toward me, saying quietly, "Let me tell ya something Larry. Lot of people call me the king, like I started rock n' roll or something. No way man, no way, that's not how it happened. Rock n' roll , if you want to know the truth, it all started deep in the South, way before I was even born, when the ol' Negroes were slaving in the fields, picking cotton til they dropped. Man, those poor people really knew what suffering was. They would sing and cry out to The Lord just to get by. I'm tellin' ya, it was a cry that came from their souls. Listen, that's where most of our real gospel music actually comes from. What white people did was to copy them. From sunrise til it got dark, they all sang, making up the words as they went along, in the cotton fields an' plantations. And their slave music found its way right into their churches; then white people followed what they were doing, singing their versions of the ol' slave songs. Then their music began to change and spread way beyond religion and grew into honky-tonk and Dixieland. This is where it was born, in the ol' Mississippi Delta, then downtown in Memphis in Beale street, and New Orleans. Before long it went up north to St. Louis and Chicago where the blues, ragtime and jazz first took off; then right up into our times it all grew into rhythm n' blues then rock 'n roll. I'll tell you the truth Larry, I was just lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time - and all I really did was to take their music and introduce it to a white audience."
December of 1976, we were in Las Vegas one night after the show. Elvis and I had just left his dressing room and stepped into the elevator heading up to Elvis' penthouse at the Hilton International. Two young girls charged up and excitedly yelled out, "Elvis you're the king!" Before the elevator doors slammed shut he smiled gently and pointed upwards. "There's only one King. I might be in the saddle but I'm not on the throne."
