Elvis and Gladys

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Book Elvis and Gladys

Elvis and Gladys ( ISBN   1-57806-634-4) is a biography of rock and roll singer Elvis Presley by author and film industry insider Elaine Dundy. The book recounts Presley's early life, the role his mother Gladys played in his formative years, and his beginnings in recorded music and film.

The first hardcover edition was published in the United States in 1985 by MacMillan Publishing Company of New York. ISBN   0-02-553910-8. It was reissued in paperback in 2004 by the University Press of Mississippi. Widely acclaimed, the Boston Globe called it "Nothing less than the best Elvis book yet" and Kirkus Reviews described it as "The most fine-grained Elvis bio ever." [1] The New York Daily News stated "This is the Elvis bio that gets behind the hype and the myth. Nobody ever wrote better about the making of Elvis than Elaine Dundy." [2]

The biopic which depicted Elvis' relationship with Gladys is featured in the TV series Elvis (2005), which starred Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Elvis and Camryn Manheim as Gladys.

Dundy in the book claims that Elvis's great-great grandmother Nancy Burdine Tackett was Jewish, citing one of Elvis's third cousins, Oscar Tackett. [3] Some would later back this claim as well. [4] Nate Bloom has challenged the claim. Bloom states that Dundy reported the claim without verifying the story as a "fact". Bloom concludes that there is no mention of any Jewish ancestor in any of the available census records and the family never mentioned any Jewish ancestry to the orthodox Jewish Rabbi family they shared a house with in the 1950s. [5]

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Elvis Presley had many close relationships throughout his career. The strongest of all his personal relationships, by far, was that he had with his mother Gladys, as described below.

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Since the beginning of his career, American singer Elvis Presley has had an extensive cultural impact. According to the monthly magazine, Rolling Stone, "It was Elvis who made rock 'n' roll the international language of pop." The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll describes Presley as "an American music giant of the 20th century who single-handedly changed the course of music and culture in the mid-1950s". His recordings, dance moves, attitude, and clothing came to be seen as embodiments of rock and roll. His music was heavily influenced by African-American blues, Christian gospel, and Southern country. In a list of the greatest English language singers, as compiled by Q magazine, Presley was ranked first, and second in the list of greatest singers of the 20th century by BBC Radio. Some people claim that Presley created a whole new style of music: "It wasn't black, wasn't white, wasn't pop or wasn't country—it was different." As most singers in his time created music geared for adults, he gave teens music to grow up with.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peanut butter, banana and bacon sandwich</span> Sandwich popularized by Elvis Presley

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Graceland Too</span> Tourist attraction and shrine dedicated to Elvis Presley

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Military career of Elvis Presley</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Early life of Elvis Presley</span>

Elvis Aaron Presley, popularly known by his first name Elvis, was an American singer and actor. He was born in Tupelo, Mississippi and relocated to Memphis, Tennessee with his family at age 13. His music career began there in 1954, recording at Sun Records with producer Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African-American music to a wider audience. Presley, on rhythm acoustic guitar, and accompanied by lead guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, was a pioneer of rockabilly, an uptempo, backbeat-driven fusion of country music and rhythm and blues. In 1955, drummer D. J. Fontana joined to complete the lineup of Presley's classic quartet and RCA Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel Tom Parker, who would manage him for more than two decades.

References

  1. Reading the South Archived 2006-08-13 at the Wayback Machine Center for the Study of Southern Culture Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine
  2. Elvis and Gladys University of Mississippi Press
  3. Elaine Dundy, Elvis and Gladys, p.21
  4. White, Francine (June 23, 2022). "Uh huh, Elvis was a nice Jewish boy". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved January 26, 2024.
  5. Nate Bloom (2012). "The Jews Who Wrote Christmas Songs".