This day in history: On this day in 1956, "Elvis Presley made chart history by having ten simultaneous singles on Billboard’s Hot 100 (then called the 'Top 100') – an astonishing feat then and now. At the end of the year, Billboard reported that the rock‘n’roll star had placed more songs in the US Top 100 than any other artist since records were first charted. Among them were the No.1 hits 'Heartbreak Hotel,' 'Hound Dog,' 'Don’t Be Cruel,' and 'Love Me Tender.'" Source
The Beatles would eventually overtake this, and also manage a whopping 20 number one hits.
This day in history: Singer Presents...Elvis, commonly referred to as the '68 Comeback Special, is an Elvis Presley concert special that aired on NBC on this day in 1968.
The 50-minute television special taped in June with a live audience in Burbank, California, aired on NBC in the United States marking the comeback of Elvis Presley after 7 years during which the legendary musician's career had centered on the movie industry. The eagerly-anticipated return of the "King of Rock and Roll" would prove to be the most watched special broadcast of the 1968 holiday season in the U.S. One observer would later note that "the Elvis special was not just a ratings winner; it was also one of the most riveting pieces of television ever broadcast. It was Elvis at his rocking best, interacting with an audience as he never had on film or on programs such as The Ed Sullivan Show", and that "the '1968 Comeback Special' proved that the singer was still the most powerful live entertainer in the world. Millions who had never before listened to Elvis found themselves caught under the singer's spell." At the close of the show, Presley concluded with the premiere of "If I Can Dream", a song inspired by Martin Luther King Jr. The show is followed by a Brigitte Bardot special.
This day in History: Colonel Tom Parker was born on this day in 1909. Thomas Andrew Parker, commonly known as Colonel Parker, was a musical entrepreneur, best known for being Elvis Presley's manager.
Born in the Netherlands, Parker entered the United States illegally when he was 20 years old. He adopted a new name and claimed to have been born in the United States. A carnival worker by background, Parker moved into music promotion in 1938, working with one of the first popular crooners, Gene Austin, and then country music singers Eddy Arnold, Hank Snow, and Tommy Sands. He also assisted Jimmie Davis' campaign to become governor of Louisiana. As a reward, Davis gave him the honorary rank of "colonel" in the Louisiana State Militia.
Parker encountered Presley in 1955, and by 1956 had become his primary representative. With Parker's help, Presley signed a recording contract with RCA Victor, leading to his commercial breakthrough in 1956 with his sixth single "Heartbreak Hotel" and propelling him to become one of the most popular and commercially successful entertainers in the world.
"Parker is hated by the fans because he got 25%, then 50%, of Elvis’ income. But he brought Elvis to the attention of his audience. He gave Elvis the venue that made Elvis into an icon. There was no indication that Elvis would escape the country music circuit until Parker took over as manager in September, 1955." Source
This Day in History: Barbara and Patricia Grimes—aged 15 and 12, disappeared on this day in 1956. The two sisters went to see the Elvis Presley film Love Me Tender at the Brighton Park theater at around 7:30 p.m. They were big Elvis fans so they stayed for the second screening of Love Me Tender, which meant that they would be getting back home at around 11:45 p.m.
"They disappeared while traveling from the Brighton park movie theater to their home at McKinley park which was about a mile and a half in distance. Their disappearance initiated one of the largest missing persons investigations in the history of Chicago. A city wide search was in place for these 2 girls. Rivers and canals were searched, door-to-door searches, and flyers were being put out looking for these young girls. Many teenagers said that they saw the 2 girls get in a car driven by a young man that looked like Elvis Presley." Source
The girls' nude bodies were discovered alongside a deserted road in Willow Springs on January 22, 1957.
Although the sisters' autopsy reports concluded they had been murdered within five hours of their last confirmed sighting, and that both girls had died of secondary shock, numerous individuals attested to having seen the girls alive in the weeks between the night of December 28 and the subsequent discovery of their bodies.
The murder of the Grimes sisters has been described by authors as a crime that "shattered the innocence" of Chicago. This case is also acknowledged as one of the most labor-intensive missing person and murder investigations in Cook County, and remains one of Chicago's most infamous cold cases.
On this day in 1956, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash got together for the first and last time for an impromptu jam session consisting of mostly Country and Gospel songs.
An article about the session was published in the Memphis Press-Scimitar under the title "Million Dollar Quartet". The recording was first released in Europe in 1981 as The Million Dollar Quartet with 17 tracks. A few years later more tracks were discovered and released as The Complete Million Dollar Session. In 1990, the recordings were released in the United States as Elvis Presley: The Million Dollar Quartet. This session is considered a seminal moment in rock and roll history.
Also on this day, in 1971, during a concert of Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention at the Montreux Casino, an audience member fired a flare gun into the venue's ceiling, causing a fire that destroyed the venue. The rock band Deep Purple, who were to use the Casino as the site for the recording of their next album, witnessed the fire from their hotel; the incident would be immortalized in their best known song, "Smoke on the Water".
In a 2004 publication by Rolling Stone magazine "Smoke on the Water" was ranked number 434 on its list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time", Total Guitar magazine's ranked "Smoke on the Water" number 4 on its "Greatest Guitar Riffs Ever", and in March 2005, Q magazine placed "Smoke on the Water" at number 12 in its list of the 100 greatest guitar tracks.
The King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley, died on this day in 1977. I still remember where I was when I heard of his death. I was building a fireplace in the Thorhild, Alberta area with my dad.
Elvis has sold over one billion records worldwide and has had over 150 different albums and singles certified gold, platinum and multi-platinum. Elvis still holds the record for Most Top 40 hits at 114 total. He had 53 Top 40 albums on the Billboard Top 200 chart.
Elvis Presley is the only music artist to be honored with two U.S. Postal Service commemorative stamps (1993 & 2015). The 1993 stamp is still the most popular U.S. commemorative stamp of all time.
Elvis only performed in three cities outside the U.S., all in Canada: Ottawa, Vancouver and Toronto.
He also had bad eating habits, which may explain a lot in his later years:
"Elvis is famously associated with a sandwich made with peanut butter, bacon, and banana, then pan-fried in butter like an even fattier grilled cheese. It wasn’t his only extreme dietary indulgence, though: 'The King' also enjoyed deep-fried pickles and is said to have once flown from Memphis to Denver just for a massive Fool's Gold Loaf sandwich, which involves stuffing a pound of bacon, a jar of peanut butter, and a jar of jelly inside a buttery loaf of hollowed-out French bread." (Mental Floss)
Between 1977 and 1981, six of Presley's posthumously released singles were top-ten country hits.
His home, Graceland, was opened to the public in 1982. Attracting over half a million visitors annually, it became the second most-visited home in the United States, after the White House. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2006.
Presley has been inducted into five music halls of fame: the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1986), the Country Music Hall of Fame (1998), the Gospel Music Hall of Fame (2001), the Rockabilly Hall of Fame (2007), and the Memphis Music Hall of Fame (2012). In 1984, he received the W. C. Handy Award from the Blues Foundation and the Academy of Country Music's first Golden Hat Award. In 1987, he received the American Music Awards' Award of Merit.
He is one of the top-earning deceased celebrities, and in 2018, Presley was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
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