History YMMV / ElvisPresley

** The peak of his career ended when he was drafted into the US Army in 1958, but when he completed his service in 1960, he seemed poised for a comeback. Unfortunately, his manager Colonel Tom Parker pushed him into a film career, which saw him star in a long string of StrictlyFormula musical comedies that, while mostly successful at the box office, were almost universally panned by critics. Worse, the heavy production schedule (he was making two or three movies a year for the whole of TheSixties) was cutting into his music career. Most of the hits he had in the '60s came from the soundtracks to his movies, which were met with diminishing returns starting mid-decade as UsefulNotes/TheBritishInvasion caused his style of RockAndRoll, already quite sanitized by then compared to the edge of his GloryDays, to feel increasingly out-of-date. Until his [[Music/ElvisNBCTVSpecial televised comeback special in 1968]], he did not perform live after 1961 and only recorded one album of non-soundtrack music after 1962. By the time his career bottomed out with the failure of the film ''Clambake'' and its soundtrack in 1967, music enthusiasts saw him as a joke and his former fans saw him as a has-been. His comeback special inspired a CareerResurrection, and while he never again enjoyed the mega-stardom he had in TheFifties (Music/JohnLennon, upon Elvis's passing, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoJAdTuFMh0 remarked]] that Elvis "died when he went in the Army" and that the rest of his career was [[FranchiseZombie a "living death"]]), he still found success as a {{country|Music}} and adult contemporary musician.

* BrokenBase: No one will deny that Elvis was one of the greatest singers in music history and was a one-of-a-kind performer. At the same time, many believe his success and fame were unwarranted due to him more or less making a career out of singing other people's songs and reaching stratospheric heights thanks to the strong racist and segregationist elements in American music, which left the original versions recorded by Black musicians, in obscurity. To Elvis's credit, he was himself on the latter side - he was fully aware of the effect he was having and was not ''at all'' happy about it, especially since he wound up doing this to his idol, and the reason he got into music in the first place - Music/FatsDomino. He makes a passing mention of rock & roll's roots in African-American musical traditions - rhythm & blues and gospel music - in the middle of his comeback special in 1968. Regardless of Elvis' own feelings on the matter, it hasn't stopped the base-breaking over his impact.

* CreatorWorship: As the first rock superstar, Elvis has been crowned the "King" and shook up the life of many young people in the 1950s, breaking them out of the constraints of their boring every day life. His popularity increased thanks to Colonel Parker's excessive marketing of Elvis and even bringing in older people too when the singer made Hollywood movies and sang more general pop tunes. At a certain point he was literally one the most famous persons on the planet. After his death the Elvis cult became even more excessive, with [[PosthumousPopularityPotential more people buying his records than during his own lifetime.]] His house in Graceland, Tennessee is visited as some kind of shrine. Many fans refuse to believe he took drugs or that [[ElvisLives he is dead.]] There is even an actual religious cult based around him in the USA. This is parodied by the Mojo Nixon song, "Elvis is Everywhere," which sounds like an over-the-top Baptist sermon that replaces each instance of "Jesus" with "Elvis" before claiming Elvis is the source behind many conspiracy theories (the pyramids, Stonehenge, the Bermuda Triangle, etc.)

* SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct: Elvis is often remembered as starring in a lot of movies despite not being a good actor, and this was famously ribbed by Creator/EddieMurphy in his ''Delirious'' special ("Elvis sang so good, they put him in movies; he couldn't act!") Elvis actually had a perfectly acceptable screen presence and undeniable charisma and sincerity; it was the films themselves that let him down and didn't use him to his full potential. His dramatic performance in ''Wild In The Country'' is occasionally cited as an example of his legitimate acting skill and a sign of what he could've done had he gotten better opportunities and been allowed to really challenge himself rather than simply do variations on his stage persona.

* CreatorWorship: As the first rock superstar, Elvis has been crowned the "King" and shook up the life of many young people in the 1950s, breaking them out of the constraints of their boring every day life. His popularity increased thanks to Colonel Parker's excessive marketing of Elvis and even bringing in older people too when the singer made Hollywood movies and sang more general pop tunes. At a certain point he was literally one the most famous persons on the planet. After his death the Elvis cult became even more excessive, with [[PopularityPotential more people buying his records than during his own lifetime.]] His house in Graceland, Tennessee is visited as some kind of shrine. Many fans refuse to believe he took drugs or that [[ElvisLives he is dead.]] There is even an actual religious cult based around him in the USA. This is parodied by the Mojo Nixon song, "Elvis is Everywhere," which sounds like an over-the-top Baptist sermon that replaces each instance of "Jesus" with "Elvis" before claiming Elvis is the source behind many conspiracy theories (the pyramids, Stonehenge, the Bermuda Triangle, etc.)

