It was not until 1969 that Elvis sang a Burt Bacharach song.Įlvis loved movies, was knowledgeable about them and had ambitions to be a serious movie actor, but Parker signed Elvis to movie deals in which money was the only consideration, nixing possible projects like “A Star is Born” and, although it was a far-fetched idea to think of Elvis opposite Natalie Wood in a musical by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, the role of Tony in the movie version of “West Side Story.”Īside from perhaps a few movies - "Jailhouse Rock” or “Blue Hawaii” - the scripts were terrible, the songs were second-rate, and Parker didn’t care. He was a promoter who managed to become Elvis’ manager and got the naïve boy and his naïve father to sign contracts in which Parker got a disproportionate share of the earnings and for the longest time committed Elvis to sing only songs that brought Parker publishing royalties. Parker knew nothing about music, trends, tastes, history, nothing. “Being Elvis: A Lonely Life,” Ray Connolly’s one-volume biography, is tidy and contains some information not available to Guralnick.Īfter covering the well-known childhood poverty in Tupelo, the move to Memphis where Elvis was shy and lonely and the sudden rise to fame with the early records cut at Sun Studio, Connolly focuses on a few particular aspects of Elvis’ life.įirst, he is explicit about the ambiguous, even sinister role so-called Col. Understandably, however, not everyone wants to move through 1,300 pages and it has been 18 years since the last volume. His massive and authoritative two-volume study - “Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley” (1994) and “Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley” (1999), totaling 1,300 pages - pretty much said it all about Elvis. Peter Guralnick is considered by many to be the best commentator on American popular music, with books on Sam Phillips, Sam Cooke, Robert Johnson and others.
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