Singer, actor. Born Elvis Aaron Presley, on January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi. An only child (a twin brother, Jesse Garon, was stillborn), Presley was raised by his parents, Gladys and Vernon, in a poor and extremely religious home. As a boy, he sang with his local Assembly of God church choir, emulating the style of African-American psalm singing. At age ten, he won a school singing contest and taught himself the rudiments of the guitar (although he never really could read music).
In 1948, Presley moved with his family to Memphis, Tennessee, where he graduated from high school in 1953 and began working as a truck driver and studying evenings to be an electrician. Later that year, he made a private recording for his mother at the Memphis Sound Studio, where he attracted the attention of proprietor Sam Phillips, who owned and produced for Sun Records, a fledgling blues label. In July 1954, Phillips had Presley record his first single, "That's All Right, Mama" and "Blue Moon of Kentucky," a synthesis of rhythm-and-blues and country-and-western that was for awhile described as "rockabilly." The record made an immediate impression on local listeners, who were bewildered to learn that Presley was white. Their overwhelming enthusiasm for his style of dress, bodily movements, and music signaled the beginnings of rock & roll.

Presley toured the South as the Hillbilly Cat and performed on a Shreveport, Louisiana radio station. After releasing his first national hit on Sun Records, he moved to RCA Records under the tutelage of his ambitious personal manager, "Colonel" Tom Parker. Though his first national television appearance came in 1955 on Jackie Gleason's Stage Show, it was his 1956 appearance on Ed Sullivan's Talk of the Town that made him a national sensation: his pelvic gyrations on that program were considered so scandalous that he was shown only from the waist up. It was during this time that Elvis became engaged to 18-year-old June Juanico from from Biloxi, Mississippi, his first fiancée--before Priscilla. That same year, Presley released his first million-selling single, "Heartbreak Hotel," and starred in Love Me Tender, the first of 33 relatively bland movies he eventually made. Forced to interrupt his career while serving in the U.S. Army (1958--60), Presley returned to his recording and movie careers with undimmed success and solidified what became virtually an industry.