** The peak of his career ended when he was drafted into the US Army in 1958, but when he completed his service in 1960, he seemed poised for a comeback. Unfortunately, his manager Colonel Tom Parker pushed him into a film career, which saw him star in a long string of StrictlyFormula musical comedies that, while mostly successful at the box office, were almost universally panned by critics. Worse, the heavy production schedule (he was making two or three movies a year for the whole of TheSixties) was cutting into his music career. Most of the hits he had in the '60s came from the soundtracks to his movies, which were met with diminishing returns starting mid-decade as UsefulNotes/TheBritishInvasion caused his style of RockAndRoll, already quite sanitized by then compared to the edge of his GloryDays, to feel increasingly out-of-date. Until his [[Music/ElvisNBCTVSpecial televised comeback special in 1968]], he did not perform live after 1961 and only recorded one album of non-soundtrack music after 1962. By the time his career bottomed out with the failure of the film ''Clambake'' and its soundtrack in 1967, music enthusiasts saw him as a joke and his former fans saw him as a has-been. His comeback special inspired a CareerResurrection, and while he never again enjoyed the mega-stardom he had in TheFifties (Music/JohnLennon, upon Elvis' passing, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoJAdTuFMh0 remarked]] that Elvis "died when he went in the Army" and that the rest of his career was [[FranchiseZombie a "living death"]]), he still found success as a {{country|Music}} and adult contemporary musician.
** By the time he died in 1977, he had regained his position as pop music royalty and the King of Rock & Roll. That said, the last few years of his life, often derisively referred to as the "Fat Elvis" period (a term [[http://www.recmusicbeatles.com/public/files/bbs/jl_yo.playboy/lennon4.html popularized]] by Lennon), are remembered as a pretty ignoble way for a legend to go out. Starting in 1973, Elvis' health went into decline due to both drug addiction and a very heavy touring and production schedule, and before long, he was stumbling out of limousines high on barbiturates; after Elvis' autopsy, his doctor saw his license to practice medicine suspended for three months due to all the sedatives, amphetamines, and narcotics he had prescribed the singer. His divorce from his wife Priscilla also took a steep toll on his finances, leaving him less able to afford his extravagant lifestyle. A 1976 show in [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkState Syracuse, New York]] went down in history for all the wrong reasons when the ''Syracuse Post-Dispatch'' published [[http://www.syracuse.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2016/08/fat_puffy_has-been_elvis_panned_in_syracuse_video.html a scathing review]] calling him a "fat, puffy has-been" who seemed to be going through the motions, while numerous other shows were canceled outright due to Elvis not being in good enough health to perform. That same year, Elvis' father Vernon, by that point also his ''de facto'' manager, fired three bodyguards who had been members of Elvis' "Memphis Mafia" clique, leading them to co-write a tell-all book called ''Elvis: What Happened?'' that came out shortly before his death in 1977. As [[UndignifiedDeath the final insult]], when Elvis finally died on August 16, it was in one of the bathrooms at his Graceland estate, leading to a popular {{urban legend|s}} claiming that he had died while sitting on the toilet (and many jokes about "the King on his throne").
* BrokenBase: No one will deny that Elvis was one of the greatest singers in music history and was a one-of-a-kind performer. At the same time, many believe his success and fame was unwarranted due to him more or less making a career out of singing other people's songs and reaching stratospheric heights thanks to the strong racist and segregationist elements in the American music, which left the original versions recorded by Black musicians, in obscurity. To Elvis' credit, he was himself on the latter side - he was fully aware of the effect he was having, and was not ''at all'' happy about it, especially since he wound up doing this to his idol, and the reason he got into music in the first place - Music/FatsDomino. He makes a passing mention to rock & roll's roots in African-American musical traditions - rhythm & blues and gospel music - in the middle of his comeback special in 1968. Regardless of Elvis' own feelings on the matter, it hasn't stopped the base-breaking over his impact.

** "Hound Dog" was written by Music/LeiberAndStoller and first recorded by blues singer Big Mama Thornton, though it was the version by white vocal group [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freddie_Bell_and_the_Bellboys Freddie Bell & The Bellboys]] on which Elvis based his rendition.
** "Blue Suede Shoes" is another one; it was actually a big hit for Carl Perkins before Elvis' own version was successful. Elvis, who was friends with Perkins, knew very well this would happen and only agreed to record the song for RCA if they would delay releasing it as a single to avoid killing Perkins' version.

