 Elvis Aaron Presley was an American singer and actor. Regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century, he is often referred to as the King of Rock and Roll, or simply the King. Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi and relocated to Memphis, Tennessee with his family when he was 13 years old. His music career began there in 1954, when he recorded a song with producer Sam Phillips at Sun Records. Accompanied by guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, Presley was an early popularizer of rockabilly, an uptempo, backbeat driven fusion of country music and rhythm and blues. RCA Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel Tom Parker, who managed the singer for more than two decades. Presley's first RCA single, Heartbreak Hotel, was released in January 1956 and became a number one hit in the United States. He was regarded as the leading figure of rock and roll after a series of successful network television appearances and chart-topping records. His energized interpretations of songs and sexually provocative performance style, combined with a singularly potent mix of influences across color lines that coincided with the dawn of the civil rights movement, made him enormously popular and controversial. In November 1956, Presley made his film debut in Love Me Tender. In 1958, he was drafted into military service. He resumed his recording career two years later, producing some of his most commercially successful work before devoting much of the 1960s to making Hollywood films and their accompanying soundtrack albums, most of which were critically derided. In 1968, following a seven-year break from live performances, he returned to the stage in the acclaimed televised comeback Special Elvis, which led to an extended Las Vegas concert residency and a string of highly profitable tours. In 1973, Presley featured in the first globally broadcast concert via satellite, Aloha from Hawaii. Several years of prescription drug abuse severely damaged his health, and he died in 1977 at the age of 42. Presley is one of the most celebrated and influential musicians of the 20th century. Commercially successful in many genres, including pop, blues and gospel, he is one of the best-selling solo artists in the history of recorded music, with estimated record sales of around 600 million units worldwide. He won three Grammys, also receiving the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at age 36, and has been inducted into multiple music halls of fame, life and career, artistry, public image, associates, legacy. Presley's rise to national attention in 1956 transformed the field of popular music and had a huge effect on the broader scope of popular culture. As the catalyst for the cultural revolution that was rock and roll, he was central not only to defining it as a musical genre but in making it a touchstone of youth culture and rebellious attitude. With its racially mixed origins repeatedly affirmed by Presley Rock and Roll's occupation of a central position in mainstream American culture facilitated a new acceptance and appreciation of black culture. In this regard, little Richard said of Presley, he was an integrator. Elvis was a blessing. They wouldn't let black music through. He opened the door for black music. Al Green agreed, he broke the ice for all of us. President Jimmy Carter remarked on his legacy in 1977, his music and his personality, fusing the styles of white country and black rhythm and blues, permanently changed the face of American popular culture. His following was immense, and he was a symbol to people the world over of the vitality, rebelliousness and good humor of his country. Presley also heralded the vastly expanded reach of celebrity in the era of mass communication, at the age of 21, within a year of his first appearance on American network television, he was one of the most famous people in the world. Presley's name, image and voice are instantly recognizable around the globe. He has inspired a legion of impersonators. In polls and surveys, he is recognized as one of the most important popular music artists and influential Americans. Elvis Presley is the greatest cultural force in the 20th century, said composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein. He introduced the beat to everything and he changed everything music, language, clothes. It's a whole new social revolution the 60s came from it. Bob Dylan described the sensation of first hearing Presley as like busting out of jail. On the 25th anniversary of Presley's death, The New York Times observed, all the talentless impersonators and appalling black velvet paintings on display can make him seem little more than a perverse and distant memory. But before Elvis was camp, he was its opposite, a genuine cultural force.and nbsp. Elvis's breakthroughs are underappreciated because in this rock and roll age, his hard-rocking music and sultry style have triumphed so completely. Not only Presley's achievements, but his failings as well, are seen by some cultural observers as adding to the power of his legacy, as in this description by Greil Marcus. Elvis Presley is a supreme figure in American life, one whose presence, no matter how banal or predictable, brooks no real comparisons.and nbsp. The cultural range of his music has expanded to the point where it includes not only the hits of the day, but also patriotic recitals, pure country gospel, and really dirty blues.and nbsp. Elvis has emerged as a great artist, a great rocker, a great purveyor of schlock, a great heart throb, a great bore, a great symbol of potency, a great ham, a great nice person, and, yes, a great American. slash block quote Discography A vast number of recordings have been issued under Presley's name. The total number of his original master recordings has been variously calculated as 665 and 711. His career began and he was most successful during an era when singles were the primary commercial medium for pop music. In the case of his albums, the distinction between official studio records and other forms is often blurred. For most of the 1960s, his recording career focused on soundtrack albums. In the 1970s, his most heavily promoted and best-selling LP releases tended to be concert albums. This summary discography lists only the albums and singles that reached the top of one or more of the following charts, the main U.S. Billboard pop chart, the Billboard country chart, the genre chart with which he was most identified, there was no country album chart before 1964, and the official British pop chart. The year given, in the table below, is the year the record first reached number one, rather than its original year of release. For instance, Elvis 40 Greatest, released in 1974, a compilation on the budget arcade label, was the fourth highest-selling album of the year in the United Kingdom, at the time, the main British chart did not rank such compilations, relegating them to a chart for mid-priced and TV advertised albums, which Elvis 40 Greatest topped for 15 weeks. The policy was altered in 1975, allowing the album to hit number one on the main chart in 1977, following Presley's death. Before late 1958, rather than unified pop and country singles charts, Billboard had as many as four charts for each, separately ranking records according to sales, jukebox play, jockey spins, i.e., airplay, and, in the case of pop, a general top 100. Billboard now regards the sales charts as definitive for the period. Widely cited chart statistician Joel Whitman accords historical releases the highest ranking they achieved among the separate charts. Presley discographer Ernst Jorgensen refers only to the top 100 chart for pop hits. All of the 1956-58 songs listed here as number one US pop hits reached the top of both the sales and with three exceptions, the top 100 charts, I want you, I need you, I love you, three, hound dog, two, behind its flip side, don't be cruel, and hard-headed woman, two. Several Presley singles reached number one in the United Kingdom as double A sides, in the United States, the respective sides of those singles were ranked separately by Billboard. In the United States, Presley also had five or six number one R&B singles and seven number one adult contemporary singles, in 1964, his blue Christmas topped the Christmas singles chart during a period when Billboard did not rank holiday singles in its primary pop chart. He also had number one hits in many countries beside the US and UK.