ELVIS PRESLEY

A deeply engaging biography, written by someone who clearly loved Elvis and wants to share his story with a new generation. Hampton spins the tale out from the hardscrabble beginnings: a poor boy who once lived in a town called Shake Rag; the gift of a guitar and the power of gospel music; a boy who finds he can move people—especially girls—by singing that rock-’n’-roll. Hampton mentions everything: Elvis as library assistant; Sam Philips and the Grand Ole Opry; how Arthur Godfrey’s show was a precursor of American Idol. He tells clearly how influential Elvis’s music was, and how boring were the movies he made, and chronicles without sensationalism his decline into drug use, personal disaster and early death. Young people who want to know who the King was will find out, and their parents and grandparents will rediscover their sorrow that “Elvis has left the building.” (source notes, bibliography, index) (Biography. 9-14)