** Later in his career there was "Suspicious Minds" (originally written and recorded by Mark James), "Burning Love" (first recorded by Arthur Alexander) and "Guitar Man" (originally a minor 1967 hit on the CountryMusic charts for Jerry Reed, who went on to play guitar on the Elvis version).
** The holiday standard "Blue Christmas", first popularized by Ernest Tubb a decade before Elvis's version.
** "Always On My Mind" is a messy situation. B.J. Thomas was the first to record it, but it didn't get released for another 25 years. Gwen [=McCrae=] released it first, but Brenda Lee recorded it before her and released it shortly after. Elvis had the first hit version in 1972 (though it was a bigger hit in Britain than the US). Music/WillieNelson's version became a major crossover hit in the US in 1982. 5 years after that, Music/PetShopBoys had a huge worldwide hit with it. These days, Nelson's is the most popular version in North America, with the Elvis take mainly being a fan favorite. In the UK, Elvis' rendition still gets regular airplay but the Pet Shop Boys version is much more popular.
** Another example of Elvis having the better-known version of a song outside the US is "Polk Salad Annie". The original by singer-songwriter Tony Joe White was a Top 10 hit in America in 1969, but it didn't chart in the UK, while Elvis' cover was a hit there and in Ireland in 1973. In the British Isles it's considered an Elvis song first and foremost, while in America it's a fondly-remembered OneHitWonder moment for White, with the Elvis rendition as a footnote.

** There was a minor trend in TheEighties and TheNineties of CountryMusic artists covering some of his obscure tracks from TheSeventies and having hits with them. Music/TheJudds had their BreakthroughHit with "Had a Dream", which was simply a new title for Elvis' "For the Heart", while Music/TravisTritt had a big hit with "T-R-O-U-B-L-E".
* CriticalDissonance: During his lifetime, Elvis won three Grammy Awards - but not a single one for any of his rock and roll or country music. Instead, all three recognized his Gospel recordings: the 1967 album ''How Great Thou Art'', the 1972 album ''He Touched Me'' and a 1974 live performance of "How Great Thou Art" from ''Recorded Live on Stage in Memphis''. Among his snubbed works (the Grammys having been established in 1959): the critically acclaimed ''Elvis is Back'', ''Comeback Special'', ''From Elvis in Memphis'', ''Elvis Country'' and ''That's the Way it Is'' albums, and singles such as "It's Now or Never", "Guitar Man", "Suspicious Minds" and "Burning Love".

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: Elvis is still well-loved worldwide, but especially in Japan. One of his many Japanese fans is the former Japanese Premier Junichiro Koizumi, known for dropping by in Graceland during an official visit in 2006. Additionally, some deep-voiced Japanese singers from the Sixties started their careers either as Elvis Impersonators or via including covers of Elvis' songs in their initial repertories; one of them was none other than Creator/IsaoSasaki.
* SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct: Elvis is often remembered as starring in a lot of movies despite not being a good actor, and this was famously ribbed on by Creator/EddieMurphy in his ''Delirious'' special ("Elvis sang so good, they put him in movies; he couldn't act!") Elvis actually had a perfectly acceptable screen presence and undeniable charisma and sincerity; it was the films themselves that let him down, and didn't use him to his full potential. His dramatic performance in ''Wild In The Country'' is occasionally cited as an example of his legitimate acting skill and a sign of what he could've done had he gotten better opportunities and been allowed to really challenge himself rather than simply do variations on his stage persona.

* JustHereForGodzilla: Pretty much sums up why even the worst Elvis movies usually made money (some didn't, to be fair). Col. Tom Parker was quoted as saying that the content of the films was irrelevant, that audiences bought tickets to see Elvis on screen singing a few songs.

* OlderThanTheyThink: It's well-known that "It's Now or Never" takes its melody from the 1898 Italian song "O Sole Mio", but many fans aren't aware that it's actually a SuspiciouslySimilarSong to the previous Americanized take on "O Sole Mio", 1949's "There's No Tomorrow", a #2 smash for Tony Martin. Elvis had wanted to do a CoverVersion of "There's No Tomorrow", but was convinced that a new set of lyrics that he controlled the publishing to was a more viable option. Elvis also invoked this trope in his later live performances of it by having his male tenor backing singer Sherrill "Shaun" Nielsen sing a verse of "O Sole Mio" before Elvis launched into "It's Now or Never".
* OnceOriginalNowCommon: Compared to what some pop stars get away with now, Elvis' performances, which were once infamously censored on ''Series/TheEdSullivanShow'', look almost quaint. It's hard to understand how blatant and transgressive his sexual presence actually was, especially when washed-up "Fat Elvis" in the white Vegas jumpsuit is many people's go-to image of him.
* PosthumousPopularityPotential: By the time he died he'd fallen into a slump again after his late 60s comeback. He hadn't had a Top 10 hit in America since 1972 and a Top 20 hit since 1974. One immediate effect of the resurgent interest in him after his death was that his current single "Way Down" had been falling down the charts after peaking at #31, but immediately started a second run and wound up getting to #18.
* SignatureSong: A few candidates here, actually! From his earlier material, "Heartbreak Hotel," "Jailhouse Rock," "Hound Dog" and "Blue Suede Shoes." For latter-day Elvis, it's "Suspicious Minds", "Burning Love" and (for his live and overall popularity) "Can't Help Falling in Love".
* StrictlyFormula: While Elvis's roots were forever based in 12-bar blues and gospel, he would expand his musical repertoire throughout his career, moving from rock to pop, novelty, worship, and even funk and proto-disco near the end of his life with songs like "I Got a Feeling in My Body" and "Moody Blue". The same was not true of his 1960's movies, which began to lapse into a easily replicated formula after ''GI Blues'':

