On this day, in separate years, music legends Elvis Presley and David Bowie were born
9152 Mins Read
Elvis Presley was born on January 8th of 84 years ago. One of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century, Elvis helped establish the emerging Rock and Roll sound, incorporating blues and gospel influences. He was also a leader in popularizing both the rockabilly sound and the four-man band line-up which would later dominate the music industry. His first single, “Heartbreak Hotel” (1956), began a string of number-ones that radically reshaped American music and put Presley at the forefront of rock and roll. In 1958 he was drafted into the army and served in West Germany.
Following this he began a much-derided acting career and did not perform live for seven years. In 1968 he returned to the stage with the acclaimed “Elvis” special, and then took up an extended Las Vegas residency which became iconic in its own right. On August 16, 1977, Presley died of a heart attack at his Graceland estate in Memphis, often considered to be the result of an accidental prescription drug overdose.
Another music icon who would have celebrated his birthday is David Bowie. He would have turned 71. One of the most popular musicians for over five decades, Bowie sold over 140 million records worldwide and was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In his career he released eleven number-one albums.
Bowie began his career in 1963, and in 1969 released the song “Space Oddity”. Following this he became associated with the glam rock era of the 1970s, adopting his persona Ziggy Stardust and releasing several influential albums, including The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. In 1975 he moved into a genre he termed ‘plastic soul’, releasing the acclaimed albums Station to Station, Low and Heroes.
In the 1980s he reached his peak commercial success, with “Let’s Dance”, a transatlantic number one hit from 1983 and his collaboration with Queen, “Under Pressure”, becoming a number one in the UK in 1981. In 2013, he returned from a decade-long recording hiatus and released The Next Day, and in 2016 released Blackstar, before dying of liver cancer two days after its release.
