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There's no denying he's the King. He's one of the most famous people ever, but what if he had appeared a decade later? Or in the 80s? He may well have still attained a superstar status, but would it have lasted?
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There's no sense in speculating about impossibilities, is there?  ;)

He was bold and daring. He had an energy to him which was unparalleled. IMO, he's like the male Madonna of his time.  ;D

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The King of What? Percodan? Sorry, fans. My eldest aunt was a big fan of Elvis, but any titles given to celebrities are just that. Michael Jackson is not really "The King of Pop". Aretha Franklin isn't "The Queen of Soul" and Springsteen is not really "The Boss" (He claims he disdains that title.) Even the composer Salieri called himself "The Ruler of Mediocrity". (If you can believe the film "Amadeus". ;)
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Welcome to the world of celebrities.

P.S. I find it weird that some stars become "knighted". Wasn't that supposed to be for soldiers whos served the king and sat at the round table?

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The King of What? Percodan? Sorry, fans. My eldest aunt was a big fan of Elvis, but any titles given to celebrities are just that. Michael Jackson is not really "The King of Pop". Aretha Franklin isn't "The Queen of Soul" and Springsteen is not really "The Boss" (He claims he disdains that title.) Even the composer Salieri called himself "The Ruler of Mediocrity". (If you can believe the film "Amadeus". ;)
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Neither was Babe Ruth the "Sultan of Swat", nor Duke Snider the "Duke of Flatbush". Like you said, they are names usually bestowed by fans or a writer, and they catch on. I don't see the harm myself, and I'm no celebrity watcher either. I actually pay most actors very little attention, and think it's a shame that there is a market for such shows as "Entertainment Tonight". But I digress...

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I've always thought that Elvis Presley was extremely overrated.  Sure he was the pioneer of the rock and roll era, but I think he just happened to be in the right place at the right time.  That doesn't necessarily mean he was the best person for the title...
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Ah! That's almost like stating The Beatles and The Rolling Stones were at the right place at the right time. There's no denying that Elvis (a.k.a. The King) was in the right place at the right time, but was also the right man for it (seriously, if not Elvis, who else?). How many other artists were around the same time that have gathered as much notoriety for their music all the way to to-day? Sure there were the one-hit wonders that will be remembered for that and that only, but Elvis was definitely more than all those artists combined and definitely deserving of the title ;)

Tarzan Boy

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i  i don't think he single-handedly did anything for rock...he just picked up where bill haley and the comets left off.  End Quote

He invented rockabilly!

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He invented rockabilly!



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i gave an opinion, not a definitive statement based on facts.  someone else would have 'invented' rockabilly...i don't think it's so much an invention as a development on a pre-existing idea.  but that's just semantics.  frankly, i don't think rockabilly did much for anything, hence i don't think he did much of anything for rock and roll except glorify drug use and sequins.

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i gave an opinion, not a definitive statement based on facts.  someone else would have 'invented' rockabilly...i don't think it's so much an invention as a development on a pre-existing idea.  but that's just semantics.  frankly, i don't think rockabilly did much for anything, hence i don't think he did much of anything for rock and roll except glorify drug use and sequins.
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GASP!

I'm being slowly sucked into a vortex and onto another dimension...noooooooooooo...um, I take it you're not a big fan of CCR and The Smiths...back into the vortex...noooooooooo...

Tarzan Boy

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GASP!

I'm being slowly sucked into a vortex and onto another dimension...noooooooooooo...um, I take it you're not a big fan of CCR and The Smiths...back into the vortex...noooooooooo...

Tarzan Boy


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quite the contrary, actually.  my father raised me on ccr, so it was inevitable that i'd like them.  i found the smiths on my own and liked what i heard.  i am allowed to like other music even though i don't like something else before it.  i still don't care for elvis and i still stand by my previous posts.  i'm one of the few people i know that doesn't like him.  others call me a nazi for it (and because i don't like the movie 'top gun' but that's another story).  it's o.k.  by now, i'm used to being ridiculed and called names because i don't like what everyone else does.  not that anyone here has called me names, but i've felt the disdain.

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quite the contrary, actually.  my father raised me on ccr, so it was inevitable that i'd like them.  i found the smiths on my own and liked what i heard.  i am allowed to like other music even though i don't like something else before it.  i still don't care for elvis and i still stand by my previous posts.  i'm one of the few people i know that doesn't like him.  others call me a nazi for it (and because i don't like the movie 'top gun' but that's another story).  it's o.k.  by now, i'm used to being ridiculed and called names because i don't like what everyone else does.  not that anyone here has called me names, but i've felt the disdain.
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Naw, don't take it like that. I would never call anyone names or anything just because they have a different taste in entertainment. I hated Top Gun too. It sucked even though it had Val Kilmer and that dude from ER in it :P

Tarzan Boy

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panda, I'm with you...I do not like any sort of Elvis, except Costello, and I did'nt even get through the first 15 minutes of "Top Gun"...anybody nicknamed "Goose", in my eyes, is a little bit suspect.

There is a lot of Elvis Presley fans out there, but I can't get past the "king" part.  If he was "king" od anything, I would have to say it was "King of the Eljer Porcelain Throne."

Only MY op, of course...I mean no disrespect to anyone...different tastes, that's all. ;D
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this is exactly why i'm leaving you my inner jackass when i die (see 'last wills' thread in quizzes for details)...

