Quotes by Elvis Presley
Welcome to our collection of quotes (with shareable picture quotes) by Elvis Presley. We hope you enjoy pondering them and that you will share them widely.
Wikipedia Summary for Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), also known simply as Elvis, was an American singer, musician and actor. He is regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century and is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll". His energized interpretations of songs and sexually provocative performance style, combined with a singularly potent mix of influences across color lines during a transformative era in race relations, led him to both great success and initial controversy.
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, recording at Sun Records with producer Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African-American music to a wider audience. Presley, on rhythm acoustic guitar, and accompanied by lead guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, was a pioneer of rockabilly, an uptempo, backbeat-driven fusion of country music and rhythm and blues. In 1955, drummer D. J. Fontana joined to complete the lineup of Presley's classic quartet and RCA Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel Tom Parker, who would manage him 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. With a series of successful network television appearances and chart-topping records, he became the leading figure of the newly popular sound of rock and roll.
In November 1956, Presley made his film debut in Love Me Tender. Drafted into military service in 1958, Presley relaunched his recording career two years later with some of his most commercially successful work. He held few concerts, however, and guided by Parker, proceeded to devote much of the 1960s to making Hollywood films and soundtrack albums, most of them critically derided. In 1968, following a seven-year break from live performances, he returned to the stage in the acclaimed television comeback special Elvis, which led to an extended Las Vegas concert residency and a string of highly profitable tours. In 1973, Presley gave the first concert by a solo artist to be broadcast around the world, Aloha from Hawaii. Years of prescription drug abuse severely compromised his health, and he died suddenly in 1977 at his Graceland estate at the age of 42.
With his rise from poverty to significant fame, Presley's success seemed to epitomize the American Dream. He is the best-selling solo music artist of all time, and was commercially successful in many genres, including pop, country, R&B, adult contemporary, and gospel. He won three Grammy Awards, received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at age 36, and has been inducted into multiple music halls of fame. Presley holds several records; the most RIAA certified gold and platinum albums, the most albums charted on the Billboard 200, and the most number-one albums by a solo artist on the UK Albums Chart and the most number-one singles by any act on the UK Singles Chart. In 2018, Presley was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Donald Trump.
I've got fifty-six gold singles, and fourteen gold albums and if anyone out there doubts it, if you ever come through Memphis you can come argue about it, 'cause I've got every one of them hanging on the wall.
If you know you can't take it, then baby, why try to give it? Cause I ain't for no one-sided love affair.
It's not just self defense, it's about self control, body discipline, and mind discipline and breath techniques. It involves yoga. It involves meditation. It's an art, not a sport.
And all my cares are laid by I'll lay down my soul, my battles are won I'll walk dem golden stairs when I die when I die.
Somebody does somethin' stupid, that's human. They don't stop when they see it's wrong, that's a fool.
If you wanna be loved, baby, you've got to love me, too. Oh yeah, cause I an't for no one side love affair.
On a cold and gray Chicago morning another little baby child is born in the ghetto, and his Mama cries.
When I started singing, I weighed 153 pounds. I weigh 184 now. I haven't gotten any taller, but I'm putting on a little more weight.
I wiggle my shoulders, I shake my legs, I walk up and down the stage, I hop around on one foot. But I never bump and grind. Why, that's vulgar. I'd never do anything vulgar before an audience. My mother would never allow it.
When you get down to the nitty gritty, isn't it a pity that in this big city not one little bitty man will admit that he could have been a little wrong.
In public, I like real conservative clothes, something that's not too flashy. But onstage, I like 'em as flashy as you can get 'em.
You're just a natural beehive, filled with honey to the top. Well, I ain't greedy baby, all I want is all you got.
I'm not kidding myself. My voice alone is just an ordinary voice. What people come to see is how I use it. If I stand still while I'm singing, I'm dead, man. I might as well go back to driving a truck.
When we kiss my heart's on fire, burning with a strange desire. And I know that every time I kiss you, that your heart's on fire, too.
Nine and nine makes fourteen, four and four makes nine. The clock is striking thirteen, I think I've lost my mind.
I feel so alone sometimes. The night is quiet for me. I'd love to be able to sleep. I'll probably not rest. I have no need for all this. Help me, Lord.
Take your troubles to the Chapel, get down on your knees and pray. Your burdens will be lighter, and you'll surely find the way.
