dead elvis 2010

Elvis turned 75 yesterday – that’s 42 live Elvis years plus 33 dead Elvis years.

Dead Elvis made $55 million dollars last year, $403 million these past 10 years, and $4.2 billion just while he was alive.

John Lennon said “Before Elvis, there was nothing.” Of course he also said that another name for rock n roll would be Chuck Berry (whom Elvis admired greatly).

I saw his first appearance in 1956 on the Ed Sullivan show and wasn’t all that blown away (of course I was 10 years old) but when I heard the first few notes of King Creole, I was “gone gone gone, jumpin like a catfish on a pole.”

Here are a few more quotes from other famous people.

Elvis is the greatest cultural force in the twentieth century. He introduced the beat to everything, music, language, clothes, it’s a whole new social revolution — the 60’s comes from it. – Leonard Bernstein

I think he maybe just got a little tired of repairing all the broken hearts in the world. – Tom Waits

I wasn’t just a fan, I was his brother. He said I was good and I said he was good; we never argued about that. Elvis was a hard worker, dedicated, and God loved him. Last time I saw him was at Graceland. We sang Old Blind Barnabus together, a gospel song. I love him and hope to see him in heaven. There’ll never be another like that soul brother. – James Brown

If life was fair, Elvis would be alive and all the impersonators would be dead. – Johnny Carson

You know, Bush is always comparing me to Elvis in sort of unflattering ways. I don’t think Bush would have liked Elvis very much, and that’s just another thing that’s wrong with him. – Bill Clinton during the 1992 presidential campaign.

When I first heard Elvis’ voice, I just knew that I wasn’t going to work for anybody, and nobody was going to be my boss. He is the deity supreme of rock and roll religion as it exists in today’s form. Hearing him for the first time was like busting out of jail. I thank God for Elvis Presley. – Bob Dylan

Before Elvis, everything was in black and white. Then came Elvis. Zoom, glorious Technicolor. – Keith Richards

The Postal Service is being wasteful in spending nearly $300,000 to promote its Elvis Presley stamp. To break even, they would have to sell more than one million stamps to collectors who do not then use them. – Ralph Nader, just a few months before the US Postal Service announced it had made a record breaking US$31 million on the strength of some 120 million unused Elvis stamps, out of the 500 million which were sold, the most for any commemorative stamp in US postal history.

That Elvis, man, he is all there is. There ain’t no more. Everything starts and ends with him. He wrote the book. – Bruce Springsteen

A lot of people have accused Elvis of stealing the black man’s music, when in fact, almost every black solo entertainer copied his stage mannerisms from Elvis. – Jackie Wilson R&B singer