Elvis Presley’s “degenerate and phoney music sung by cretinous goons,” according to Frank Sinatra, was publically chastised. They became friends years later, and Old Blue Eyes tried everything he could to save The King’s life.
They were and are two of popular music’s greatest legends, as well as two of the world’s best voices – but the stars had a difficult start. Elvis Presley was the up-and-coming Pretender in the mid-1950s, while Sinatra was the established celebrity and movie and music icon. With hordes of shouting ladies known as bobby soxers during his gigs in the 1940s, Old Blue Eyes was effectively the first pop artist. Elvis, on the other hand, caught him off guard with his uproar.
“It’s the most awful, filthy, degenerate, vicious form of expression I’ve ever heard,” Sinatra said of newcomer Elvis and his rock ‘n’ roll. It leads young people to be preoccupied with bad and dangerous feelings. It has a phoney and artificial odour.
“It is sung, played, and written for the most part by cretinous goons, and it manages to be the martial music of every side burned delinquent on the face of the earth, and as I said before, it manages to be the martial music of every side burned delinquent on the face of the earth, and as I said before,
Priscilla looked a lot like Elvis’ co-star Debra, so Elvis proposed to her. Before meeting the young impostor in 1957, Sinatra said of him, “Only time will tell.” They dubbed me a freak when I first came out, but I’m still alive today. Presley never had any official training. When he begins to do anything more serious, such as singing, we’ll know if he’s a vocalist. He has an animalistic ability that he inherited from his parents.” To be fair, The Chairman of the Board had been a well-known and respected person since the early 1940s, whereas The King had only just risen to international notoriety with his first big hit, Heartbreak Hotel, in 1956.
A few years later, Elvis was the featured guest of honour on a special edition of Frank Sinatra’s TV show, which marked his return to the United States from military service in Germany. Many concluded Sinatar felt obligated to let the new hotshot on his show.
