Elvis Presley
The legend is so pervasive, so powerful, so powdered and perfumed, that it can be hard to get to what made Elvis Presley so special.
So forget, for a moment, the Vegas glitz and those odd movies, the mush-mouthed impersonators and the Graceland tour. Let's first cast our thoughts back to the King's early reign, when he personally upped the sex factor of rock 'n' roll exponentially — and put his commanding imprimatur on everything from blues hollers to swoony ballads. He could channel the humid, earthy wail of a Mississippi sharecropper as effortlessly as the urbane croon of his idol Dean Martin.
Now jump ahead to the '68 "comeback special," wherein Elvis Aaron Presley showcased the eclectic American genre he'd fashioned out of soul, country, go-go psychedelia and flat-out funk. And Elvis delivered it with an exuberance and panache that entertainers around the world have emulated, with varying degrees of success and desperation, ever since.
Elvis Presley may have brought joy to millions, but he wasn't one to be trifled with, having earned a karate black belt in 1960. (He was also a firearms enthusiast, and after receiving an enigmatic death threat once went on stage with a derringer in his boot and a .45 strapped to his hip.) And though he became increasingly less visible in the final years of his life, Elvis's legacy continues to kick ass.
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