The King of Rock n Roll lies dead for nearly 37 years and today marks his 79th birthday. People from all over the world will still celebrate Elvis’s anniversary and one wonders will his legacy ever die?
NewsFour spoke to Ivor Casey, Author of Elvis and Ireland, “Elvis maintains his popularity internationally and very much so in Ireland because he had emotional intelligence. He had the ability to strike at all the things we enjoy in music, which was a very natural and instinctive interpretation of all the feelings we want to relate to in a song. This was the genius of Elvis and this is why he will always be loved.”
60 years ago in 1954, Elvis released That’s Alright Mama, creating music that people never heard before. It helped that he wasn’t a bad looking chap either but Elvis captured something in people’s hearts, something enduring that will never be forgotten by his millions of fans. Back in 1954, the song could not be heard on Irish radio as Rock n Roll but Casey tells us “those who dared, tuned into the forbidden fruit that was Radio Luxembourg to hear such a new sound.”
Elvis only toured across North America and unfortunately never made it to Ireland because of his manager, Colonel Tom Parker. Parker was an illegal immigrant and wouldn’t leave the States, disappointing a lot of Elvis fans across Europe. In 1960, Elvis stopped briefly in Scotland while serving in the military, and claimed that he wanted to do a European tour. But it never happened. Luckily enough we now have YouTube to catch a few of his great moments, allowing the King to live on forever.
By Donna Dunne
