Ep.30: Elvis Presley – Top 8 Songs

August 17, 2023 Peter Jans

Intro

Hello and Welcome to this episode of the podcast, "The Mnemonic Tree", where we add a single mnemonic leaf to our Tree of Knowledge.

Today's episode will be on a man bigger than Ben Hur who had a myriad of nicknames, some of which included, Fire Eyes, Big E.E., Tiger Elvis, Memphis Flash, The Cool Cat, The King, and Elvis the Pelvis just to name a few. And of course, that man is Elvis Presley, The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.

Today’s mnemonic is on Elvis’s top 8 songs.

With that being said, we will begin with a summary from Wikipedia.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Elvis_Presley_1958.jpg

Wikipedia Summary

Elvis Aaron Presley[a] (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), often referred to mononymously as Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Known as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Presley's energized interpretations of songs and sexually provocative performance style, combined with a singularly potent mix of influences across color lines during a transformative era in race relations, led him to both great success and initial controversy.

Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, and relocated to Memphis, Tennessee, with his family when he was aged 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. Presley's first RCA single, "Heartbreak Hotel", was released in January 1956 and became a number-one hit in the United States. Within a year, RCA would sell ten million Presley singles. With a series of successful network television appearances and chart-topping records, Presley became the leading figure of the newly popular sound of rock and roll; though his performative style and promotion of the then-marginalized sound of African Americans[6] led to him being widely considered a threat to the moral well-being of white American youth.[7]

In November 1956, Presley made his film debut in Love Me Tender. Drafted into military service in 1958, he relaunched his recording career two years later with some of his most commercially successful work. Presley held few concerts, however, and guided by Parker, proceeded to devote much of the 1960s to making Hollywood films and soundtrack albums, most of them critically derided. Some of his most famous films included Jailhouse Rock (1957), Blue Hawaii (1961), and Viva Las Vegas (1964). In 1968, following a seven-year break from live performances, he returned to the stage in the acclaimed television comeback special Elvis, which led to an extended Las Vegas concert residency and a string of highly profitable tours. In 1973, Presley gave the first concert by a solo artist to be broadcast around the world, Aloha from Hawaii. However, years of prescription drug abuse and unhealthy eating habits severely compromised his health, and Presley died suddenly in 1977 at his Graceland estate at the age of 42.

Having sold roughly 400 million records worldwide, Presley is one of the best-selling music artists of all time. He was commercially successful in many genres, including pop, country, rhythm & blues, adult contemporary, and gospel. He won three Grammy Awards, received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at age 36, and has been inducted into multiple music halls of fame. He also holds several records, including the most RIAA-certified gold and platinum albums, the most albums charted on the Billboard 200, the most number-one albums by a solo artist on the UK Albums Chart, and the most number-one singles by any act on the UK Singles Chart. In 2018, Presley was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Extracted from: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_Presley]

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Elvis_Presley_promoting_Jailhouse_Rock.jpg

Mnemonic

Elvis Presley - Top 8 Songs Mnemonic – CASH JoB In Hawaii

(Picture Elvis down in Hawaii doing a cash job singing on the beach for a famous Hawaiian, Barack Obama and his family)

1. Can’t Help Falling in Love

2. All Shook Up

3. Suspicious Minds

4. Hound Dog

5. Jailhouse Rock

6. Burning Love

7. In the Ghetto

8. Heartbreak Hotel

Five Fun Facts

1. Elvis was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, and ended up in Memphis Tennessee where he bought Graceland for $102,500.

2. Elvis has been inducted into five Halls of Fame which are: Rock ‘n’ Roll, Country, Gospel, Rockabilly, and R&B.

3. Elvis has sold over one billion records worldwide and still holds the record for the most top 40 hits at 114 in total.

4. Elvis was inducted into the U.S. Army in March 1958 and served six years – two years on active duty and four years in the Army Reserves.

And apparently, no one could talk to him, when he joined the army. Why? Because he was, uh … Private!

5. The concert “Elvis – Aloha from Hawaii” was seen in 40 countries and wait for it, it was watched by more people than watched man’s first walk on the moon!

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Elvis_Presley_1970.jpg

Three Question Quiz

Q.1. What year and month did Elvis pass away?

Q.2. What is Elvis’s middle name?

Q.3. What was the first film Elvis starred in?

Bonus Q. What was the only country outside the USA that Elvis performed in?

Mnemonic Recap

Elvis Presley – Top 8 Songs Mnemonic – CASH JoB In Hawaii

(Picture Elvis down in Hawaii doing a cash job singing on the beach for a famous Hawaiian, Barack Obama and his family)

1. Can’t Help Falling in Love

2. All Shook Up

3. Suspicious Minds

4. Hound Dog

5. Jailhouse Rock

6. Burning Love

7. In the Ghetto

8. Heartbreak Hotel

Three Question Quiz Answers

Q.1. What year and month did Elvis pass away?

A. August 16th, 1977

Q.2. What is Elvis’s middle name?

A. Aaron. And just speaking of names, when I was younger, I actually had a pet mouse named Elvis who died way too early. Unfortunately, he was caught in a trap!

Q.3. What was the first film Elvis starred in?

A. Love Me Tender, released in 1956

Bonus Q. What was the only country outside the USA that Elvis performed in?

A. Canada - Elvis only performed in three cities outside the U.S. – Ottawa, Vancouver and Toronto

Word of the Week

felicitous

[ fi-lis-i-tuhs ]

adjective

well-suited for the occasion, as an action, manner, or expression; apt; appropriate.

Example

Elvis’s hip thrusting was felicitous to his music at the time.

Extracted from: [https://www.dictionary.com/]