You look like an angel, walk like an angel, talk like an angel. But I got wise, you're the devil in disguise.
Rock and roll is a music, and why should a music contribute to ... juvenile delinquency? If people are going to be juvenile delinquents, they're going to be delinquents if they hear ... Mother Goose rhymes.
I like pork chops and country ham, creamed potatoes, stuff like that. Redeye gravy. It comes from ham, bacon, stuff like that. It's the grease that you fry it in. I eat a lot of Jell-O. Fruit Jell-O.
A lot of people seem to think I started this business. But rock 'n' roll was here a long time before I came along. Nobody can sing that kind of music like colored people. Let's face it: I can't sing like Fats Domino can. I know that.
When I was a child I was a dreamer. I read comic books, and I was the hero of the comic book. I saw movies, and I was the hero in the movie. So every dream I have ever dreamed has come true a thousand times.
Longer Version/[Notes]:
When I was a child, ladies and gentlemen, I was a dreamer. I read comic books, and I was the hero of the comic book. I saw movies, and I was the hero in the movie. So every dream I ever dreamed, has come true a hundred times... I learned very early in life that "Without a song, the day would never end; without a song, a man ain't got a friend; without a song, the road would never bend -- without a song." So I keep singing a song. Goodnight. Thank you.
I saw three shrimp in the water, two were old and gray. I swam a little closer, and I heard the third one say, good-bye Mama.
Like a river flows surely to the sea Darling so it goes Some things are meant to be Take my hand, take my whole life too For I can't help falling in love with you.
Since I was two years old, all I knew was gospel music. That music became such a part of my life it was as natural as dancing. A way to escape from the problems. And my way of release.
Make me feel at home, if you really care, scratch my back and run your pretty fingers through my hair.
I'll be a fool or a wiseman, my darling, you hold the key. Anyway you want me, that's how I will be.
I don't like people who are in politics for themselves and not for others. You want that, you can go into show business.
A live concert to me is exciting because of all the electricity that is generated in the crowd and on stage. It's my favorite part of the business -- live concerts.
All I want is to know the truth, to know and experience God. I'm a searcher, that's what I'm all about.
I wore glasses, no music, and I won -- I think it was -- fifth place. I got a whipping the same day. My mother whipped me for something. Destroyed my ego completely.
We do two shows a night for five weeks. A lotta times we'll go upstairs and sing until daylight -- gospel songs. We grew up with it...It more or less puts your mind at ease. It does mine.
Viva Las Vegas with your neon flashin' and your one arm bandits crashin' all those hopes down the drain. Viva Las Vegas turnin' day into nighttime, turnin night into daytime. If you see it once, you'll never be the same again.
Everybody comes from the same source. If you hate another human being, you're hating part of yourself.
All the stars will tell the story, of our love and all its glory. Let us make this night of magic, and make it a night of love.
I ain't no saint, but I've tried never to do anything that would hurt my family or offend God...I figure all any kid needs is hope and the feeling he or she belongs. If I could do or say anything that would give some kid that feeling, I would believe I had contributed something to the world.
Some people tap their feet, some people snap their fingers, and some people sway back and forth. I just sorta do 'em all together, I guess.
The closest I ever came to getting married was just before I started singing. In fact, my first record saved my neck.
I don't think I'm bad for people. If I did think I was bad for people, I would go back to driving a truck, and I really mean this.
I'll never make it, it will never happen, because they're never going to hear me 'cause they're screaming all the time.
I'll never feel comfortable taking a strong drink, and I'll never feel easy smoking a cigarette. I just don't think those things are right for me.
I have no use for bodyguards, but I have very specific use for two highly trained certified public accountants.
The next thing I knew, I was out of the service and making movies again. My first picture was called, GI Blues. I thought I was still in the army.
Man, that record came out and was real big in Memphis. They started playing it, and it got real big. Don't know why-the lyrics had no meaning.
I'm strictly for Stevenson. I don't dig the intellectual bit, but I'm telling you, man, he knows the most.
Rock and roll music, if you like it, if you feel it, you can't help but move to it. That's what happens to me. I can't help it.'
I learned how important it is to entertain people and give them a reason to come and watch you play.
I was training to be an electrician. I suppose I got wired the wrong way round somewhere along the line.
The colored folks been singing it and playing it just like I'm doin' now, man, for more years than I know. I got it from them.
