arrator: Elvis Presley was born to a very poor family in Mississippi in the south of the United States in 1935. His twin brother died at birth, and he was an only child. The family moved to Memphis, Tennessee thirteen years later. As a teenager, Elvis was interested in all kinds of music and wore colorful clothes with a distinctive hairstyle that he kept for much of his life. Narrator: In 1954, Sam Phillips, a music producer at Sun Records in Memphis, asked Elvis to come in for an audition. When he played a song that he had composed himself, Phillips recognized the young man’s talent. He offered Elvis a contract and put together a three-piece band for him. They played blues and country music that they knew from the radio, night clubs and churches with both black and white members. The band had a big hit later that year with a cover of a song by Arthur Crudup called, “That’s All Right,” using a style called rockabilly. Their popularity took off in the southern states as people saw them perform in local venues and even heard them on national radio programs. Narrator: In 1956, Elvis met Colonel Tom Parker, who became his manager and organized a contract with RCA Records in New York. As the hits kept on coming, he changed over to a more rock and roll sound and performed in numerous TV shows and in films. Narrator: However, in 1958, Elvis was drafted into the army and gave up performing for a couple of years. When he finished his military service, he returned to his music career and during the 1960s he made more than thirty movies and recorded lots of songs. He also married and had a daughter. Narrator: In 1968, Elvis performed in a Christmas TV special, which boosted his popularity for a while. Between 1969 and 1976, he also put on hundreds of shows in Las Vegas, with tickets regularly selling out. However, in the 1970s, his career started to go downhill, partly because of his lifestyle. He was living in Graceland, a mansion in Memphis that he had bought in 1957.