{"id":329029,"date":"2025-08-08T22:47:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T22:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/329029\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T22:47:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T22:47:11","slug":"the-one-singer-elvis-presley-knew-he-could-never-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/329029\/","title":{"rendered":"The one singer Elvis Presley knew he could never match"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n

Fri 8 August 2025 20:30, UK <\/p>\n

Elvis Presley<\/a> might have been \u2018The King\u2019 of rock and roll during its earliest era, but the defiant sounds of the rock revolution long predated his first visit to Sun Studio in Memphis, and no amount of rhinestone jumpsuits, hip-shaking, or hair gel was going to change that fact. <\/p>\n

Rock and roll reflected an all-encompassing cultural revolution back in the 1950s; it was the birth of youth culture, pop music, and teenage angst. In that sense, Elvis Presley was the perfect poster boy for the movement, given his fairly ordinary background, wild edge, and undeniable prowess as a performer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As the decade progressed, Presley\u2019s popularity only seemed to increase, rising from a cult rock hero in Memphis to a global superstar adored the world over. That reputation, however, was largely built on the trailblazing efforts of previous, typically uncredited, artists. <\/p>\n

As with virtually every music genre and blossoming pop culture movement, it is difficult to pinpoint the exact origins of the rock explosion of the 1950s. An often-cited example of the birth of rock is \u2018Rock Around the Clock\u2019, the legendary single by Bill Haley<\/a>, which became the first chart-topping rock track both in the US and the UK, but it should be noted that the inherent sound of rock long predated the release of that track. After all, rock was born from a blending of blues and R&B, styles that had existed for decades in America. <\/p>\n

The blues have roots stretching back as far as the American Civil War, but the genre witnessed some of its most productive years during the 1920s and 1930s. Even still, the sound of blues rarely entered the mainstream of traditional American society, given the fact that the style was largely written and performed by Black Americans during a time of widespread and abhorrent racism<\/a> in virtually all levels of society. In a similar vein, R&B originated during the 1940s, but it took until the late 1950s for R&B artists to break into the mainstream.<\/p>\n

As such, rock and roll was formed from the sounds of Black America, even though the most popular and successful artists of the first rock age, like Elvis Presley, were typically white. Even one of Presley\u2019s most iconic tracks, \u2018Hound Dog\u2019, was originally recorded by Big Mama Thornton, though her effort went overlooked and underappreciated upon its original release. <\/p>\n

To his credit, Presley often highlighted the underappreciated genius of these Black artists during press appearances and interviews. In particular, he always maintained a deep adoration for Fats Domino, the songwriter and pianist whose 1949 single \u2018The Fat Man\u2019 played a colossal role in inspiring the very early days of rock and roll. <\/p>\n

\u201cRock \u2018n\u2019 roll was here a long time before I came along,\u201d Elvis declared in a 1957 interview with Jet magazine. \u201cLet\u2019s face it. I can\u2019t sing it like Fats Domino. I know that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Domino had a colossal impact on countless rock artists during the 1950s and beyond. Without him, there might never have been an Elvis Presley. Yet, his own experience of mainstream success was dwarfed by white rockers. His defining song, \u2018Ain\u2019t That A Shame\u2019, for instance, reached the top ten in the US, but a cover version by the white artist Pat Boone soon reached number one, largely owing to the fact that radio stations were more likely to play music by white artists during the era of segregation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although Fats Domino might never have reached the same dizzying heights as Elvis Presley, the \u2018Blue Suede Shoes\u2019 singer was always keen to highlight the talents of the pianist. When the pair eventually crossed paths in the late 1960s, for instance, Presley declared in a press conference that Domino was the true king of rock and roll, and it\u2019s certainly difficult to disagree. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy) Fri 8 August 2025 20:30, UK Elvis Presley might have been \u2018The King\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[34221,77,118431,269,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-329029","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-elvis-presley","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-fats-domino","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114995583181816510","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}