Published 28th April 2022

Forty-five years after the premature death of Elvis Presley, still the biggest-selling musical artist in history according to several metrics, millions of us are still fascinated by him. Why is this? Well, consider this. Elvis was born in an environment of extreme poverty that would seem completely alien to most of us in 2022. With zero privilege and only his natural talent to sustain him, he rose to the status of global superstar by his mid-twenties, when the world lay at his feet. What could possibly go wrong? Only everything, it turned out. Dogged by a laughably bad film career, emasculated by national service in the US Army and unlucky in love, Elvis found himself on a destructive path that ultimately led to his self-destruction at the age of only 42. Along the way, he morphed from the ultimate rockabilly bad boy into a harmless family favourite, and finally into a doomed shadow of his glorious former self. This is why we love reading about Elvis, as you’re about to do in this new and essential analysis of his life. How and why did he throw it all away? The lessons here are that talent and charisma will take you a long way, but too much money and existential futility will take you all the way back again… all the way to the end of Lonely Street, in fact. Enjoy the Story of Elvis. There will never be another musician like him. Celebrate his life with us.