Elvis Aaron Presley was born on 8 January 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi in a shotgun house built by his father Vernon. He had a twin brother called Jesse who was 35 minutes older than he but unfortunately was stillborn.Elvis’s mother, Gladys, who was of Scots-Irish descent, had eloped with Vernon when she was 21. She was four years older than Vernon when they were married in 1933 and the young couple did the best they could to cope but often had to turn to handouts from family members and also sometimes had to take advantage of government food assistance.

In 1938, Vernon was jailed for 8 months after altering a cheque. This resulted in the family losing their home and so Elvis and his mother moved in with relatives.

Elvis’ first experience of music came when one of his teachers at the East Tupelo Consolidated school he attended suggested that he enter a singing contest. Consequently, Elvis Presley’s first public performance was on 3 October 1945 at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show. He placed fifth after singing “Old Shep” whilst dressed as a cowboy. A few months later he was given his first guitar although he recalled later that he would have preferred a bicycle or a rifle. Although at first, he was shy of singing in public, he started to learn the basics of the guitar and would over time become ‘crazy about music’.

In 1948, the family moved to Memphis, Tennessee. Elvis attended L. C. Humes High School where he managed to attain a ‘C’ grade in music in the 8th grade. By the time he graduated though, in June 1953, Elvis had already decided that he wanted a career in music.

He began recording with Sun Records in Memphis with producer Sam Phillips at just nineteen years old in 1954. This was at a time of immense racial tension and legal racism caused by segregation in America. Sam Phillips wanted African American music to have a wider audience, and Elvis was the man for the job. As no music style is ever completely unique, rock and roll music has its roots in rhythm and blues or R&B.

Rock and roll took the same elements but created an up-tempo combination of R&B and country music that was backbeat-driven. The particular style of rock and roll that Elvis Presley created was called rockabilly.

After a few false starts, Elvis stumbled across a song that worked and was the sort of thing that Sam was looking for. The song was called “That’s All Right” and after a popular Memphis DJ called Dewey Phillips played it on his show, people started asking who this new singer was.

In 1956 Elvis started to make recordings with RCA in Nashville and on 27 January 1956 his first single, “Heartbreak Hotel” was released, and it quickly rose to the top of the charts in the United States. But his voice was not the only thing people were interested in. He was very successful in a number of television appearances which helped him to also become the face of rock and roll.

It has been said of Elvis Presley’s musical style that it was more than just a mix of black, white, pop, and country. One of the things that made him different was that at a time when most singers created music for adults, he was appealing to a younger generation. Teenagers were one of his biggest audiences, and at a time when portable radios were becoming popular, he found it relatively easy to get his music to them, increasing his popularity even more. His incredible energetic and provocative performances of songs made him hugely popular – and controversial.

In many of his live performances, he would perform with African American backing singers in front of a mostly white audience. His career also allowed for African American performers to become more mainstream with white audiences because the style was in such demand. Elvis’ performances were also noted for being somewhat raunchy with screaming fans being wowed by the way he used his body,