Classic Pop Icons

Elvis Presley died 36 years ago today at his Graceland mansion in Memphis. One of the most important aspects of Elvis’ legacy is the huge impact he had on both his contemporaries in the entertainment field and those who came after.

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RCA/Legacy Recordings has celebrated the 40th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s sessions at Stax studios in Memphis with a 55-track (28 masters and 27 outtakes) 3-CD collection titled “Elvis At Stax”. A cut-down version featuring 17 tracks is also available on CD and vinyl.

The recordings on “Elvis At Stax” were made over two sessions in July and December 1973. Stax had established an enviable hitmaking pedigree over the previous decade, with the likes of Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, and Sam & Dave all recording at the Memphis studio. However, this meeting of the iconic star and the iconic studio happened more because it was a convenient local place to record than because Elvis made a creative decision to explore the famed Stax soul sound. Elvis stuck with his usual producer, for the most part used musicians he had played with before (some with Stax experience), and for the second session didn’t even use the Stax sound board (RCA sent a mobile recording unit to the studio as their equipment was more advanced).

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Elvis Presley has again topped Joel Whitburn’s list of the Top 500 Artists of All Time. The list is included in the 14th edition of Whitburn’s “Top Pop Singles” book, which compiles Billboard chart stats in an easy-to-read format.

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Happy Fourth of July to our American readers.

We celebrate the USA’s birthday with four great American songs.

“An American Trilogy” – Elvis Presley

Elvis took Mickey Newbury’s medley of American songs and made it his own in February 1972. Eleven months later, he performed the song on his worldwide television broadcast, “Aloha From Hawaii”.

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Mick Jagger and his production company Jagged Films are in talks with 20th Century Fox to produce an Elvis Presley biopic, according to sources who spoke with FOX411’s Pop Tarts column.

There’s no confirmation from anyone involved about whether the project will go ahead, but, if so, it’s probable that the movie would concentrate on Elvis’ early years as 20th Century Fox has been developing a script based on Peter Guralnick’s 1995 biography 1995 for around a decade.

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