1935-1977
Rock 'n' Roll Singer

A Revolutionized Industry.

In 1956 the Record Industry Association of America reported a 43 percent increase in sales — $100 million — to $331 million per year. The average annual growth in sales over the previous year had been about 4 percent a year. The reason was that teenagers, stimulated by new stars, had begun buying records, the most exciting of which was Elvis Presley.

Birth.

Elvis Aron Presley was born at home in a tworoom shack on North Saltillo road in Tupelo, Mississippi, on 8 January 1935. His twin brother was stillborn. Not since Union general A. J. Smith defeated Nathan Forest there on 14 July 1864 had Tupelo witnessed such a portentous event. By the time he was twenty-one the boy, so famous that like kings and queens he was known by his first name only, would have an impact on American culture without parallel among entertainers in...