30 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Elvis

21. Elvis in Vegas -- Part One. The singer may have revived his career to a startling degree by playing Sin City, but not many fans are aware that he tried the town on for size earlier in his career, egged on by the Colonel -- and that his 1956 appearance were a resounding flop. However, he did score one of his biggest and most defining hits by enduring the humiliation, after he caught a house band tearing into Big Mama Thornton's "Hound Dog." Read more

22. The death of James Dean. Not only was James Dean an icon of ordinary, frustrated Fifties youth, he made quite an impression on the King, as well. And although Dean died before Elvis even made his bones, the King was obsessed with him; he even cried when he learned of his death. And Presley's brief romance with Natalie Wood was brought about entirely by Elvis' fascination with Dean's cinematic co-stars. Read more

23. The Gunnery's mistake. Elvis' Army years have been the subject of much discussion, if only because of what he did in his off hours, and how little his fans minded waiting for him. But his singing career was almost cut short by his service; a Pentagon official made him a tank gunner, which almost ruined the King's hearing until Memphis "Mafiosi" Lamar Fike got the Colonel to straighten it all out. Read more

24. It's Now Or Never. One of the King's biggest hits was written way back in the 19th century as the operatic standard "O Sole Mio," but since it took full measure of the singer's natural vocal tendencies, he wanted it bad, eventually turning it into the hit "It's Now Or Never." And he wasn't the first singer to do an English-language version of what had already been a pop hit, either. Read more

25. The stage fight. Any number of female fans rushed the stage to get at Elvis, mostly in his early years, when getting at him was much easier. But on February 18th, 1973, Presley's midnight show at the Las Vegas Hilton was interrupted by four men who foolishly decided to shake his hand. But Elvis' karate hobby, fortunately, allowed him to immobilize them. Read more

26. The unknown Elvis. Elvis' 1968 "comeback" special restored his place on the rock music throne, and rightly so. Yet to get the King to agree to it, producer Steve Binder had to first convince him he wasn't King anymore by taking him down to Sunset Boulevard to see if he'd get mobbed. He didn't. Read more

27. The King and the Killer. Jerry Lee Lewis was a friend of Elvis' from the old Sun days, but his penchant for showing up late, smarting off to cops, and carrying handguns led to his arrest... one that was pinned on Elvis for years, but which the Killer camp puts down to a mere misunderstanding. Turns out someone named "The Killer" should never joke about coming to Graceland in order to murder Elvis. Read more

28. "If I Can Dream" and Bobby Kennedy. You may know that Elvis' '68 special was designed to make him relevant again, and that the time period it was released in was one of the most turbulent in American history. Yet not many know that director Steve Binder specifically commissioned the closing song -- a replacement for "Silent Night," which was the Colonel's idea of goodbye -- as a statement, a reaction to the death of Bobby Kennedy just a few days earlier. Read more

29. No shoe shine. Although the myth persists, there is no truth to the rumor that Elvis ever made any public or private disparaging remarks about African-Americans. In fact, the most notorious remark attributed to him, about blacks being fit only to "buy my records and shine my shoes," has been fully disproven. Read more

30. Elvis the sleepwalker. As a kid, Elvis suffered from a family addiction -- sleepwalking! There's no way of knowing whether the drugs taken in his later years curbed the affliction, but he'd stopped by the time he reached full adulthood. Nevertheless, sleeping on cue would become of paramount importance in his hectic professional life. Read more