Elvis discharged from army Elvis Presley is discharged from the army after a two-year stint. Presley had already become the first big rock and roll star, gaining national fame in 1956 with his first No. 1 hit, "Heartbreak Hotel," which led to several appearances on national television.
Presley's remarkable career began in 1954, shortly after he paid $4 to record two songs, "Casual Love Affair" and "I'll Never Stand in Your Way," for his mother's birthday. The office assistant at Sun Records, where he cut the record, was so impressed that she brought a copy of the recording to studio executive Sam Phillips, who signed him. A week after Presley recorded "That's All Right" in the summer of 1954, the song hit No. 4 on the country-western charts in Memphis.
Elvis soon began performing regularly on radio programs and made his television debut on a Memphis show in March 1955. That September, he had his first No. 1 country record-a rendition of Junior Parker's "Mystery Train." RCA purchased Presley's contract, and he made his first RCA recordings in Nashville in 1956, including "I Got a Woman," "Heartbreak Hotel," and "I Was the One." On January 28, 1956, television audiences met Presley on the Dorsey Brothers' Stage Show. He appeared on several variety shows before filming his first movie, Love Me Tender (1956), which took just three days to earn back its $1 million cost. All of his singles that year went gold. Elvis' controversial dancing, with his trademark hip gyrations, upset parents but delighted teenage girls. During an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956, cameras showed him only from the waist up.
Elvis received his draft notice in December 1957 but took a deferment to finish filming his fourth movie, King Creole. Before his induction he recorded enough material so that a steady stream of Elvis hits were released during his tour of duty. He continued to dominate the charts through the mid-'60s and made more than 20 movies.
Elvis stopped performing live in 1961 but made a comeback in the late 60s, becoming a Las Vegas fixture and releasing several top singles, including "In the Ghetto" and "Suspicious Minds" in 1969. As his popularity continued to skyrocket, the "King of Rock and Roll" allegedly turned to drugs. His final live performance was on June 25, 1977, and on August 16, 1977, the day of his next scheduled concert, his girlfriend found him dead in a bathroom at Graceland, the Memphis mansion he built and named after his mother. Congestive heart failure was initially cited as the cause of death, but prescription drug abuse was suspected as a contributing factor. He was buried at Graceland. Nine years after his death, he was one of the first 10 people inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. During his life, he had earned 94 gold singles and more than 40 gold LPs.
