24 May 29 , 2022
Topps trading cards and a Build-A-Bear stuffed bear in a Hawaii
concert jumpsuit). If merchandise is a sign of legacy, Elvis is still
the King. I defy you to find Tom Petty oven mitts or Jimi Hendrix
ice trays.
I’m intrigued by a Mr. Potato Head based on Elvis’s 1961 film
“Blue Hawaii.” Like the cover of the soundtrack album, the Elvis
spud holds a ukulele and wears a red Hawaiian shirt and yellow
lei. As I look through the box’s clear plastic, I realize: For some
young people, Mr. Potato Head might be more recognizable than
Elvis.
On Spotify, where 55 percent of users are age 34 or younger,
Elvis ranks, on this particular day, 368 on its list of 500
most-listened-to artists. For a guy who’s been dead for 45 years,
that’s an impressive number, and it’s higher than Frank Sinatra
(466) and unranked stars such as Johnny Cash, Little Richard, Fats
Domino, the Beach Boys and the Who. Michael Jackson is ranked
86, and the Beatles are 109.
In a 2017 YouGov survey of more than 2,000 Brits age 18 to 24,
29 percent said they had never heard an Elvis song. I find that
number astonishing yet understandable. Why should anyone
under 30 know Elvis? Gen Xers like me grew up in a three-network
era. We knew the Three Stooges and “Gilligan’s Island” and, yes,
Elvis movies, because they appeared on local TV. Today there’s no
such thing. And today’s youth have entertainment options we never
imagined: TikTok, YouTube, elaborate video games, hundreds of
cable channels, streaming services. Everything is a niche market.
How does a 16-year-old find Elvis amid the cultural clutter? And
why would they want to find him? As a teenager, I wasn’t interested
in discovering Al Jolson or the Andrews Sisters; why would today’s
teens seek an icon from the Eisenhower administration?
Young people are always craving something new. When
popular music grows stale, a jolt is inevitable, from the
progressive rock of the ’70s to punk or grunge. That was part of
the appeal of Elvis. Particularly for White teens, Elvis wasnados, I find. At the “Conversations on Elvis” event, the affable,
entertaining host, Tom Brown, a local radio personality and a
frequent host of Elvis events and programs, says that people often
ask him, “How long will this go on?” And he replies, “Do you say
that about Shakespeare?”
The audience applauds, but that comparison may be part of the
long-term problem. Elvis isn’t Shakespeare. He was an interpreter,
and the artistic titans that we revere through the ages were timeless
originators, whether they composed symphonies or painted
abstracts. Okay, Elvis was indeed an originator. And a revolution-
ary. With his mix of country, gospel and blues, nobody sounded like
Elvis before Elvis. But he relied on the material of others. By
cultural contrast, Dylan’s lyrics continue to be studied in college
classrooms. Lennon and McCartney’s beautiful, inventive melo-
dies will probably be played forever.
One notable writer disagrees with me on this distinction. Peter
Guralnick is the author of two seminal biographies of Elvis — “Last
Train to Memphis” and “Careless Love” — and he has written books
on giants such as Sam Cooke, Robert Johnson and Sam Phillips.
When it comes to popular music, establishing a style, he says, is
more important than who wrote the song. He cites the example of
Jerry Lee Lewis (who once said he could have been a great
songwriter, it just wasn’t worth his time): “Every song he’s ever
sung is stamped with Jerry Lee Lewis’s style, and I don’t think you
could find either a greater genius or a more unforgettable artist
than Jerry Lee Lewis from that generation.” And if songwriting was
so important for legacy, greats such as Chuck Berry and Buddy
Holly might be better remembered than Elvis.
A
t a claustrophobic stuffed-with-stuff souvenir shop within
walking distance of Sun Studio in Memphis, I stroll past
shelves loaded with every conceivable Elvis item. Elvis air
fresheners, car-seat covers, cookie cutters and dog leashes (on
Twitter, the Elvis account plugs products such as Elvis whiskey,
photos from left: Mario Tama/Getty Images; MIKE NELSON/Agence france-Presse/Getty Images