King of rock 'n' roll reigns supreme 25 years after death

Elvis, center, poses with his parents in this Presley family portrait.

August 10 kicks off the nine days of Elvis Week, the yearly commemoration and media circus surrounding the anniversary of Presley's death on August 16, 1977. This year marks 25 years since that fateful day, and yet Elvis may have never been bigger.

Well, when it comes to Elvis, you're not just talking pop stars.

"Elvis made it the singer, not the song," says Glenn Gass, a professor of music at Indiana University. Rock 'n' roll, he adds, could have gone the way of swing music, but Elvis gave it vitality. "He's the reason rock 'n' roll is still alive."

Or, as John Lennon once said, "Before Elvis, there was nothing."

The man who would become king of rock 'n' roll was born January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi. He was one of a pair of twins; the other child, named Jesse Garon, was stillborn.

Young Elvis grew up surrounded by all kinds of music -- gospel, country and blues. When he was a teenager, the family moved up U.S. 78 to Memphis, where Presley soaked up the rich musical tradition of the Mississippi River city.

Presley shakes his hips in front of a crowd of adoring fans.

By the early 1950s, there was a new kind of music in the air -- an energetic combination of country and R&B nicknamed "rock 'n' roll." Sometimes there was too much energy -- in Cleveland, Ohio, a concert hosted by disc jockey Alan Freed led to a riot -- but there was no doubting the pent-up demand for something besides Perry Como and Patti Page.

Presley took it all in. By 1954, he was recording demo discs at Sam Phillips' Sun Records label in Memphis. Phillips, recognizing a special spark in Presley, teamed him with guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black.

Within several months, the trio had blazed through several country and R&B covers, from "That's All Right," "Blue Moon of Kentucky" and "Mystery Train," and Elvis Presley had become a regional sensation.

By the end of 1955, with the singer having attracted a manager in Colonel Tom Parker -- and with Phillips believing another of his discoveries, Carl Perkins, was going to be just as big -- Presley's contract was sold to RCA Records for ,000.

The next year, he exploded.

Suddenly, Elvis truly was everywhere. He appeared on national television, including "The Ed Sullivan Show," the tastemaker for millions. (Sullivan called him "a decent, fine boy.") He toured, his hip-shaking, suggestive moves putting audiences in a swoon. He embarked on a movie career. And his records set records.

Those early RCA discs -- including "Heartbreak Hotel," "Love Me Tender," "Teddy Bear" and the incredible "Hound Dog" -- reinforce something suggested by the Sun recordings: a musician at home in any type of music, from tender ballads to hard-driving rock. Yet, with his slicked-back hair and upper-lip sneer, he seemed like a rebellious teenage delinquent.

The early fury was fairly short-lived. In 1958, Presley was inducted into the Army. After 1960, when he came out, he was just as popular -- at one point in the early '60s he was one of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood -- but his records had largely lost their edge.

Elvis signed a seven-year movie contract with Paramount Pictures in 1956.

The new Elvis topped the charts with overblown, rewritten Italian pop songs, such as "It's Now or Never" and "Surrender." Parker, a one-time carnival barker, was determined to keep Presley as popular as possible -- and that meant keeping him away from the cutting edge.

Still, with the arrival of the British Invasion in 1964, Elvis suddenly looked passe. The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and all their offspring were where it was at. Elvis was treated with respect -- Dylan loved his treatment of "Tomorrow Is a Long Time" -- but he was yesterday's vinyl.

Released in the late summer of 1969, the song -- with crack Nashville players underscoring Elvis' yearning, almost-desperate vocal -- became the King's last U.S. No. 1. From that peak, however, it was mostly downhill. There were three more Top 10 hits and constant sellout concerts, but Elvis began retreating.

He gained weight; he started abusing drugs, many prescribed to him by the infamous "Dr. Nick." Though he could put on a spectacular live show, he became a figure of parody, with his aviator glasses, rhinestone-encrusted white and aqua suits and karate-chop moves.

In the summer of 1977, he performed his last concert, in Indianapolis. A couple months later, he was found dead in his bathroom at Graceland. He was 42 years old.