The day the music died

Memphians vividly recall quiet grief, bewilderment
When news services announced that Elvis Presley was dead around 4 p.m. on Aug. 16, 1977, all of Memphis stopped.
Children and teenagers who had been watching reruns of The Andy Griffith Show sat shocked and bleary-eyed as the bulletin flashed across the bottom of the screen.
Hundreds of cars flooded […]

Welcome to tapeland

Headsets guide visitors through the King’s domain
As thousands of Elvis Presley fans flocked to Graceland this week during the 20th anniversary of his death, the switch from personal tours of the house to recorded commentary is inspiring both praise and concern that the famous attraction has lost some charm.
After more than a decade of […]

Remembering Elvis: The Vigil

Multitides of forever-faithful lift candles, ‘transend time’
They love him tender. They love him sweet. And because he said so, they haven’t let him go.
They may never.
The faithful began settling the boulevard that bears his name a full 24 hours before the 1997 Elvis Week vigil began Friday night at Graceland.
As many as 30,000 to […]

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  • New Elvis Record

    The latest Elvis record is not the kind you download. If you were in Memphis, you knew you weren’t on Lonely Street at all those sold-out events. But Graceland spokesman Kevin Kern says the official attendance figure for the week was 75,000. Even in the sweltering heat, 55,000 took part in the candlelight vigil. “The […]

  • Overton Park Shell

    Elvis, with Scotty Moore on guitar and Bill Black on bass, performed one of his first live performances at Slim Whitman’s show July 30, 1954. “We were all scared to death,” Scotty recalled. “Elvis, instead of just standing flat-footed and tapping his foot, he was kind of jiggling. … With those old loose britches that we wore, you shook your leg and it made it look like all hell was going on under there.”

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