Critics quickly draw attention to the fact that Elvis was not responsible for penning the song “Hound Dog,” which he made so famous. They went so far as to accuse him of stealing the credit from Big Mamma Thornton, who originally recorded the song back in 1953. Elvis’ rendition of it came out in 1958.
This was hardly fair because the song was released at a time when renditions were common practice. There wasn’t a song that exclusively belonged to a single artist in the 50s. In fact, “Hound Dog” was penned by famous songwriters Jerry Leiber and Michael Stoller. Big Mamma was just the first artist to officially sing it on record.
The King Had a Stillborn Twin
If Elvis Presley’s twin had survived, we wonder how it could have impacted the king, perhaps mediating at least some of the many poor decisions Presley made throughout his career. Would he have saved him from making bad turns; could he have vicariously understood his pain? Many such questions regarding his twin brother, Jesse Garon, a stillborn, haunted Elvis.
Elvis tried to search but never found Jesse's resting place. He’d died without a funeral. They lived through rough times in Mississippi, and Presley’s father, Vernon, decided to fit his brother’s small body in a shoe box, burying the tiny parcel in an unmarked grave.
Presley Often Spoke in Baby Talk to His Mother
Elvis Presley used to be very close to his mother growing up. They would maintain that emotional propinquity throughout his teenage years and adult life until his mom passed away. How close they were wasn’t anything too unusual, although he did like to communicate through baby talk, calling her pet names, which Gladys would mutually respond to.
Psychologists speculate that this could be behind the distance that developed between Elvis and Priscilla after they bore a son. Becoming a parent himself, and seeing his wife become a mother, likely made him painfully aware of the black hole in his life, the space his mother had once occupied.
He Has Become a Popular Password
It’s funny how things turn out sometimes. Future scenarios materialize into the present, bringing events you would never have imagined to happen to you at an earlier point in life. Some things you can see your responsibility for, while others seem random.
Elvis Presley’s legacy in music transcends the boundaries of genre and style. He changed the scene forever, opening doors to new ways of expression that just weren’t acceptable before he took to the stage. Imagine how much he could have attained had he not messed up his life and lived to fully exhaust his talents. Many of his fans refused to let him drift into the past without taking a piece of him with them and passing it on to the generations that follow. One small way of holding onto his memory cropped up when computers became a household staple. The name “Elvis” is still a popular inclusion in passwords.
The King Dyed His Eyelashes
Elvis Presley’s shiny black hair made him look debonair, a shade of mystery afloat his deep rhythmic voice and sparkling blue eyes. Very few people knew, except those close to him, old friends from Mississippi perhaps, that he was blonde.
This meant he had to dye not just his hair but his eyelashes to look natural. And, since his true hair color was one of his best-kept secrets, there was no way he was prepared to do it in a parlor or anywhere other than the privacy of his home. This ended up being yet another habit that caused him health problems later on, as he concocted his dying techniques himself without expert advice on the matter.