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Elvis Presley: Elvis Presley'
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In 1953, when Elvis Presley was an 18-year-old truck driver earning $35 a week, the American music scene was comfortably set in its ways. Country musicians picked guitars. R&B musicians jammed on saxophones and pianos. Gospel music stayed in churches. And performers' hips stayed in a nice straight line. Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby sang beloved popular standards.
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Elvis Presley is rock & roll. It doesn't get simpler than that. Elvis Presley was one of the prime architects of the music. As such, he influenced several generations both musically and socially. The songs presentedon Elvis' Golden Recordsare among his finest. The urgency in Elvis Presley's voice is just one part of the equation.
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Elvis Presley spawned rock and roll interest in Europe; his name was even known by people behind the then-Iron Curtain. In France, singer Johnny Hallyday copied Presley in the French language, becoming a huge star in that country. Presley paved the way for other American rockers whose records sold in Europe and who began to tour there. Teenagers around the world began copying his "Ducktail" hair style, and the demand for transistor radios exploded so much so that Sony went from a small Japanese telecommunications company making radios to a giant global conglomerate. And, through his new look with black slacks and loose open-necked shirts, he created a huge demand for new lines of clothing. Presley's influence created a generation of teenagers who, for the first time, became an economic powerhouse through their spending capacity.
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Gone but obviously not forgotten, Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash end 2005 with additional multi-platinum certifications from the RIAA. ELV1S: 30 #1 Hits was certified quadruple platinum for shipments of 4 million copies. Presley's It's Christmas Time and Cash's 16 Biggest Hits went double platinum for shipments of 2 million copies each. Kenny Chesney's The Road and the Radio ... went double platinum in December. The Legend of Johnny Cash attained platinum status for shipments of 1 million copies. As previously reported, other RIAA platinum certifications for December include Carrie Underwood's debut album, Some Hearts, and the latest releases by Trace Adkins, Dierks Bentley, Sheryl Crow, Martina McBride and Reba McEntire.
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For most people, Elvis Presley was rock-and-roll. And they were right. Bill Haley may have made the first massive rock hit, and people such as Chuck Berry and Little Richard may have had an equally important creative impact on this raucous new American art form. But it was Elvis who defined the style and gave it an indelible image. The songs were tough and driving in a time, 20 years ago, when American popular music was still based on Tin Pan Alley tune-smithing. And the image was of a working-class rebel, pushing sex into the nation's consciousness long before the "sexual revolution."
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"Elvis Presley met President Richard M. Nixon in the Oval Office in December 1970. A photograph of that meeting is one of the most famous in the holdings of the National Archives. Through the original letters and memorandums written by Presley and the White House staff, this exhibit tells the behind-the-scenes story of how the meeting was arranged." This is a great story, and the National Archives does a great job telling it. The only thing missing is a picture of the badge that Nixon's staff gave Elvis. What badge? You'll have to visit the exhibit to find out.
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