HOMAGE TO ELVIS PRESLEY

By: Izabella Hotz and Destiny Cannon

January 10, 2020

Elvis Aaron Presley, the man who was originally deemed too explicit for television and who made women swoon across the world, is still being remembered today.

He was nominated 14 times for Grammy awards and won three of them. He had 60 Golden Records, two Platinum Records, and two Double Platinum Records across the globe; he was also named the number one selling artist in Norway.

With the passing of his 85th birthday on Wednesday, January 8, 2020, it has been just about 43 years since the “King of Rock n’ Roll” passed away. Even in death, he remains an icon and a well-known name.

A somewhat well-known fact about him is that he played a show right here at the Brooklyn High School Auditorium! He played with five other acts that day, but of all of them, he was the least well-known at the time.

The show was put together by Cleveland DJ, Bill Randle. The other acts included famous faces like Pat Boone, Scotty, Bill Haley and the Comets, the Four Lads, and Priscilla Wright.

After Elvis’ performance at Brooklyn, his career skyrocketed. In 1956, Presley released his first self-titled album. He also appeared on the Steve Allen Show followed by an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. Elvis himself said that being on the Ed Sullivan Show was “probably the greatest honor I have ever had in my life.”

We now know him as the King, but Presley was not always so well-known. Ed Sullivan had, prior to Presley’s performance, said that he did not wish to have him on his show, but after a rival network featured Presley, he changed his tune.

While Presley is extremely well-known around the world, he as a person and the details of his career may not be as well-known. The following is a list of fun facts about the King:

• Over his career, he sang more than 600 songs, but he did not write a single one of them.
• Elvis’ first album spent 10 weeks in the #1 spot.
• Elvis served for two years in the military at the height of his fame.
• Presley used shoe polish to make his hair black during the beginning of his career but later switched over to dye.
• Elvis was distantly related to former President Abraham Lincoln and Jimmy Carter.
• In 1947, a local radio show offered a young Elvis (age 12) a chance to sing live on air, but he was too shy to go on.
• In 1954, Elvis auditioned for a gospel quartet named the Songfellows.  They turned him down.

Even though he is no longer with us, his legacy left a lasting impact on society. In Presley’s words, “Values are like fingerprints. Nobody’s are the same, but you leave ‘em all over everything that you do.”