In 1958, I was 12 and used to listen to radio serials late at night when the rest of my larger family slept. One night I was searching the AM band and happened onto Elvis singing Don’t be Cruel and I was hooked: Rock and Roll became my passion that night.
Elvis hard a hard life, made harder by bad choices - but he was and is the King. Nobody has ever had anything like his voice and his talent.
Yet Elvis himself apparently admitted to Tom Jones that Chuck Berry was the real King of Rock and Roll.
Elvis knew; the crooning singers weren't rock and rollers. The guitarists were the ones who created rock and roll.
Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin pointed to Link Wray's "Rumble" from 1957 as one of the pieces that started it all.
All correct.
“Nobody has ever had anything like his voice and his talent.”
I like him fine, and his talent is OK. I like his gospel pieces best. “Who Am I” and “Help Me”. But he’s off pitch quite a bit — too flat. Cringeworthy at times.