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this is exactly why i'm leaving you my inner jackass when i die (see 'last wills' thread in quizzes for details)...
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Rest assured that Jack would be VERY well taken care of... ;)

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Heh, just researched, and it appears that they only had 7 top 40 hits. I probably would have expected more from a group that apparently dominated... these were, at least in this country...

6 April 1967 - A Little Bit Me A Little Bit You - #3
22 June 1967 - Alternate Title - #2
16 August 1967 - Pleasant Valley Sunday - #11
15 November 1967 - Daydream Believer - #5
27 March 1968 - Valleri - #12
26 June 1968 - D. W. Washburn - #17
15 March 1980 - The Monkees EP - #33

That's 7 top 40 hits, spanning 13 years, with no number 1 singles to their name.
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I think I remember "I'm A Believer" and "Last Train To Clarksville" being #1 in the U.S. Verification would surely be appreciated.  ;) :)

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I don't deal in American statistics, sorry, I only have British info...
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I meant someone else who does know.

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He was not in me eyes. He had a lot of songs but I preferred Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry.
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Not picking on you Reddy, just taking the last relevent quote.....

I think Elvis was the King.  I do like him (in the '50s), but I also love Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly (at least the fast stuff - that slowish sweet stuff was too...dorky?  Matched his look well!) and Bill Haley.  The question is not whether you like him or not, but (to boil it down) whether most people liked him or not, and how much and what that meant for an industry.

Some object to Elvis being called an inventor of rock or such.  Well, that's not accurate of course, but I think what we're talking is the difference between invention and innovation.  Rock was already "invented".  Elvis "innovated" essentially, really setting rock on its way.  You can't deny his popularity and that rock really became the dominant popular music once he started cranking them out.  He was huge and he really put rock on the map.  That makes him King as far as I'm concerned.     :)

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Not picking on you Reddy, just taking the last relevent quote.....

I think Elvis was the King.  I do like him (in the '50s), but I also love Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly (at least the fast stuff - that slowish sweet stuff was too...dorky?  Matched his look well!) and Bill Haley.  The question is not whether you like him or not, but (to boil it down) whether most people liked him or not, and how much and what that meant for an industry.

Some object to Elvis being called an inventor of rock or such.  Well, that's not accurate of course, but I think what we're talking is the difference between invention and innovation.  Rock was already "invented".  Elvis "innovated" essentially, really setting rock on its way.  You can't deny his popularity and that rock really became the dominant popular music once he started cranking them out.  He was huge and he really put rock on the map.  That makes him King as far as I'm concerned.     :)
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I agree.... to a point.  Elvis was huge in a way most of us probably can't understand.  He had a swagger, he had an attitude, he had the chops... Elvis set the mold for what was to follow.  The Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones all wanted to be Elvis.  If that doesn't make you a king, what does?

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I think I remember "I'm A Believer" and "Last Train To Clarksville" being #1 in the U.S. Verification would surely be appreciated.  ;) :)


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Those are the first two of thier three #1 hits "Daydream Believer" being thier third.

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I think he is only simply because he basically started the rock and roll movement.  He also was one of the first ones, if not the first one to vary his style of music to Gospel, r and b, and rock. Which I thought was amazing. Yes he was before my time but I have heard his stuff and he is "the king of rock".

Your opinion of who else would be the king of rock or who would be close.
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Then thanks to Sam Phillips you have this white kid, who sounds black singing on both stations, black and white. He opens doors for all the black entertainers who could only reach an audience limited to the few small stations they had. Now you had this kid singing a style of music white America had never knew existed. You now have black musicians and their music excepted by white America.
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There were many popular black acts before "rock" was even around - Scott Joplin (as a writer before recordings really existed), Ink Spots, Louis Armstrong, etc.  And to split hairs, stars like Chuck Berry were already out there on the charts even if only by a year or so.

Quoting:There were many popular black acts before "rock" was even around - Scott Joplin (as a writer before recordings really existed), Ink Spots, Louis Armstrong, etc.  And to split hairs, stars like Chuck Berry were already out there on the charts even if only by a year or so.End Quote

Yes but it took a white boy to break down that barrier for acts like Chuck Berry to get wide spread acceptance by the white record buying public. Let's face it, that racial wall would have come down sooner or later, cause you can't keep that kind of great music down forever. The black acts of the fifties owe a great debt to Elvis for being the one to open up the white youths eyes to a whole new genre of music only a few knew existed. Sure people knew who Louis Armstrong was but that was a whole other generation. Red Nichols and his five pennies took care of that, and what pennies, Krupa, Miller, Dorsey brothers, Goodman, it's like a who's who in Jazz, and of course Louis sitting in when in town

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Ah! That's almost like stating The Beatles and The Rolling Stones were at the right place at the right time. There's no denying that Elvis (a.k.a. The King) was in the right place at the right time, but was also the right man for it (seriously, if not Elvis, who else?). How many other artists were around the same time that have gathered as much notoriety for their music all the way to to-day? Sure there were the one-hit wonders that will be remembered for that and that only, but Elvis was definitely more than all those artists combined and definitely deserving of the title ;)

Tarzan Boy
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AGREED! Elvis is gone,but his legacy will always live on in the hearts of his many fans. Yes there were other artists such as Bill Haley and the Comets and Gene Vincent,but it was ELVIS ARON PRESLEY who brought rock n' roll to the forefront!!  :D