Entertainer. Born Elvis Aron 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