** He gets involved with a girl that's madly in love with him, tries to get involved with a girl that can't stand him, or both.
** He performs several diagetic songs, both on and off-stage.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: Compared to what some pop stars get away with now, Elvis' performances, which were once infamously censored on ''Series/TheEdSullivanShow'', look almost quaint. It's hard to understand how blatant and transgressive his sexual presence actually was, especially when washed-up "Fat Elvis" in the white Vegas jumpsuit is many people's go-to image of him.

** The peak of his career ended when he was drafted into the US Army in 1958, but when he completed his service in 1960, he seemed poised for a comeback. Unfortunately, his manager Colonel Tom Parker pushed him into a film career, which saw him star in a long string of StrictlyFormula musical comedies that, while mostly successful at the box office, were almost universally panned by critics. Worse, the heavy production schedule (he was making two or three movies a year for the whole of TheSixties) was cutting into his music career. Most of the hits he had in the '60s came from the soundtracks to his movies, which were met with diminishing returns starting mid-decade as UsefulNotes/TheBritishInvasion caused his style of RockAndRoll, already quite sanitized by then compared to the edge of his GloryDays, to feel increasingly out-of-date. Until his [[Music/ElvisNBCTVSpecial televised comeback special in 1968]], he did not perform live after 1961 and only recorded one album of non-soundtrack music after 1962. By the time his career bottomed out with the failure of the film ''Clambake'' and its soundtrack in 1967, music enthusiasts saw him as a joke and his former fans saw him as a has-been. His comeback special inspired a CareerResurrection, and while he never again enjoyed the mega-stardom he had in TheFifties (Music/JohnLennon, upon Elvis' passing, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoJAdTuFMh0 remarked]] that Elvis "died when he went in the Army" and that the rest of his career was [[FranchiseZombie a "living death"]]), he still found success as a {{country|Music}} and adult contemporary musician. By the time he died in 1977, he had regained his position as pop music royalty and the King of Rock & Roll.
** That said, the last few years of his life, often derisively referred to as the "Fat Elvis" period (a term [[http://www.recmusicbeatles.com/public/files/bbs/jl_yo.playboy/lennon4.html popularized]] by Lennon), are remembered as a pretty ignoble way for a legend to go out. Starting in 1973, Elvis' health went into decline due to both drug addiction and a very heavy touring and production schedule, and before long, he was stumbling out of limousines high on barbiturates; after Elvis' autopsy, his doctor saw his license to practice medicine suspended for three months due to all the sedatives, amphetamines, and narcotics he had prescribed the singer. His divorce from his wife Priscilla also took a steep toll on his finances, leaving him less able to afford his extravagant lifestyle. A 1976 show in [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkState Syracuse, New York]] went down in history for all the wrong reasons when the ''Syracuse Post-Dispatch'' published [[http://www.syracuse.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2016/08/fat_puffy_has-been_elvis_panned_in_syracuse_video.html a scathing review]] calling him a "fat, puffy has-been" who seemed to be going through the motions, while numerous other shows were canceled outright due to Elvis not being in good enough health to perform. That same year, Elvis' father Vernon, by that point also his ''de facto'' manager, fired three bodyguards who had been members of Elvis' "Memphis Mafia" clique, leading them to co-write a tell-all book called ''Elvis: What Happened?'' that came out shortly before his death in 1977. As [[UndignifiedDeath the final insult]], when Elvis finally died on August 16, it was in one of the bathrooms at his Graceland estate, leading to a popular {{urban legend|s}} claiming that he had died while sitting on the toilet (and many jokes about "the King on his throne").

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: Elvis is still well-loved worldwide, but especially in Japan. One of his many Japanese fans is the former Japanese Premier Junichiro Koizumi, known for dropping by in Graceland during an official visit in 2006. Additionally, some deep-voiced Japanese singers from the Sixties started their careers either as Elvis Impersonators or via including covers of Elvis' songs in their initial repertories; one of them was none other than Isao Sasaki.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselfhoff: Elvis is still well-loved worldwide, but especially in Japan. One of his many Japanese fans is the former Japanese Premier Junichiro Koizumi, known for dropping by in Graceland during an official visit in 2006. Additionally, some deep-voiced Japanese singers from the Sixties started their careers either as Elvis Impersonators or via including covers of Elvis' songs in their initial repertories; one of them was none other than Isao Sasaki.