7 The 100 Most Influential Musicians of All Time 7sources, one of the things that made him different from
the Tin Pan Alley writers and singers who had for decades
lifted black styles without credit). He was pronounced
responsible for all teenage hooliganism and juvenile delin-
quency. Yet, in every appearance on television, he appeared
affable, polite, and soft-spoken, almost shy. It was only
with a band at his back and a beat in his ear that he became
“Elvis the Pelvis.”
In 1960 Presley returned from the army, where he had
served as a soldier in Germany rather than joining the
Special Services entertainment division. Those who
regarded him as commercial hype without talent expected
him to fade away. Instead, he continued to have hits from
recordings stockpiled just before he entered the army.
Upon his return to the States, he picked up pretty much
where he had left off, churning out a series of more than
30 movies (from Blue Hawaii to Change of Habit) over the
next eight years, almost none of which fit any genre other
than “Elvis movie,” which meant a light comedic romance
with musical interludes. Most had accompanying sound-
track albums, and together the movies and the records
made him a rich man, although they nearly ruined him as
any kind of artist. Presley did his best work in the 1960s on
singles either unconnected to the films or only marginally
stuck into them, recordings such as “It’s Now or Never
(‘O Sole Mio’)” (1960), “Are You Lonesome Tonight?,”
“Little Sister” (both 1961), “Can’t Help Falling in Love,”
“Return to Sender” (both 1962), and “Viva Las Vegas”
(1964). Presley was no longer a controversial figure; he had
become one more predictable mass entertainer, a personage
of virtually no interest to the rock audience that had
expanded so much with the advent of the new sounds of
the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Dylan.
By 1968 the changes in the music world had overtaken
Presley—both movie grosses and record sales had fallen. In