Happy Birthday Elvis, Wherever You Are

Today would have been Elvis Presley's 75th birthday. If Elvis hadn't died on August 16, 1977 (or on any other date after that), he might look something like this today:



Elvis was a huge influence on the Beatles: their album of BBC transcriptions includes covers of four Elvis songs, and his jumped-up rockabilly style found its way into numerous Lennon-McCartney originals, including "I'll Cry Instead," "Can't Buy Me Love," "Run for Your Life," and "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party." Elvis's manager Colonel Tom Parker sent the Beatles a congratulatory telegram before their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964, and the Beatles met Elvis in Los Angeles in during their American tour in the summer of 1965. Influence went in the other direction as well: in the early 1970s, Elvis frequently included "Yesterday," "Something," and "Get Back" in his live setlists.

I was walking across the parking lot of the Sea View Inn in Haleiwa, Hawaii on the afternoon of August 16, 1977, when a total stranger walked up to me and said, "Did you hear that Elvis died?" One of those moments when the headlong rush of time briefly slowed. . .I can still feel the heat radiating from the asphalt, and hear the tradewinds rustling through the palm trees.