“L'unica cosa peggiore che dover guardare un brutto film è averci recitato.”
citato in Portala al cinema, p. 101
Elvis Aaron Presley è stato un cantante, attore, musicista e ballerino statunitense.
È stato uno dei più celebri cantanti del Novecento, una vera e propria icona culturale, fonte di ispirazione per molti musicisti e interpreti di rock and roll e rockabilly, tanto da meritarsi l'appellativo de il Re del Rock and Roll o The King . Considerato il precursore della derisione, intesa come connubio tra arte e satira in chiave moderna. Notevole il modo di affrontare la pressione dei media e della stampa grazie all'utilizzo dell'espressione facciale, caratterizzata da un sorriso che mostra la dentatura solo parzialmente. La sua presenza scenica e la mimica con cui accompagnava le sue esibizioni hanno esercitato notevole influenza sulla cultura statunitense e mondiale. In particolare, i movimenti oscillatori e rotatori del bacino, oltre a destare scandalo presso chi li interpretò come movenze di un amplesso, gli procurarono l'appellativo di Elvis the Pelvis , anche se egli stesso non amava molto questo soprannome, come più volte ammise durante le rare interviste concesse all'inizio della carriera.
La sua attività musicale nell'arco di oltre un ventennio è stata poliedrica e multiforme: la sua notevole produzione discografica, la sua intensa attività concertistica e i suoi molteplici interessi hanno spaziato dal rock and roll ai generi rhythm and blues, country and western, gospel, spiritual, traditional, melodico e pop, quest'ultimo inteso nel senso più ampio del termine.In Italia fu fonte di ispirazione per cantanti quali Adriano Celentano, Little Tony e Bobby Solo, in Francia per Johnny Hallyday e in Inghilterra per Billy Fury. La sua figura, nell'immaginario collettivo, ha oltrepassato nettamente il confine che divide un fenomeno prettamente musicale da un tipico della cultura pop, assurgendone a icona. Dopo la morte, il fenomeno si è ulteriormente intensificato, rendendo Presley un vero e proprio oggetto di culto e venerazione per molti fan.
Eccetto sei concerti tenuti in Canada verso la fine degli anni 1950, non si esibì mai fuori degli Stati Uniti. Nel corso della sua carriera ha visto le sue canzoni approdare più volte nella Top Chart della rivista Billboard, punto di riferimento per le vendite nel mercato discografico statunitense. Sul mercato britannico, Presley piazzò ventuno singoli in vetta alle classifiche di vendita, a volte con permanenze di 80 settimane al primo posto. I suoi 45 giri rimasero in classifica per 1277 settimane, mentre i long playing contenenti i brani da lui incisi stazionarono ininterrottamente nella Top 10 dal novembre 1958 al luglio 1964.
In ventiquattro anni di carriera ha pubblicato 61 album, vendendo oltre un miliardo di dischi in tutto il mondo e conquistando il record di dischi venduti da un solo cantante.
Wikipedia
“L'unica cosa peggiore che dover guardare un brutto film è averci recitato.”
citato in Portala al cinema, p. 101
Interview (March/April 1972), as quoted in The Leading Men of MGM (2006) by Jane Ellen Wayne, p. 406
Contesto: The first time that I appeared on stage, it scared me to death. I really didn't know what all the yelling was about. I didn't realize that my body was moving. It's a natural thing to me. So to the manager backstage I said, "What'd I do? What'd I do?" And he said, "Whatever it is, go back and do it again."
“Animals don't hate, and we're supposed to be smarter than them.”
Variante: Animals don't hate, and we're supposed to be better than them.
After hearing Walter Earl Brown's If I Can Dream, the song inspired on Martin Luther King Jr. that would close Elvis' comeback show in 1968, and the phrase was remarked to its producer, Steve Binder. http://elvis-tkc.com/forum2/lofiversion/index.php/t15948.html
Acceptance speech for the 1970 Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Nation Award (16 January 1971), published in Elvis — Word for Word: What He Said, Exactly As He Said It (1999) by Jerry Osborne, p. 188
Contesto: I'd like to thank the Jaycees for electing me as one of their outstanding young men. When I was a child, ladies and gentlemen, I was a dreamer. I read comic books, and I was the hero of the comic book. I saw movies, and I was the hero in the movie. So every dream I ever dreamed, has come true a hundred times... And these gentlemen over here, these are the type of people who care, they're dedicated, and they realize that it is possible that they might be building the kingdom of heaven, it's not just too far fetched, from reality. I'd like to say that I learned very early in life that "Without a song, the day would never end; without a song, a man ain't got a friend; without a song, the road would never bend — without a song." So I keep singing a song. Goodnight. Thank you.
“When things go bad, don't go with them.”
Variante: When things go wrong, don't go with them.
Origine: Elvis: Ultimate Gospel
That's Someone You Never Forget, from Pot Luck, written by Elvis Presley and Red West (1961)
Song lyrics
You'll Be Gone, written by Elvis Presley, Red West and Charlie Hodge (1961)
Song lyrics
“Fingerprints are like values--you leave them all over everything you do”
Variante: Values are like fingerprints. Nobody's are the same, but you leave 'em all over everything you do
“Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't going away.”
Another handwriten message on Elvis' King James -Bible http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2188891/Elvis-bible-containing-handwritten-notes-star-expected-fetch-thousands-auction.html
Variante: Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't going away.
September 30, 1974. South Bend, IN. Notre Dame Ath Center.
Origine: http://www.elvisconcerts.com/real/oct74-01.htm
Origine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEZpSFnDxRg
“Love me tender, love me sweet,
Never let me go.”
"Love Me Tender" (1956), the lyrics of this song are credited to Presley and co-writer Vera Matson, but were primarily written by Matson's husband, Ken Darby, who when asked why he credited his wife as co-writer with Presley replied "Because she didn't write it either."
Disputed
Pop Chronicles, Show 7 - The All American Boy: Enter Elvis and the rock-a-billies. Part 1 http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc19754/m1/; C. Robert Jennings, " Elvis Lives! http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/doc/155809300.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Feb+18%2C+1968&author=Jennings%2C+C+Robert&pub=Los+Angeles+Times+%281923-Current+File%29&edition=&startpage=M28&desc=ELVIS+LIVES%21", 1968-Feb-18, L.A. Times Magazine, p. M28.
Contesto: It just happened. I like to sing, and well, I just started singing and folks just started listening. I can't tell folks that I worked and learned and studied, and overcame disappointments, because I didn't.
“The image is one thing and the human being is another…it's very hard to live up to an image.”
Press conference (June 1972),also quoted in Elvis Culture : Fans, Faith, & Image (1999) by Erika Lee Doss, p. 218
“To judge a man by his weakest link or deed is like judging the power of the ocean by one wave.”
Handwriten message on Elvis' King James -Bible
“… I just know that, right now, … the biggest record selling business there is is rock and roll.”
Pop Chronicles: Show 55 - Crammer: A lively cram course on the history of rock and some other things http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc19838/m1/, interview recorded 1956 http://web.archive.org/web/20110615153027/http://www.library.unt.edu/music/special-collections/john-gilliland/o-s.
“I like Brando's acting … and James Dean … and Richard Widmark. Quite a few of 'em I like.”
When asked to name his favorite male actors, in "Elvis Exclusive Interview" with Ray Green in Little Rock, Arkansas (16 May 1956), as published in Elvis — Word for Word : What He Said, Exactly As He Said It (1999)
Press conference (5 September 1972), also quoted in Paranoia & Power : Fear & Fame of Entertainment Icons (2007) by Gene N Landrum, p. 60