My Way: How Elvis Presley Became Elvis

If American Idol had been around in 1953 during mid-to-late summer and had stopped in Memphis to spot Tennessee talent, young Elvis Presley might have tried his luck on the Idol stage. More than five decades later, one wonders how Idol judges would have critiqued Elvis the Pelvis. Would they have praised or derided how he took others’ music and restyled it with his own brand of intensity and delivery? Would they have condemned his quavering vibrato and disparaged his natural falsetto range-or would they have given him a standing ovation? And, what would they have made of his flashy clothes and weird wiggles? In the end, all of these elements (and others-including a fascination with black music and an accidental progression into the rockabilly style that melded rhythm/blues and country, blurring genre lines) came together to create Elvis’ idiosyncratic style. My Way traces the evolution of this legendary style that holds the key to his prolonged popularity and identifies a wide range of influences contributing to his persona.