With Mariah Carey's recent eclipse of Elvis's record for most number one hits as a solo artist (she now has 18), Blender salutes the King's immortal music, his tabloid appetites and his "Fat Elvis" free fall.
1. Even in the South, Elvis was a pretty strange name."The first time I heard it, I said, 'Weird name,'" recalls Scotty Moore, who played guitar at Presley's first recording session at Sam Phillips's Sun Records. "Sam's secretary wrote it down for me."
2. Elvis had an amazing memory.He'd hear songs on the radio and then sing them immediately. "It seemed like he knew every song in the world," Moore says. "Country, pop, R&B. Elvis had a sponge for a brain when it came to lyrics."
3. He was very polite ..."He was always taught manners," Sam Phillips says. "His mother thought there was no reason to treat people except with great respect. If you didn't say 'yessir' and 'nosir,' that was a cardinal sin."
4. ... But you wouldn't like him when he was angry."He was real slow to anger," Phillips says. "But once he was angered, pound for pound I don't know of a person who was stronger. I remember one time at the gas station out the back of The Peabody Hotel. This one person who didn't like his long sideburns wouldn't leave him alone. Elvis had him down on the concrete in no time flat."
5. Colonel Tom Parker really was a colonel. Kind of.Presley's legendary manager was given an honorary colonel's commission in October 1948 by Louisiana governor Jimmie Davis. Parker did serve in the U.S. Army in 1930 and 1931, but he didn't attain the rank of colonel. (Parker wasn't his real name, either.)