KING OF ROCK&ROLL

Elvis Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, on January 8, 1935, and grew up surrounded by gospel music of the Pentecostal church.

In 1953, an 18-year-old Presley visited the Memphis Recording Service Records to record his voice. Owner/producer was struck by the plaintive emotion in Presley’s vocals and subsequently teamed him with guitarist and bassist Bill Black.

Presley’s hip-shaking performances on a series of TV variety shows, including Ed Sullivan’s, generated hysteria and controversy. From blistering rockers to aching balladry, Presley captivated and liberated the teenage audience.

the Seventies represent the performing chapter in Presley’s career. He toured constantly, performing to capacity crowds around the country until his death. Presley died of a heart attack at Graceland, his Memphis mansion, on August 16, 1977. He was 42 years old.




KING OF POP

Michael Jackson was born in August 29, 1958 in Gary, Indiana, and is a singer, songwriter, dancer and celebrity icon with a vast catalog of hit records and countless awards to his credit.

Jackson became an instant star at age 11 as the cherubic frontman in Motown’s phenomenally successful family act, the .But that band of brothers, who kicked off their Motown tenure in 1969 with the unprecedented feat of four consecutive #1 singles, was just a prelude to the heights he would scale as a solo artist in the Eighties with the success of Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad.Those three albums sent Jackson into a high celebrity orbit, however, it was Thriller that broke all records, revitalizing and revolutionizing the music business. Released in November 1982, Thriller yielded a staggering seven hits: “The Girl Is Mine” (#2) “Billie Jean” (#1), “Beat It” (#1), “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” (#5), “Human Nature” (#7), “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)” (#10) and “Thriller” (#4).

Jackson won eight Grammy Awards and seven American Music Awards for Thriller, and in 1985, it was proclaimed the Best Selling Album of All Time by the Guinness Book of Records.

He has been proclaimed “the biggest-selling artist of all time,” “the single most awarded entertainer the world has ever known,” “the most popular artist in the history of show business,” and “the world’s most famous man.” He is also, by his own reckoning, the “King of Pop.”