Elvis Day by Day Book

Of all the hundreds of Elvis books in print, what makes this volume genuinely indispensable is that it comes from Peter Guralnick, the best of Presley's many biographers, and Ernst Jorgensen, whose sensitive handling of the back-catalogue helped usher his music into the 21st century. Together, the pair form a partnership as fiery as rock'n'roll. The strength of Elvis Day By Day lies in the painstaking research--based on 35 tons of material from the Colonel Tom Parker archive--which has helped them paint the most accurate and revealing picture to-date of the man they called the Memphis Flash. But far from being weighed down by their research, the authors write with a gleeful enthusiasm: "to have a single ticket for a previously undocumented 1955 show in Dermot, Arkansas... these are the kinds of discoveries you want to share in the same spirit with which they were received". The photos are fabulous too. Just look at the 18 year-old Elvis in 1953: surrounded by the stifling crew-cut conformity of the Eisenhower presidency, he already looks exotic and other-worldly. But the book's main attraction is undoubtedly its careful chronicling of the minutiae of Elvis's pioneering music (38 takes to get Hound Dog right) and his life ($39.04 spent on jewellery when he went shopping in Memphis on 19 December 1955). His death in 1977 provoked a global spasm, but Elvis Day By Day is engaging and thoroughly engrossing proof that Elvis has not, and probably never will, leave the building. --Patrick HumphriesRead More